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(Alliance News) - Sosandar PLC said Monday its revenue for the year ending March 31 is on track to beat market expectations, but loss for the period will be higher than previously estimates due to increased customer acquisition costs.
Shares in Sosandar were down 2.1% in London on Monday morning at 27.64 pence each. The shares were seen as high as 30.90p in early trading.
The online women's fashion brand said it generated a quarterly record net revenue of GBP3.8 million in the three months to December 31, as net revenue exceeded GBP1.2 million in each month.
Revenue for the quarter was ahead of management expectations and more than double the revenue generated in the same period the year before and exceeding the GBP2.8 million recorded in the first half of financial 2020.
"This was driven through product range expansion and increased TV investment after the successful September trial. The performance of TV was especially pleasing given this is a peak period where competition is high and cut through can be difficult," Sosandar explained.
The company saw a "substantial" growth in its active customer database which now stands at 110,132, an increase of 93% on the same period in the prior year, and up 47% on September 31. Sosandar's customer database more than doubled since December 31, 2018, to 207,672.
Repeat orders in the quarter almost trebled on the same period in 2018 to 51,320.
"Given the strong current trading, the company's full year revenue is on track to exceed current market expectations and the company is confident in delivering further growth in future years thanks to the escalated customer acquisition between September and December," Sosandar said.
The fashion brand said it plans to continue its current investment strategy.
"Given the upfront cost of acquiring new customers against the benefit over the lifetime of the customer, the company expects this investment to result in the net loss for the full year being higher than previously anticipated with the increased benefit to be experienced in future years," the company added.
Joint-Chief Executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington said: "We are delighted to be reporting on an exceptional period of growth with sustained momentum across the key trading months to December 31. It is pleasing that, as expected, following our increased investment in marketing, product and team we are seeing accelerated growth across all our KPIs. It is also testament to the quality of our product range that once we have acquired the customers they are becoming highly engaged with our brand."
The Joint-CEOs said the opportunity "appears to be bigger that we first thought", seen by the sharp rise in repeat purchases.
"Acquisition of customers is nothing without successful retention and that's why it is so pleasing to see that repeat customers in January, a traditionally difficult trading period, are tracking higher than in the peak Autumn/Winter period helping to continually improve the ever-growing lifetime revenue number," the pair added.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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