The online fashion retailer About You continues to grow and is also more optimistic about the year as a whole.
The company from Hamburg announced on Tuesday that sales for the current financial year are expected to be in the upper half of the previously forecast range of 1.725 to 1.775 billion euros. The basis is the growth in the third quarter of the fiscal year: Group sales rose by almost half from 346.2 million euros to 512.5 million euros by the end of November.
The expansion of About You helped increase revenues.
“I am impressed by the positive response that we received in the third quarter in a row to our launch events in Southern Europe,” said Co-Managing Director Tarek Müller in the press release. According to the co-founder, the expansion of the B2B business also contributed to the strong quarter.
More customers order through About You
The number of active customers at About You grew by a third to 10.7 million compared to the same period in the previous year. In addition, the average order value increased to 58.8 million euros.
About You made almost half of its sales in the German-speaking region in the third quarter. The company is already earning money operationally here, as well as in business with corporate customers. In the rest of Europe, sales increased by almost 68 percent to 239.6 million euros thanks to the market launch in Italy, Greece, Portugal and France. The adjusted Ebitda margin was minus 21.1 percent here.
Lots of money for expansion
This growth costs About You a lot of money: The margin for the adjusted operating result was minus 6 percent across the group in the third quarter, which is a worsening compared to the minus 4.1 percent from the same period of the previous year. According to About You, marketing costs in southern Europe were the main burden.
About You plans to invest 50 million euros instead of 34 in the current financial year. The company confirmed the forecast for the adjusted operating result of minus 70 million euros.
About You, originally founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of the Hanseatic mail order giant Otto Group, has done a lot in recent years to increase its popularity. According to its own information, the company is now active in 25 European markets and is penetrating more. The expansion to southern Europe is currently underway, but the online retailer is already looking at others.
About You launched a Global Shipping Platform in December to accelerate growth and already deliver to around 100 countries, said Müller. “We are pleased that we can meet our goals for 2021/2022 and that we are well on the way to becoming the world’s leading fashion platform.” (FashionUnited / dpa)