Garden.com
Company Delivers 3X Revenue Growth
Gross Margin Tops 27%
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Garden.com (Nasdaq: GDEN), a leading online retailer of
gardening products, information and services today announced financial results for its second quarter of
fiscal 2000, ended December 31, 1999. Revenue for the quarter topped $3.6 million, an increase of
approximately 200 percent over revenue of $1.2 million for the same quarter in fiscal year 1999. Significant
repeat buying, an expanding advertiser base, and a compelling holiday product offering fueled strong
revenue growth.
For the second fiscal quarter 2000, gross margin increased to 27.1 percent, compared to gross margin of
23.3 percent for the same quarter of the previous year.
The company reported a second quarter net loss of $7.2 million, or $0.41 loss per share, compared to a
net loss of $ 2.1 million, or $ 2.11 loss per share, for the same period in the prior year.
Garden.com announced that cumulative customer accounts reached 144,000 as of December 31, 1999, an
increase of 226 percent over the number of customer accounts on December 31, 1998. Repeat customer
orders represented 48 percent of orders during the second quarter, up from 38 percent in the same quarter
of the previous year.
"We are especially pleased with the results of this quarter," remarked Cliff Sharples, CEO and president of
Garden.com . "Garden.com successfully hit the mark on key company objectives, achieving strong growth,
improving gross margin and maintaining operational excellence -- and we didn't have to spend significant
marketing dollars to get there."
"We take great pride in Garden.com's superior order fulfillment execution during a holiday season in which
many e-tailers experienced difficulties fulfilling orders," followed Jamie O'Neill, chief operating officer for
the company. "This is particularly exciting because it means that our continued investments in building and
refining our virtual supply chain paid off in seamless scaleability during a quarter in which we saw our
all-time highest peaks in volume."
"By investing in strategic brand awareness initiatives and aggressive company expansion, we believe
Garden.com is on track to become the first, internationally recognized gardening brand leader," continued
Sharples.
Recent Highlights
Customer and Brand Highlights
-- Garden.com's cumulative page views increased 80% over cumulative page
views for Q2 fiscal year 1999 reaching $24.2 million.
-- Garden.com's cumulative membership increased 130% to 863,000 when
compared to 376,000 for the same quarter in fiscal year 1999.
-- Garden.com further established its position as an e-commerce customer
solutions leader by launching real-time chat access capabilities to its
online order process, enabling its customers to communicate 1-on-1
with order experts at any time during their purchasing experience.
-- The company unveiled its unique multiple ship-to feature, further
streamlining its holiday ordering process and making it easier than
ever for its customers to send orders to multiple recipients.
-- Garden.com continued to innovate in its personalization efforts
introducing a first-of-its-kind Design-a-Wreath feature that not only
proved to be one of the most popular areas on the site for the 1999
holiday season, but garnered significant top-tier media exposure
reaching an audience of more than fifty million.
-- Garden.com extended its diversified brand-building and customer
acquisition strategy with the successful roll-out of top-tier
initiatives, including the first phase of its co-branded iVillage
partnership, its co-branded content efforts with Excite@Home, its
co-branded partnership with Southern Living, and its first holiday
catalog.
Industry Recognition
-- Garden.com reached an audience of over 95 million consumers through
media exposure in top tier magazines, newspapers and broadcast outlets,
representing more than 300% growth when compared to Garden.com's 1998
holiday season total impression number.
-- Garden.com succeeded Yahoo! as the 1999 winner of the prestigious GII
Netrepreneur award
-- Garden.com made Red Herring's Top 100 Technology IPO's of 1999
-- "Notable Web site" Fortune magazine's Technology Guide, Winter 2000
-- Time Magazine's Star Pick for its 1999 Online Shopping Guide
-- Garden.com was chosen as one of Time Digital's Best 25 E-Commerce Web
sites
-- Garden.com received top marks in PC Magazine's Annual Top 100 Web sites
issue
-- Internet Retailer's annual "Top 25 Best Of" issue
-- 1999 Esther Award
-- 1999 Pepper & Rogers Top 25 1-to-1
-- 1999 Giftware Business Award: Best Content |
