Chewy had 21.7 million active customers in the six months ended August 2, and each spent $602 on average. That is the operational detail behind a better-looking income statement: revenue rose 7.3% to $3.3 billion, while net income climbed 29.8% to $80.5 million.
The improvement was not just customer count. Chewy said active customers grew 3.8%, and net sales per active customer increased by $11. The business is selling more to more people over the six-month period.
The less tidy part sits below the income statement. Capital spending rose 30.3% to $85.6 million, more than four times the growth rate of revenue. Operating cash flow still increased to $245.9 million, but free-cash-flow margin fell 0.1 percentage points, according to the comparable-period analysis.
Chewy describes the sales engine in familiar terms:
"This increase was primarily driven by growth in active customers, which increased by 3.8% to 21.7 million, including approximately 43 thousand customers attributable to SmartPak, and higher net sales per active customer, which increased $11 to $602 in the twenty-six weeks ended August 2, 2026 compared to the twenty-six weeks ended August 3, 2025, driven by growth across our consumables, pet health and specialty products, and hardgoods businesses."
Chewy, 10-Q, September 9, 2026
That is volume and customer economics doing the work. Gross margin, at 30.4%, was unchanged from the comparable six-month period, while operating margin improved from 2.2% to 2.8%. The company kept more of each sales dollar after operating costs, but not more at the gross-profit line.
Chewy also identified a specific pressure inside fulfillment:
"This increase was primarily due to higher sales coupled with increased outbound freight and shipping supply costs."
Chewy, 10-Q, September 9, 2026
The sentence refers to fulfillment costs. Higher sales brought higher delivery and packaging costs with them, so the customer gains are arriving alongside a larger cost base. The filing does not disclose a separate gross-margin improvement to offset that pressure.
The balance-sheet lines add another wrinkle. Inventory rose 5.7% and accounts receivable 4.9%, both below revenue growth, but Chewy said working-capital changes reduced operating cash flow by $121.6 million. The company also spent more on capital projects, while stock compensation rose 10.0% to $83.5 million.
Chewy's own annual results show the longer arc: revenue reached $12.6 billion in the year ended February 1, with operating margin at 2.0%, up from a near-zero level two years earlier. Diluted shares fell 4.3% in the latest six-month comparison, helping per-share earnings rise faster than net income.
At the latest close of $23.27, shares were down 45.0% over 12 months. Chewy's current P/E is 44.5x, a valuation that puts more attention on whether profit expansion can keep outpacing the spending needed to produce it. Chewy's next quarterly report will make that trade-off easier to read by showing whether the higher capital spending and working-capital drag persist.
The six-month filing leaves Chewy with more customers, more profit, and a larger bill for building the machine.
Chewy is converting more sales into profit, while converting more cash into investment.