(Filed Under wholesale Lingerie News). The absence of Victoria’s Secret’s print catalog, which it abandoned last year, continued to hurt sales in April. Comparable sales for the North American stores and direct business, including Pink, were down 12% for the month. For the last three month the decline was 14%.
Comparable sales for those stores only, in the U.S. and Canada, were down 7% in April and 12% for the quarter.
In the first quarter of 2017, Victoria’s Secret’s direct business (which this year, without the aid of the print catalog, relied on the company’s internet presence) declined by $73.2 million (from $359.7 million in the same quarter last year, to $286.5 million). And the decline in the direct business is accelerating. In the last quarter of 2016, the drop in direct business was $41 million compared to the same quarter in 2015.
It was reported that Victoria’s Secret would save $150 million a year by not printing the catalog and instead relying on the internet to generate its direct-to-consumer sales. But so far the declines in that business have outstripped the projected savings, and overall company sales have plummeted even further.
Total Victoria’s Secret and Pink sales in the first quarter dropped $207.9 million, from $1.7409 billion in 2016, to $1.5330 billion this year.
Total sales for parent company L Brands, which also operates the La Senza lingerie stores as well as Bath & Body Works and Henri Bendel, fell from $2.6138 billion in the first quarter in 2016, to $2.4365 billion in the first three months this year.
L Brands stated it expects total comps to be down again in May. — NM
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