dabs.com Christmas Trading Results Press Release

Added: (Wed Jan 21 2004)

Pressbox (Press Release) - PRESS RELEASE
20th January 2003

*** Online technology retailer dabs.com enjoys bumper Christmas ***

dabs.com, the UK's leading online retailer of technology products has announced a significant increase in both sales revenues and the number of orders placed via its website during the festive sales period in 2003.

In November and December 2003, the company recorded total sales in excess of £30.47 million, a staggering increase of over 26 percent on sales revenues from the same period in 2002.

Of November and December's total, £23.2 million worth of orders came from unassisted online consumer transactions via dabs.com's award-winning website. The remaining £7.27 million was generated by Dabs' offline business-to-business sales division, which is also currently demonstrating very strong growth.

Jonathan Wall, Marketing Director at dabs.com was delighted with the Company's performance. "In comparison to many ecommerce sites in the marketplace, Dabs is a relatively mature player. To continue sustaining growth of this magnitude – 26 percent - is a remarkable achievement and testament to the strength of our business model".

Simon Brayshaw, dabs.com's Finance Director was also pleased: "Throughout 2003, we've experienced strong growth month on month compared with the previous year, verification of the fact that consumers increasingly see the internet as a convenient and safe place to shop" he said. "Our accelerated performance in the run up to Christmas concurs with a growing preference by consumers for the ease of online shopping and door-step delivery convenience".

This view is supported by the industry body for global retailing, the IMRG, who reported that internet shopping in the UK reached a new all-time high in November, soaring 44 percent at an annual growth rate 12 times higher than the 3.6 percent reported for all retail sales by the British Retail Consortium. According to the IMRG, Britain's 16 million online shoppers spent £1.175 billion online during November 2003 which account for some 7 percent of all retail sales.

dabs.com's healthy performance continued right up until their advertised last order day for pre-Christmas delivery, a fact that Jonathan Wall attributed to consumer's faith in Dabs' logistics and delivery system. "We teamed up with our carrier, Parcel Force, to offer a pre-Christmas delivery guarantee which was extremely successful in maintaining momentum right until the last day" he said.

In November 03, dabs.com processed 103,720 individual orders whilst in December, the total number of orders processed increased to 108,351. Collectively, dabs.com processed almost 16 percent more orders in November and December 2003 than the same months of 2002.

With regard to specific product sales this Christmas, Dabs saw a marked increase in demand for digital audio products with unit sales in November and December 2003 up 185 percent on the previous year. Particular favourites were the much sought after Apple iPod and the Creative Labs Zen. All-in-one multi-function devices (printer, fax, scanner and copier in one unit) also stood out as big sellers this year with unit sales up 151 percent on last year.

After a record breaking pre-Christmas performance, the company's forecast for the future is equally bright according to Jonathan Wall: "We've enjoyed significant growth in terms of both sales and profitability for the last four years and we expect 2004 to continue this trend. In October we launched a brand new website which was completely redesigned to make shopping at dabs.com easier and more intuitive – a fact we firmly believe will help dabs.com appeal to a much wider audience in future. We're confident that our new website, combined with the rapid growth of the online shopping market overall, will help us achieve further success in 2004".

- Ends -

Notes to Editor about dabs.com:

An online retailer of IT and technology products, dabs.com offers over 20,000 lines from the world's leading manufacturers to well over one million registered online customers across the UK.

Originally established in 1987 as Dabs Press, then in 1990 as Dabs Direct, a traditional mail order IT reseller, the Dabs business model has evolved significantly during recent years in line with a drive to increase efficiency and improve the online shopping experience of those looking to buy technology and electronics products.

dabs.com is now one of the UK's finest dot com success stories, having experienced significant growth in terms of both revenue and profitability over the last four years.

For more information please contact:

Louise Derbyshire at dabs.com on 0870 429 3701
Email: lderbyshire@dabs.com
www.dabs.com