GoPro says the global chip and other supply chain shortages won’t affect its holiday sales this year, meaning the action camera company is poised to finish one of its best years in recent memory in strong fashion.
“Despite supply chain constraints that are affecting many industries, we have successfully partnered with our suppliers to produce inventory to support our fourth-quarter revenue expectations,” CEO Nick Woodman said while discussing the company’s third-quarter financial results on Thursday. “GoPro.com and our retail partners will be stocked and ready for shoppers this holiday season.”
That’s especially good news for GoPro’s bottom line because the new Hero10 Black is selling incredibly well despite the higher $499 price tag. GoPro said Thursday that 98 percent of the roughly 800,000 cameras it sold in the third quarter were at or above the $300 price tag — up from 83 percent in the third quarter of 2020. The average sale price for cameras in the quarter was $381, up 25 percent year over year.
GoPro has also been increasingly shifting to a direct-sales model over the last few years — nearly a third of its revenue this past quarter came from sales on GoPro.com — which means it’s making more on every camera sold. The company said Thursday that it booked $14 million in revenue this past quarter for its subscription service, too, which now has over 1.34 million customers.
All that adds up to the company’s best third quarter since 2017. GoPro booked $317 million in revenue and about $49 million in profit. (The company reported a quarterly profit of $312 million, though $263 million of that was attributed to a wonky deferred tax situation.)
GoPro’s best quarter every year, though, is the final one. The holiday season has always been kind to the camera company, even in its darkest years. With the Hero 10 Black already doing well and the memories of layoffs and failed products getting fuzzier, it could turn out to be one of the company’s biggest quarters since its blockbuster holiday season in 2014 — which was when it broke into the mainstream with the Hero4 cameras.
