Ecommerce earnings recap: Dollar Tree, Ulta, Zumiez

More retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 list of leading ecommerce retailers in North America reported ecommerce earnings results for the most recent fiscal quarter. Retailers across industries cited continued pullback in discretionary spending from consumers. Here’s the ecommerce earnings summary you need to know from this quarter. Read more ecommerce earnings coverage here.

Parentheses indicate the merchant’s ranking in the Top 1000.

Allbirds (No. 344)

Allbirds reported net revenue declined 14.5% to $72.0 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. It also announced a new CEO following the disappointing quarter.

Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1)

Amazon beat expectations with earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2023. Its net sales in the quarter grew 14% year over year to $170.0 billion.

Full-year sales grew 12% to $574.8 billion in 2023, up from $514.0 billion in 2022. Read more about Amazon’s earnings here.

Build-a-Bear Workshop Inc. (No. 703)

Build-a-Bear total revenue increased 2.9% to $149.3 million in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3, 2024. In the same period, consolidated ecommerce demand declined 8.8%. That refers to online orders fulfilled through retail stores or the company’s warehouse. In the full fiscal year, total revenue grew 3.9% to $486.1 million while consolidated ecommerce demand decreased 4.9%. Build-a-Bear replatformed and upgraded its website in 2023, and online sales have tripled since 2018 even with some softening in 2023, it said.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (No. 6)

Costco said net sales grew 5.7% to $57.33 billion in its second fiscal quarter of 2024 ended Feb. 18. Ecommerce comparable sales grew 18.4% in the same period.

Read more on Costco ecommerce sales here.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (No. 32)

Dick’s said net sales grew 7.8% to $3.88 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3. Comparable sales grew 2.8%. Net sales increased 5.0% to $12.98 billion in the full fiscal year.

“Digital business remains really strong, but we’re not going to get into more details on that,” CEO Lauren Hobart told analysts in an earnings call. She also said stores fulfilled over 80% of online orders in 2023.

Dollar Tree, Inc. (No. 189)

Dollar Tree reported that consolidated net sales grew 11.9% to $8.63 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3. 2023. Net sales increased 8.0% to $30.6 billion.

“Persistent inflation and reduced government benefits continued to pressure the lower-income consumers that comprise a sizable portion of Family Dollar’s customer base,” CEO Rick Dreiling told investors. The retailer plans to close 970 underperforming Family Dollar stores, with 600 closures planned in the first half of fiscal 2024.

Fossil Group Inc. (No. 190)

Fossil reported net sales declined 16% to $421 million in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Dec. 30. Full-year net sales also declined 16%, to $1.41 billion. The retailer reported a full-year operating loss of $143 million, compared to $1 million in 2022. Fossil plans to close around 50 underperforming locations in 2024, it said. It will also completely exit the smartwatch market to focus on traditional watches and jewelry.

Home Depot (No. 4)

Home Depot reported that online sales increased about 2% year over year in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 28. Meanwhile, total Q4 sales decreased 2.9% year over year to $34.8 billion.

Kohl’s Corp. (No. 23)

Kohl’s reported net sales declined in both its fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 ended Feb. 3, 2024. In addition, the retailer previewed plans to expand baby product offerings through new Babies R Us stores, which are scheduled to open within some Kohl’s locations.

Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (No. 92)

Petco reported that net revenue increased 6.1% to $1.67 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3, 2024. CEO Ron Coughlin also stepped down from his role.

Target Corp. (No. 5)

Target revenue grew 1.7% to $31.92 billion in the fourth quarter ended Feb. 3. Online sales declined 0.7%.

Ulta Beauty Inc. (No. 46)

Ulta net sales increased 10.2% to $10.6 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3. The retailer said strong sales were due to comparable sales growth and good performance from new stores. 2023 net sales grew 9.8% to $11.2 billion. Online sales had “high single-digit growth” in the quarter, the retailer said. Ulta also said it increased member use of its mobile ecommerce app by 30% in Q4.

Vera Bradley Inc. (No. 278)

Vera Bradley revenue declined 6.1% to $93.0 million in the fourth quarter ended Feb. 3. Net revenue fell to $470.8 million for the fiscal year.

“Customers responded to some of our latest product collaborations and to our newer product offerings like leather, but overall, they continued to be more discriminating with their discretionary spending in light of the macroeconomic environment,” CEO Jacqueline Ardrey said in a written statement. Vera Bradley is focused on growing its digital presence in 2024, she said.

Walmart (No. 2)

Walmart said U.S. online sales grew 17% for its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter ended Jan. 31. Its global ecommerce sales grew 23% over the same period, while international ecommerce increased 44%.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (No. 22)

Williams-Sonoma said comparable brand revenue declined 6.8% to $2.28 billion in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 28. Comparable brand revenue declined 9.9% for the fiscal year to $7.75 billion. The retailer did not share specific information about online sales. However, it continues to invest in its ecommerce experience and artificial intelligence tools, Williams-Sonoma said.

Zumiez Inc. (No. 454)

Net sales increased 0.6% to $281.8 million in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3, Zumiez said. The quarter ended with a net loss of $33.5 million, compared to net income of $11.4 million in the year-ago period. Full-year net sales declined 8.6% to $875.5 million. Net loss was $62.6 million.

“As was the case throughout fiscal 2023, we faced headwinds in the fourth quarter, including highly promotional activity across the soft lines retail sector and an increasingly selective consumer pressured by the multiyear inflationary impact on discretionary income,” CEO Rick Brooks told investors.

So what does it mean?

Dollar stores have been winners as inflation pushed consumers to tighten budgets and search for deals. Now, Dollar Tree is also feeling the pinch of pickier consumers and planning to close hundreds of stores.
Struggling retailers are willing to oust CEOs to try to turn things around, as evidenced by Petco and Allbirds in the last week.

Ecommerce earnings calendar

Here’s when other ecommerce earnings are scheduled to report this quarter:

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Ecommerce earnings recap: What you missed from Ulta, Dollar Tree and more