VitaminShoppe.com Posts Huge 1Q Sales Increase 29087

VitaminShoppe.com Posts Huge 1Q Sales Increase

NEWYORK--Online dietary supplement retailer VitaminShoppe.com (NASDAQ:VSHP) reported strongsales results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2000. Revenues rose sharply to $9.3million, up 388 percent from $1.9 million sold a year ago. The first quarter sales alsorepresented a 67-percent increase over $5.6 million sold in the previous quarter. Earningsfor the quarter will not be released until May 2000.

VSHP's cumulative customers rose from 104,000 to 154,000 in the first quarter, and thepercentage of orders from repeat customers remained well above 50 percent in the quarter.Average order size was $64. VSHP chief executive Jeffrey Horowitz said that his companyhas maintained financial momentum in the face of recent challenges to the e-commerceindustry by focusing only on vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements.

"Our ability to consistently achieve repeat customer orders, increase traffic toour site, maintain high margins and average order size is truly a testament to the wisdomof this focused strategy," he said. Management further reported it will launch a newstate-of-the-art website in the second quarter. The new site will provide faster accessand new customization and personalization, according to the company.