Ecommerce earnings recap: What you missed from Kroger, Signet

The latest ecommerce earnings results are out from retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database. Highlights include Kroger’s 11% growth in digital sales. Meanwhile, Signet Jewelers saw online sales increase by 600 basis points from Q1 to Q2. Read more ecommerce earnings coverage here.

Parentheses indicate the merchant’s ranking in the Top 1000, unless otherwise stated. The database ranks North America’s largest ecommerce retailers by their annual web sales.

This week’s ecommerce earnings takeaways

Kroger’s digital sales jumped 11% as the company successfully turned more digitally engaged households into ecommerce buyers.
Signet Jewelers saw flat ecommerce sales compared to last year, but online sales still grew 600 basis points from Q1 to Q2, with continued momentum expected into Q3.
Designer Brands’ digital platform saw mid-single-digit growth for the third consecutive quarter.

Academy Sports + Outdoors Inc. (No. 145)

Q2 2024: Academy Sports + Outdoors Inc. reported a 2.2% dip in net sales to $1.55 billion in its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3, with comparable sales down 6.9% year over year. The decline was attributed in part to economic headwinds as well as a storm-heavy season in key markets.

Caleres Inc. (No. 210)

Q2 2024: Caleres, Inc. posted a 1.8% year-over-year decline in net sales to $683.3 million for its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3, with comparable sales falling 2.9%.

Direct-to-consumer sales accounted for 75% of total revenue, though specific ecommerce figures were not disclosed in the earnings statement.

“Caleres reported second quarter results that were below expectations,” Caleres CEO Jay Schmidt said in the earnings release. “While our brands and products continue to resonate with consumers and we remain confident in our long-term vision, our second quarter results in both segments fell short of our potential.”

On a bright note, Famous Footwear sales rose 1.5%. Caleres plans to close 10 more Famous Footwear locations by the end of the year, as ecommerce sales continue to outpace in-store revenue for the brand, said Jack Calandra, chief financial officer at Caleres, during the retailer’s Q2 earnings call. The company lowered its fiscal 2024 sales outlook. It now expects a decline in net sales by low single digits, compared to its previous forecast of flat to 2% growth.

The Children’s Place, Inc. (No. 128)

Q2 2024: The Children’s Place, Inc. reported a 7.5% drop in net sales to $319.7 million for its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3, with comparable sales down 7.2%. Ecommerce revenue saw a double-digit decline “as the company proactively sacrificed unprofitable sales to improve profitability,” according to the retailer.

“The decrease in net sales was primarily driven by an anticipated decrease in ecommerce revenue, as the company proactively rationalized its unprofitable promotional strategies, inflated marketing spend and ‘free shipping’ offers to significantly improve profitability, which was successful during the second quarter,” the company stated in its earnings release. “These efforts not only improved the profitability of the company’s ecommerce business, despite the lower revenue, but also benefited the brick-and-mortar channel, as the stores business experienced positive comparable store sales for the first time in 10 quarters.”

The retailer did not issue updated guidance for the fiscal year. Nevertheless, interim CEO Muhammad Umair outlined some strategic changes in Q2. Those included cutting payroll and unprofitable marketing, which he said improved profitability and set the stage for future growth.

“While these first steps to improve operating results have been promising, we still believe that we have significant work ahead of us in future quarters as we rationalize profitability,” he said.

Designer Brands Inc. (No. 72)

Q2 2024: Designer Brands, Inc. reported a 2.6% decline year over year as it recorded $771.9 million in net sales for its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3, with comparable sales down 1.4%. While specific ecommerce figures weren’t disclosed, CEO Doug Howe highlighted mid-single-digit growth for the company’s digital platform for the third consecutive quarter.

“Our top eight brands, all in the athletic and athleisure categories, continued to generate outsized growth in the second quarter, up over 30%, which was in line with the growth that we saw from them in Q1 and showcases the benefits of developing deeper relationships with key brand partners,” Howe said in the earnings call.

He added that the company’s focus on expanding athletic offerings drove a 16% increase in total athletic sales for the quarter.

Howe outlined three key strategies for Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW), its leading brand with about 500 U.S. stores and an ecommerce platform. They are revitalizing product assortment, enhancing marketing, and improving the omnichannel shopping experience. He also emphasized the success of its back-to-school campaign. The effort integrated in-store influencer events with a digital lookbook to boost engagement.

On social media, Howe noted that the company revamped its content strategy and expanded its influencer program. TikTok engagement rose 450 basis points, and video views and organic engagement more than doubled.

However, Howe acknowledged that the recovery has been slower than expected due to a pressured consumer, challenges in the footwear market and weak spring sales at DSW. As a result, the company revised its full-year guidance. The adjustment moved expectations for net sales growth from low-single digits to flat or low-single digits.

The Kroger Co. (No. 6)

Q2 2024: The Kroger Co. reported total sales of $33.9 billion for its second quarter ending Aug. 17, matching its sales from the same period in 2023. Identical sales, excluding fuel sales, rose 1.2% over last year.

The company’s overall digital sales grew by 11% this quarter. Kroger also reported a 14% increase in ecommerce households compared to last year, as well as a 17% boost in delivery sales, driven by its customer fulfillment centers.

“One of the many ways we move customers up the loyalty ladder is to convert digitally engaged households into ecommerce households,” CEO Rodney McMullen said during Kroger’s quarterly earnings call. “This means we are moving customers from simply using our app or website to making purchases through one of these digital channels.”

As part of its digital efforts, the company held “Boost Bonus Days,” a two-week mega-sales event that offered exclusive deals for Boost by Kroger Plus members during the quarter.

“This event went well above and beyond the incredible value the membership already offers with daily savings, free delivery on orders of $35 or more, and two times fuel points,” McMullen said.

As Kroger works to finalize its $24.6 billion merger with Albertsons, McMullen also voiced confidence in the company’s standing amid the FTC’s antitrust challenge.

“As we near the close of the FTC’s preliminary injunction hearing, we are confident in the facts and the strength of our position. The food industry has always been competitive and will continue to be after this merger,” McMullen said.

The Lovesac Company (No. 128)

Q2 2025: The Lovesac Company reported a 1.3% year-over-year increase in net sales of $156.6 million for its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 4. Lovesac online sales rose by 7% to $44.3 million.

The growth was driven by the addition of 31 new showrooms, though omnichannel comparable sales, including both online and in-store, dropped 5.4%. While Lovesac primarily sells through its website, it is supported by showrooms, shop-in-shops, and pop-ups with third-party retailers.

“Underpinning our performance is our highly productive omnichannel footprint, which is built upon our Designed for Life platform, enhanced by the love evidenced in our customer engagement compounded by compelling marketing, and reinforced by our accelerating focus on product innovation,” CEO Shawn David Nelson told investors in the earnings call.

Mary Fox, chief of operations at Lovesac, said the furniture retailer is strengthening its omnichannel presence through a blend of physical and digital platforms. In the quarter, the company opened 10 direct-to-consumer touch points, with plans to open 30 new showrooms in fiscal 2025. Lovesac also launched website enhancements to build long-term customer relationships and improve the omnichannel experience, including significant upgrades to My Hub, which streamlines both pre- and post-purchase processes.

Also during Q2, Lovesac made an upgrade to Adobe Edge to improve website performance, data, and software integration.

“A more performant website benefits not only the on-site experience but also SEO and organic search,” Fox said. “We’re already seeing notable improvements in these areas and improved conversion of customers online.”

Signet Jewelers Limited (No. 55)

Q2 2025: Signet Jewelers Limited reported a 7.6% year-over-year decline in sales, totaling $1.5 billion for its fiscal second quarter, which ended Aug. 3. Same-store sales were down 3.4%.

“Same-store sales reflects the continued drag from our digital banners of approximately 150 basis points,” Joan Holstein Hilson, chief financial strategy officer at Signet Jewelers, told investors during the quarterly earnings call.

Ecommerce sales for the quarter remained flat across Signet’s brands, including Zales, Jared and Kay Jewelers, Hilson said. However, online sales showed a sequential improvement of 600 basis points in same-store sales compared to the first quarter, with continued progress expected into the third quarter, CEO Virginia Drosos noted on the call.

“We’re also making improvements to the customer website experience, and we’ve significantly expanded our new merchandise assortment,” Drosos said.

Signet is investing ahead of the holiday season to enhance the customer shopping experience. This includes expanding personalized digital storefronts, renovating over 300 stores — 200 of which are Kay locations — and increasingly using data and AI to tailor their messaging, Drosos said.

“In digital, we’re launching a number of new features, including self-learning search capability on our website, which will curate results and listings to the most relevant products,” Drosos said. “We believe all these investments will drive incremental sales over the holidays.”

Vera Bradley Inc. (No. 304)

Q2 2025: Vera Bradley, Inc.’s revenue fell 13.5% year over year to $110.8 million for the quarter ended Aug. 3. The company operates two brands: Vera Bradley and Pura Vida.

Vera Bradley’s Direct segment, which includes online and in-store sales, dropped 15.7% to $72.2 million from the prior year. However, the company’s Indirect segment, driven by key accounts and liquidation sales, grew 25.3% to $21.8 million.

Pura Vida, Vera Bradley’s digitally native brand, saw revenues fall 33% to $16.8 million. It attributed that to weaker ecommerce and wholesale performance, though new store growth helped offset some losses.

Vera Bradley CEO Jackie Ardrey noted that the company has started improvements to brand marketing, product, store design and its website. That initiative has been dubbed “Project Restoration.”

“Project Restoration in our Brand stores, VeraBradley.com, and Indirect channels delivered a diversified mix of bold, thoughtfully designed pieces comprising elevated fabrics and materials, and a highly successful marketing campaign,” Ardrey said in the earnings release.

Other recent ecommerce earnings results

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

Q1 2025: Alibaba reported a 4% revenue increase year over year to $33.5 billion in its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2024. During the same period, net income dropped 27% to $3.31 billion.

Alibaba owns the world’s two largest online marketplaces by gross merchandise value (GMV), Taobao and Tmall. Taobao ranks No. 1 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest such marketplaces by third-party GMV. Tmall ranks No. 2. Both operate in China.

Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1)

Q2 2024 earnings: Amazon net sales increased 10% year over year to $148.0 billion during its second fiscal quarter, which ended June 30.

It ranks No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database, which ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).

Read more on Amazon’s earnings results here.

Big Lots (No. 237)

Q2 2024: Big Lots, Inc. announced on Sept. 6 that it would postpone the earnings and financial results release for its second fiscal quarter that ended Aug. 3. The retailer later announced on Sept. 9 that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it pursues a deal to be acquired by an affiliate of Nexus Capital Management LP.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (No. 31)

Q2 2024: Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. reported that net sales increased 7.8% year over year, reaching $3.47 billion in its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3. The retailer also raised its full-year guidance for 2024, updating its comparable sales growth to a range of 2.5% to 3.5%. The previous guidance range had been 2.0% to 3.0%.

During its quarterly earnings call, Dick’s executives highlighted the role technology investments are playing as the company works to speed up access to products and improve service in stores, as well as online.

“The technology investments that are allowing us to provide a very differentiated level of service to our athletes when they walk into our store or the technology investment that is making our website, so much more functional, those are the core areas of investment that we are leaning into to continue to position our business for 2025 and beyond in a very differentiated way,” said executive vice president and chief financial officer Navdeep Gupta during the call.

Guess, Inc. (No. 176)

Q2 2025: Guess, Inc. recorded a net revenue increase of 10% to $732.6 million in its fiscal second quarter that ended Aug. 3. Revenue in the Americas was up 8%.

The Home Depot Inc. (No. 4)

Q2 2024: Home Depot said its total sales grew 0.6% year over year to $43.2 billion in its second quarter of 2024 ended June 28. Meanwhile, online sales were up 4% compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Read more on Home Depot’s earnings here.

J.Jill (No. 314)

Q2 2024: J.Jill, Inc. said its net sales fell 0.9% year over year to $155.2 million in its fiscal second quarter that ended Aug. 3. Direct-to-consumer net sales, which made up 47.1% of net sales for J.Jill, grew 3.6% during the same period.

“While we have seen changes in consumer behavior during the summer months, which has extended into the start of the third quarter and reflected in our updated guidance, we are continuing to operate the business with great discipline and continue to realize healthy margin performance and deliver significant cash flow generation,” said Claire Spofford, president and chief executive officer at J.Jill, in the earnings release. “We remain focused on delivering against our long-term objectives as we continue to advance our strategic initiatives focused on increasing brand awareness, strengthening our omnichannel capabilities and enhancing the overall customer experience, which we believe will position J.Jill for long-term sustainable growth.”

Sportsman’s Warehouse (No. 346)

Q2 2024: Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc. recorded a net sales decline of 6.7% year over year to $288.7 million in its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3. The retailer also saw a net loss of $5.9 million for the quarter, larger than the $3.3 million loss it experienced a year earlier.

“While we were more aggressive with our promotional activities during the quarter, our core customer remains firmly under pressure due to the difficult macroenvironment and pullback in discretionary spending,” said Paul Stone, president and CEO of Sportman’s Warehouse, in its earnings announcement. “We will continue to carefully manage the business and find ways to take non-customer facing costs out of the business.”

Target Corp. (No. 5)

Q2 2024: Target reported that total sales increased 2.6% year over year to reach $25 billion in its second fiscal quarter of 2024 ended Aug. 3. Digital sales alone grew 8.7% during the same period.

Read more on Target’s earnings results here.

Walmart Inc. (No. 2)

Q2 2025: Walmart recorded a 4.8% increase in consolidated revenue year over year. It brought in $169.34 billion for its fiscal second quarter of 2025 ended July 31.

Ecommerce earnings calendar

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

Stitch Fix: Sept. 24
AutoZone: Sept. 24
Micron Technology: Sept. 24
Costco Wholesale: Sept. 26
Scholastic: Sept. 26
Nike: Oct. 1
Aritzia: Oct. 15

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Ecommerce earnings recap: What you missed from Kroger, Signet Jewelers and more