Helen of Troy, a producer of Revlon and several other popular brands, has achieved 36 percent growth in online sales during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019.
Sales in the online channel now comprise approximately 20 percent of consolidated net sales in the fourth quarter.
“The investment in our Leadership Brands continued to pay off, focusing primarily on digital marketing, e-commerce and new product development,” Helen of Troy CEO said during an analyst call.
Amazon.com is its number two customer, accounting for 16 percent of revenue during the fiscal year. All other e-commerce sales grew similarly in fiscal 2019. The company said it invested further in Asia-Pacific sourcing operation, its distribution centers and other shared services.
Jay Caron is the chief chain officer and interim CIO responsible for the success of its e-commerce business.
The company made investment Revlon’s digital marketing efforts to support new innovative consumer centric appliances at retail in brick and mortar and online. Recent third-party data shows that Revlon is now the online market share leader in hair appliances.
Retail will be the third largest industry in 2019 – after discrete manufacturing ($221.6 billion) and process manufacturing ($124.5 billion) in terms of digital transformation spending, according to the latest IDC report. Omni-channel commerce will be top focus for the global retail industry.
Julien R Mininberg, chief executive officer of Helen of Troy, does not reveal the consumer brand company’s investment in digital transformation.
Business software major SAP said intelligent technologies are critical for supporting digital transformation in the enterprise.
Up to 93 percent of companies agree that innovation technologies are key to achieving their digital transformation goals, the Forrester survey of 740 CXO respondents commissioned by SAP said.
Helen of Troy aims to focus on shared service capability and operating efficiency. Hike in operating margin is a focus area for the company. Helen of Troy, which will be divesting more beauty products shortly, achieved operating margin of 11.5 percent in fiscal 2019 as compared with 8.1 percent in fiscal 2018.