ShopClues FY20 revenue more than halves, drops below Rs 100 cr

Clues Network, the Indian subsidiary of homegrown ecommerce startup ShopClues, reported a 53.6% decrease in its latest disclosed yearly revenue, in line with the linear decline of its business over the past year. 

The company said its total revenue fell to Rs 97.13 crore in the financial year ended March 2020, from Rs 209 crore a year earlier.  

Total loss for the period narrowed 24.8% to Rs 51.57 crore. After addition of other comprehensive income, net of tax, and gains, its total comprehensive income stood at Rs 51.22 crore. 

In the reported period, the company registered total assets of Rs 107.42 crore, with total liabilities of Rs 138.77 crore. 

Clues Network Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary of Clues Network Inc, an entity incorporated in Cupertino, California. Momoe Technologies is also an associate company. 

On efforts made towards technology absorption, the company said it has purchased new software during financial year 2019-20 (FY20) with Rs 5.6 lakh. Total expenses in the period dropped 46.5% to Rs 278.06 crore. 

The company’s largest cost-heads were categorised under employee related expenses, as well as miscellaneous, advertising promotional, and information technology expenses. 

Total employee benefit expense dropped 22% to Rs 51.55 crore. Miscellaneous expenses dropped 54% to Rs 44.68 crore. Advertising promotional expenses dropped about 60% to Rs 28.49 crore. Information technology expenses dropped 27% to Rs 10.48 crore. 

Read: From unicorn to distress sale: The ShopClues journey 

The poor financials of FY20 and FY19 was followed by ShopClues’ distress sale to Singapore headquartered ecommerce platform Qoo10 in November 2019. ShopClues has been suffering heavy losses in the past few years with massive debts. 

Read: We could be the first Indian e-com firm to turn profitable: ShopClues CEO Sandeep Aggarwal 

Homegrown ecommerce firm Snapdeal was also in talks to acquire Clues Network, but the deal did not go through on valuation issues and Snapdeal did not want to take the debt on its books. In 2016, ShopClues was valued at over $1 billion. 

Read: Predicted ShopClues’ downfall in 2015: co-founder Sandeep Aggarwal 

ShopClues was founded in 2010 by former Wall Street analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, Radhika Ghai, and former eBay executive Sanjay Sethi. While Ghai took over as chief business officer at ShopClues, Sandeep Aggarwal moved on to set up Droom.