We believe the holiday season is an ideal time of year to debut. In addition, we believe this will be accretive to our existing business as we view this as a new channel opportunity, utilizing our existing infrastructure and resources to enhance our growth opportunity and control our destiny and perhaps meet consumers in different verticals. While our operations have been negatively affected by the macro elements of the economy and pricing disruptions, we believe our strategic initiatives of enhancing our global brand awareness campaigns, diversifying our product categories and innovating our technology will help drive measurable growth in the years to come. I will now turn the presentation over to Clint Pete, our CFO, to provide detailed insight into Q4’s financial performance.
Clint, please proceed.
Clint Pete: Thanks, Don. Today, I’ll provide a summary of key financials for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2023. Additional details can be found in our earnings press release that we issued this afternoon and our Form 10-K, which we expect to file this evening. Please note that all percentage comparisons are to the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2022, unless specified otherwise. First, we’ll start on Slide 8 with the comparative analysis of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 compared to the same period 1 year ago. In total, net sales for Q4 2023 totaled $5.6 million versus $9.3 million, a decrease of 40% due primarily to the factors Don previously mentioned. Net sales for our online channel segment, which is primarily direct-to-consumer and includes charlesandcolvard.com, moissaniteoutlet.com, charlesandcolvarddirect.com, marketplaces, drop-ship retail and other pure-play outlets, totaled $4.2 million for the quarter or a decrease of 27%, but now representing 75% of total net sales, up from 62%, 1 year ago.
Net sales for our traditional segment, which consists of wholesale and brick-and-mortar customers totaled $1.4 million for the quarter or a decrease of 61%, representing now 25% of total net sales, down from 38% of net sales in the year ago quarter. Finished jewelry net sales decreased 23% for the quarter, represented 84% of total sales in the quarter, up from 65% of sales in the fourth quarter 1 year ago, as we further position ourselves in the fine jewelry market. Loose jewel net sales decreased 73% for the quarter, as we mentioned in prior calls, due in part to our shift towards finished jewelry and direct-to-consumer strategies, while many domestic and international distributors reduced their forecast and overall inventories through the softer economic environment.
Looking at sales by geography. Nearly all the sales in the fourth quarter were derived in the U.S. while international net sales reported in the quarter were only $100,000. Direct-to-consumer and finished jewelry opportunities, which remain core to the company were somewhat less impacted as evidenced by the lesser decline in online channels and finished jewelry net sales in our traditional segment, in particular, loose jewel net sales. Moving to Slide 9 to discuss gross margin. We reported a negative gross margin of 90% versus 41% positive gross margin in the year ago quarter or a gross loss of $5 million versus a $3.8 million in gross profit in the year ago quarter. The primary driver for this negative gross margin in Q4 2023 is a $5.9 million inventory write-down as pricing pressure and constrained consumer demand impacted the net realizable value of certain grades of our non-Forever One Moissanite and lab-grown diamond raw material and gems, falling below the current carrying costs.
For Q4 2023, total operating expenses increased 16%, representing 77% of total net sales compared to 40% in the year ago quarter. Sales and marketing expenses increased 11% to $3 million in support of our top-of-funnel brand awareness initiatives and G&A expenses were $1.4 million for the quarter compared to $1.1 million in the year ago quarter or a 28% increase. For sales and marketing, we continue to invest in marketing and brand awareness initiatives that we believe will allow us to build upon our brands and have direct access to the consumer. The primary increase in G&A for Q4 2023 was due in large part to an increase in bad debt expense and legal fees. We reported a net loss for Q4 2023 of $9.3 million or $0.30 loss per diluted share compared to a net income of $40,000 or $0.00 earnings per diluted share in the year-ago period.
