Brilliant Earth Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRLT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Edward Yruma: Hey guys. Thanks for taking the question. So two quick ones for me. I guess first we’ve been hearing more chatter about weddings being softer in 2023. I guess just kind of what is your estimate from a top-down perspective on weddings that kind of informs maybe this softer sales guide? And then I guess just stepping back, it sounds like some early successes in fine jewelry. We know historically this carries a stronger gross margin than engagement. But I guess as you look at kind of the offsetting increase in marketing is the push into fine jewelry been kind of margin accretive how should we think about the implications of the model going forward? Thank you.

Beth Gerstein: Great. So as it relates to weddings, as I said earlier, we do think that 2023 is going to be more normalized. Keep in mind, 2022, there were $2.6 million weddings. So it was a peak year in decades. And while I think 2023 is going to be more normalized, I do think that this is a pretty consistent and resilient category overall. So as we look to the future, I think we still have a lot of confidence in the overall category. A few things as it relates to fine jewelry and I’ll certainly let Jeff touch on a few of these points as well. But I think that there’s a lot of benefit for us to continue to drive increased penetration. We’re able to take that bridal customer and continue to market to them, continue to offer a really nice compelling offering and really help to drive LTV as well as overall repeat.

I think we’ve seen a lot of success as it relates to repeat. And so, I think that there’s a lot of synergies in terms of investing in the customer overall and really being able to broaden and make this accretive for us as a company.

Jeff Kuo: And then with respect to gross margin, we do see gross margin opportunity in high margin fine jewelry as well as Beth talked about the opportunity to drive additional repeat purchases and drive additional customer lifetime value. With respect to marketing for fine jewelry, I think more broadly how we think about our marketing spend is if we’re continually managing that dynamically with a strong ROI focus that includes our overall marketing efforts. And I think you see that in our ability to manage and for example, grow or have a strong Q4 EBITDA. And that’s something that we continue to expect to have that discipline in terms of dynamically managing marketing with a strong ROI focus.

Edward Yruma: Thanks so much.

Jeff Kuo: Thanks Ed.

Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question come from the line of Oliver Chen from Cowen. Your line is open.

Oliver Chen: Hi, thanks. Hi, Beth and Jeff, you called out promotions in the prepared remarks. Would love your thoughts on what you’re seeing with the customer in terms of the customer previously being very considered in their purchase and in your guidance. How are you thinking about that relative to the deceleration and weddings? And a follow up, you’ve been very agile in your customer acquisition strategies. What are you seeing with customer acquisition costs and how you’re thinking about targeting, as you have a pretty dynamic bricks and clicks model to, where you acquire plenty of customers physically as well? Thank you very much.

Beth Gerstein: Hi Oliver. Thanks for your questions. So as it relates to promotions, I think we did see a promotional environment in Q4. I would say that our customer is not that discount driven, price is the only thing that they’re looking for, and they’re really looking to connect with the brand that really has value and meaning to them. And I think that’s where we really shine overall. The fact that this is a very big purchase in their life, it has a lot of symbolism and value, I think just makes us much more differentiated here and we’re not really trying to differentiate on offering the biggest discounts. So I think that actually plays to our advantage and we’re going to continue to invest in quality revenue and protect our prices and protect the brand.