Ecommerce Platform Boxed Considers Bankruptcy

 

Ecommerce retailer Boxed—which reached $100 million in revenue within three years of launching in 2013—is facing the prospect of bankruptcy.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Boxed said it is actively soliciting proposals for the sale of all or substantially all of its assets.

The company did not rule out filing for relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The filing came two months after Boxed announced that it was considering selling the company.

When Boxed was launched in a garage in New Jersey, it filled orders for grocery products before expanding to bulk-size boxes of fresh and frozen groceries with a service called Express in 2014.

In 2018, the company launched the free membership program BoxedUp and a year later partnered with retailer Lidl to deliver groceries.

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Over the years Boxed expanded its D2C service to corporate customers while also offering them a suite of software-as-a-service solutions under the Spresso banner.

In its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, Boxed’s revenue was $990.9 million—up from $874.3 million the prior year. Net income was $26.8 million compared to a loss of $41.5 million.

The value of Boxed’s stock has fallen more than 95% since it went public in December of 2021.

In a January presentation at the annual ICR Conference, the company’s executives said B2B was a major focus because its total addressable market is larger than D2C and average order value (AOV) is higher.

At the time, AOV for B2B was about $300 compared to just over $100 for D2C.

“That really enables us to spread a lot of those variable costs over a larger number of units, which makes each order that goes out much more efficient,” said CFO Mark Simowski.

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