LightInTheBox Holding Co Ltd

SWB:L4XA

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for LightInTheBox's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Jenny Cai.

Please go ahead, Jenny.

[Jenny Cai, executive]

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to LightInTheBox's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call.

The company's earnings results were released via Newswire services earlier today and are available on the company's IR website at ir.lightinthebox.com.

On the call from LightInTheBox today are Mr. Jian He, Chairman and CEO; Ms. Yuan Jun Ye, Chief Financial Officer; and Ms. Wenyu Liu, Chief Growth Officer.

Mr. He will provide an overview of the company's strategies and recent developments, followed by Ms. Ye who will go over its financial results.

Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call to questions. Before we proceed, please note that today's discussion may concern forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the company's current expectations.

To understand the factors that could cause results to materially differ from those in forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Please also note that LightInTheBox's earnings press release and this conference call includes the discussions of unaudited GAAP financial measures, as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures.

Please refer to the company's earnings press release, which contains a reconciliation of the audited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited GAAP measures.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to LightInTheBox's Chairman and CEO, Mr. He. Please go ahead.

[Jian He, executive]

Good morning, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining our second quarter 2024 earnings conference call today. The second quarter of 2024 was a challenging one, with the intensified competition and high traffic acquisition costs in the global e-commerce market, continuing to weigh on our top line.

However, the strategical adjustments we made to prioritize profitability in the first quarter proved effectively, resulting in a net income of $0.6 million for the second quarter of 2024, [indiscernible] [ prior year loss ] from the same period of last year and the first quarter of this year. We are pleased to see our determination this [indiscernible] under strong distribution paying off in our bottom line performance.

[indiscernible] the evolving competitive environment to sustain this momentum and drive high-quality development. Meanwhile, we continue to proactively elevate our product quality and refine our differential strategy. Our strategic focus remains on strengthening our localized operations in key markets to precisely identify our target customers better define the competitive advantages and explore potential breakthroughs [indiscernible] we strict to strengthen our brand values and incorporate loyal customer space.

We are making progress in certain product lines, and we are updating you on further development in due course. We are encouraged by the results of our profitability and product optimization initiatives, thus far. And we intend to double down on these core strategies in light of the dynamic global market.

Operational efficiency and profitability enhancement will remain our top priority in the near to midterm. At the same time, we will expand our efforts to upgrade our products, services and the customer experience as well as our localized operations to differentiate our sales and build brand recognition and loyalty.

As always, we are committed to driving high-quality development and delivering sustainable long-term value to all stakeholders.

I now hand over the call over to Yuan Jun to go through our financial results.

[Yuan Jun Ye, executive]

Thank you, Mr. He. Good morning, and good evening, everyone. Before we start a detailed discussion of our financials. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all the financials we present today are in U.S. dollar terms.

Now let me share our financial performance for the quarter. In the second quarter, our total revenues decreased by 64% year-over-year to $69 million, primarily due to the intense competition in the global e-commerce industry. Our gross profit in the second quarter of 2024 was $43 million compared with $110 million in the same quarter of last year, in line with the decrease in sales.

However, our gross margin improved to 62.4% this quarter from 57.5% in the same period last year, mainly driven by our well-received product upgrades and supply-chain advantages. Our total operating expenses decreased by [ 63% ] year-over-year to $43 million from [ $112 ] million in the same period of last year. The decrease was mainly attributable to the decrease in revenue while also benefiting from our efforts to enhance overall operational efficiencies.

Specifically, fulfillment expenses decreased by 49% year-over-year to $5 million. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 66% year-over-year to $32 million. G&A expenses decreased by 22% year-over-year to $6 million as part of G&A expenses. R&D expenses in the second quarter of 2024 were $4 million compared with $5 million in the same quarter of last year.

We maintained our investment in R&D at a relatively high level as we view R&D and AI as essential for advancing product differentiation and operational efficiencies. Moving to our bottom line. We turned profitable in the second quarter. We recorded net income of $0.6 million compared with a loss of $1.5 million in the same quarter of last year. Our adjusted EBITDA was an income of $1.2 million compared with a loss of $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2023.

Profitability was mainly attributable to the gross margin improvement, which in turn was driven by our product upgrades and dedicated cost management efforts. Looking ahead, we will continue to execute our enhanced profitability strategy while also further refining our products and customer services.

This concludes our prepared remarks. We'll be happy to take some questions now.

Operator, please continue.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] As there are no questions now, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.

[Jenny Cai, executive]

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact LightInTheBox's Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website or Piacente Financial Communications. Have a great day.

[Yuan Jun Ye, executive]

Thank you.

[Operator]

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.