About You reports strong Q3 growth, reiterates outlook

Europe’s online fashion platform About You Holding SE announced top-line growth and an increase in active customers in the third quarter, led by investments in the international expansion and promotional initiatives. The company said growth was supported by About You’s strong execution of its market launches in Italy, Greece, Portugal, and France.

The company added that group revenue increased by 48 percent to 512.5 million euros in the third quarter, while in the first nine months of the financial year, revenue grew by 54.8 percent to 1,330.2 million euros. The company’s active customers increased by 33.6 percent to 10.7 million at the end of Q3, from 8 million a year earlier. The average order frequency reached 2.9, up 6.4 percent and the average order value rose to 58.8 euros, up 5 percent.

Commenting on the third quarter update, Tarek Müller, the company’s co-founder and co-CEO said: “I am impressed by the positive engagement which About You witnessed throughout our market launch events in Southern Europe this quarter. Our strong performance was particularly driven by our international expansion and the successful launch of Scayle to propel our B2B business.”

About You’s international segment posts strong growth in Q3 The company further said that Rest of Europe segment grew its revenue by 67.7 percent to 239.6 million euros in the current quarter, driven by the operational execution of About You’s largescale launch campaigns in Italy, Greece, Portugal, and France over September and October. In DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), the company experienced growth of 27 percent to 248.4 million euros in the third quarter after the Woohoo campaign celebrated a total of 10 million customers in October, and Black Friday led to a significant ramp-up of sales.

The company continued to strengthen its B2B business in Q3 2021/2022. The scaling of existing and acquisition of new corporate clients resulted in revenue increase of 109.1 percent to 48.7 million euros. In the TME (Tech, Media, Enabling) segment, the company invested in the rebranding of Scayle in November.

Against the backdrop of continued investments in growth, the adjusted EBITDA margin fell to negative 6 percent and amounted to negative 30.5 million euros. For the nine-month period, the adjusted EBITDA margin slightly improved to negative 4.2 percent or a total of negative 55.9 million euros. The DACH segment sustained profitability with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 5.5 percent in Q3 and an adjusted EBITDA of 13.6 million euros, while for the RoE segment, About You recorded a negative adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.1 percent, equivalent to an adjusted EBITDA of negative 50.5 million euros. With an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.6 percent, the adjusted EBITDA of the TME segment grew to 7.1 million euros.

About You reiterates outlook “Investing in international growth has been our top priority and we have once again seen this pay off in the third quarter. Not only do we experience a strong momentum in the acquisition of new customers, particularly in Southern Europe, but also great developments of these new customer cohorts’ metrics. Thus, we can confirm our guided full-year revenue and aim for the upper half of the range,” added Hannes Wiese, the company’s co-founder and co-CEO.

The company continues to expect a group revenue of 1,725 to 1,775 million euros, p 48 percent to 52 percent, in the financial year 2021/2022. Given the strong business results in the third quarter, the company believes it is realistic to reach the upper half of its group revenue guidance range. Adjusted EBITDA is assumed to remain at negative 70 million euros.