ShopNBC sees textiles weigh down home in 3Q

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/18/2010 2:18:57 PM

Minneapolis - The home category at ShopNBC took a double-digit sales decline in third quarter sales, with poor performance in textiles largely to blame.

"Home [results] were mixed," said G. Robert Ayd, president, during the company's earnings call this morning. "Sales in home decreased 10% due to softness in textiles and partially offset by the performance of mattresses. The strategy is to bring more national brands while repositioning the category, allowing for our higher margin businesses to expand."

Results in ShopNBC's third quarter included a significantly improved net loss of $5.8 million compared to the $12.9 million net loss in the same period of the prior year.

Sales rose 11% to $132.3 million.

The company said it "continued to make progress" in its strategy to drive transaction volumes through the reduction of its net average selling price, which decreased 2.5% to $93 compares to $95 last third quarter, while net shipped units increased by 11%. E-commerce sales, which carry lower transaction costs, grew by 680 basis points to 40.5% of total company sales in the quarter, from 33.7% in Q3 2009.

More good news in the quarter stemmed from improved customer trends, as the number of new and active customers increased 15.6% and 15.7%, respectively, on a 12-month rolling basis versus Q2 2009.

"This overall progress is a validation of our continued focus and efforts to turn the company around while executing on new strategies for growth," said Keith Stewart, ceo.

Year to date, net loss narrowed to $24.5 million from $33.2 million. Sales rose 2.9% to $383.4 million.