Inflationary pressures remain for 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., said CEO Chris McCann to investors during the company’s earnings call for the fiscal 2022 fourth quarter and full year ended July 3, 2022.

1-800-Flowers.com earnings highlights

  • 1-800-Flowers.com net loss for Q4 of fiscal year 2022 was $22.3 million compared with a net income of $13.3 million Q4 2021.
  • Operating expenses for fiscal year Q4 2022 as a percent of total revenues was 39.2%, compared with 37.5% for fiscal year Q4 2021.
  • The company ended fiscal year 2022 with $31.5 million in cash. That’s down significantly from $173.6 million at the end of fiscal year 2021. Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer William Shea told investors this is part of the company’s strategy to build and buy inventory ahead of the new fiscal year in efforts to offset future global supply chain snafus this holiday season.
  • Increased fuel and freight costs alongside a rise in higher digital marketing and advertising spending impacted profit margins, according to Shea.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended July 3, 2022, 1-800-Flowers.com reported:

  • Total net revenues of $485.9 million. That’s down 0.23% from $487.0 million for the comparable period in 2021.
  • Net loss was $22.3 million, compared with net income of $13.3 million a year earlier.
  • Adjusted EBITDA loss was $16.8 million, down 57.0% from $30.2 million a year earlier.

For the full fiscal year ended July 3, 2022, 1-800-Flowers.com reported:

  • Total net revenues $2.21 billion, which is up 4% compared with $2.12 billion in the prior year.
  • Net income of $29.6 million, down a considerable 120.2% from $118.7 million a year earlier.
  • Adjusted EBITDA of $99.0 million. That’s down 73.1% from $213.1 million a year earlier.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding.

1-800-Flowers.com reported total net revenue of $2.21 billion for its fiscal year 2022. That’s a 4% increase compared with $2.12 billion in the prior year.

Fiscal fourth quarter 2022 total net revenue were $485.9 million, compared with $487.0 million fiscal fourth quarter 2021.

“We finished our fiscal year 2022 with revenues essentially flat in our fourth quarter and full year revenues up 4.0% compared with the prior year, and up more than 75% compared with our fiscal 2019, prior to the pandemic,” CEO Chris McCann told investors during the earnings call.

He noted, “the unprecedented, rapid rise in costs impacted our gross margins and operating expenses, including labor, shipping, commodities and digital marketing,” as continued challenges.

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1-800-Flowers.com has expanded its product offerings through acquisitions including Vital Choice in October 2021 and Alice Table in January 2022. For fiscal year 2022, 1-800-Flowers.com attracted more than 5 million new customers. That’s on top of the nearly 10 million new customers that we have attracted since fiscal 2019, McCann told investors.

On Sept. 6, 1-800-Flowers.com announced its plans to hire more than 8,000 seasonal and year-round associates throughout the U.S. to work in areas such as production, assembly, distribution and operational support.

Interactive ads play important role for 1-800-Flowers.com

McCann cited increased digital marketing costs as part of the company’s spending challenges. According to Jason John, chief marketing officer, 1-800-Flowers.com has learned a lot from its interactive ads. For the last three years, the company has used these ads including Instagram, Facebook, Google Display Network, Snapchat, Pinterest, among others.

These ads allow shoppers to chat with an artificial intelligence-powered bot that can answer basic questions and guide shoppers to the best product based on responses. The shopper can then click on selected products and be directed to a checkout page.

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Other ads, such as Instagram ads that shoppers see while scrolling through the social media app, allow the retailer to suggest products based on how shoppers interact with the ad.

“On some platforms, interactive ads are our best performing ads,” John wrote in emailed responses to Digital Commerce 360. 1-800-Flowers.com declined to share how much better these ads fared compared with other types.

1-800-Flowers.com ranks No. 54 in the Top 1000. The Top 1000 is Digital Commerce 360’s database of North America’s largest online retailers by web sales.

1-800-Flowers.com interactive ad with chat

1-800-Flowers.com has run interactive ads for about three years. These ads work with different platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Google Display Network, Snapchat and Pinterest, among others. The ad asks basic questions to the shopper and then guides them to specific products to begin checkout.

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