Petmed Express Inc (PETS) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the PetMeds Conference Call to Review the Financial Results for the Third Fiscal Quarter ended on December 31, 2021. At the request of the company, this conference call is being recorded.

歡迎參加 PetMeds 電話會議，審查截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的第三財季財務業績。應公司要求，對本次電話會議進行錄音。

Founded in 1996, PetMeds is America's Most Trusted Pet Pharmacy, delivering prescription and non-prescription pet medications and other health products for dogs, cats and horses direct to the customer. PetMeds markets its products through national advertising campaigns, which direct customers to order online or by phone and which are intended to increase the recognition of the PetMeds brand name. PetMeds provides an attractive alternative for obtaining pet medications in terms of convenience, price, ease of ordering and rapid home delivery.

PetMeds 成立於 1996 年，是美國最值得信賴的寵物藥房，直接向客戶提供狗、貓和馬的處方藥和非處方藥以及其他保健產品。 PetMeds 通過全國廣告活動營銷其產品，引導客戶在線或通過電話訂購，旨在提高 PetMeds 品牌的知名度。 PetMeds 在便利性、價格、易於訂購和快速送貨上門方面為獲得寵物藥物提供了一個有吸引力的替代方案。

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to the company's Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Bruce Rosenbloom.

此時，我想將電話轉給公司的首席財務官 Bruce Rosenbloom 先生。

Thank you. And I'd like to welcome everybody here today. I would also like to remind everyone that the first portion of this conference call will be listen-only until the question-and-answer session, which will be later in the call.

謝謝。我想歡迎大家今天來到這裡。我還想提醒大家，本次電話會議的第一部分將是只聽，直到問答環節，這將在電話會議的後期進行。

Also, certain information that will be included in this press conference may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 or the Securities and Exchange Commission that may involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on our beliefs as well as assumptions we have used based upon information currently available to us. Because these statements reflect our current views concerning future events, these statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual future results may vary significantly based on a number of factors that may cause the actual results or events to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. We have identified various risk factors associated with our operations in our most recent annual report and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

此外，本次新聞發布會中將包含的某些信息可能包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》或證券交易委員會定義的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述可能涉及許多風險和不確定性。這些陳述是基於我們的信念以及我們根據目前可用的信息所使用的假設。由於這些陳述反映了我們目前對未來事件的看法，因此這些陳述涉及風險、不確定性和假設。實際的未來結果可能會因多種因素而有很大差異，這些因素可能導致實際結果或事件與這些陳述明示或暗示的未來結果、業績或成就存在重大差異。我們在最近的年度報告和提交給美國證券交易委員會的其他文件中確定了與我們的運營相關的各種風險因素。

Now let me introduce our CEO and President, Matt Hulett. Matt?

現在讓我介紹一下我們的首席執行官兼總裁 Matt Hulett。馬特？

Thanks, Bruce.

謝謝，布魯斯。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. My first several months as the CEO and President of PetMeds has been incredibly busy and exciting. I continue to believe that PetMeds is a terrific company with a talented and dedicated workforce serving a loyal customer base. By the way, we like to feature pictures of our customers and employees pets in our slide decks. You will see many original pictures throughout this presentation. In fact, this slide features my dog, Harry.

下午好，感謝您加入我們。我擔任 PetMeds 首席執行官兼總裁的頭幾個月非常忙碌和興奮。我仍然相信 PetMeds 是一家了不起的公司，擁有一支才華橫溢、敬業的員工隊伍，為忠實的客戶群提供服務。順便說一句，我們喜歡在我們的幻燈片中展示客戶和員工寵物的照片。您將在整個演示文稿中看到許多原始圖片。事實上，這張幻燈片的主角是我的狗，哈利。

As CEO, my continued commitment is to be open and transparent with all of our stakeholders as to how we are engineering the transformation of this iconic company. So today, I will spend some time on our current status and share with you how we are thinking about our transition into a growth company because we believe that this will provide some helpful insight into the business, our most recent results and our future plans. We will kick off that discussion today by describing the overall market and the opportunity as well as our financial progress through the December quarter. In addition, I will be providing a more detailed perspective on the actions and initiatives that we have begun since I joined in September.

作為 CEO，我的一貫承諾是對我們所有的利益相關者公開和透明地了解我們如何設計這家標誌性公司的轉型。因此，今天，我將花一些時間了解我們的現狀，並與您分享我們是如何考慮向成長型公司轉型的，因為我們相信這將對業務、我們最近的成果和我們的未來計劃提供一些有用的見解。我們將通過描述整個市場和機會以及我們在 12 月季度的財務進展來開始今天的討論。此外，我將更詳細地介紹自我 9 月加入以來我們已經開始的行動和舉措。

As we have covered in our previous earnings call, PetMeds operates in a very large and growing addressable market. The U.S. pet market is over $100 billion in annual sales, and it is expected to reach $120 billion by 2024. The addressable pet medication market where we participate today is approximately $10 billion and growing rapidly. We are one of the leading pet pharmacies today. I hinted at a broader vision in our last earnings call, and we've been actively testing and investigating opportunities against this broader vision throughout the last quarter.

正如我們在之前的財報電話會議中所述，PetMeds 在一個非常龐大且不斷增長的潛在市場中運營。美國寵物市場年銷售額超過 1000 億美元，預計到 2024 年將達到 1200 億美元。我們今天參與的可尋址寵物藥物市場約為 100 億美元，並且增長迅速。我們是當今領先的寵物藥店之一。我在上次財報電話會議上暗示了一個更廣闊的願景，並且在整個上個季度，我們一直在積極測試和調查針對這一更廣闊願景的機會。

Based on our research and testing, we now believe that PetMeds has exciting opportunities to address more customer needs than what our business focuses on today. Going forward, these opportunities will further expand our addressable market and allow us to bring even greater value to our customers. More on that later in this presentation.

根據我們的研究和測試，我們現在相信 PetMeds 有令人興奮的機會來滿足比我們今天的業務重點更多的客戶需求。展望未來，這些機會將進一步擴大我們的目標市場，並使我們能夠為客戶帶來更大的價值。稍後將在本演示文稿中詳細介紹。

Not only are we operating in a large addressable market, we operate in a market that is growing and the behavior is favorable to digital retailers. U.S. household pet ownership has increased and today, 7 out of 10 U.S. households have a pet. Certainly, the macro effects of COVID have accelerated this trend. And now more than ever, pet parents are keenly attuned to the health needs of their pets. We believe these trends indicate that both new and existing pet parents will need more pet medications and other related health care and wellness services to provide the healthy and happy lifestyle they want for their pet family members.

我們不僅在一個巨大的可尋址市場中運營，而且在一個不斷增長的市場中運營，並且這種行為有利於數字零售商。美國家庭寵物擁有量有所增加，如今，十分之七的美國家庭擁有寵物。當然，COVID 的宏觀影響加速了這一趨勢。現在，寵物父母比以往任何時候都更加關注寵物的健康需求。我們相信這些趨勢表明，新的和現有的寵物父母都需要更多的寵物藥物和其他相關的保健和保健服務，以便為他們的寵物家庭成員提供他們想要的健康和快樂的生活方式。

Consumers also now expect everything to be real-time, fast and digital, a trend which has impacted every industry. As we have seen in other digital e-commerce verticals, the ongoing move towards digitization of retail is accelerating. Today, our addressable market is largely dominated by offline sales, but we see the growing trend of purchase online as very favorable to us.

消費者現在還期望一切都是實時、快速和數字化的，這一趨勢已經影響到每個行業。正如我們在其他數字電子商務垂直領域所看到的那樣，零售數字化的持續發展正在加速。今天，我們的目標市場主要由線下銷售主導，但我們認為在線購買的增長趨勢對我們非常有利。

Pet parents see their pets as an extension of their own families, and they are increasingly demanding more healthy pet care options. We see this as a positive trend for PetMeds and an opportunity for growth. Similarly, aligned with the trends in human health, pet parents are thinking through the entire spectrum of their pet care, from diet, their veterinary services as well as the channels through which they access those products and services.

寵物父母將他們的寵物視為自己家庭的延伸，他們越來越需要更健康的寵物護理選擇。我們認為這是 PetMeds 的積極趨勢和增長機會。同樣，為了順應人類健康的趨勢，寵物父母正在考慮他們寵物護理的方方面面，從飲食、獸醫服務到他們獲得這些產品和服務的渠道。

Lastly, COVID also accelerated the increasing trend for the digitization of health care. Specifically in the pet market, regulations related to in-person veterinary visits and prescription fulfillment were temporarily waived for the first time during COVID and moved online in unprecedented ways. We have spent a considerable amount of time conducting research with the industry as well as with pet parents, and we are excited that these market dynamics should facilitate the acceleration of digital-based telehealth services in the pet industry.

最後，COVID 還加速了醫療保健數字化的增長趨勢。特別是在寵物市場，在 COVID 期間首次暫時取消了與親自獸醫訪問和處方履行相關的規定，並以前所未有的方式轉移到網上。我們花費了大量時間與行業以及寵物父母進行研究，我們很高興這些市場動態將促進寵物行業基於數字的遠程醫療服務的加速發展。

During the last earnings call, we discussed some key PetMeds differentiators. I want to reiterate those because they are important, and I believe they provide a real edge for our company's transformation. First, our brand is widely known and trusted. In fact, here is an important update since our last earnings call. We just commissioned an extensive customer and market research study that showed that 55% of U.S. pet parents are aware of the PetMeds brand. Having a strong brand takes years to develop, and our customers look to PetMeds as their trusted pharmacy and pet medication expert.

在上次財報電話會議上，我們討論了 PetMeds 的一些關鍵差異化因素。我想重申這些，因為它們很重要，而且我相信它們為我們公司的轉型提供了真正的優勢。首先，我們的品牌廣為人知和信賴。事實上，這是自我們上次財報電話會議以來的重要更新。我們剛剛委託進行了一項廣泛的客戶和市場研究，研究表明 55% 的美國寵物父母了解 PetMeds 品牌。擁有強大的品牌需要多年的時間才能發展，我們的客戶將 PetMeds 視為值得信賴的藥房和寵物藥物專家。

Second, we have strong operational and quality efficiencies of pharmacy. Our customer care integration with our pharmacy is world-class, which ensures that customers get their products delivered quickly and accurately. Additionally, our vet partners receive quality service delivered through our vet platform. This operational efficiency is hardwired into the fabric of the company, which will enable us to effortlessly move into new health and wellness adjacencies.

其次，我們擁有強大的藥房運營和質量效率。我們的客戶服務與藥房的整合是世界一流的，可確保客戶快速準確地交付產品。此外，我們的獸醫合作夥伴通過我們的獸醫平台獲得優質服務。這種運營效率已融入公司的結構中，這將使我們能夠毫不費力地進入新的健康和保健領域。

Our deep experience with the vet community is a competitive advantage. As we discussed in our last earnings call, we currently have one of the largest direct-to-consumer vet networks in the online retail space with over 70,000 veterinarians that we have worked with over the company's history.

我們在獸醫界的豐富經驗是一項競爭優勢。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，我們目前擁有在線零售領域最大的直接面向消費者的獸醫網絡之一，在公司歷史上與我們合作過的獸醫超過 70,000 名。

Currently, our online vet portal has 17,000 active veterinarians and vet clinics. This is a core capability and asset because it enables us to expand our fulfillment capability as we scale our business. Our prescription medication authorization rates are the highest they've ever been, which speaks volumes to the level of veterinarian cooperation we receive on a daily basis.

目前，我們的在線獸醫門戶網站擁有 17,000 名活躍的獸醫和獸醫診所。這是一項核心能力和資產，因為它使我們能夠在擴展業務時擴展我們的履行能力。我們的處方藥授權率是有史以來最高的，這充分說明了我們每天收到的獸醫合作水平。

Our pet pharmaceutical category expertise is something that I view as a towering strength. Many retailers can sell dog bone, but not everyone can provide medication and health advice at scale. Being a differentiated pet medication provider allows PetMeds to focus on our health and wellness offering, especially as the market continues to become even more competitive. Again, more to come on where we see our brand and business going in the coming months.

我認為我們的寵物醫藥品類專業知識是一種強大的力量。許多零售商都可以出售狗骨，但並不是每個人都能大規模提供藥物和健康建議。作為一家差異化的寵物藥物供應商，PetMeds 可以專注於我們的健康和保健產品，尤其是在市場競爭繼續變得更加激烈的情況下。同樣，在接下來的幾個月裡，我們會看到更多關於我們品牌和業務發展的地方。

PetMeds currently enjoys a close and strategic bond with our many supplier partners. Those relationships have developed over time to become even more strategic. We have direct relationships with all of our major suppliers, and we work together closely to market their products to our customer base.

PetMeds 目前與我們的眾多供應商合作夥伴建立了密切的戰略聯繫。這些關係隨著時間的推移而發展，變得更具戰略意義。我們與所有主要供應商都有直接關係，我們密切合作，將他們的產品推銷給我們的客戶群。

Our customer service and overall customer centricity ethos permeates throughout the culture and our team. We have a 100% lifetime guarantee to customers that we are committed to. We go the extra mile for our customers with truly empathetic and expert service. We just don't have a transactional interaction with our customers, we have built trusting genuine relationships. Our customers view PetMeds as a trusted pet health expert, and we take that responsibility seriously.

我們的客戶服務和以客戶為中心的整體精神貫穿於整個文化和我們的團隊。我們承諾為客戶提供 100% 終身保修。我們以真正善解人意的專業服務為客戶付出更多努力。我們只是沒有與客戶進行交易互動，我們建立了信任的真正關係。我們的客戶將 PetMeds 視為值得信賴的寵物健康專家，我們認真對待這一責任。

I recently had the pleasure of listening to a phone interaction from a loyal customer of 3 years from Rhode Island. This customer, in particular, asked to talk to a manager. As we all know from our experiences as consumers, you typically ask to talk to a manager to escalate a problem or negative experience. This customer started off the call noting that, "There's always a complaint box, but never a compliment box." This customer is calling to give us a compliment. She was amazed with the conversations that she has had with our employees over the last several years. She stated, "Every time I call, everybody that answers the phone is always willing to go above and beyond to help me out to get it to me as soon as they can. I don't know what group of people you're pulling this pool of people that you're hiring from but every single person has always been pleasant and helpful. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's just refreshing." These types of customer interactions are commonplace at PetMeds and in my experience, very uncommon in most companies.

我最近有幸聽到一位來自羅德島的 3 年忠實客戶的電話互動。特別是這位客戶要求與經理交談。正如我們作為消費者的經驗所知道的那樣，您通常會要求與經理交談以升級問題或負面體驗。這位客戶在開始通話時指出，“總是有一個投訴箱，但從來沒有一個表揚箱。”這位客戶打電話給我們一個稱讚。她對過去幾年她與我們員工的談話感到驚訝。她說，“每次我打電話，接電話的每個人總是願意超越一切，幫助我盡快把它交給我。我不知道你拉的是哪一群人“你僱用的這群人，但每個人都一直很愉快，樂於助人。這與我經歷過的任何事情都不一樣。這讓人耳目一新。”這些類型的客戶互動在 PetMeds 很常見，根據我的經驗，在大多數公司中很少見。

Before I address our earnings performance, I would like to address several reasons why PetMeds is a strong investment opportunity. PetMeds has a lot going for itself, including: PetMeds is profitable with a pristine balance sheet. We do not have any debt. We have approximately $109 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021, and we are cash flow positive. PetMeds is moving from a transactional direct-to-consumer brand to a subscription business. Subscription businesses are clearly compelling business models to their predictable and stable recurring cash flows.

在我討論我們的盈利表現之前，我想先解釋一下為什麼 PetMeds 是一個強大的投資機會的幾個原因。 PetMeds 本身有很多優勢，包括： PetMeds 憑藉原始的資產負債表實現盈利。我們沒有任何債務。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日，我們擁有大約 1.09 億美元的現金和現金等價物，我們的現金流為正。 PetMeds 正在從直接面向消費者的交易品牌轉變為訂閱業務。訂閱業務顯然是其可預測且穩定的經常性現金流的引人注目的商業模式。

We ended last quarter with approximately 25% of our customers enrolled and ordering via our AutoShip & Save subscription program, and that number continues to rise. We also continue to have a large base of returning customers, which is an indication of the quality service and the value that we deliver. We are fortunate to have a large base of over 2 million pet parents that have purchased from us over the last 2 years. We have over 25 years of experience as a pure-play pet pharmacy, fully licensed in 50 states, delivering outstanding service and value. This domain expertise is what I would call the more complicated part of the pet ecosystem, which makes our progression into other segments much easier.

上個季度結束時，我們大約有 25% 的客戶通過我們的 AutoShip & Save 訂閱計劃註冊和訂購，而且這個數字還在繼續上升。我們還繼續擁有龐大的回頭客群，這表明我們提供優質服務和價值。我們很幸運在過去 2 年中擁有超過 200 萬寵物父母的龐大基礎。我們擁有超過 25 年的純寵物藥房經驗，在 50 個州獲得完全許可，提供卓越的服務和價值。這種領域專業知識就是我所說的寵物生態系統中更複雜的部分，它使我們更容易進入其他領域。

Our customers just love our brand and our service. Our NPS score is over 80, which puts us in the upper quartile along with some of the most beloved brands in the world.

我們的客戶就是喜歡我們的品牌和我們的服務。我們的 NPS 得分超過 80，這使我們與世界上一些最受歡迎的品牌一起處於上四分之一。

Before Bruce Rosenbloom, our Chief Financial Officer, runs through Q3's financial results, I would like to contextualize how we thought about this quarter. I would characterize this quarter as a transitional quarter. After my years of transformation and turnaround experience, taking a business from a low to no growth company to a growth company does not happen overnight. It usually takes several quarters of investment and foundational work in order to show meaningful operational progress when executing a business transformation. I will detail the operating rationale behind the numbers after Bruce's presentation.

在我們的首席財務官 Bruce Rosenbloom 介紹第三季度的財務業績之前，我想介紹一下我們對本季度的看法。我會把這個季度描述為一個過渡季度。經過我多年的轉型和周轉經驗，將一家企業從低增長或無增長的公司轉變為增長公司並非一蹴而就。通常需要幾個季度的投資和基礎工作才能在執行業務轉型時顯示有意義的運營進展。在 Bruce 的演講之後，我將詳細說明這些數字背後的操作原理。

Now I'd like to have Bruce review our financials for the quarter.

現在我想讓布魯斯審查我們本季度的財務狀況。

Thanks, Matt.

謝謝，馬特。

Now we will review the financial results. We will compare our third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021 to last year's quarter ended on December 31, 2020. And in some cases, we will refer back to December 31, 2019.

現在我們將審查財務結果。我們將比較截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的第三財季與截至 2020 年 12 月 31 日的上一財季。在某些情況下，我們將回顧 2019 年 12 月 31 日。

I would also like to highlight that we are introducing new non-GAAP financial metrics, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA per share. We decided to include these new metrics because they are key metrics used by management and our Board to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA per share are a more accurate picture of our underlying profitability and it also highlights the increase in noncash stock-based compensation, which increased significantly in the current year.

我還想強調，我們正在引入新的非 GAAP 財務指標、調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的每股 EBITDA。我們決定納入這些新指標，因為它們是管理層和董事會用來評估我們的經營業績、制定未來經營計劃和製定有關資本分配的戰略決策的關鍵指標。調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的每股 EBITDA 更準確地反映了我們的潛在盈利能力，它還突出了非現金股票薪酬的增加，該薪酬在本年度大幅增加。

Similar to our prior quarters, we faced a unique situation comparing 2 totally different environments between 2020 pandemic and 2021, mostly post-pandemic. In fact, we saw a stronger month of December in 2020 than our historical averages, which was primarily driven by increased e-commerce demand as a result of the second wave of the pandemic in December 2020, which caused many retail stores to close and many veterinarians to be unavailable.

與我們前幾個季度類似，我們面臨著一種獨特的情況，比較了 2020 年大流行和 2021 年之間的兩種完全不同的環境，主要是大流行後。事實上，我們看到 2020 年 12 月的銷量比我們的歷史平均水平強，這主要是由於 2020 年 12 月第二波大流行導致電子商務需求增加，導致許多零售店關閉，許多獸醫不可用。

During the quarter ended December 2021, we also executed on a number of new changes to our marketing partnerships, agencies and processes that were more important investments to help transform the company into a growth business. During this transition phase, or as Matt likes to call it, our test and learn phase, we were less efficient in the deployment of our variable marketing investment.

在截至 2021 年 12 月的季度中，我們還對我們的營銷合作夥伴、代理機構和流程進行了一些新的更改，這些更改是更重要的投資，有助於將公司轉變為增長型企業。在這個過渡階段，或者馬特喜歡稱之為測試和學習階段，我們在部署可變營銷投資方面效率較低。

During the quarter, we ended up spending approximately 34% more in advertising year-over-year where we spent $4.3 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2021 compared to $3.2 million for the same period the prior year. Approximately 50% of this increase was due to rate increases across our marketing channels and the remaining portion was due to an increase in the number of advertising impressions we delivered across a variety of advertising platforms. As we move into our first full quarter, the quarter ending March 31, 2022, with our new marketing partnerships, agencies and processes, we expect to be much more efficient with our variable marketing spend with improved results.

在本季度，我們最終在廣告上的支出同比增長了約 34%，在截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的季度中，我們的廣告支出為 430 萬美元，而去年同期為 320 萬美元。這一增長的大約 50% 是由於我們營銷渠道的費率增加，其餘部分是由於我們在各種廣告平台上投放的廣告展示次數增加。隨著我們進入第一個完整季度，即截至 2022 年 3 月 31 日的季度，隨著我們新的營銷合作夥伴關係、代理機構和流程，我們希望通過可變的營銷支出提高效率並改善結果。

For the third fiscal quarter ended on December 31, 2021, sales were $60.7 million compared to sales of $65.9 million for the same period the prior year, a decrease of 7.9%, but sales actually increased by 1.3% versus the quarter ended December 31, 2019, prior to the pandemic. The decrease in year-over-year sales was due to decreases both in new order and reorder sales. Our sales were negatively impacted by a competitive market and inefficient variable marketing spend in the quarter and a crowded advertising space with substantially higher costs compared to the same quarter last year.

截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的第三財季，銷售額為 6070 萬美元，上年同期為 6590 萬美元，下降 7.9%，但與截至 12 月 31 日的季度相比，銷售額實際增長了 1.3%， 2019年，在大流行之前。同比銷售額下降是由於新訂單和再訂單銷售額的下降。我們的銷售額受到本季度競爭激烈的市場和低效的可變營銷支出以及擁擠的廣告空間的負面影響，與去年同期相比成本大幅增加。

In addition, during the past 9 months, there was an increase in veterinarian visits by pet owners who were unable to visit their veterinarian during the pandemic. We believe the increase in veterinarian visits was primarily due to pet owners needing to visit their veterinarians for their pet's annual exam and to renew their prescriptions. Since some pet owners purchase medications directly from their vets during their visit, the company believes this negatively impacted sales and especially reorder sales during the quarter and 9 months ended December 31, 2021.

此外，在過去 9 個月中，寵物主人在大流行期間無法去看獸醫的情況有所增加。我們認為獸醫就診次數的增加主要是由於寵物主人需要拜訪他們的獸醫進行寵物的年度檢查並更新他們的處方。由於一些寵物主人在訪問期間直接從他們的獸醫那裡購買藥物，該公司認為這對銷售產生了負面影響，尤其是在截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的季度和 9 個月內的再訂購銷售。

We were disappointed with our sales results during the quarter compared to the prior year results. However, sales were trending more positively in the months of November and December 2021 when you compare them to the pre-pandemic months of November and December 2019. Reorder sales decreased by 6.5% to $56.3 million for the December 2021 quarter compared to reorder sales of $60.2 million for the same quarter of the prior year. While for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, our reorder sales were $53.8 million. Encouragingly, reorder sales in the most recent quarter, while down versus a year ago, were up approximately 5% compared to 2019 pre-pandemic.

與上一年的結果相比，我們對本季度的銷售結果感到失望。但是，與大流行前的 11 月和 2019 年 12 月相比，2021 年 11 月和 2021 年 12 月的銷售額趨勢更為積極。與去年同期為 6020 萬美元。而在截至 2019 年 12 月 31 日的季度，我們的再訂單銷售額為 5380 萬美元。令人鼓舞的是，最近一個季度的再訂購銷售額雖然與一年前相比有所下降，但與 2019 年大流行前相比增長了約 5%。

AutoShip revenue continues to grow. And currently, approximately 25% of our revenue was generated from our AutoShip & Save subscription program with some of our more popular brands having exceeded 30%. Growing our subscription revenue is one of our main priorities in 2022. We would expect to see stronger reorder sales in 2022 as our AutoShip revenue continues to grow.

AutoShip 收入繼續增長。目前，我們大約 25% 的收入來自我們的 AutoShip & Save 訂閱計劃，我們一些更受歡迎的品牌已經超過 30%。增加我們的訂閱收入是我們 2022 年的主要優先事項之一。隨著我們的 AutoShip 收入持續增長，我們預計 2022 年的再訂購銷售將更加強勁。

A positive trend to highlight for the quarter was the continued increase in our average order size. Our average order was approximately $89 for the quarter compared to $88 for the same quarter last year and $85 for the quarter ended December 31, 2019. For the 9 months ended December 31, 2021, our AOV was $92 compared to $88 for the same period the prior year.

本季度要強調的一個積極趨勢是我們的平均訂單量持續增加。我們本季度的平均訂單約為 89 美元，去年同期為 88 美元，截至 2019 年 12 月 31 日的季度為 85 美元。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的 9 個月，我們的 AOV 為 92 美元，而同期為 88 美元前一年。

New order sales is obviously one area that needs improvement, and we're actively deploying new thinking and initiatives around re-engineering new customer growth. New order sales decreased by 22% to $4.4 million for the quarter compared to $5.7 million for the same quarter the prior year. We acquired approximately 53,000 new customers in our third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021 compared to 73,000 for the same period the prior year. However, we anticipate that our spend will be more efficient as advertising prices stabilize and as the pandemic further subsides. More importantly, we expect improved marketing effectiveness in our media spending as we continue to deploy our new marketing initiatives.

新訂單銷售顯然是一個需要改進的領域，我們正在圍繞重新設計新客戶增長積極部署新思維和舉措。本季度新訂單銷售額下降 22% 至 440 萬美元，而去年同期為 570 萬美元。在截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的第三財季，我們獲得了大約 53,000 名新客戶，而去年同期為 73,000 名。但是，我們預計隨著廣告價格的穩定和大流行病的進一步消退，我們的支出將更有效率。更重要的是，隨著我們繼續部署新的營銷計劃，我們希望提高媒體支出的營銷效果。

For the third fiscal quarter, net income was $4.3 million or $0.21 diluted per share compared to $7.6 million or $0.38 diluted per share for the same quarter last year, a decrease to net income of 44%. Adjusted EBITDA for the third fiscal quarter was $7.6 million or $0.37 diluted per share compared to $11 million or $0.55 diluted per share for the same quarter last year, a decrease to adjusted EBITDA of 31%.

第三財季淨收益為 430 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.21 美元，而去年同期為 760 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.38 美元，淨收益下降 44%。第三財季調整後 EBITDA 為 760 萬美元或每股攤薄 0.37 美元，而去年同期為 1100 萬美元或攤薄後每股 0.55 美元，調整後 EBITDA 下降 31%。

Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA per share adds back certain noncash expenditures. These noncash expenditures are stock compensation, interest income and expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Again, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA per share are non-GAAP key measures used by management and our Board to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital. We will continue to disclose this financial measure in our future filings.

調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的每股 EBITDA 增加了某些非現金支出。這些非現金支出是股票補償、利息收入和支出、所得稅、折舊和攤銷。同樣，調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的每股 EBITDA 是管理層和董事會用來評估我們的經營業績、制定未來經營計劃和製定有關資本分配的戰略決策的非 GAAP 關鍵指標。我們將在未來的文件中繼續披露這一財務措施。

For the third fiscal quarter, our gross profit as a percentage of sales was 29.2% compared to 29.8% for the same period a year ago. The percentage decrease for the quarter can be attributed to some of the major manufacturers shifting their funding and discounting product costs to cooperative marketing rebate. There may be an opportunity to improve gross margins in 2022 if the shift to prescription medications continue and we can grow future sales with minimal price promotions.

對於第三財季，我們的毛利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 29.2%，而去年同期為 29.8%。本季度的百分比下降可歸因於一些主要製造商將其資金和貼現產品成本轉移到合作營銷回扣。如果繼續轉向處方藥，我們可能有機會在 2022 年提高毛利率，並且我們可以通過最小的價格促銷來增加未來的銷售額。

We had $108.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and $27.6 million in inventory with no debt as of December 31, 2021. The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share on the company's common stock. The dividend will be payable on February 18, 2022 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 7, 2022. The company continues to be committed to returning capital to our stockholders. However, the declaration and payment of future dividends is discretionary and will be subject to a determination by the Board of Directors each quarter, following its review of the company's financial performance.

截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日，我們擁有 1.089 億美元的現金和現金等價物以及 2760 萬美元的存貨，沒有債務。董事會還宣布了公司普通股每股 0.30 美元的季度股息。股息將於 2022 年 2 月 18 日支付給在 2022 年 2 月 7 日營業結束時登記在冊的股東。公司將繼續致力於向我們的股東返還資本。然而，未來股息的宣布和支付是酌情決定的，將由董事會每季度在審查公司的財務業績後做出決定。

Now I'd like to hand the presentation back over to Matt. Matt?

現在我想將演示文稿交還給馬特。馬特？

Thanks, Bruce.

謝謝，布魯斯。

My commitment is to be clear and transparent with all of our stakeholders as we start to unpack the plan for growth and our strategic plan. So let me jump in. It has been almost 4 months since I started at the company and rapidly dived into looking at the key elements of the business that includes people, process and strategy.

我的承諾是在我們開始解開增長計劃和戰略計劃時，對我們所有的利益相關者保持清晰和透明。所以讓我開始吧。自從我進入公司並迅速深入研究業務的關鍵要素（包括人員、流程和戰略）以來已經將近 4 個月了。

During major transformation periods in a business, it is common and even expected have some uneven execution and we have been no exception. But equally, we've made some huge inroads into our strategic journey. Here is the status of our 90-day transformation blitz.

在企業的重大轉型時期，執行不平衡是很常見的，甚至是意料之中的，我們也不例外。但同樣，我們在戰略旅程中取得了一些巨大進展。這是我們為期 90 天的轉型閃電戰的狀態。

Let us start with our people. PetMeds has historically had a thinly staffed executive management team. I have recently brought in 3 new executive team members that I believe are perfectly suited to help execute our business transformation. You may have seen that we have announced these 3 new executive team members earlier this month. In case you missed it, I am pleased to tell you about the following additions to our team, who I'm confident will be game changers as part of this new chapter of PetMeds.

讓我們從我們的員工開始。 PetMeds 歷來擁有人員稀少的執行管理團隊。我最近引進了 3 名新的執行團隊成員，我認為他們非常適合幫助執行我們的業務轉型。您可能已經看到，我們在本月早些時候宣布了這 3 名新的執行團隊成員。如果您錯過了，我很高興向您介紹我們團隊的以下新成員，我相信他們將成為 PetMeds 這一新篇章的一部分，改變遊戲規則。

Our new Chief Information and Technology Officer is Mark Moseley. He joins us from Rosetta Stone, where he spent 17 years driving every aspect of their technology and operations. His unique experience includes IT, scale product development, infrastructure and operations.

我們的新任首席信息和技術官是 Mark Moseley。他從 Rosetta Stone 加入我們，在那裡他花了 17 年時間推動其技術和運營的各個方面。他的獨特經驗包括 IT、規模化產品開發、基礎設施和運營。

Our new Chief Marketing Officer is Dan Pingree. He joins us with a diverse set of digital retailing experiences, including 7 years as the Chief Marketing Officer at Moosejaw Mountaineering, and this experience includes being part of the team that successfully sold the business to Walmart. In addition, he has public company direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical experience as an executive at Drugstore.com.

我們的新任首席營銷官是 Dan Pingree。他加入了我們，擁有豐富的數字零售經驗，包括在 Moosejaw Mountaineering 擔任首席營銷官 7 年，這一經驗包括作為成功將業務出售給沃爾瑪的團隊的一員。此外，他還在 Drugstore.com 擔任高管，擁有上市公司直接面向消費者的製藥經驗。

Our new Vice President of People is Jacqueline Smith. She joins us from her previous role at Anju Software as the Vice President of HR, where she led global HR operations. She has over 20 years of extensive experience in change management and business transformation and has already been critical to revamp our human resource tools and best practices. We are very excited to have all 3 of these talented individuals now contributing their valuable skills to PetMeds.

我們的新任人事副總裁是 Jacqueline Smith。她加入我們之前曾在 Anju Software 擔任人力資源副總裁，負責全球人力資源運營。她在變革管理和業務轉型方面擁有超過 20 年的豐富經驗，並且在改進我們的人力資源工具和最佳實踐方面發揮了關鍵作用。我們很高興所有這 3 位才華橫溢的人現在都可以為 PetMeds 貢獻他們寶貴的技能。

Now let's shift to process. PetMeds had a very agile culture, which I discovered in my very first days at the company and recognized as a real benefit when performing a business transformation. I mentioned on our last earnings call several areas that we were looking at as organic upside.

現在讓我們轉向流程。 PetMeds 擁有非常敏捷的文化，我在公司的第一天就發現了這一點，並認為這是執行業務轉型時的真正好處。我在上次財報電話會議上提到了我們認為有機增長的幾個領域。

The first area of focus has been our marketing spend. As you might have seen, our variable marketing for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 increased to $4.3 million from $3.2 million last year. Over the quarter, we unbundled our legacy marketing relationships and transitioned to new agency partners and marketing operation tools. This work happened towards the back half of the quarter. This transition in November has given us additional time to test and learn as we spend and analyze the effectiveness of our marketing across the many channels that are available to us and ahead of the important flea and tick season starting in March.

第一個重點領域是我們的營銷支出。正如您所見，截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的季度，我們的可變營銷從去年的 320 萬美元增加到 430 萬美元。在本季度，我們拆分了傳統的營銷關係，並過渡到新的代理合作夥伴和營銷運營工具。這項工作發生在本季度後半段。 11 月的這種過渡給了我們更多的時間來測試和學習，因為我們在 3 月開始的重要跳蚤和蜱蟲季節之前，通過我們可用的許多渠道花費和分析營銷的有效性。

While we lean into this transition, we are assuming some level of marketing inefficiency while we refine our messaging and spend. I would expect the following as we enter into next quarter: Our marketing effectiveness will get better and our overall spend in variable marketing may increase in certain channels on a year-over-year basis as long as we see the appropriate return in performance.

在我們傾向於這種轉變的同時，我們假設在改進消息傳遞和支出的同時存在某種程度的營銷效率低下。進入下個季度時，我預計會出現以下情況：只要我們看到適當的業績回報，我們的營銷效果將會更好，我們在某些渠道的可變營銷的總體支出可能會同比增加。

As part of our shift to a subscription-based e-commerce company, we plan on introducing new metrics that better reflect how we are managing the business. For instance, in future earnings calls, we plan to introduce LTV to CAC as a key operating ratio. LTV to CAC, which stands for lifetime value divided by the cost to acquire a customer is a common e-commerce measure to track sales and marketing efficiency and customer profitability. We have loyal customers that stay with PetMeds for a long time. In an environment where we are moving our customers to our AutoShip & Save subscription program, we feel LTV to CAC will provide investors with additional visibility to the ongoing value that we are creating with our loyal customers.

作為我們向基於訂閱的電子商務公司轉變的一部分，我們計劃引入新的指標，以更好地反映我們管理業務的方式。例如，在未來的財報電話會議上，我們計劃將 LTV 與 CAC 作為關鍵運營比率引入。 LTV to CAC，代表生命週期價值除以獲取客戶的成本，是一種常見的電子商務衡量標準，用於跟踪銷售和營銷效率以及客戶盈利能力。我們有長期使用 PetMeds 的忠實客戶。在我們將客戶轉移到我們的 AutoShip & Save 訂閱計劃的環境中，我們認為 LTV 到 CAC 將為投資者提供更多可見性，讓他們了解我們與忠實客戶正在創造的持續價值。

The second area of focus is identifying new customer segments. Historically, PetMeds has used a similar marketing approach for over 10 years. We have just completed an extensive consulting project that included a large study which featured a representative sample of all U.S. pet parents as well as our own customers. Based on that comprehensive work, we have identified several new large and attractive customer segments to target, and we are testing and learning against these segments right now.

第二個重點領域是確定新的客戶群。從歷史上看，PetMeds 已使用類似的營銷方法超過 10 年。我們剛剛完成了一個廣泛的諮詢項目，其中包括一項大型研究，該研究以所有美國寵物父母以及我們自己的客戶為代表的樣本。基於這項全面的工作，我們已經確定了幾個新的大型且有吸引力的客戶群作為目標，我們現在正在針對這些群進行測試和學習。

One interesting finding that speaks to what I discussed last time during our earnings call in terms of company assets is that 55% of the U.S. pet parents surveyed were already familiar with the PetMeds brand. That is a huge advantage for us as we efficiently and effectively restart our growth initiatives.

一個有趣的發現說明了我上次在公司資產方面的收益電話會議上討論的內容，即 55% 的受訪美國寵物父母已經熟悉 PetMeds 品牌。這對我們來說是一個巨大的優勢，因為我們可以高效且有效地重啟我們的增長計劃。

Now let's shift to strategy. To be really clear, PetMeds is in a fantastic market position and focused on one of the highest gross margin categories in the pet market. But PetMeds has the opportunity to cement its position by becoming a premium leader in the larger vertical in which it participates today. During our last earnings call, which was my first earnings call at the company, I mentioned our early thoughts on a new strategy moving the company into a broader health and wellness play. We have continued to test and validate this strategy at a rapid pace. I'm a big believer in being a measured capital allocator. We see a lot of opportunity in expanding into new health and wellness adjacency.

現在讓我們轉向戰略。需要明確的是，PetMeds 處於絕佳的市場地位，並且專注於寵物市場中毛利率最高的類別之一。但 PetMeds 有機會通過成為其今天參與的更大垂直領域的高級領導者來鞏固其地位。在我們上次的財報電話會議上，這是我在公司的第一次財報電話會議，我提到了我們對將公司推向更廣泛的健康和保健領域的新戰略的早期想法。我們繼續快速測試和驗證該策略。我堅信要成為一個謹慎的資本分配者。我們看到了很多擴展到新的健康和保健領域的機會。

This last quarter, we have been successfully testing a pet telehealth service as a partnership to a cohort of our customers, and the customer feedback has been extremely positive. This type of quick and agile testing will continue and we look forward to forthcoming announcements in terms of partnerships in the future. We see a great future in adding more health and wellness services to our business and especially growing our e-commerce subscription base well beyond our current level of 25%.

上個季度，我們成功地測試了一項寵物遠程醫療服務，作為我們與一群客戶的合作夥伴關係，客戶的反饋非常積極。這種快速而敏捷的測試將繼續進行，我們期待著未來在合作夥伴關係方面的公告。我們看到了為我們的業務增加更多健康和保健服務的美好未來，尤其是將我們的電子商務訂閱基礎擴大到遠遠超過我們目前 25% 的水平。

I would like to end my prepared remarks by reiterating that the changes I've just described regarding people, process and strategy have been executed at a rapid pace as necessary investments and are all pursuant to a well-thought-out strategic plan for our transformation. I hope this transparency will demonstrate our confidence in the future of the business while also providing some insight into the associated investment costs as they appear in our operating results.

在結束我準備好的發言時，我想重申，我剛才描述的關於人員、流程和戰略的變化已經作為必要的投資快速執行，並且所有這些都符合我們轉型的深思熟慮的戰略計劃.我希望這種透明度將表明我們對業務未來的信心，同時也提供對出現在我們經營業績中的相關投資成本的一些見解。

This ends our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。接線員，我們現在準備好接受提問了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Erin Wright with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Erin Wright。

Great. Can you elaborate on some of the changes you've made in the marketing strategy and the partnerships there? And can you give us an update on the traction on that front? And you said that some of this didn't really pick up or wasn't initiated until later in the quarter, but how should we be thinking about the advertising spend in the coming quarter and then over the course of fiscal 2023? Is this the sort of level we should anticipate kind of going forward?

偉大的。您能否詳細說明您在營銷策略和合作夥伴關係方面所做的一些改變？你能給我們介紹一下這方面的最新情況嗎？你說其中一些直到本季度晚些時候才真正開始或沒有啟動，但我們應該如何考慮下一季度以及整個 2023 財年的廣告支出？這是我們應該預期的那種水平嗎？

Erin, great to hear from you. Several things and then, Bruce, why don't you jump in at the end. One is what I mentioned on the call today is that we really changed out a legacy set of partnerships and went into several others for a couple of reasons. One is really the way we've been targeting customers has been pretty much the same way we've been targeting customers for the last 10 years. We've identified some new customer segments to go after because we've really been going after a small cohort of customers for a long time. And so as part of that unraveling or I call it the unbundling of these relationships, which was kind of in the middle to late of the quarter, we are testing a lot of net new channels as well as some new spend levels. And I think as you heard from the call today, you can expect ROAS, which is a metric we'll de-emphasize. But LTV to CAC should be at much healthier levels and the variable marketing spend to revenue could go up, but we'd associate that with more efficiency going forward.

艾琳，很高興收到你的來信。幾件事，然後，Bruce，你為什麼不在最後加入。一個是我今天在電話會議上提到的，我們真的改變了一套遺留的合作夥伴關係，並出於幾個原因進入了其他幾個。一個是我們一直以客戶為目標的方式與過去 10 年我們一直以客戶為目標的方式幾乎相同。我們已經確定了一些新的客戶群，因為我們長期以來一直在追求一小群客戶。因此，作為解散的一部分，或者我稱之為這些關係的解綁，這是在本季度中後期進行的，我們正在測試許多淨新渠道以及一些新的支出水平。我想正如你今天從電話中聽到的那樣，你可以期待 ROAS，這是一個我們將不再強調的指標。但是 LTV 到 CAC 應該處於更健康的水平，可變營銷支出佔收入的比例可能會上升，但我們會將其與未來更高的效率聯繫起來。

The reason why we hit the gas so hard to be blunt is flea and tick season starts in March. I want to make sure that we are ready to go with rock-solid go-to-market plans before March. And so I'm really confident that we've got the right people and processes around spend. And then, Bruce, is there anything you want to add to that?

之所以我們如此猛烈地踩油門，是因為跳蚤和蜱蟲季節從 3 月開始。我想確保我們已準備好在 3 月之前製定可靠的上市計劃。因此，我非常有信心我們在支出方面擁有合適的人員和流程。然後，Bruce，你有什麼要補充的嗎？

As far as the increase in marketing, we talked in the call earlier, 50% was due to rate increases across our marketing channels and the remaining portion was due to increase in the number of advertising impressions. So we definitely made an effort to grow new customers but obviously were a bit more inefficient than we would expect it to be. But I think we definitely have some better insights from the quarter. And I think that's going to help us in the current quarter, in the March quarter as we move forward.

至於營銷的增長，我們之前在電話中談到，50% 是由於我們營銷渠道的費率增加，其餘部分是由於廣告印像數的增加。因此，我們確實努力增加新客戶，但顯然效率比我們預期的要低一些。但我認為我們肯定會從本季度獲得一些更好的見解。而且我認為這將在當前季度幫助我們，在我們前進的三月季度。

Okay. Great. And then you mentioned AutoShip penetration, I believe, at 25%. Where can that go over time realistically just given the mix of the products that you have, what percentage of revenue would be tied to more chronic treatments as opposed to acute? And how far can that ultimately go?

好的。偉大的。然後你提到了 AutoShip 的滲透率，我相信是 25%。考慮到您擁有的產品組合，隨著時間的推移，實際情況會怎樣？有多少收入與更多的慢性治療相關，而不是急性治療？最終能走多遠？

Yes. No. We haven't really guided to kind of a Pareto percentage that would be ideal for the business. But I can tell you what our supplier partners tell us is that over 50% would be on benchmark or above. And that's because the good news is not only chronic, but also even non-chronic medications in this marketplace are highly consumable. So that's not our official number, but that's what we're hearing from our supplier partners, 50% or above, and would love to see the AutoShip numbers grow more aggressively, which we're working on this quarter.

是的。不，我們還沒有真正引導出一種對企業來說是理想的帕累托百分比。但我可以告訴你，我們的供應商合作夥伴告訴我們的是，超過 50% 的產品將達到或超過基準。那是因為好消息不僅是慢性的，而且這個市場上的非慢性藥物也是高度消耗的。所以這不是我們的官方數字，但這是我們從我們的供應商合作夥伴那裡聽到的，50% 或以上，並且希望看到我們本季度正在努力的 AutoShip 數字更積極地增長。

Our next question is from Anthony Lebiedzinski from Sidoti & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Sidoti & Company 的 Anthony Lebiedzinski。

So I guess first question on the AOV increase. What are the main reasons for that? And how do you see that trending in the future quarters?

所以我想第一個問題是 AOV 增加。主要原因是什麼？您如何看待未來幾個季度的趨勢？

Bruce, you want to take that?

布魯斯，你要拿那個嗎？

AOV, I mean, I think it's a function of, we talked about previously where we're seeing a movement more so to Rx where during the pandemic we actually saw a large uptake in OTC, which was a little bit unusual with our trends that we were seeing previously or should I say, pre-pandemic. So we're going back to a more normalized distribution between Rx and OTC. So that obviously helps. As you know, we do buy direct from the major manufacturers as well. And we do have MAP pricing that we need to adhere to. When there are the annual increases that our manufacturers have on the price of products, the MAP pricing will also increase. So it gives us an opportunity to pass on those additional increases to the customers.

AOV，我的意思是，我認為這是一個函數，我們之前談到過我們看到 Rx 的運動更多，在大流行期間我們實際上看到了 OTC 的大量吸收，這與我們的趨勢有點不同尋常我們以前看到過，或者我應該說，大流行前。所以我們要回到 Rx 和 OTC 之間更規範化的分佈。所以這顯然有幫助。如您所知，我們也直接從主要製造商處購買。我們確實有我們需要遵守的 MAP 定價。當我們的製造商每年對產品價格進行上漲時，MAP 定價也會上漲。因此，它讓我們有機會將這些額外的增長轉嫁給客戶。

Got you. Okay. And then in terms of G&A expenses, those were higher than we anticipated. Can you just quickly go over like what drove that increase from last year? And then as far as the expected quarterly G&A run rate, what should we anticipate going forward?

明白了好的。然後就 G&A 費用而言，這些費用高於我們的預期。你能快速回顧一下推動去年增長的原因嗎？然後就預期的季度 G&A 運行率而言，我們應該期待什麼？

Right. I would say that from a G&A perspective, the majority of that is stock compensation. And that's one reason why we introduced the new metric, adjusted EBITDA, to account for that. Stock compensation increased significantly during the quarter, and we expect that number to increase year-over-year moving forward. So that's one of the reasons behind it.

正確的。我想說，從 G&A 的角度來看，其中大部分是股票補償。這就是為什麼我們引入新指標調整後的 EBITDA 來解釋這一點的原因之一。本季度股票薪酬顯著增加，我們預計這一數字將逐年增加。所以這就是它背後的原因之一。

As far as the other items, there's really nothing else that was really specific driver of the increase in G&A other than stock compensation. Obviously, Matt mentioned, we did increase our headcount in our executive management team, so both stock compensation related to G&A.

就其他項目而言，除了股票薪酬之外，沒有什麼是 G&A 增加的真正具體驅動因素。顯然，馬特提到，我們確實增加了執行管理團隊的人數，所以這兩種股票薪酬都與 G&A 相關。

Got it. Okay. And then a longer-term question, so as you work to transition the business to be more of a subscription-based business and you look to add more pet telehealth. How should we think about long-term operating margin profile of the company?

知道了。好的。然後是一個長期問題，因此當您努力將業務轉變為更多基於訂閱的業務時，您希望增加更多的寵物遠程醫療。我們應該如何考慮公司的長期營業利潤率狀況？

Yes. It's a good question. I have kind of a flank answer to that, Anthony, and then I'll let Bruce to answer it as well is, the reason why the shift from LTV to CAC versus ROAS, and it's a little bit nuanced for some folks who are not used to that metric is the fact that the company used to think about returning capital in terms of variable marketing within the quarter, and that's somewhat not realistic with kind of modern-day marketing practices. So there are some things that you'd be doing like connected TV or linear TV that may not pay off in 3 months, but may pay off over time. And so it's important to make sure that you're not doing bottom-of-the-funnel marketing only because that's not really going to expand your new customers. And that's some of the margin profile shift in terms of the variable marketing between LTV and CAC, and that's why we've reinforced that.

是的。這是個好問題。安東尼，我對此有一個側翼的回答，然後我也會讓布魯斯回答，從 LTV 到 CAC 與 ROAS 的轉變的原因，對於一些不是的人來說有點細微差別習慣於該指標的事實是，該公司過去常常考慮在本季度內根據可變營銷來考慮資本回報，而這對於現代營銷實踐來說有點不現實。所以有些事情你會做，比如聯網電視或線性電視，可能不會在 3 個月內得到回報，但可能會隨著時間的推移而得到回報。因此，重要的是要確保您不只是在進行漏斗底部營銷，因為這不會真正擴大您的新客戶。這就是 LTV 和 CAC 之間可變營銷方面的一些利潤率變化，這就是我們加強這一點的原因。

From an LTV basis, Bruce, I think we could say that we expect LTV as we introduce that metric to go up over time because we haven't done a great job as a business attaching net new products. And certainly at 25% AutoShip, I would anticipate LTV to go up over time because we have recurring on file customers. Bruce, is there anything you'd like to add?

從 LTV 的基礎上，Bruce，我認為我們可以說我們期望 LTV 隨著我們引入該指標而隨著時間的推移而上升，因為我們作為一家附加淨新產品的企業還沒有做得很好。當然，在 25% 的 AutoShip 下，我預計 LTV 會隨著時間的推移而上升，因為我們有經常性的檔案客戶。布魯斯，你有什麼要補充的嗎？

No. I would agree with that 100%. I mean, there's definitely an opportunity there. One item is more related to gross margins, but with our vendors recently shifting this year to co-op marketing it negatively impacted margins, but we're going to go on year-over-year anniversary in those changes. So hopefully, over time, there may be an opportunity for gross margin expansion moving forward. But that also is dependent on how much additional discounting we may need to attract new customers.

不，我會 100% 同意這一點。我的意思是，那里肯定有機會。一個項目與毛利率更相關，但隨著我們的供應商今年最近轉向合作營銷，它對利潤率產生了負面影響，但我們將在這些變化中年復一年。因此，希望隨著時間的推移，毛利率可能有機會向前發展。但這也取決於我們可能需要多少額外折扣才能吸引新客戶。

Got you. Okay. And then lastly, with your strong cash position, what are your thoughts about buying back your shares?

明白了好的。最後，憑藉您強大的現金狀況，您對回購股票有何想法？

For buyback, sorry, Matt, let me, as you know, we do have about $28 million currently authorized. And I don't think we've been active in the share buyback since 2019. And that's something that we discuss with the Board periodically. And as of to date, they have been more keenly or have been concentrating more so on the dividend to return equity back to shareholders more so than the share buyback. But we have been active in the past, and there may be opportunities going forward, and we'll see how that shapes up.

對於回購，抱歉，馬特，如你所知，我們目前確實有大約 2800 萬美元的授權。而且我認為自 2019 年以來我們一直沒有積極參與股票回購。這是我們定期與董事會討論的事情。到目前為止，與股票回購相比，他們更熱衷於或更專注於將股本返還給股東的股息。但我們過去一直很活躍，未來可能會有機會，我們將拭目以待。

Our next question is from Corey Grady with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Corey Grady。

I wanted to ask about reorder sales. How did the results for the quarter compare to your expectations coming in? And then can you expand on what you're seeing in terms of visit trends and overall performance from the vet channel?

我想問一下重新訂購的銷售情況。本季度的結果與您的預期相比如何？然後你能擴展你在獸醫頻道的訪問趨勢和整體表現方面看到的內容嗎？

Matt, you want me to grab that?

馬特，你想讓我抓住那個嗎？

Yes. Go ahead. Sure.

是的。前進。當然。

So I'll take the first part. As far as reorder sales for the quarter, down about 7%. For the 9 months, down about 9%. So obviously, we're off from year-over-year, a year-over-year perspective. But if you look at reorder sales from pre-pandemic levels, so let's say, December 31, 2019, we're actually up 5%. So I think we're moving in the right direction as far as reorder sales. The success, the early success that we've seen in our AutoShip & Save subscription program is going to be a huge determining factor moving forward with reorder sales. And as we grow that percentage, that will also, should move reorder numbers. So that's one part. Matt, do you want to touch base on the second part of that question?

所以我先講第一部分。就本季度的再訂購銷售額而言，下降了約 7%。前 9 個月，下降了約 9%。很明顯，我們與去年同期相比有所不同。但是，如果您從大流行前的水平來看再訂購銷售額，那麼假設，2019 年 12 月 31 日，我們實際上增長了 5%。因此，我認為就重新訂購銷售而言，我們正朝著正確的方向前進。成功，我們在 AutoShip & Save 訂閱計劃中看到的早期成功將成為推動再訂購銷售的巨大決定因素。隨著我們增加該百分比，這也將移動重新訂購數量。這是一部分。 Matt，您想談談該問題的第二部分嗎？

Yes. I just want to add one thing that, Bruce, you mentioned in the prepared remarks is December was an odd month where typically, you never have a strong December in the business, and we had one. And so there's these weird base effects that still pop up when there's COVID restrictions. And that was just a weird year-over-year comparison for us. Because we're feeling pretty good like in November, for instance, year-over-year and December was a little bit of an anomaly. Bruce, don't you think that's accurate?

是的。我只想補充一件事，Bruce，你在準備好的發言中提到的 12 月是一個奇怪的月份，通常情況下，你的業務永遠不會有強勁的 12 月，而我們有一個。因此，當有 COVID 限制時，這些奇怪的基本效應仍然會出現。對我們來說，這只是一個奇怪的同比比較。因為我們在 11 月感覺很好，例如，與去年同期相比，12 月有點反常。布魯斯，你不認為那是準確的嗎？

Yes. That is. That's very true.

是的。那是。這是千真萬確的。

Yes. So we're feeling pretty good overall on just the reorder base. It's been a bedrock to the business. It's been extremely loyal base. We provide exceptional service. That's one area that we're not as worried about, and we're clearly focused on it and we're going to enhance the benefits to those AutoShip subscribers as well. So I think that's just going to get stronger what Bruce mentioned. It's the new customer space that obviously we're like a laser beam, very focused on. Did that answer your question, though?

是的。因此，我們在重新訂購基礎上總體感覺非常好。它一直是業務的基石。這是一個非常忠誠的基地。我們提供卓越的服務。這是我們不太擔心的一個領域，我們顯然專注於此，我們也將提高這些 AutoShip 訂戶的利益。所以我認為這只會讓 Bruce 提到的變得更強大。這是新的客戶空間，顯然我們就像激光束一樣，非常專注。不過，這是否回答了您的問題？

Yes. It did. Then for my other question, I wanted to ask about performance within OTC and Rx meds. I mean, maybe within OTC, can you talk about what subcategories are outperforming and which are underperforming? And then maybe the same on the Rx side.

是的。它做了。然後對於我的另一個問題，我想問一下 OTC 和 Rx 藥物的性能。我的意思是，也許在場外交易中，你能談談哪些子類別表現出色，哪些表現不佳？然後在 Rx 端可能相同。

Matt, do you want me to?

馬特，你想要我嗎？

Sure. Yes, just maybe in general. I think we would be coy about it, Bruce, real quick. I think the one thing about our business that's surprising diving into it is that we don't attach a lot of additional products. And that's one area that, obviously, we have a high concentration in Rx. Wouldn't surprise you because you can go to our site and see exactly what are our top sellers. I think that's a big area of opportunity to have a bigger basket over time. And Bruce, what were you going to say, sorry?

當然。是的，也許只是一般而言。我想我們會對此保持含糊其辭，Bruce，非常快。我認為我們的業務令人驚訝的一件事是我們沒有附加很多額外的產品。顯然，這是我們高度關注 Rx 的一個領域。不會讓您感到驚訝，因為您可以訪問我們的網站並確切了解我們的暢銷產品。我認為隨著時間的推移，這是一個擁有更大籃子的大機會。布魯斯，對不起，你要說什麼？

Right. I mean, as far as the categories, it's pretty much the same tried and true, flea, tick, heartworm preventatives. It's really concentrated around the maintenance medications. We really don't give a breakdown of per category. But in the past, we've always mentioned flea, tick and heartworm make up an overwhelming majority of our business. And then that's held true today. There's definitely more opportunity moving forward with new SKUs that are coming to market and also the opportunity to add on with additional items. So that will continue. But I think the breakdown by channel is not something that we are willing to share with the public today.

正確的。我的意思是，就類別而言，跳蚤、蜱蟲、心絲蟲預防劑幾乎都是一樣的。它真的集中在維護藥物周圍。我們真的沒有給出每個類別的細分。但在過去，我們總是提到跳蚤、蜱蟲和心絲蟲占我們業務的絕大部分。今天也是如此。隨著即將上市的新 SKU 以及添加其他項目的機會，肯定會有更多的機會向前發展。所以這將繼續。但我認為按渠道細分並不是我們今天願意與公眾分享的東西。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Ben Rose with Battle Road Research.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Battle Road Research 的 Ben Rose。

A couple of questions with regard to the pet telehealth service that you've been hinting at, Matt. Is there anything you can reveal in terms of what sort of benefits you might be taking a look at, what the timing might be for actually launching such a service so we can sort of prepare ourselves for that kind of time frame?

馬特，關於您一直暗示的寵物遠程醫療服務的幾個問題。關於您可能正在考慮什麼樣的好處，實際啟動此類服務的時間可能是什麼，以便我們可以為這種時間框架做好準備，您有什麼可以透露的嗎？

I had assumed that was going to whet your appetite. You in particular because I know you've asked me about this before. Not yet, I mean, the reason why I'm bringing it up is I don't want to surprise investors and analysts like yourself. I can tell you this that our customers absolutely love it. And there's a unique take that we'll have on this type of service that no one else has really thought through. And when we launch it, it's going to be really thoughtful.

我以為那會激起你的胃口。特別是你，因為我知道你以前問過我這個問題。還沒有，我的意思是，我提出它的原因是我不想讓像你這樣的投資者和分析師感到驚訝。我可以告訴你，我們的客戶絕對喜歡它。我們將對這種類型的服務採取獨特的態度，這是其他人從未真正想過的。當我們推出它時，它會非常周到。

The reason why I'm not preannouncing on an earnings call, but I'm talking about the pilot is I think there are a lot of investors and stakeholders who are expecting deployment of capital on partnerships and M&A. And I've certainly hinted at that. And we're pretty active in thinking through all that. But the pet telehealth service, in particular, is pretty unique to PetMeds because we are already seen by our customers as experts. So when we deployed this and rolled it out, the feedback has been incredible. So stay tuned. I hope to have something fulsome to discuss by our next earnings call.

我之所以沒有在財報電話會議上預先宣布，而是在談論試點，是因為我認為有很多投資者和利益相關者期望在合作夥伴關係和併購方面部署資本。我肯定已經暗示過這一點。我們非常積極地思考所有這些。但寵物遠程醫療服務對於 PetMeds 來說尤其獨特，因為我們已經被客戶視為專家。因此，當我們部署並推出它時，反饋令人難以置信。敬請期待。我希望在我們的下一次財報電話會議上討論一些有趣的事情。

Okay. Great. And with regard to the advertising mix, Matt, I know that this is a big part of your expertise and you've been taking a closer look at what's been going on. Can you maybe just give a little bit of perspective on whether you're seeing any of the advertising rates for keywords and so forth on some of the major social media platforms, whether that's starting to stabilize or do you expect that to continue to be competitive going forward?

好的。偉大的。關於廣告組合，馬特，我知道這是你專業知識的重要組成部分，你一直在仔細研究正在發生的事情。您能否就您是否在某些主要社交媒體平台上看到關鍵字等的任何廣告費率給出一些看法，無論是開始穩定還是您希望它繼續具有競爭力向前走？

Yes. No. I think the, well, there's kind of a macro, micro answer. The macro is the social media platforms, in particular, anything owned by Facebook. Certainly, there's less supply. The Apple IDFA action has limited the amount of supply. You just can't target as well as you used to. And so lack of supply, same demand, prices go up. And I think that's the macro piece, particularly on social in terms of CPMs increasing.

是的。不，我認為，嗯，有一種宏觀、微觀的答案。宏觀是社交媒體平台，特別是 Facebook 擁有的任何東西。當然，供應較少。 Apple IDFA 行動限制了供應量。你只是不能像以前那樣瞄準目標。因此供應不足，需求相同，價格上漲。我認為這是宏觀因素，特別是在每千次展示費用增加方面的社交方面。

I think the micro piece would be the fact that we've had the same playbook for many years on returning a new customer acquisition, very optimized for returning capital very quickly. And that precludes you from doing discovery of top-of-the-funnel and broader awareness in the category, which like you heard in the prepared remarks, really does add inefficiency when you start testing. But overall, I'm pretty confident over time we'll figure out that mix of top-of-the-funnel marketing because we're so widely known as a brand.

我認為微觀部分是這樣一個事實，即多年來我們在返回新客戶獲取方面擁有相同的劇本，非常適合快速返回資本。這使您無法發現漏斗頂部和對該類別的更廣泛認識，就像您在準備好的評論中聽到的那樣，確實會在您開始測試時增加效率低下。但總的來說，我非常有信心隨著時間的推移我們會找出頂級渠道營銷的組合，因為我們作為一個品牌廣為人知。

So long-winded answer is the market in general for social impressions is pretty high. I don't think it's going to get a lot higher. I think the other channels actually have settled down. And then I think for us, it's figuring out the right segments and the right message to go after within those channels. But I'm overall very confident that the hard work of unwinding everything has been done this quarter and then we should see net improvements every time we talk.

如此冗長的答案是市場對社會印象的總體印象相當高。我不認為它會變得更高。我認為其他渠道實際上已經安定下來。然後我認為對我們來說，它是在這些渠道中找出正確的細分市場和正確的信息。但我總體上非常有信心，本季度已經完成了解除一切的艱苦工作，然後我們每次談話時都應該看到淨改善。

Okay. Great. And if I may, just one more question. With respect to your relationships with the veterinarian community, it sounds like that's a real strength of the company. The question I have specifically, is there any thought to making more of an outreach to sell directly to the vets, selling prescription and OTC medications so that they can, in turn, turn around and sell that product to their customers since so many pet owners turn to their vets for purchasing this kind of prescription medication.

好的。偉大的。如果可以的話，還有一個問題。關於您與獸醫界的關係，這聽起來像是公司的真正優勢。我有一個具體的問題，是否有任何想法直接向獸醫銷售處方藥和非處方藥，以便他們可以反過來將產品銷售給他們的客戶，因為有這麼多寵物主人轉向他們的獸醫購買這種處方藥。

Yes. Great question. Nothing to announce here, but the reason why I keep emphasizing that stat is it is a asset that we have that I think is really, really underutilized. And that would make a lot of sense because if you think about the $10 billion medication market, 75% of that market is distributed through the vet. We're fans of vets. We talk to vets all the time. We have a vet pharmacy, and we are interacting with vets every day. We're just not having business relationships with them. We're having very transactional relationships with them around authorization.

是的。很好的問題。這裡沒有什麼可宣布的，但我一直強調統計數據的原因是它是我們擁有的一種資產，我認為它確實沒有得到充分利用。這很有意義，因為如果您考慮 100 億美元的藥物市場，該市場的 75% 是通過獸醫分配的。我們是獸醫的粉絲。我們一直和獸醫交談。我們有一家獸醫藥房，我們每天都在與獸醫互動。我們只是沒有與他們建立業務關係。我們在授權方面與他們建立了非常交易的關係。

So very clearly, to have 75% of a market not being activated by a retailer is something that is interesting to us, but nothing to announce now. And I would say, overall, the more you can do with that to make your lives easier in terms of whether it's telemedicine, whether it's appointments, everything else that they have to deal with outside of treating pets, I think, would be welcome. So I do think it's an advantage. I do. It's something that we're definitely looking at as a future opportunity.

很明顯，75% 的市場不被零售商激活是我們感興趣的事情，但現在沒有什麼可宣布的。我想說的是，總的來說，無論是遠程醫療，還是預約，我認為除了治療寵物之外，他們必須處理的所有其他事情，你都可以用它來讓你的生活更輕鬆，這將是受歡迎的。所以我認為這是一個優勢。我願意。我們肯定將其視為未來的機會。

Our question-and-answer portion of the call has ended. I would now like to turn the call back to Matt Hulett, the company's CEO for his concluding remarks.

我們的電話問答部分已經結束。我現在想把電話轉回給公司首席執行官 Matt Hulett，聽取他的總結髮言。

Thank you, operator. As you just heard, the future of PetMeds is much broader than just a prescription e-commerce company. We are building our strategy out and working hard to transform into a broader e-commerce and subscription brand that reflects and leverages our status as the trusted pet health expert. I will continue to detail our progress and look forward to providing you with updates in the not-too-distant future. Thank you for listening in. Operator, this ends the conference call.

謝謝你，運營商。正如您剛剛聽說的那樣，PetMeds 的未來遠不止是一家處方藥電子商務公司。我們正在製定我們的戰略，並努力轉型為一個更廣泛的電子商務和訂閱品牌，以反映和利用我們作為值得信賴的寵物健康專家的地位。我將繼續詳細介紹我們的進展，並期待在不久的將來為您提供更新。感謝您收聽。接線員，電話會議到此結束。

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，此時您可以斷開您的線路。感謝您的參與。