GSI Commerce Narrows loss in Q1; Net Sporting Goods Sales up 36%…
GSI Commerce Inc. cut its Q1 net loss to $2.3 million, or 5 cents per share, from a loss of $4.4 million, or 10 cents, a year ago. Revenues grew 28% to $146.3 million from $114.2 million, driven by a 19% growth in product sales and 66% growth in service fees. On a conference call with investors, GSI management said merchandise sales were up 69% to $322 million with 36% growth in sporting goods.
Gross margins in the quarter improved 620 basis points, to 47.5%, driven by a 250 basis point improvement in product margins and strong growth in service fees. Higher year-over-year product margins in sporting goods and the fact that sporting goods accounted for a higher percentage of product sales, drove the product margin improvement.
The company also disclosed plans to broaden the focus of its business to include international markets and interactive marketing services. The international growth initiative will be led by GSI executive Steve Davis, who has been a member of the GSI senior management team since 2000.
