Dive Brief:
- In “record-setting” results, True Religion brought in $7 million of e-commerce sales during this year’s Cyber Week, a 45% increase compared to last year, according to a Monday press release.
- The apparel company also saw a 20% increase in its conversion rate, and a 15% increase in traffic.
- True Religion said it expects to exceed $100 million in online sales next year, and its e-commerce revenue will represent 50% of the company’s overall revenue by 2025, an increase from 35% in 2021.
Dive Insight:
True Religion’s e-commerce revenue bump follows a slight decline in retail’s overall Thanksgiving weekend shopping figures.
A report from the National Retail Federation found that the number of consumers shopping between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday dipped to 179.8 million this year from 186.4 million in 2020. However, some experts attributed the drop in shoppers and overall spending during the weekend to consumers buying their holiday gifts earlier, and the NRF recently revised its sales forecast for the season even higher to say that this year’s holiday sales could increase by 11.5%.
True Religion’s e-commerce sales spike comes as the company tries to turn itself around after bankruptcy proceedings. In 2017, the company got rid of nearly $360 million in debt after undergoing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The brand filed for bankruptcy again in April 2020, just after the pandemic’s impact first hit the U.S., and exited in October of that year under a court-approved restructuring plan.
The retailer’s post-bankruptcy transformation is based on moving to a digital-first, DTC model. Half of the company’s sales are expected to come from online sales in the next four years.
“We are thrilled with our record-setting performance during the critical Cyber Week period, which includes our biggest sales days of the year,” CEO Michael Buckley said in a statement. “Our strategic decision to diversify our marketing channels has resulted in significantly increased demand for our products and our focus on inventory management allowed us to satisfy this demand throughout the entire Cyber Week shopping event.”
