The half-year report published by the Düsseldorf online retailer Fashionette AG on Monday offered no surprises. After all, the company had already published selected key data in advance in an ad hoc announcement at the end of last week and raised its earnings forecast for the entire 2023 financial year.
As the e-commerce specialist has now confirmed, group sales in the months from January to June were EUR 62.0 million and thus 15.5 percent below the corresponding level of the previous year. The company justified the decline with strategic cuts as part of the ongoing savings program, such as the discontinuation of the cosmetics and smartphones categories. “The board of directors is examining whether to sell the remaining activities and assets in the beauty and smartwatch areas as a whole,” Fashionette explained on Monday.
About 578,000 orders
The number of orders in the first six months of the current year totaled around 578,000, compared to 667,000 in the same period of the previous year. At EUR 181, the average value of the shopping baskets was slightly above the previous year’s level of EUR 179.
The online retailer made progress on earnings thanks to an improved gross margin and cost reductions. The reported loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which was just under EUR 1.1 million in the first half of the previous year, was reduced to EUR 0.7 million. As announced last Friday, EBITDA adjusted for special effects rose from EUR 0.5 to 1.5 million. According to the annual report that has now been presented, the reported net loss fell from 3.1 to almost 2.8 million euros.
Improvement in earnings through comprehensive cost-cutting measures
Management attributed the improvement in earnings to the comprehensive cost-cutting measures implemented in recent months and therefore raised its full-year guidance for adjusted EBITDA last week. “After the fruits of the initiated cost and efficiency program become apparent, there is a positive earnings development, which we will continue in the second half of 2023,” says the current interim report. In addition, the online retailer sees “additional opportunities in the as yet untapped synergy potential from the acquisition of Brandfield in 2021”. The aim is, for example, “the further mutual integration of our range and the mutual listing of products in order to achieve more sales in the respective target countries”.
The management now has high hopes for the planned merger with the e-commerce group The Platform Group GmbH & Co KG. The aim is to develop The Platform Group AG, which will result from the merger, “into Europe’s largest platform group”, according to a statement.