Amazon’s Q1 first party (1P) sales were $51 billion – exactly the same as in Q1 2022 and Q1 2021. Combined 1P and 3P sales grew 8% in Q1 year-on-year.
Amazon is still growing, however even this e-commerce behemoth has hit a speedbump.
FINANCE
Primark (UK) reported that same-store sales rose 10% for the six months to March 4, attributing this to a rise in tourism and a return to offices.
Primark warned that sales growth was likely to slow in the coming months amid the cost of living crisis and higher interest rates.
Operating profits fell 15% to £351 million ($438 million). Despite a 7% price increase, it was still not enough to cover higher energy and freight costs during the period.
Amazon (USA) reported Q1 sales were flat at $51 billion. Net income reached $3.2 billion, compared with a $3.8 billion loss a year ago.
Crocs (USA) reported that Q1 revenue rose 34% to $884.2 million. Net income more than doubled to $149.5 million, from $72.6 million a year ago. For Q2, the company expects sales to increase 6% to 9% year-on-year.
Puma (Germany) reported Q1 revenue climbed 14% to €2.19 billion ($2.41 billion). Net income fell 3.3% to €117 million ($128 million) from a year ago.
Bed Bath and Beyond (USA) filed for bankruptcy protection as it struggled to service its debt, while also funding new inventory for its stores. The company will be delisted from NASDAQ on May 3.
Authentic Brands Group (USA) is buying fashion brand Vince for $75 million plus a 25% stake in a subsidiary ABG has created called ABG Vince. A month earlier, Authentic Brands agreed to purchase Boardriders, whose brands include Quiksilver and Billabong.
Walmart (USA) is selling its Eloquii brand to FullBeauty Brands (USA), a holding company with a portfolio of brands for the plus size market. Sale follows Walmart’s recent sale of DTC brands Moosejaw and Bonobos.
PODCAST
The Critical Ecommerce Metric that Most Sellers Overlook
It turns out that many of the traditional metrics that e-commerce businesses are tracking are not the best indicators of how well their business is doing.
At a time when online stores are looking to drive more traffic, but are increasingly facing soaring costs, finding ways to maximize each customer is a matter of survival.
In this podcast, Valentin Radu, founder of Omniconvert and a specialist in increasing customer lifetime value, talks about how e-commerce sellers spend too much time chasing new customers and not enough time nurturing their existing customers.
Just by changing their focus, brands can massively increase their sales – and profits on line.
You’ll Learn
- The importance of being able to extract more value from existing customers.
- Identifying your best customers – and prioritizing how you allocate your resources.
- A new methodology for customer value optimization.
MARKET INSIGHTS
Risk Averse Investors Want Profits – Now!
In the post Financial Crisis era speculation was starting to become the norm.
The practice of grossly overpromising – and equally as spectacularly underdelivering came to define the new pitch decks – lead to multiple rounds of funding even for businesses with no signs of profitability in sight.
Now, investors who were willing to skirt traditional risk management guidelines in return for fast growth, are demanding that companies move quickly to get to profitability.
Rising interest rates have made money more expensive and made loss making companies increasingly less attractive.
Suddenly, DTC brands have had to shift from driving their top lines to frantically trying to shore up their bottom lines. Read more
MARKETS
U.S. consumer spending jumped by 3.7% in Q1, its highest quarterly increase in nearly two years, as Americans continued to tap pandemic savings, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data.
- Spending on goods jumped nearly 7% (also a two-year peak).
- Undergirding that robust spending is the continued strength of the job market, with the unemployment rate hovering at near historic lows.
The Italian economy expanded by a hefty 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2024 (+1.8% year-on-year), clearly beating expectations, per ISTAT data.
Spain’s core inflation decreased to 6.6% in April from 7.5% in March. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.6% in April, higher than the 0.4% increase seen in March, per ING Bank.
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