Delia’s Corp., which divested several subsidiaries earlier this year, saw its first-quarter revenue drop to $36.2 million, compared with $49.1 million during the same period in 2000.
The apparel cataloger also reported a net loss of $8.3 million, compared with $8.7 last year. The quarter ended May 5.
The revenue falloff was partly due to the company’s divestments. In the year to date, the firm has sold its gURL.com site to DIRECT Newsline parent company Primedia; its Storybook Inc. operations to CelebrateExpress.com; and SparkNotes and TheSpark.com to Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Direct sales made up $20.2 million of Delia’s quarterly revenue, down 12% from $23.1 million a year ago. Part of this was due to problems with the firm’s catalog, which offers apparel, furniture and other merchandise geared toward young women.
“On the direct side we were pleased by the continued shift in sales to our Internet channel, however, business was affected by some merchandising miscues,” Stephen Kahn, Delia’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“The catalog lacked the right fashion assortment in the first quarter, and certain categories under-performed because we were not as ‘trend right’ in these areas as we could have been,” said president Andrea Weiss during an earnings conference Wednesday morning.
Delia’s retail outlets featured an emphasis on stretch Capris, graphic tees, fashion denim and anything with glitter. But its catalog did not reflect this product mix. Instead, the books focused on prom and swim wear, and items with a basic look at a time when its audience was interested in novelty items. As a result, returns were higher than expected.
Kahn continued, “We moved quickly to address these issues, and believe we are now well positioned for the key back-to-school season.”
As a percentage of total direct marketing revenue, Web sales jumped to the 40% range during the first quarter
