Blue Apron's Q3 Revenue Climbs 13%

Blue Apron's net revenue for the third quarter of 2020 increased 13% year over year to $112.3 million — thanks in part to pandemic ordering. 

Even so, Q3 net revenue was negatively impacted by approximately $2 million of credits issued for customer boxes affected by a voluntary recall of onions supplied to the company, the meal-kit provider said.

In the third quarter, average revenue per customer increased 22% to $314, while orders per customer rose 20% to 5.4. Average order value grew 2% to approximately $59, despite a 7% decrease in customers, partly as a result of labor availability challenges. Those metrics reflect, in part, changes in consumer behavior due to the pandemic, as customers ordered more frequently and added more meals per order.

Blue Apron also noted that its net loss improved by $10.9 million, or 42%, year over year, reaching $15.3 million.

“Our third-quarter operating results, including the 13% year-over-year net revenue improvement, exceeded our guidance, reflecting continued momentum,” said Linda Findley Kozlowski, CEO of New York-based Blue Apron. “Our growth initiatives, such as continued product innovation to provide more variety, flexibility and choice, and more efficient marketing to drive higher attraction and engagement, are key factors in the consistent improvements we are generating in orders per customer and average order value. These efforts led to average revenue per customer exceeding $300 for the second consecutive quarter. While challenges with labor availability have impacted our ability to address all of the increased demand, and we expect some capacity constraints to continue through year end, we are using the fourth quarter to continue implementing optimizations across our fulfillment centers.”

Over the past two months, the company has implemented a number of operating practice improvements across its facilities, including labor, packing and equipment optimizations. Where the company has deployed these improvements, labor required per pack line decreased by approximately 18% and labor minutes per box was lowered by nearly 22%. 

Blue Apron is No. 99 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.