MySale surges in first half, profits double, Gilt.com link will boost product offer

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 20, 2017

Flash sales e-tailer MySale Group had a storming first half as the six months to December 31 and said that its product offer will be boosted as it forged a deal with Gilt.com.

It saw online revenue rising 18% to A$126.5m in H1. But underlying profit on an EBITDA basis sprinted ahead by a full 100% to A$3m, which is above expectations.

Its active customer base rose by 19% to 870,000 and total gross profit was up 17% to A$38.4m.

Online sales make up 90% of its total turnover and group revenue with offline included rose only 6% to A$136.1m, reflecting a planned reduction in lower- margin offline revenue. The logic of its online-focused strategy can been seen from its continued strong progress in gross margins where a 270bp improvement drove a 17% uplift in gross profit to A$38.4m.

The company said it made “excellent progress” in H1 with that boost to its active customer numbers coming from a “continued focus on customer conversion.”

MySale sells in a variety of markets, including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, China, Malaysia and Singapore. It also said that it has launched a strategic partnership with Hudson's Bay Company-owned US online retailer gilt.com. “This represents another important step in the development of the group's retail marketplace platform,” it said.

It is anticipated this collaboration will “add significant product selection, in multiple categories, to this platform.”

CEO Carl Jackson said of all this: ''We are pleased with the strong start we have made to the year. Financially we have performed well and strategically have made good progress against our goals.
 
''In ANZ we have continued to shift the emphasis of our marketing towards retention and re-engagement and have also seen good progress in the scaling of our retail marketplace platform.

''We carry good momentum into the, historically stronger, second half of the year and have a number of initiatives which will support our future growth.''