Hi all,
I am not sure if this company has been profiled here, but I thought it may be of interest.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
BASE is the market leading E-commerce platform in Japan. The Majority of online retail shop creators in Japan use BASE, having benefited form a head start on Shopify, who did not enter the Japanese market until 2015.
The BASE business model does not have a subscription fee, unlike competitors, and has a attractive features, to many for this brief overview.
BASE also offer a sales platform with 5 million customers, that increase traffic through BASE affitated store. This makes the BASE platform relatively sticky, despite BASE not being the cheapest platform on the market.
The business consists of 12 parts: 1) the E-commerce platform, and 2) the Payments busienss (PAY.ID / PAY.JP)
The BASE take rate is an astounding 8.4%, In comparison, competitor take rates are below 2%. BASE GMV growth rate is running at three times the nearest competitor.
FINANCIAL RESULTS
Net Sales grew 115.3 % YoY to 8.3 BN YN
Monthly GMV grew 115.4% YoY
Number of active shops grew 80.7% YoY
BASE Business GMV increased 121.8% YoY
PAY Business GMV grew 50.8% YoY
Operating Profit of 803 M YN (vs -441 M YN)
Gross Margin: 60.2 % up form 58% PcP.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the demand for the BASE platforms, as “bricks and mortar” small businesses scrambled to shore up an online sales channel.
Quarterly revenue peaked in Q23 in the height of the first wave lockdown. Q4 revenue is down 7-8% on Q2, but remains 106% up on pcp.
OUTLOOK
Management are forecasting a significant slowdown in growth, whilst at the same time, are planning a significant ramp up in advertising and investment in the platform, with the aim of increasing the number of new shops over the medium to long term, and increase the number of product offerings, thereby increasing revenue per customer.
Net sales growth is forecast to be between 17.6 and 27.1 %.
Expense are forecast to grow at 68.2%, as BASE seeks to build on its dominance.
Of note is that management, in Q2, forecast revenue for the full year to be 7.5 - 8.1 BN Yn. The final result was 8.3 BN Yn.
Disc. - Long BASE (4477)