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SHRP
SHRP internet SALES +444% - Aggressive Buy:
Thursday January 7, 7:32 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Sharper Image Comparable Store Sales Increase 8%
Internet Sales Soar 444%
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 1999--Sharper Image Corp.
(Nasdaq/NMS:SHRP - news) today reported a 13 percent sales increase for
December, driven by an eight percent in comparable store sales and a 20 increase in
mail-order sales, including an impressive 444 percent increase from the company's
Internet Website, sharperimage.com.
For December, total company sales of $67.0 million were 13 percent higher than the
prior year's $59.3 million. Total store sales increased 10 percent, to $47.1 million from
$42.7 million in the prior year, with comparable store sales increasing eight percent.
Mail-order sales increased 20 percent to $19.8 million from last year's $16.6 million.
''Internet sales continued their very strong performance in December. We are attracting
new customers: over 90 percent of the Internet sales for December were first time
buyers at our sharperimage.com Website. As consumers get even more comfortable
with on-line shopping, I expect our Internet sales to continue to increase substantially,''
said Richard Thalheimer, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer.
He further stated, ''We are very pleased with the major contribution of our proprietary
Sharper Image Design products to the strong December increase in sales and gross
margin. Our strategy of developing exclusive Sharper Image Design products has been
very successful. These popular exclusive products helped us to improve our gross
margin by more than two percentage points, compared to last year. These results were
achieved without promotional discounting.''
Thalheimer concluded, ''The improvement in gross margin and the increased sales in the
all important month of December will significantly improve this year's earnings.''
For the 11 months of fiscal 1998, total company sales grew 13 percent, to $229.3
million from last year's $202.4 million. Total store sales were eight percent higher at
$154.3 million from $143.3 million for the prior year, with comparable store sales
increasing six percent. Catalog sales rose 27 percent to $75.0 million from last year's
$59.1 million.
The Sharper Image is a specialty retailer that is nationally and internationally renowned
as a leading source of new, innovative, high-quality products that make life easier and
more enjoyable. A significant and growing proportion of sales are of proprietary
products created by the company's product development group, Sharper Image Design.
The company operates 87 stores throughout the United States and mails millions of its
award-winning catalogs each month. Additionally, all the company's products may be
purchased on-line via its Internet catalog at sharperimage.com.
This release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's
expected performance for future periods, and actual results for such periods may
materially differ. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties,
including risks of changing market conditions in the overall economy and the retail
industry, consumer demand, the opening of new stores, actual advertising expenditures
by the company, the success of the company's advertising and merchandising strategy,
availability of products, and other factors detailed from time to time in the company's
annual and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
Fred
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