MySale says try-before-you-buy is key to its record first half

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 25, 2018

It’s always encouraging when a retailer headlines its trading update with words like “record first half” and that’s just what London-listed international e-tailer MySale Group did on Thursday, boosted by its try-before-you-buy offer.

The company, which operates flash sale sites including Cocosa, OzSale, BuyInvite, SingSale, and Deals Direct, among others, reported a revenue rise of 11% to A$152 million in the six months to December 31.

The company said that for the sixth consecutive half-year, the gross margin increased, this time by 200 bps to 30.1% and obviously contributed a lot to a big uplift in gross profit. MySale said its sourcing initiatives, including increased own-buy inventory, were key drivers of the continuing margin rise.

Underlying profit on an EBITDA basis was up 80% to a record A$5.5 million and gross profit increased 19% to A$45.7 million. It now expects the full year to hit “at least” the upper end of market expectations.

Clearly the business got plenty of things right over the last six months with customer numbers up by a healthy 12%. The rollout of new features on its marketplace platform also helped, as did new international and local strategic partnerships, which helped it increase the product range on a “low-risk third-party basis.”

As mentioned above, try-before-you-buy was key. It’s interesting that UK fashion e-tailer Asos also reported on Thursday and said its try-before-you-buy service had proved popular. MySale said that its own solution, Ourpay, now accounts for 18% of orders and has improved average order volumes and conversion rates. 

“We are exploring how we might further commercialise this product by working with third-party retailers,” the company said.

Having to pay for goods in advance has been a barrier to growth for some e-tailers and big names are increasingly moving towards allowing customers to try on their goods at home before having to part with their cash. As well as Asos, Amazon is also prominent in this area and try-on-first features are likely to become a must-have for e-tailers in the next few years.