E-commerce company PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) on Sunday posted its highest September sales, driven by purchases of portable barbecue devices, especially electric grills, as many people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival at home last month.
Barbecuing is popular during the holiday in Taiwan, but most local city and county governments banned grilling in public spaces this year to prevent large gatherings due COVID-19 concerns.
Consolidated sales increased 18.56 percent year-on-year to NT$3.56 billion (US$126.9 million), the company said in a statement, adding that new phones launched by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co stimulated demand and lent support to the company’s sales momentum.
Photo courtesy of PChome Online Inc
Nevertheless, on a monthly basis, sales dropped 8.2 percent, marking the retailer’s third consecutive month of decreasing monthly sales.
As consumers continue shifting to online purchases of household goods, food, computers and electronic devices amid the COVID-19 pandemic, PChome’s sales for last quarter reached a record high of NT$11.41 billion, up 10.65 percent from the previous quarter.
Cumulative sales in the first nine months totaled NT$34.63 billion, up 10.7 percent from the same period last year, company data showed.
The company did not provide sales guidance for this quarter, but said it is gearing up for the peak year-end shopping season, including the upcoming “Double 11” shopping event, to maintain its sales momentum.
The company plans to integrate group resources and launch special promotions on its various platforms to take advantage of the Quintuple Stimulus Voucher program and further spur revenue growth in the fourth quarter, it said.
PChome Online owns several subsidiaries, including the shopping platform PChome 24h Shopping, online auction site Ruten.com (露天拍賣), e-commerce start-up PChomestore Inc (商店街), fashion e-commerce platform MiTCH (覓去), travel e-commerce platform PChome Travel (網路家庭旅行社), mobile payment solution Pi Wallet (拍錢包) and electronic payment solution PChome InterPay (國際連), the company’s Web site shows.
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