RUE DE COMMERCE 
By
Quarterly information
Sales for the 3rd quarter 2010/2011
Growth in La Galerie-related sales
Sales of la Galerie e-merchant partners: ? 21.3 million, up 62%
Group momentum penalised nonetheless by the level
of sales of its own High Tech division in the 3rd quarter
Group sales: ? 104.7 million, down 15.8%
Business volume*: ? 124.4 million, down 8.9%
Confirmation of a largely positive second half-year in terms of profitability
Saint-Ouen, France, 27 January 2011 - 5.45 pm
RueDuCommerce Group, the leading independent e-commerce group listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, publishes today its sales for the third quarter of its 2010/2011 financial year.
Consolidated data (unaudited)
| (? millions) | 3rd quarter (October to December) | 9 months (April to December) | ||||
| 2010/2011 | 2009/2010 | % change | 2010/2011 | 2009/2010 | % change | |
| Group sales | 104.7 | 124.4 | (15.8%) | 237.2 | 263.4 | (10.0%) |
| Business volume* | 124.4 | 136.6 | (8.9%) | 286.9 | 292.1 | (1.8%) |
| Sales of La Galerie partners | 21.3 | 13.1 | +62.3% | 53.7 | 30.8 | +74.6% |
RueDuCommerce reports consolidated sales of ? 104.7 million for the 3rd quarter of its financial year (1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011), which was a decline of 15.8% compared to the 3rd quarter of 2009/2010.
* See Glossary at end of document
Over the same period, the business volume*, which includes all sales of La Galerie partners, totalled ? 124.4 million. La Galerie's e-merchant partners achieved sales growth of 62.3% to ? 21.3 million.
Over the first nine months of the year, RueDuCommerce's consolidated sales were ? 237.2 million, the business volume was ? 286.9 million and sales of La Galerie partners increased by 74.6% to ? 53.7 million.
Growth in La Galerie-related sales
La Galerie's contribution to the Group's overall performance is increasingly significant. This contribution continued to grow at a very fast pace, despite a slight slowdown in percentage during the end-of-the-year period (62.3% compared to 74.6% over the cumulative 9 months) due, on the one hand, to many star Christmas products running out of stock, including toys (Zhu Zhu Pets, Bey Blade spinning tops, video game consoles) and, on the other hand, a less prominent presence in business getters' networks compared to the end of 2009.
RueDuCommerce currently offers one of the most extensive product ranges on the French web (marketing nearly 2,000,000 products), as well as a high-performance platform and a portfolio of e-merchant partners that includes many leading websites in their respective markets.
The continuing development of RueDuCommerce's online shopping centre is further testimony to the merits for the Group of this strategic orientation that combines growth and profitability.
Group momentum penalised by the level of High Tech product sales
The decline in sales of High Tech products in the third quarter was due to the following factors:
the High Tech market remained depressed towards the end of the year, particularly for high price product ranges, which had to partly compete against car purchases that were more concentrated in the same period, due to the scrappage scheme ending on 31 December.
RueDuCommerce elected to favour sales of profitable products over seeking to generate sales volume at all costs.
the presence in business getters' networks (such as shopping crawlers and affiliation networks) was less prominent than for Christmas 2009, which had a knock-on effect on traffic directed to the website. This policy is being amended in 2011 with the implementation of a more aggressive and more targeted marketing plan.
* See Glossary at end of document
Over the first nine months of the year, the breakdown of High Tech sales by product range was as follows: IT & Telephony: 59% (vs. 58% over the first nine months of the previous financial year); TV & DVD players: 17% (unchanged); Digital Photo & Video: 10% (vs. 12%) and Other products: 14% (vs. 13%).
Outlook for the current financial year
Following the many projects completed in 2009 (3 acquisitions, launch of the advertising agency), RueDuCommerce assimilated these phases of growth in 2010 and downsized its structure (see press release of 28 July 2010) to reflect the new challenges it will have to face, including, in particular, the implementation of a plan that will generate savings of ? 3.5 million before tax (at a cost of ? 2 million).
The current financial year enables us:
to confirm that La Galerie is a business with high growth potential, both in terms of business volume and profitability, having broken even in the first half of the year.
to strengthen the Group's commitment in continuing its strategy aimed at accelerating the development of an e-commerce platform based on intermediation and drawing value from audience levels, by integrating an in-house selling business for technology products.
RueDuCommerce confirms that a significant net profit will be achieved in relation to the second half of the current year.
Projects 2011/2012
The 2011/2012 financial year opens up a period of renewed developments and growth for the Group, either organically or though acquisitions, as strategic opportunities arise.
***
Shareholders' agenda (after close of trading)
12 May 2011: Sales for the fourth quarter of the 2010/2011 financial year
09 June 2011: Annual Results of the 2010/2011 financial year
Glossary
Business volume: includes consolidated own sold product and service sales, plus sales of La Galerie's partners.
Overall Group Traffic: the number of visits, being the number of individual sessions initiated by all Group website visitors over the past 12 months
Group Transactions: the number of orders taken by the BtoC business
Group Average Buying Behaviour: total orders of the BtoC business divided by the number of orders.
| About RueDuCommerce Established 10 years ago, RueDuCommerce is the leading independent e-commerce Group quoted on the Paris Stock Exchange. The RueDuCommerce Group:
As the only ISO 9001-certified after-sales-service French e-commerce website, RueDuCommerce was voted best high tech product website by web users in 2009 The Group is listed on Compartment C of the NYSE Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN: FR0004053338 - Ticker: RDC) Please visit our website for more information: www.rueducommerce.com/corporate: http://www.rueducommerce.com/corporate |
Contacts
Investor Relations
Laurent Bertin - Chief financial officer
Laurent.bertin@rueducommerce.com:
mailto:Laurent.bertin@rueducommerce.com
Arnaud Salla
Comalto
Tel: +33 6 16 17 52 26
asalla@comalto.com:
mailto:asalla@comalto.com
Press relations
Cécile Courtois
cecile.courtois@rueducommerce.com:
mailto:cecile.courtois@rueducommerce.com
Agnès Gilbert
Eudoxie PR
Tel: +33 6 84 61 30 71
a.gilbert@eudoxie-pr.com:
mailto:a.gilbert@eudoxie-pr.com
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