Christopher & Banks Reports 70.9 Pct Rise In eCommerce Sales

Women’s clothing retailer Christopher & Banks Corporation reported on Friday (Sept. 11) a 70.9 percent rise in online shopping sales for Q2, which concluded on Aug. 1, according to an announcement.

“We saw accelerated growth in both our store customers shopping online for their first time as well as in new online customers, giving us even greater confidence in our longer-term opportunities,” Christopher & Banks Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Keri Jones said in the announcement.

Jones also said that the company believes that the expected increase in new products over the next few months will position it for better performance in the latter half of 2020, considering the positive shopper response it has experienced with new collections of items.

Christopher & Banks reported $36 million in total inventory at the conclusion of Q2 2020, which had declined 26 percent in contrast to $48.7 million at the conclusion of Q2 2019. The company also reported $300,000 in capital expenditures for Q2 2020 in contrast to $400,000 in Q2 2019.

Christopher & Banks also indicated that it would not currently offer guidance for fiscal 2020 because of the ongoing lack of certainty due to the pandemic.

As for its overall results, the retailer reported net sales of $58.5 million and a net loss of $15.1 million, or 40 cents per share for Q2 2020. The company, which runs 452 retail locations in 44 states as of Sept. 8., also reported $5.1 million in generated cash flow from operations.

In separate retail earnings news, American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. recently reported that Q2 digital demand rose 48 percent. The clothing retailer noted that Aerie digital demand increased 113 percent and AE climbed 21 percent.

“In the midst of an unprecedented crisis, we delivered a significant improvement from the first quarter throughout our business — a true testament to the agility, talent and commitment of our team,” American Eagle Outfitters Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jay Schottenstein said in an announcement at the time.