Yoox probably won’t meet analyst expectations

Italian online fashion retailer Yoox said it may encounter problems trying to meet analyst expectations for an 18% increase in full-year revenues after its sales grew by ‘only’ 15% during the first nine months. The Italian ecommerce company posted sales of 366 million euros during the first three quarters of this years.

The fact more and more Italians are using their smartphones and tablets to shop online helped push domestic sales up 24%. That may come as a surprise for some, as the country’s economy is stagnating. But Yoox performed quite well in Europe anyway. It’s more that the weakness of the Russian rouble and the Japanese yen hurt Yoox’s sales in those two countries.

Consensus forecasts for the full-year overall sales at 537 million euros and EBITDA at 53.5 million euros look “a bit challenging”, the company said. “But we have never been better prepared to tackle the all-important Christmas campaign: many activities have been carefully planned all year long and the entire team is focusing their every effort on meeting our targets,” the Italian retailer said.

Yoox in North America
In North America sales growth curbed due to an unusually cold spring. And the fact the company had to deal with some organizational issues as well as the decision to and an ecommerce partnership with denim brand Diesel also had an impact on Yoox’s sales in North America.

Yoox owns three websites (Yoox.com, Thecorner.com and Shoescribe.com), of whom the revenue accounts for almost three quarters of the company’s total revenue. The growth pace of these tree ecommerce sites is more than double that of revenues generated at the partnerships with luxury brands, which have stalled. But nonetheless, Yoox still operates online shops for dozens of luxury brands, e.g. Armani, Valentino, Roberto Cavalli, Alexander Wang and Diesel.