Egghead.com loss narrows

US software retailer Egghead, reborn last year as an ecommerce-only operation, yesterday saw its loss fall by nearly two-thirds. For its fourth quarter 1998, ended 3 April, the company lost $12.8 million, compared to $35 million this time last year. Egghead notched up sales of $42.3 million, well up on the $26.6 million it made online last year. That said, at that point the company's bricks'n'mortar sites were still contributing sales -- it had yet to divest itself of its real-world operations. Wall Street anticipated Egghead would lose around $14.5 million, according to First Call estimates. Egghead cited a recent free delivery promotion as the likely cause of the boost to sales. It also said the quarter's gross margin reached 10.1 per cent, up from eight per cent from Q4 1997. ®