It was a strong year for Boohoo, which managed to both raise its profits and decrease its marketing expenditure.
Revenue at the fashion pureplay for the year to 29 February 2016 was up 40% on the previous year, reaching £195.4m. Crucially, the etailer worked to refine its marketing expenditure, bringing costs down to 10.2% of revenue compared to 13.2% the previous year.
The year‘s marketing initiatives included the #WeAreUs campaign, which saw Boohoo creating seasonal campaigns based on the “WeAre” concept, featuring groups such as ‘Stylists‘, ‘Dreamers‘ and ‘Family‘.
The company enjoyed 38% growth in the UK, its largest market, earning £130.1m in revenue. Growth in Europe was 25%, with BooHoo blaming the weak euro, whilst growth in the rest of the world stood at 56%, largely driven by success in the Australian and American markets.
“We are pleased to report a year of strong revenue growth across all geographic regions”, commented Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, joint CEOs at Boohoo. “Active customer numbers, order frequency and conversion have all increased on last year as we continue to invest in building customer lifetime value. By refining the mix of promotional and marketing expenditure in each of our key markets, we have achieved growth ahead of our plans.”
Over the year, over 4m customers shopped with Boohoo, a like-for-like increase of 34%, with order frequency also rising. The company finalised efforts to have all of its websites fully responsive to types of device used by customers. The Boohoo iPhone and Android apps also debuted in the UK, American and Australian markets this year. According to the company, mobile and tablet use now accounts for 66% of website sessions.
“We have had an encouraging start to the 2017 financial year,” added the CEOs.
