Blue Apron released its second-quarter earnings report in August, and its stock price quickly reflected the results, dropping more than 20% on the news.
The number of customers for the company has dropped 24% since the same time last year, despite Blue Apron spending $34.6 million in marketing in the second quarter alone.
Metrics like average order value, orders per customer and average revenue per customer have remained steady, but number of customers has fallen from 943,000 in Q2 2017 to 717,000 in Q2 2018.
In the same time period, revenue declined from $238.1 million to $179.6 million.
“As we previously articulated, 2018 is a year of transition and building for the future,” Blue Apron CEO Brad Dickerson said in a news release. “With fulfillment center operations strengthening, we are increasing focus on the priorities we expect will propel revenue performance and return the business to a growth trajectory, including evolving and expanding our product portfolio, enhancing our overall customer experience and launching our retail and on-demand offerings.”
The company has never been profitable, as noted in the Risk Factors section of its latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Blue Apron has lost money every year, including $210.1 million in 2017.
Profitability in coming years is far from guaranteed.
“We anticipate that we will continue to incur substantial operating expenses in the foreseeable future as we continue to invest to increase our customer base and supplier network, expand our marketing channels, invest in our distribution and fulfillment infrastructure, hire additional employees and enhance our technology and infrastructure capabilities,” Blue Apron said in the filing. “Our expansion efforts may prove more expensive than we anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue and margins sufficiently to offset these higher expenses.
“We incur significant expenses in developing our technology, building out our fulfillment centers, obtaining and storing ingredients and other products, and marketing the products we offer,” Blue Apron said in the filing. “In addition, many of our expenses, including the costs associated with our existing and future fulfillment centers, are fixed.”