Boohoo to make 'step change' increase in marketing spend as sales recover
Boohoo.com has announced it is to make a "step change" increase in its marketing spend during 2015 after seeing a spike in sales just two months after it issued a profit warning.
The online retailer reported a 27 per cent rise in full-year revenue, attributed to a boost in mobile phone traffic, and said that the 12 months to the end of February generated sales of £139.8m.
Boohoo.com halted its marketing spend during January and February after heavy discounting and delivery problems hit sales over the 2014 Christmas period.
However, speaking on a conference call with investors this morning, chief financial officer Neil Catto said that marketing expenditure would rise to 17/18 per cent of sales, compared to 14 per cent of revenue, estimated to be around £15m, which Boohoo.com spent in 2014.
"January and February would not be the right tie to reinvigorate our marketing efforts," said Catto. "January is very much a promtional time and February is a transitional month as far as fashion is concerned, so our efforts in the UK are focussed on preparing our marketing campaigns and those have begun in earnest in March.
"We’ve planned a step change in marketing spend in the new financial year; our marketing spend is going to increase from about 10 per cent of sales as we’ve seen for the last couple of months up to the 17/18 per cent level."
Catto said that the #weareus campaign which launched on 1 March has already received a good reception – the hashtag was the number one trending tag on Twitter on the day of launch and number five globally.
Product wise Boohoo.com has recently launched a petite range and is preparing to expand its sucessful swimwear and holiday range. A maternity line is also on the horizon.
The retailer said that it now has 3 million active customers, a number that has increased 29 per cent on the previous year.