Free Newsletter
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — While it reported declines in revenues and same store sales and a net loss, Top 100 retailer Conn’s HomePlus found e-commerce to its liking during the first quarter of FY2024.
The Woodlands, Texas-based retailer reported its figures for the three months ended April 30 and noted that online sales increased 24.6% to a first quarter record of $22.7 million while credit applications increased by 9.7% year-over-year, the first quarter of application growth in 16 months.
“After last year’s successful e-commerce platform conversion and recent enhancements to our application process, e-commerce sales increased 24.6% during the first quarter,” said Norm Miller, interim president and CEO. “We also launched our new in-house lease-to-own offering during the first quarter. This positive momentum gives us increasing confidence that the strategies we are pursuing will return the company to growth and profitability.
“While we expect a challenging economic landscape to continue throughout the year, we believe we are on the right track to emerge from this period as a stronger, profitable company that is well-positioned to serve the growing needs of our core credit-constrained customers.”
Total consolidated revenue declined 16.3% to $284.6 million, due to an 18.3% decline in total retail sales from $339.8 million during the same three months of 2022, and an 8.2% reduction in finance charges and other revenues while same store sales decreased 20.1%.
Net loss for the quarter was $35.4 million, or $1.47 per diluted share, compared with net income for the three months ended April 30, 2022, of $6.2 million, or 25 cents per diluted share.
Of Conn’s four major categories, furniture and mattress declined least, as it accounted for $76.37 million in sales, down 13.3% from 2022’s $88.01 million. Home appliance (down 25.0%), consumer electronics (down 23.7%) and home office (down 25.2%) all showed steeper dips.
Miller said given the economic backdrop, the tough three months aren’t surprising.
“Our first quarter results were generally in-line with our expectations and reflect a challenging macroeconomic environment. Despite a difficult backdrop, we continue to refocus our efforts to better serve our core credit-constrained consumers, grow our e-eommerce business and launch our in-house lease-to-own offering,” said Miller. “These efforts increased applications during the first quarter by 9.7% and are improving sales trends within our in-house and lease-to-own segments.”
