Overstock.com said Friday its second-quarter loss was roughly half as big as its loss in the year-ago period, as it added half a million new customers and improved its gross margins.
The online retailer lost $6.5 million, or 28 cents per share, compared to $13.8 million, or 58 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Revenue rose 27 percent to $188.8 million from $149 million in the same period a year ago.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected an earnings per share loss of 28 cents on revenue of $180.7 million, on average.
The company said its gross margin improved to 18.1 percent from 17.7 percent a year ago.
Overstock also said by the end of the quarter on June 30, it had $87 million in cash.
The addition of more than 500,000 customers in the second quarter was a 31 percent improvement from last year.
While marketing helped in new customer acquisition, Chief Executive Patrick Byrne said some people were driven to the Web site to discount shop as they cope with high energy and food prices.
In the first half of the year, Overstock bought back $12 million in shares.
Overstock shares fell $4.70, or 17 percent, to $23 in early morning trading Friday. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $8.61 and $39.39, and is up 78 percent year-to-date.