Online marketplace Kogan believes a planned period of consolidation within the company has concluded, amid a shift in sales for the three months to September 2023.
While gross sales fell 6.5% to $189.2 million, Kogan reported that excluding the seasonality boost of Black Friday and Christmas trading, this was the first quarter-over-quarter increase since the first quarter of FY22.
Kogan claimed the fall in year-on-year gross sales followed a significant reduction in inventories. As of September 30, Kogan inventories totalled $72.2 million, comprising $63.7 million in-warehouse and $8.5 million in-transit. The inventory balance represents a reduction YoY of 45.3%.
Kogan recorded a gross profit of $37.4 million, up by 19.5% YoY. Kogan noted this was driven by a growing gross margin of 36.3%, which improved 9.8pp YoY.
Group active customers were 2,864,000 as at September 30, with Kogan.com holding 2,114,000. Kogan FIRST subscribers totalled over 440,000, compared to over 385,000 as at September 30, 2022.
“This quarter we welcomed many more smart shoppers to our loyalty program,” founder and CEO Ruslan Kogan said. “We are continuously enhancing the value we deliver to our most loyal customers and look forward to welcoming many more subscribers to the program.
“As we now approach the busiest time of the year with Black Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day, our team recognises that many of our millions of Aussie and Kiwi customers are continuing to face cost of living pressures.
“We are confident that the incredible deals we have lined up over the coming months will help in these tough economic times, as we continue to deliver on our promise of making the most in-demand products and services more affordable and accessible.”
In H2 FY22, Kogan undertook a number of initiatives to reduce operating costs and streamline operations. This included reducing underperforming product categories to decrease warehouse costs, suspending Kogan Delivery Services due to rising transportation and partner delivery costs, and revising its proprietary marketing algorithm to improve ROI.