Bark Inc (BARK) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, my name is Emma, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to BARK's first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，我叫艾瑪，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時此刻，我歡迎大家參加 BARK 2025 財年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mike Mougias, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁 Mike Mougias。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to BARK's first quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call. Joining me today are Matt Meeker, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Zahir Ibrahim, Chief Financial Officer. Today's conference call is being webcast in its entirety on our website, and a replay of the webcast will be made available shortly after the call.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 BARK 2025 財年第一季財報電話會議。今天加入我的是共同創辦人兼執行長 Matt Meeker；和財務長查希爾‧易卜拉欣 (Zahir Ibrahim)。今天的電話會議將在我們的網站上進行全程網路廣播，電話會議後不久將提供網路廣播的重播。

Additionally, a press release covering the company's financial results was issued this afternoon and can be found on our Investor Relations website. Before I pass it over to Matt, I want to remind you of the following information regarding forward-looking statements. The statements made on today's call are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results and outcomes to differ.

此外，今天下午發布了一份涵蓋該公司財務業績的新聞稿，可以在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。在我將其交給馬特之前，我想提醒您以下有關前瞻性陳述的資訊。今天的電話會議上發表的聲明是基於管理層當前的預期，並受到風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致未來的實際結果和成果有所不同。

Please refer to our SEC filings for information on some of the factors that could affect our future results and outcomes. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures on today's call. Reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures is contained in this afternoon's press release.

請參閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件，以了解可能影響我們未來業績和結果的一些因素的資訊。我們還將在今天的電話會議上討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。我們的非公認會計原則財務指標的調節包含在今天下午的新聞稿中。

And with that, let me now pass it over to Matt.

現在讓我把它交給馬特。

Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. Fiscal year 2025 is off to a strong start, building on the momentum we established last year. Our first quarter results are a testament to this momentum and progress, and we remain confident in our ability to accelerate our top line and deliver our first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

謝謝麥克，大家下午好。2025 財年在我們去年建立的勢頭的基礎上取得了良好的開局。我們第一季的業績證明了這一勢頭和進步，我們仍然對加快營收並實現首個全年正調整 EBITDA 和自由現金流的能力充滿信心。

Last quarter, we delivered $116.2 million of revenue, surpassing the high end of our guidance range. This was powered by quick wins from two of the strong leaders we hired earlier this year. Specifically on the marketing side, we saw year-over-year growth in new BarkBox subscribers for the third consecutive quarter.

上季度，我們實現了 1.162 億美元的收入，超過了我們指導範圍的上限。這得益於我們今年早些時候聘請的兩位強有力的領導者的快速勝利。特別是在行銷方面，我們看到 BarkBox 新用戶連續第三個季度年增。

Furthermore, we saw over 5% year-over-year growth in our commerce business with strong contributions from marketplaces like Amazon. We're confident this is just the beginning for both BarkBox and Amazon. The strong revenue performance was more impressive, given we delivered a record high consolidated gross margin of 63%, a 250 basis points improvement compared to Q1 last year. This is our seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year gross margin improvement, and I'm so proud of the team for executing this well.

此外，在亞馬遜等市場的強勁貢獻下，我們的商務業務年增超過 5%。我們相信這對 BarkBox 和亞馬遜來說只是一個開始。鑑於我們的綜合毛利率創歷史新高，達到 63%，與去年第一季相比提高了 250 個基點，強勁的收入表現更加令人印象深刻。這是我們連續第七個季度毛利率同比提高，我為團隊的出色執行感到自豪。

Finally, supported by further G&A and shipping and fulfillment improvement, adjusted EBITDA was negative $1.8 million for the quarter, ahead of the top end of our guidance range, and $5.6 million, or 76% year-over year improvement. Overall, this is a great start to the year.

最後，在 G&A 以及運輸和履約進一步改善的支持下，本季度調整後 EBITDA 為負 180 萬美元，超出了我們指導範圍的上限，並且同比提高了 560 萬美元，即 76%。總體而言，這是今年的一個好開始。

BARK's talent is strong and provides the foundation for the top line growth we expect to begin in the current quarter. This progress, coupled with our strong balance sheet, enabled us to buy back roughly 3 million shares at a price of $1.43 per share last quarter. We plan to continue to seek opportunities to buy back our stock, given our belief that the market has yet to reflect the value of the company.

BARK 的人才實力雄厚，為我們預計在本季開始的營收成長奠定了基礎。這一進展，加上我們強勁的資產負債表，使我們能夠在上個季度以每股 1.43 美元的價格回購約 300 萬股股票。鑑於我們相信市場尚未反映公司的價值，我們計劃繼續尋找機會回購我們的股票。

Last quarter, I discussed the strong leadership team we assembled to accelerate growth. Just one quarter later, we're more enthusiastic about this team than ever, and they started delivering right away. As I said, we achieved year-over-year growth and new customer acquisition for the third consecutive quarter, but there's so much more potential.

上個季度，我討論了我們為加速成長而組建的強大領導團隊。僅僅一個季度後，我們對這個團隊的熱情比以往任何時候都高，他們立即開始交付。正如我所說，我們連續第三個季度實現了同比增長和新客戶獲取，但還有更多潛力。

Our new CMO, Michael Parness, is already evolving our approach to customer acquisition and brand awareness, shifting marketing dollars from bottom-of-the-funnel, heavily promotional ads, to a more sophisticated, full-funnel approach. Simply put, that means we'll spend less time talking about our promotions and more time talking about our overall brand proposition, including fantastic products. It's already working, and Michael and his team are just getting started.

我們的新任行銷長 Michael Parness 已經在改善我們的客戶獲取和品牌知名度方法，將行銷資金從漏斗底部的大量促銷廣告轉向更複雜的全漏斗方法。簡而言之，這意味著我們將花更少的時間談論我們的促銷活動，而花更多的時間談論我們的整體品牌主張，包括出色的產品。它已經開始發揮作用，邁克爾和他的團隊才剛剛開始。

On the commerce side of the business, our new CRO, Michael Black, has also hit the ground running. I mentioned some near-term acceleration in marketplaces like Amazon that contributed to our strong quarter. Look for that to continue under his leadership.

在業務的商務方面，我們的新 CRO Michael Black 也已開始投入工作。我提到亞馬遜等市場近期的一些加速發展為我們季度的強勁表現做出了貢獻。期待這種情況在他的領導下繼續下去。

To that end, I'm excited to share that we have recently launched a selection of our best-selling toys at Chewy. The initial customer feedback exceeded expectations, and we're excited to expand our offerings to Chewy customers to include many more BARK products, from toys to consumables, in the coming months. Overall, the new leadership team is off to a strong start. We're excited to see what they and their teams do the rest of the year.

為此，我很高興地告訴大家，我們最近在 Chewy 推出了一系列最暢銷的玩具。最初的客戶回饋超出了預期，我們很高興在未來幾個月內將我們的產品擴展到 Chewy 客戶，包括更多的 BARK 產品，從玩具到消耗品。整體而言，新的領導團隊有了一個好的開始。我們很高興看到他們和他們的團隊在今年剩下的時間裡做了什麼。

One other growth lever that took off this quarter, quite literally, is BARK Air. BARK Air is the epitome of how we sell emotional experiences with your dog, and customers love it. The consumer response following our launch was incredible. We're less than four months in, and demand for the service continues to grow.

毫不誇張地說，本季起飛的另一個成長槓桿是 BARK Air。BARK Air 是我們如何銷售與您的狗的情感體驗的縮影，客戶喜歡它。我們推出後消費者的反應令人難以置信。我們上線不到四個月，而且對該服務的需求仍在增加。

To date, we have flown 24 flights between New York, Los Angeles, and London, and booked over $2.5 million in ticket sales. BARK Air is exciting for a variety of reasons. First, it has driven incredible awareness for BARK. Millions of people worldwide have learned of the company, our products, and our underlying mission to make all dogs happy.

迄今為止，我們已在紐約、洛杉磯和倫敦之間運營了 24 趟航班，預訂機票金額超過 250 萬美元。BARK Air 令人興奮的原因有很多。首先，它提高了 BARK 的知名度。全球數百萬人了解了我們的公司、我們的產品以及我們讓所有狗狗快樂的根本使命。

Second, we are solving a real pain point for dog parents who, before BARK Air, had limited options for traveling long distances with their dogs. We recognize the price point is not accessible to many today. However, with sustained demand, we can lower costs and make the service more accessible to more dog parents.

其次，我們正在解決狗父母的真正痛點，在 BARK Air 出現之前，他們與狗長途旅行的選擇有限。我們認識到今天許多人無法接受這個價格點。然而，隨著需求的持續成長，我們可以降低成本，讓更多的狗父母更容易獲得服務。

And third, we've quickly realized that this service can become a real business. Most of our flights are sold out, and we've received tens of thousands of requests for new flights and destinations. This is the best start we could have hoped for, and there are more opportunities ahead.

第三，我們很快就意識到這項服務可以成為一項真正的業務。我們大部分的航班已售完，我們收到了數以萬計的新航班和目的地請求。這是我們所希望的最好的開始，未來還有更多的機會。

Overall, I'm thrilled with how far BARK has come in the past 2.5 years. In that time, we've delivered seven consecutive quarters of year-over-year gross margin improvement. We've built a strong balance sheet with $118 million of cash, and that's after buying back over 7 million shares to date and $45 million of our outstanding convertible net.

總的來說，我對 BARK 在過去 2.5 年中取得的進步感到非常興奮。在此期間，我們已連續七季實現毛利率年增。我們已經建立了強大的資產負債表，擁有 1.18 億美元的現金，這是在回購了迄今為止超過 700 萬股股票和 4500 萬美元的流通可轉換淨值之後的結果。

Our inventory balance of $80 million has also halved from its peak, freeing up working capital and allowing us to be more nimble. We've also delivered eight consecutive quarters of year-over-year adjusted EBITDA improvements, and we're on track for our first positive adjusted EBITDA and cash flow year in our history.

我們 8000 萬美元的庫存餘額也比高峰減少了一半，釋放了營運資金，讓我們變得更加靈活。我們也連續八個季度實現了調整後 EBITDA 同比改善，並且有望迎來歷史上第一個調整後 EBITDA 和現金流為正值的年份。

This is a considerable feat considering we were burning nearly $200 million of cash just two years ago. We're accelerating our growth in all channels and further diversifying our products from consumables to air travel. And as strong as our leadership team is today, it will only grow stronger as they build momentum and familiarity with each other. In my view, our business is the strongest it has ever been, and I'm excited for the future. There's so much more to discuss from this quarter.

考慮到我們兩年前還燒掉了近 2 億美元的現金，這是一項相當大的壯舉。我們正在加速所有通路的成長，並進一步使我們的產品多樣化，從消費品到航空旅行。儘管我們的領導團隊今天非常強大，但隨著他們建立動力和相互熟悉，它只會變得更加強大。在我看來，我們的業務是有史以來最強勁的，我對未來感到興奮。本季還有很多值得討論的事情。

So for that, I will now turn the call over to Zahir.

因此，我現在將把電話轉給查希爾。

Thanks, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin by providing an overview of our first quarter results, followed by our outlook for the fiscal second quarter and for year 2025. As Matt mentioned, we started the year on a strong note, delivering our third consecutive quarter of new subscriber growth and growing our commerce business by over 5% year-over-year, fueled by growth in existing and new accounts and our recent consumables expansion into retail.

謝謝馬特，大家下午好。首先，我將概述我們第一季的業績，然後是我們對第二財季和 2025 年的展望。正如馬特所提到的，我們以強勁的勢頭開始了今年，在現有和新帳戶的增長以及我們最近的消費品擴張的推動下，我們連續第三個季度實現新用戶增長，並且我們的商務業務年成長超過5%進入零售業。

Additionally, we continue to see healthy improvements in gross margin and strong traction on our path to profitability, the latter being something we expect to continue in the long term. Overall, we are observing encouraging trends across the business, enabling us to capitalize on the significant opportunity ahead. On that note, let's look at our first quarter results in more detail.

此外，我們繼續看到毛利率的健康改善和對我們獲利之路的強勁推動力，我們預計後者將長期持續下去。總體而言，我們觀察到整個業務的令人鼓舞的趨勢，使我們能夠利用未來的重大機會。在這一點上，讓我們更詳細地看看我們第一季的業績。

Total revenue was $116.2 million, exceeding the high end of our revenue guidance range for the quarter. From a segment perspective, our B2C business generated $107.1 million in the quarter. As you may recall, we saw headwinds in new subscriber growth in the first half of last year as inflation and rising interest rates pressured discretionary spending.

總收入為 1.162 億美元，超出了我們本季收入指導範圍的上限。從細分市場來看，我們的 B2C 業務本季創造了 1.071 億美元的收入。您可能還記得，去年上半年，由於通貨膨脹和利率上升給可自由支配支出帶來壓力，我們在新用戶成長方面遇到了阻力。

While it's still too soon to declare victory on this front, we have been encouraged by new subscriber growth over the past nine months, and we are continuing to evolve and refine our customer acquisition tactics. As a result, we expect our B2C segment to return to growth in the back end of fiscal 2025 and to a greater extent in fiscal 2026.

雖然現在宣布這方面的勝利還為時過早，但過去九個月的新用戶成長令我們深受鼓舞，我們正在繼續發展和完善我們的客戶獲取策略。因此，我們預計 B2C 業務將在 2025 財年末恢復成長，並在 2026 財年更大程度上恢復成長。

Turning to our commerce segment, we delivered $9.2 million of revenue in the quarter, a 5% increase compared to last year. During the quarter, we introduced our new treat line in 1,000 PetSmart doors, expanded our presence on Amazon, and launched an initial line of our best-selling toys on Chewy.

談到我們的商業部門，我們本季實現了 920 萬美元的收入，比去年增長了 5%。本季度，我們在 1,000 個 PetSmart 門中推出了新的零食系列，擴大了我們在亞馬遜上的業務，並在 Chewy 上推出了我們最暢銷玩具的初始系列。

Furthermore, after 12 to 18 months of retailers carefully managing inventory levels, we're beginning to see order patterns normalize. As we've discussed over the past several quarters, we expect our commerce segment to be a key driver of long-term revenue growth, and we're beginning to see it reflected in the P&L.

此外，經過 12 到 18 個月的零售商仔細管理庫存水平，我們開始看到訂單模式正常化。正如我們在過去幾個季度所討論的那樣，我們預計我們的商業部門將成為長期收入成長的關鍵驅動力，並且我們開始看到它反映在損益表中。

At a minimum, we expect our commerce segment to see high team growth in fiscal 2025 compared to fiscal 2024. In addition to promising top-line trends, we continue to deliver healthy improvements in gross margin. On a consolidated basis, our gross margin was 63%, reflecting a 250 basis point improvement year-over-year.

至少，與 2024 財年相比，我們預計 2025 財年我們的商業部門的團隊將實現高速成長。除了有希望的營收趨勢外，我們還繼續實現毛利率的健康改善。綜合來看，我們的毛利率為 63%，年增 250 個基點。

On a segment basis, D2C gross margin improved by 230 basis points to 64.5%, while commerce gross margin improved by 680 basis points to 46.5%. This is fantastic progress in a short amount of time, and we're incredibly proud of the team for their execution on this front.

以細分市場來看，D2C 毛利率提高了 230 個基點，達到 64.5%，而商業毛利率提高了 680 個基點，達到 46.5%。這是在短時間內取得的巨大進步，我們為團隊在這方面的執行力感到無比自豪。

Turning to operating expenses, shipping and fulfillment expenses were $34.4 million in the quarter, a $1.8 million improvement compared to last year. Other G&A, which primarily consists of headcount and overhead costs, was $29 million in the quarter, a $4 million improvement compared to last year. This improvement primarily reflects realizing the full-year benefit of the two cost-reduction initiatives we carried out in calendar 2023.

至於營運費用，本季運輸和履行費用為 3,440 萬美元，比去年減少 180 萬美元。本季其他一般管理費用（主要包括員工人數和間接費用）為 2,900 萬美元，比去年增加了 400 萬美元。這項改進主要反映了我們在 2023 年實施的兩項成本削減措施的全年效益。

Lastly, total marketing expenses were $20.4 million in the quarter, a $2.8 million increase compared to last year. As discussed on previous calls, the significant improvements we've made across gross margin and G&A enable us to invest more in marketing, so long as the returns we have seen justify that incremental investment. Given our recent progress, we intend to continue to invest incrementally in this line.

最後，本季總行銷費用為 2,040 萬美元，比去年增加 280 萬美元。正如先前電話會議中所討論的，我們在毛利率和一般行政費用方面取得的顯著改善使我們能夠在行銷方面進行更多投資，只要我們看到的回報證明增量投資是合理的。鑑於我們最近的進展，我們打算繼續在這一領域進行增量投資。

Moving on, total adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $1.8 million, a $5.6 million improvement year over year. Furthermore, free cash flow in the quarter was largely neutral at just $251,000 outflow, a notable improvement compared to Q1 last year, which was minus $13.5 million.

接下來，本季調整後 EBITDA 總額虧損 180 萬美元，年增 560 萬美元。此外，本季的自由現金流基本上保持中性，流出僅為 251,000 美元，與去年第一季的負 1,350 萬美元相比有了顯著改善。

We ended the quarter with total cash of $118 million, which reflects repurchasing 3 million shares in the quarter at an average price of $1.43. Given the business's profitability profile and future cash flow projections, we plan to continue to opportunistically repurchase shares at these levels.

截至本季末，我們的現金總額為 1.18 億美元，反映出本季以 1.43 美元的平均價格回購了 300 萬股股票。考慮到該業務的獲利狀況和未來現金流預測，我們計劃繼續在這些水準上擇機回購股票。

Following our Q1 repurchases, we have $12.3 million remaining from our most recent board authorization. Additionally, our working capital situation continues to improve. We ended the quarter with an inventory balance of $80 million, a $4 million reduction in the quarter. As we prepare for the holiday quarter, we anticipate our inventory to grow sequentially in the second quarter. However, we expect it to continue its downward trend in the second half of fiscal 2025, and we will likely end the year below current levels.

在第一季回購之後，我們最近的董事會授權還剩 1,230 萬美元。此外，我們的營運資金狀況持續改善。本季結束時，我們的庫存餘額為 8,000 萬美元，比本季減少了 400 萬美元。當我們為假期季度做準備時，我們預計第二季的庫存將持續成長。然而，我們預計 2025 財年下半年將持續呈下降趨勢，年底時可能會低於目前水準。

Overall, we see several exciting developments from promising top-line opportunities to ongoing margin and free cash flow improvements. With that in mind, let's discuss our guidance for the second quarter and full year.

總體而言，我們看到了一些令人興奮的發展，從有希望的營收機會到持續的利潤率和自由現金流的改善。考慮到這一點，讓我們討論一下我們對第二季和全年的指導。

Starting with the full year, we are reaffirming the guidance we provided during our Q4 call in June. While there are numerous reasons to be optimistic about the opportunities ahead, we believe it's pragmatic to maintain the current outlook given we are just one quarter into the fiscal year. Nevertheless, our strong Q1 results give increased confidence in our ability to achieve our targets.

從全年開始，我們重申我們在 6 月第四季電話會議中提供的指導。儘管有許多理由對未來的機會持樂觀態度，但我們認為，鑑於本財年才剛剛過去四分之一，維持當前的前景是務實的。儘管如此，我們強勁的第一季業績使我們對實現目標的能力更有信心。

To reiterate, we anticipate total revenue for the year to be between $490 million and $500 million, representing year-over-year growth ranging from flat to 2%. For adjusted EBITDA, we expect a range of $1 million to $5 million, which, at the midpoint, represents a $13.6 million improvement compared to the previous year.

重申一下，我們預計今年的總收入將在 4.9 億美元至 5 億美元之間，年增率從持平到 2%。對於調整後的 EBITDA，我們預計範圍為 100 萬美元至 500 萬美元，中間值比上一年增加 1,360 萬美元。

Additionally, we expect to achieve adjusted EBITDA profitability and free cash flow for the full year, a first-embarked 13-year history. For the second quarter, we anticipate total revenue between $123 million and $126 million. The midpoint of the guidance range represents 1.2% year-over-year growth, marking an important turnaround after eight consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue declines.

此外，我們預計全年將實現調整後 EBITDA 盈利能力和自由現金流，這是 13 年以來的首次。我們預計第二季的總營收將在 1.23 億美元至 1.26 億美元之間。指導區間的中點代表年增 1.2%，標誌著連續八個季度營收年減後的重要轉變。

We believe we will see further growth as the year progresses, albeit growth on a much more profitable infrastructure. On an adjusted EBITDA basis, we expect a range of $1 million to $3 million in the quarter compared to $1 million profit last year.

我們相信，隨著時間的推移，我們將看到進一步的成長，儘管成長是基於利潤更高的基礎設施。在調整後的 EBITDA 基礎上，我們預計本季利潤將達到 100 萬至 300 萬美元，而去年的利潤為 100 萬美元。

The second quarter will index heavier to the commerce channel with retailers taking in holiday product and with greater opportunities for secondary placement. This higher commerce mix will impact our gross margin in the quarter, and as a result, we currently expect Q2 consolidated gross margin to be around 60%. However, for the full year, we continue to expect similar consolidated gross margin to FY24.

第二季的商業通路指數將更加強勁，零售商將推出假日產品，並且有更多的二次投放機會。這種更高的商業組合將影響我們本季的毛利率，因此，我們目前預計第二季的綜合毛利率將在 60% 左右。然而，我們繼續預期全年綜合毛利率將與 2024 財年類似。

In conclusion, we're seeing promising trends across the business. We expect to return to revenue growth in the current quarter. Our profitability profile is improving with each passing quarter, and we have approximately $80 million of net cash on the balance sheet.

總之，我們看到了整個產業充滿希望的趨勢。我們預計本季營收將恢復成長。我們的獲利狀況每季都在改善，資產負債表上有大約 8,000 萬美元的淨現金。

Collectively, this affords us ample opportunity to execute on our growth plan and opportunistically repurchase our shares. We remain committed to driving sustainable, profitable growth and enhancing long-term shareholder value.

總的來說，這為我們提供了充足的機會來執行我們的成長計劃並伺機回購我們的股票。我們仍然致力於推動可持續的獲利成長並提高長期股東價值。

With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for Q&A

這樣，我會將電話轉給接線生進行問答

Maria Ripps with Canaccord

瑪麗亞·里普斯與 Canaccord

Great. Good afternoon and thanks for taking my questions. First, I just wanted to ask you about sort of the broader macro backdrop. It seems like your results and outlook were pretty much better than expected. But could you maybe talk about whether you've seen any changes in consumer behavior in Q1 and maybe so far in fiscal Q2, given that recessionary concerns have been reemerging in recent weeks?

偉大的。下午好，感謝您提出我的問題。首先，我只是想問一下更廣泛的宏觀背景。看起來你的結果和前景比預期好得多。但考慮到最近幾週經濟衰退的擔憂再次出現，您能否談談第一季以及第二財季到目前為止消費者行為是否有任何變化？

And maybe how much sort of more pressure do you think category demand could come under if we enter into maybe a prolonged period of softness given that consumers have already been pulling back on discretionary good spend for some time?

鑑於消費者已經在一段時間內減少可自由支配的良好支出，如果我們進入可能長期疲軟的時期，您認為品類需求可能會承受多大的壓力？

Yeah. Thanks, Maria. And they have been pulling back on the discretionary spend. And that's as you mentioned, it's been going on for some time. And that continued through Q1 on those discretionary goods. We obviously keep close tabs on the macro environment and that category, in particular and manage against that.

是的。謝謝，瑪麗亞。他們一直在削減可自由支配的支出。正如你所提到的，這種情況已經持續了一段時間了。對於這些非必需品，這種情況一直持續到第一季。顯然，我們特別密切關注宏觀環境和該類別，並對此進行管理。

But the counter to that, as I've talked about in the past, is that we have a lot of room here to execute better, especially when it comes to the growth and marketing side of the business. And we've been showing steady improvement in that execution over the past few quarters.

但與此相反，正如我過去談到的那樣，我們有很大的空間可以更好地執行，特別是在業務成長和行銷方面。在過去的幾個季度中，我們的執行力一直在穩步提高。

So I think this quarter is another reflection of that. The new subscriber acquisition trend that we saw this quarter, it's our third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. It's up in July as well. And if we continue that execution even with that headwind or that pressure that you're talking about, then we expect to see the direct-to-consumer business to start to grow in the second half of the year.

所以我認為本季是這一點的另一個體現。我們本季看到的新用戶獲取趨勢是我們連續第三個季度同比增長。七月也到了。如果我們在面臨你所說的逆風或壓力的情況下繼續執行，那麼我們預計直接面向消費者的業務將在今年下半年開始成長。

And we're seeing ourselves outperforming the category in the retail space as well. As I mentioned, we're picking up steam in Amazon. We announced that we're selling with Chewy now, which is just another great venue for our products to be. So there's a lot of positive momentum in there.

我們發現自己在零售領域的表現也優於同類產品。正如我所提到的，我們在亞馬遜的業務正在加速發展。我們宣布現在正在與 Chewy 一起銷售，這只是我們產品的另一個絕佳場所。所以那裡有很多積極的勢頭。

If or when, I should say -- when the macro environment turns and goes back to the discretionary goods categories growing, then we're going to have Winter back with much better execution in addition to our strong gross margins, our EBITDA positive, our cash flow generation, all of that. So we've got those pieces in place that help us ride it out. But really, it's on us to execute in the face of those headwinds as we've been doing for a good stretch of time here, and it's only getting better.

我應該說，如果或何時——當宏觀環境轉變並回到非必需品類別的增長時，那麼除了我們強勁的毛利率、我們的 EBITDA 為正、我們的現金流的產生，所有這些。因此，我們已經做好了一些準備工作，可以幫助我們度過難關。但實際上，面對這些逆風，我們有責任執行任務，就像我們在這裡很長一段時間以來所做的那樣，情況只會變得更好。

Got it. That's very helpful. And Matt, you sort of touched on my second question, but can you maybe talk about some of the key drivers behind continued strength in new customer acquisition this quarter?

知道了。這非常有幫助。馬特，您談到了我的第二個問題，但您能否談談本季新客戶獲取持續強勁背後的一些關鍵驅動因素？

And what are some of the maybe different techniques that you are deploying that are driving this? And I guess, how sustainable is it going forward?

您正在部署哪些可能不同的技術來推動這一點？我想，未來的可持續性如何？

Very sustainable because, as I said, well, there are a few things going on in there. On the direct-to-consumer side, there's the new customer or new subscriber acquisition that's been going well. And picking up steam with a variety of new tactics, some of that on the creative side, using artificial intelligence tools to generate more and better creative and do so more efficiently.

非常可持續，因為正如我所說，那裡發生了一些事情。在直接面向消費者方面，新客戶或新訂戶的取得進展順利。並透過各種新策略加快步伐，其中一些是在創意方面，使用人工智慧工具產生更多更好的創意，並更有效地進行。

Ironically, part of that is getting us to move away from being so promotionally driven. We've definitely gone way too far to the side of giving customers the only impression to subscribe is because we're offering some promotion or gift with purchase. And ironically, artificial intelligence would rather tell the great stories that our products have to tell.

諷刺的是，其中一部分原因是讓我們擺脫如此促銷的驅動。我們確實已經走得太遠了，讓客戶產生訂閱的唯一印像是因為我們在購買時提供一些促銷或禮物。諷刺的是，人工智慧更願意講述我們的產品必須講述的精彩故事。

This is why you should buy it. That's not some sort of incentive. So better creative, more efficient creative, a lot more of it, better conversion by matching that up to the stories that we're telling about the products.

這就是您應該購買它的原因。這不是什麼激勵措施。因此，透過將其與我們講述的產品故事相匹配，可以實現更好的創意、更有效率的創意、更多創意、更好的轉換。

And then as you're starting to balance that, you're telling the story of the product and occasionally giving promotional offers. On the commerce side of the business, as you said, I touched on it, but leveraging channels like Amazon and Chewy much more than we have in the past, great leadership from Michael Black and his team on the retail side.

然後，當您開始平衡這一點時，您將講述產品的故事，並偶爾提供促銷優惠。在業務的商業方面，正如你所說，我談到了它，但比我們過去更多地利用亞馬遜和 Chewy 等渠道，邁克爾·布萊克 (Michael Black) 和他的團隊在零售方面的出色領導。

So just a lot of good things happening that have been in motion and building. And again, Michael Black, Michael Parness are four months into the role now. So that momentum should just gather some even more.

因此，許多美好的事情正在發生，並且一直在發生和建設。邁克爾布萊克 (Michael Black) 和邁克爾帕尼斯 (Michael Parness) 已經上任四個月了。因此，這種勢頭應該會聚集得更多。

Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you for the call.

知道了。這非常有幫助。謝謝您的來電。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Ryan Meyers, Lake Street Capital.

萊恩·邁耶斯（Ryan Meyers），湖街資本。

Hey guys, thanks for taking my questions. First one for me is to hear, maybe can you just touch on a little bit what you said about the gross margin in Q2? I think you said it was going to be around 60% or so with the more heavily weighted towards retail. Just kind of walk us through the dynamics of that and remind us kind of why that business shakes out to be a little bit lower margin.

嘿夥計們，謝謝你回答我的問題。我想聽的第一個問題是，也許您能簡單談談您所說的第二季毛利率嗎？我想你說過這會是 60% 左右，其中零售業的權重更大。請帶我們了解整個過程，並提醒我們為什麼該業務的利潤率會下降一些。

Sure. So we're seeing now seven straight quarters of gross margin growth. So that's improvement in both B2C and in the commerce channel over that period of time. It's been driven a lot by improvements in our product costs, both on the toys and consumable side and some improvement in freight costs as well over that window.

當然。因此，我們現在看到毛利率連續七個季度成長。這就是那段時間 B2C 和商務通路的進步。這在很大程度上是由於我們的產品成本（包括玩具和消費品方面）的改善以及貨運成本的一些改善以及該窗口期內的運輸成本的改善所推動的。

We expect all of that to continue during the course of the year. The dynamics of Q2, there's a lot of holiday buying. There's a number of opportunities for, as I said on the call, for secondary placement. So offshore of in-line placements that could be gondolas or center for placement within the store in certain retail customers.

我們預計這一切將在今年繼續下去。第二季的動態是，假期購買量很大。正如我在電話中所說，有很多二次安置的機會。因此，離岸的線上放置可能是吊船或在某些零售客戶的商店內放置的中心。

And so Q2 is going to be a heavier weighted commerce mix for us than what you'd see on a full year basis. Our margin on the commerce channel is around the mid 40s. D2C is in the mid 60s. So when you index to a slightly higher mix on commerce, that'll impact your gross margin. So that's why we call that gross margin.

因此，對我們來說，第二季的商業組合將比全年的情況更重要。我們在商業通路上的利潤大約在 40 多歲左右。D2C 是在 60 年代中期。因此，當您在商業上索引稍高的組合時，就會影響您的毛利率。這就是我們稱之為毛利率的原因。

The important thing to remember though is the cost to serve the commerce channel is lower from a shipping and fulfillment and marketing perspective. So when you look at profitability at the contribution margin level, it's very similar on both channels.

但要記住的重要一點是，從運輸、履行和行銷的角度來看，為商業管道提供服務的成本較低。因此，當您查看邊際貢獻率水準的獲利能力時，會發現這兩個管道非常相似。

Got it. That make sense. And then just thinking about the Chewy launch, obviously, congrats on that, but maybe walk us through kind of how that developed. I know you guys have been around for a while and obviously chewy has been around for a while, but I don’t believe you guys were selling products to them previously. So maybe walk us through how that sort of developed and kind of how you expect that business to play out? And then maybe could we expect to see products expanded outside of just toys there?

知道了。這是有道理的。然後想想 Chewy 的發布，顯然，祝賀這一點，但也許可以帶我們了解一下它是如何發展的。我知道你們已經存在了一段時間，顯然耐嚼也已經存在了一段時間，但我不相信你們之前曾向他們銷售過產品。那麼，也許可以向我們介紹一下這種情況是如何發展的以及您期望該業務如何發展？那麼也許我們可以期望看到產品擴展到玩具之外？

Yeah. We’ve obviously known Chewy for a very, very long time going back 12 years or so. So and we are both very, very young companies talking about commercial relationships way back then and more recently about selling our products on their platform over the past couple of years. And it’s never really clicked into place until earlier this year.

是的。顯然，我們已經認識 Chewy 很久了，可以追溯到 12 年前。因此，我們都是非常非常年輕的公司，早在那時就在談論商業關係，最近幾年又在他們的平台上銷售我們的產品。直到今年早些時候，它才真正落實。

And then Michael Black and his team came in, they’ve got great experience working with Chewy selling there. So I think they helped us from our side in taking those last steps and getting it over the line and building a really strong relationship there.

然後邁克爾·布萊克 (Michael Black) 和他的團隊進來了，他們在與 Chewy 合作銷售方面擁有豐富的經驗。因此，我認為他們幫助我們採取了最後的步驟，越過了界限，並在那裡建立了真正牢固的關係。

So we’re off and running. We’re off to a great start. They’ve been just a fantastic partner so far. And where we’re heading is over the course of this year to get our full catalog on to their site and be selling everything, including all the consumables that we can get over there.

所以我們開始運行。我們有了一個好的開始。到目前為止，他們一直是一位出色的合作夥伴。我們的目標是在今年將我們的完整目錄發佈到他們的網站上並銷售所有產品，包括我們可以在那裡獲得的所有消耗品。

So great start. We think there’s a lot of big upside, a lot of potential. They obviously have built a fantastic business, and it’s a long time coming. So we’re thrilled to be partnered with them

太棒了。我們認為有很多巨大的優勢和潛力。顯然，他們已經建立了一項出色的業務，而且這是一個漫長的過程。因此，我們很高興與他們合作

Well, that’s great to see. Thanks for taking my questions.

嗯，很高興看到這一點。感謝您回答我的問題。

Kaumil Gajrawala, Jefferies.

考米爾·加吉拉瓦拉，傑弗里斯。

Thank you. Hey, everyone. A couple of questions. I guess the first one is subscriber growth, again, great. But it looks like average orders or number of orders still down. So just curious if there's anything in that figure that we should be aware of and maybe what you're doing to try to reverse that?

謝謝。嘿，大家。有幾個問題。我想第一個是訂閱者成長，同樣，很棒。但看起來平均訂單或訂單數量仍然下降。所以只是好奇該圖中是否有任何我們應該注意的事情，也許你正在做什麼來嘗試扭轉這種情況？

What you're seeing in terms of the subscriber growth is what we're doing to reverse it. It's just the subscriptions take time to compound. And so what we've seen in these last three quarters has not yet made up for the declines that we saw in the first half of fiscal 2024. But we expect that to start to turn not this current quarter that we're in, but next quarter. And then overall, we expect the D2C revenue to be flattish year-over-year, but really to begin to grow in our fiscal Q3.

您所看到的訂戶成長正是我們正在採取的扭轉這種趨勢的措施。只是訂閱量需要時間來複合。因此，我們在過去三個季度所看到的情況尚未彌補 2024 財年上半年的下降。但我們預計這種情況不會從當前季度開始，而是從下個季度開始。總體而言，我們預計 D2C 收入將同比持平，但在第三財季真正開始成長。

Got it. And congrats on the Chewy launch, very cool. I think you might have hinted at it if I look back, I think you might have hinted at it, but we didn't know for sure. I believe it's starting with toys or are your consumables in there as well? And at least on the toy side, how do you differentiate yourself on a site like that?

知道了。祝賀 Chewy 發布，非常酷。我想如果我回頭看，你可能已經暗示過，我想你可能已經暗示過，但我們不確定。我相信是從玩具開始的，還是你們的消耗品也在那裡？至少在玩具方面，您如何在這樣的網站上脫穎而出？

The toys are there. No consumables yet. And -- how do we differentiate ourselves really anywhere? I think part of that is a marketing challenge of knowing the platform and how to best position ourselves and great photography, great video, making sure that we have the right assets and I'd say descriptions around our products. Another part of it, obviously, is having great products and great reputation and high ratings. And so we have to back that up into our product development and being in tune with the customer.

玩具就在那裡。還沒有消耗品。而且——我們如何才能真正在任何地方脫穎而出？我認為其中一部分是行銷挑戰，了解平台以及如何最好地定位自己以及精彩的攝影、精彩的視頻，確保我們擁有正確的資產，我會說關於我們產品的描述。顯然，另一部分是擁有優質的產品、良好的聲譽和高收視率。因此，我們必須將其支援到我們的產品開發中並與客戶保持一致。

We are fortunate that we have 1 million plus customers every month who are giving us feedback about our products and we feed that into our product development. So that should be a giant advantage over most other toy or product companies. The thing that we've done now since Michael and Michael have joined is we've now put product development together with the marketing side, bringing those two much closer together.

我們很幸運，每月有超過 100 萬客戶向我們提供有關我們產品的回饋，我們將這些回饋納入我們的產品開發中。因此，與大多數其他玩具或產品公司相比，這應該是一個巨大的優勢。自從麥可和麥可加入以來，我們現在所做的就是將產品開發與行銷方面結合在一起，使兩者更加緊密地結合在一起。

So Michael Parness making sure that every product that we put out is an expression of the brand and living up to the brand and not just being just another toy. So hopefully product development elevates from where it already is, that reputation gets out there, it comes with a marketing and brand awareness mindset behind every product. And then we go through and we do the -- I'll call them the basics of executing on the platform really, really well.

因此，Michael Parness 確保我們推出的每件產品都是品牌的表達，並且不辜負品牌的期望，而不僅僅是另一個玩具。因此，希望產品開發能夠從現有層面提升，聲譽得到提高，每個產品背後都帶有行銷和品牌意識思維。然後我們仔細研究並做——我將它們稱為在平台上執行的基礎知識，非常非常好。

Got it. And I don't know, you probably were busy prepping for earnings, but you got a shout out on CNBC from Shopify. So I guess the transition to the technology transition is happening. Maybe you can just talk a bit about, are we there yet? Have you consolidated the various platforms that have to go forward? And then perhaps what impact that should have on margins as we look in the coming year?

知道了。我不知道，您可能正忙著為盈利做準備，但您在 CNBC 上得到了 Shopify 的大肆宣傳。所以我猜想技術轉型正在發生。也許你可以談談，我們到了嗎？您是否整合了必須前進的各種平台？那麼，也許這會對來年的利潤率產生什麼影響？

We're not there yet, but we continue to transition over some of our active customers and a little bit of our ad spend. So we have the -- let's say the technical pieces in place. So if we wanted to pick up and move everyone today, we could. What we're getting to is getting the business to be at parity with it. But we're still, we feel like the most realistic timeline for that to happen is fiscal Q4. We could probably do it sooner, but one thing we definitely don't want to do is disrupt our holiday season. So it's likely in fiscal Q4.

我們還沒有做到這一點，但我們將繼續過渡一些活躍客戶和一點廣告支出。所以我們已經有了——比如說技術部分。因此，如果我們今天想接走並轉移所有人，我們就可以做到。我們要做的就是讓業務與它保持同等水平。但我們仍然認為最現實的時間表是第四財季。我們可能可以更快地做到這一點，但我們絕對不想做的一件事就是擾亂我們的假期。所以這很可能發生在第四財季。

Got it. Great. Thank you guys.

知道了。偉大的。謝謝你們。

Ygal Arounian, Citi.

伊加爾·阿魯尼安，花旗銀行。

Hey guys, good afternoon. You have Max on for you Ygal. I guess I just want to ask more maybe on the, some of the commerce and partnership side. I don't know if you've called out Amazon specifically before, but just curious maybe what drove the strength there, if you're doing anything differently.

嘿夥計們，下午好。Ygal 為你準備了 Max。我想我只是想在商業和合作方面詢問更多問題。我不知道你之前是否特別提到亞馬遜，但只是好奇是什麼推動了亞馬遜的發展，如果你採取了不同的做法。

And then just maybe on the treats going in commerce, just any other color there you can provide on how that's been trending, what you're seeing, and then maybe expectations. I know you're in, I think two stores right now.

然後也許是關於商業上的款待，你可以提供任何其他顏色來說明它的趨勢、你所看到的，然後也許是期望。我知道你在，我想現在有兩家商店。

I'm not sure if you're talking, assuming you're talking with other stores, but maybe just a timeline for how those talks are going and expectations for that to roll out.

我不確定你是否在談論，假設你正在與其他商店交談，但也許只是這些談判如何進行的時間表以及對此展開的期望。

Yeah, I'll comment quickly. This is Matt on the Amazon side of it. For Amazon, again, pointing to the strength of new leadership, Michael Black coming in with some real strong performance there in some past lives and bringing great talent with him, understanding that platform and really elevating our performance there.

是的，我會盡快發表評論。這是亞馬遜方面的馬特。對於亞馬遜，再次指出了新領導層的力量，邁克爾·布萊克（Michael Black）在前世中取得了一些真正強勁的表現，並帶來了偉大的人才，了解該平台並真正提升了我們在那裡的表現。

Some of that is just the basic blocking and tackling of the platform. Some of it is better marketing. And what's really encouraging there is we're only four months into his tenure and some of his team's tenure here. And so the elevation we're seeing there isn't because we have some fantastic products. They're using what's laying around today.

其中一些只是平台的基本阻止和處理。其中一些是更好的營銷。真正令人鼓舞的是，他和他的團隊的一些成員在這裡任職僅四個月。所以我們看到的高度並不是因為我們有一些很棒的產品。他們正在利用今天現有的東西。

So when we start to create product specifically for that channel or that environment and we order properly for the sales volumes, I think we have the opportunity to really accelerate. So it's as simple as talent. That's what it comes down to. And then Zahir's going to chime in on the second.

因此，當我們開始專門為該管道或該環境創建產品並根據銷售進行適當訂購時，我認為我們有機會真正加速。所以這就像天賦一樣簡單。歸根結底就是這樣。然後查希爾將插話第二點。

Sure, so just on the consumables that we launched into retail, so we're in with obviously Target and PetSmart. We launched with our character treats early days. The feedback from our retail partners is they're happy with the start that we've made.

當然，就我們進入零售業的消費品而言，我們顯然與 Target 和 PetSmart 合作。我們早期就推出了我們的特色美食。我們的零售合作夥伴的回饋是，他們對我們所做的開始感到滿意。

Obviously, we're continuing to take the learnings -- everything that we're doing in terms of shopper marketing, any promotions we run, how we can elevate our performance going forward. So we're continuing to work on that. We've already managed to secure further distribution within those retailers for seasonal offerings in some of the major holiday windows. So that's really a positive signal.

顯然，我們將繼續吸取教訓——我們在購物者行銷方面所做的一切、我們開展的任何促銷活動、我們如何提高未來的業績。所以我們正在繼續努力。我們已經設法確保在這些零售商內進一步分銷一些主要假日窗口的季節性產品。所以這確實是一個正面的訊號。

I think just thinking about consumables more broadly, there's really a sizable opportunity for us to expand on Amazon and Chewy fairly quickly, particularly with our dental and toppers products. And then as you think about the next resets within retail, which would be Q4 this fiscal year going into Q1 next fiscal year, that's when you'd expect to see further impact in terms of more doors and distribution in retail.

我認為，只要更廣泛地考慮消耗品，我們確實有相當大的機會在亞馬遜和 Chewy 上快速擴張，特別是在我們的牙科和禮帽產品方面。然後，當您考慮零售業的下一次重置時，即本財年第四季度進入下財年第一季時，您預計會看到零售業更多門市和分銷方面的進一步影響。

Okay, great guys.

好吧，很棒的傢伙們。

Thanks. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的出席。您現在可以斷開連線。