CafePress Drops to a Loss on Higher Customer Acquisition Costs

CafePress, which is looking to raise roughly $80 million in the public markets, has reported earnings for the six-month period ended June 30, and there was good news and bad news.

The company, which makes custom mugs, posters and T-shirts and sells them on the Internet, said revenues totaled $69.4 million, up 46 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2010.

However, higher customer acquisition costs resulted in the company reporting a net loss of $960,000, compared to a profit of $140,000 in 2010.

The last time the company reported a loss on a full-year basis was in 2008.

CafePress said sales and marketing costs, which increased 76 percent between the two periods, were to blame. In the period, it spent more money acquiring customers through increased online acquisition promotions, such as keyword searches, display marketing and email marketing, as well as costs related to flash deal promotions.

It reported that 1.14 million customers shopped on the site during the six-month period ended in June, up from 844,639 in the same period a year ago. The site received a total of 1.4 million orders, with an average order size of $50.

The company anticipates trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol CPRS. Underwriters include J.P. Morgan, Canaccord Genuity, Cowen and Company, Jefferies and ThinkEquity LLC.