Online luxury retailer Cettire reported a loss in its fiscal third quarter, and the road ahead looks just as grim, as Trump-era tariffs on Chinese imports continue to weigh on its outlook.
The company reported an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) loss of $4.7 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2025, inclusive of $2.1 million realised FX loss.
Its sales revenue increased 1 per cent year over year to $192.5 million while average order value remained flat at $829.
The number of active customers rose 8 per cent to 695,738, and gross revenue from active customers climbed 6 percentage points to 68 per cent.
“With Cettire’s increased emphasis on market share and, against a backdrop of persistent sector-wide promotional activity to stimulate demand, the company continued to participate in promotional activity throughout the quarter, resulting in a reduction in delivered margin as a percentage of sales compared to H1 FY25,” Dean Mintz, Cettire founder and CEO.
“At the same time, Cettire moderately increased its investment in marketing compared with the first half with marketing costs as a percentage of sales of above 8 per cent.”
It added that during the third quarter, it implemented a series of cost initiatives to drive run rate improvements in variable costs across fulfilment, merchant fees and IT, amounting to $5 million per year at current volumes.
Meanwhile, Cettire said it observed softening demand in the US, the company’s largest market, since President Donald Trump announced tariff changes in early April.
Cettire noted a volatility in daily sales, including items that are not subject to duties.
“Beyond these more generalised impacts, there will potentially be a more direct impact, albeit to a lesser extent, from new tariffs on the sale of China-manufactured items into the US, which represented 3.8 per cent of Cettire’s total gross sales in Q3 FY25,” the company said.
The company emphasised it continues to focus on further diversification of its revenue base, targeting to grow profitability while self-funding.
Cettire did not provide commentary on expected sales for the fourth quarter due to the ongoing volatility.