1-800-FLOWERS.COM Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 1, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the 1800flowers.com Fiscal 20 24 Second Quarter and Year End Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. Would now like to turn the conference over to Andy Millavoy, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 20 Q2 earnings call. Joining us today are Jim McCann, Chairman and CEO Tom Hartnett, President and Bill Shea, our CFO. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the statements we make on today's call are covered by the Safe Harbor disclaimer contained in our press release and public documents. During this call, we will make forward looking statements with predictions, projections and other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those contained in our press release and public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Speaker 1

The company disclaims any obligation to update any of the forward looking statements that may be made or discussed during this call. Additionally, We will discuss certain supplemental financial measures that were not prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the tables of our earnings release. And now, I'll turn call over to Jim.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Andy, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. This morning, I'll begin with a brief overview of our 2nd quarter performance and then it over to Tom, who will provide a business update. We will conclude with financial review from Bill, and then we'll open the call for your questions. Heading into the Q2, we expected our sales trends to improve, our gross profit margin recovery and our operating expenses to decline.

Speaker 2

Our performance was essentially in line with our expectations as our gross profit margin recovery and expense optimization efforts helped offset what turned out to be a softer than anticipated consumer environment. Most notably, our gross profit market expanded nicely, and as Bill will highlight further, Our pace of margin recovery is happening at a good rate. This was our 5th consecutive quarter of year over year margin and we are well on our path to returning to our historical mean annual gross margin rate in the low 40s percent range. Our gross profit margin is benefiting from a combination of a reversion to the mean of certain commodity costs and our work smarter initiatives that are centered on operating more efficiently. As Tom will highlight further, we are regularly evaluating opportunities to improve our top line through our relationship innovation initiatives and this performance will only further be void by the improvements we are seeing in our gross and operating margins.

Speaker 2

Before I ask Tom to provide the business update, I did want to take this opportunity to highlight a new organization that we are very proud to partner with this holiday season. As many of you know, Smile Farms is our signature philanthropic partner whose mission is to create meaningful work opportunities for people with disabilities. Their work generates purpose and pride and enhances life skills and fosters socialization. This holiday season, we are proud to partner with another organization whose mission is closely aligns with that of Smile Farms. During this past holiday season, we partnered with a non profit called the 1st Step Staffing to employ approximately 3 50 individuals in our Atlanta distribution facility.

Speaker 2

1st Step is an organization that provides employment opportunities and resources to homeless individuals who want to reenter the workforce and improve their lives. They not only provide employment opportunities, but they also provide additional support services, such as providing send transportation to and from work to position these individuals for success. They are a terrific organization that does great work and we are to be able to partner with them. Now, I'll turn the call over to Tom for the business update.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll provide an update on our merchandising efforts as well as user interface enhancements. During the Q2, we generated $130,100,000 in adjusted EBITDA as our work smarter efficiency initiatives combined with improving macroeconomic factors contributed to a 2 30 basis consumer environment, especially amongst our lower income tier customers. As lower income customers continue to be most impacted by the macroeconomic pressures, we continue to see this customer cohort reduce purchases the most. Conversely, AOV increased approximately 3% As our upper income customers continue to represent a greater portion of our overall population, they continue to gravitate toward our higher priced bundle products that provide a great gift and value.

Speaker 3

During the first half of our fiscal year, We have been prudent with our marketing spend in a challenging consumer environment in which we didn't see an adequate return on investment. As Jim mentioned, under our relationship innovation efforts, we are regularly evaluating our offerings, pricing and bundling opportunities to ensure we have price points for each of our customer segments, and we are actively managing the pricing elasticity of our product portfolio. Our focus on the customer journey, providing thoughtful gifting options and having the appropriate pricing at all ends of the spectrum from value to luxury has never been greater. During the Q2, we introduced lower price points and emphasized gifts that are in our lower price ranges to attract customers who may be more price sensitive. This includes providing new value offerings such as our Flowers and Fields collection at 100 Flowers that features custom crafted bouquets that match an array of sentiments and provide great value beginning at 39.99 And we continue to lean into new products and bundling offerings for customers who are looking to wow their recipients.

Speaker 3

Bundles allow us to feature products from our different brands and conveniently ship them to the recipient in the same package. This is also a great way to introduce our customers to our family of brands and give us a competitive advantage by marketing these bundles across multiple brand Web These gift bundles provide great value to our customers and we continue to see customers trade up in price points for these wonderful gifts. As an example, we leveraged Personalization Mall to launch a set of food gifts with a personalized item, such as our Harry and David Charcuterie gift bundled with a personalized maple cutting board. This program was launched as a test and it has exceeded our expectations. We believe there's a lot of opportunity here and it once again demonstrates how our brands can complement one another and give our slightly better day placement than we had a year ago as it's midweek and a few days past the Super Bowl, which should be favorable to us.

Speaker 3

We're excited about our new Trio bundle that features our 1-eight 100 Flowers and Roses, Harry and David Wine and Sherry's Berries to create a magnificent gift. This trio bundle combines gifts from 3 of our brands and ships them in a single box that can be delivered overnight. They sure to provide an extraordinary experience for the recipient and is a great last minute gift idea. Through our Gift and More marketplace, which features curated items from local sellers, we can offer customers a broader assortment of gifts across a number of categories, including jewelry, spa, gardening, and home decor to name a few. Providing customers with a variety of gifting options is a core strength of ours.

Speaker 3

We have an amazing family of brands and products that we can leverage to help our customers express every sentiment. Now I'll turn it over to Bill to provide the financial review.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. As Tim and Tom highlighted, we

Speaker 3

continue to see significant improvements

Speaker 4

in our gross profit margin, remain steadfast in our work smarter initiatives that are focused on operating more efficiently through the use of technology and automation and also includes our logistics, labor and inventory optimization efforts. This enabled us to offset what turned out to be a softer than expected 2nd quarter top line performance. Going into the Q2, we expected the consumer environment for discretionary spending to improve as compared to the past few quarters. Quarter over quarter sales trends did improve with our total revenue declining 8.4 and our e commerce revenue declining 6.6 percent, but we had anticipated the pace of improvement to occur at a faster rate. Our gross margin improvement helped offset the softer top line.

Speaker 4

The pace of improvement is better than we anticipated. 2nd quarter gross margin improved 230 basis points to 43.3 percent and this was on top of the 90 basis points improvement a year ago. This represents our 5th consecutive quarter of year over year improvement. As Jim said, we are well on our path returning to our historical gross profit margin rate and by the end of this fiscal year, we now expect to be at approximately 40%. Our gross margin benefited from lower inbound freight costs, a decline in certain commodity costs, lower labor costs and our work smarter initiatives for the driving operational efficiencies.

Speaker 4

A great example of these efficiencies include the labor savings we've been able to produce to our automation efforts. Our main distribution facilities in Medford, Hopewell and Atlanta are all in their 2nd, 3rd year automation and we continue to achieve further productivity gains. We reduced the labor cost per package at facilities by approximately 4% for the month of December and the first half of the current fiscal year as compared to a year ago. Additionally, due to our inventory optimization efforts, our inventory levels were in good shape heading into and out of the holiday season, leading to fewer inventory write offs. We also had a helping hand for Mother Nature, provided us with good weather this holiday season, leading to fewer shipping delays and related customer credits.

Speaker 4

These factors helped offset a more promotional environment as well as a new fuel shipping surcharge that was introduced later in the holiday period. We also continue to optimize expenses and excluding the impairment charge and the accounting impact of the non qualified compensation plan on our P and L, We reduced our operating expenses by $10,800,000 as compared to a year ago. As a result of these factors, our 2nd quarter adjusted EBITDA was $130,100,000 as compared to $131,400,000 in the prior year. Before we review net income for the quarter, I want to address the non cash impairment charge we took in the Consumer Flow and Gifts segment related to the Personalization Mall Trademark. As many of you know, we periodically review the value of our intangible assets.

Speaker 4

Our revenue forecast for personalization law, combined with a higher discount rate resulting from the higher interest rate environment, required us to reevaluate the value of the intangibles on our balance sheet. Consequently, we recorded a $19,800,000 non cash payment charge for our personalization mall business during the quarter. Net income for the quarter was $62,900,000 or $0.97 share including the non cash impairment charge of $19,800,000 or $0.30 per share. Adjusted net income was $82,700,000 or $1.27 per share compared with adjusted net income of $82,700,000 or $1.28 per share in the year period. Let's review segment results.

Speaker 4

Our Gourmet Food and Gift Baskets segment Revenues declined 8.2 percent to $540,000,000 compared with $588,400,000 in the prior year period. Contributed to this decline was our wholesale business, which declined $18,700,000 as several retailers had reduced their orders last spring for holiday season in light of the consumer environment. This segment's gross profit margin expanded 220 basis points 43.2% favored 41% in the prior year period, benefiting from lower freight costs, a decline in certain commodity costs, lower labor costs and lower inventory write offs. Segment contribution margin declined $5,400,000 to $118,200,000 segment contribution margin of $123,500,000 in the prior year period, primarily due to the revenue decline. Now Consumer Floral and Gift segment, revenues decreased 8% to $254,800,000 compared with 2 $77,000,000 a year ago.

Speaker 4

Profit margin expanded 230 basis points to 42.8 percent compared with 40.5% in the prior year period, improving on lower freight and labor costs. Segment contribution margin excluding the impairment charge was $30,400,000 compared with segment contribution margin of $27,900,000 in the year period. Now BlueMed segment. Revenues for the quarter decreased 17.1 percent to 27,200,000 Revenues were impacted by the lower order volume processed by BloomNet, which included the expected decline in orders by 1 of our business partners following their merger with a competitor. Gross profit margin was 47.6% compared with 42.2% in the prior year period, primarily reflecting lower freight costs as well as product mix.

Speaker 4

Margin was $9,100,000 compared with $9,300,000 in the prior year period. Turning to our balance sheet. Our cash and investment position was $312,000,000 at the end of the second quarter. Inventory declined to $161,300,000 compared with inventory of $201,100,000 at the end of last year's Q2. In terms of debt, we had $195,000,000 in term debt and no borrowings under our revolving credit facility.

Speaker 4

As a result, our net cash was $117,000,000 compared with $34,700,000 at the end of last year's 2nd During the quarter, we entered into a 10b5-1 stock repurchase plan and repurchased $5,400,000 of our stock under this plan as of last This amounts to approximately 550,000 shares that were repurchased at an average cost of $9.73 per share. Let's turn to our guidance. We are lowering our fiscal 2024 revenue guidance while maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance as we expect our gross margin improvement, combined with our expense optimization efforts, to offset the softer revenue outlook. Fiscal 2024, we now expect total revenues on a percentage basis to decline in the 7% to 9% range as compared with the prior year. We are affirming our adjusted EBITDA guidance to be in the range of $95,000,000 to $100,000,000 and our free cash flow to be in the range of $60,000,000 to $65,000,000 I'll turn the call back to Jim his closing comments before we open it up for Q and A.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Bill. As we look back on the first half of the year and forward to the second half, Our quarter over quarter sales trends continue to move in the right direction, albeit at a slower pace. We expect this to be offset by the gross profit margin recovery, which is now recurring at a faster pace than we expected. Combined with our relationship innovation and work smarter initiatives, We are having a clear and direct impact on our business. We expect these factors to further fuel our performance in a broader consumer discretionary environment improves.

Speaker 2

While it's difficult to predict when the consumer environment and in particular for the lower income consumer is going to become more favorable, We believe our results will only be further buoyed by our relationship innovation and WorkSmart initiatives that are evergreen and well underway. Now before I open the call to your questions, a public service announcement. The Valentine holiday is only a couple of weeks away, We suggest you place your orders for all those special people in your life today. Now your questions.

Operator

First question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti and Company. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Good morning. This is Alex on for Anthony. My first question is regarding the celebrations passport members. Could you share a little bit more about spending of those members during the holiday season 1st non members and give a little bit of color around Passport membership and order frequency and whether that change much from the prior year?

Speaker 2

Good morning, Alex. This is Jim. Too bad Anthony isn't here. That was the best pronunciation of his name we've heard so far And he missed it. But to your question, Alex, Tom will give you the details on your question.

Speaker 2

I would say overall, the Fastweb customer is behaving as it has and as it continues now for quite a number of years. I think you'll hear later on that we have a lot of program programmatic plans to enhance the Passport It's gradually moving from just a free shipping capability to now a loyalty program, special office. So this is a special group of people and we're trying to treat them in the special way that we should. So we have a stream of programs that you'll see introduced throughout the course of this year. But Tom, as to the specifics of Alex's question,

Speaker 3

Yes. So trend lines year over year are the same as a year ago. We continue to see that Passport Purchasing 2 to 3 times more than our average customer and so you know all those signs continue to move in the same direction.

Speaker 4

And that FFO customer represents about 20% of our revenues. Right.

Speaker 5

Appreciate the color. Thank you, guys. And I think you commented that commodity costs are Normalizing to the mean, curious about one other cost regarding ocean freight, Given some of the Foodi attacks in the Red Sea, are you seeing any significant freight cost increases?

Speaker 2

Alex, Bill will give you the color on that, but who would have thought a year ago that we'd be talking about booties, but we are. And We're anticipating some impact, but we haven't yet. Bill, specifically what's going on with ocean freight costs?

Speaker 4

Yes. Due to the tax Certainly the spot markets have jumped up pretty dramatically on ocean freight. We have contracted That basically carries through the end of the fiscal year and so far the carriers have honored those rates.

Speaker 6

The big

Speaker 4

unknown is how long the issues in the Red Sea persist and whether that affects future negotiations and next year's holiday season. We begin negotiations for those rates in

Speaker 2

a few months and a lot will depend on what happens in So Alex, overall color on that too is like so many companies that are U. S.-based, We're taking the steps we can longer range to lessen our dependency for those commodity items that we do import so that we can source them domestically. I think pretty much every company in the U. S. Has started a program like that and we'll continue to pursue that.

Speaker 2

But if the tensions in the Red Sea area continue into the summer time, we would anticipate that they would have an impact on our holiday imports that primarily arrive in the summer But we are, as Bill said, through the end of the fiscal year, the June fiscal year end, we don't anticipate a hit.

Speaker 5

Appreciate the color there. And last question from me. Curious how you guys are thinking about acquisition opportunities for 2024, 2025?

Speaker 2

Well, I'd say we're Always in the market looking to see if there's a way that we can flush out the offerings we have for our customers or find A service that would be beneficial to our service offerings suite of several service offerings we have for our customers. And the 3rd area that we look for acquisitions to help us is with talent acquisitions. I would say There's a lot available right now because I think the cost of capital, which has changed so dramatically in the last 12 months, 24 months, has Really put the hurt on so many companies. So there's lots available, but we're being very judicious about what we look at and Really being disciplined about does it genuinely help us, does it genuinely make us a better company, does it improve our service offering for our customers. So we're active.

Speaker 2

There's a lot available, but I wouldn't expect that we're going to be doing anything too dramatic.

Speaker 5

Appreciate all the context there. Thanks for taking questions.

Speaker 2

Sure. Thanks, Alex.

Operator

And our next question comes from Michael Kupinski with Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thank you and thank you for taking my questions. A couple of them. Can you talk about maybe I'm going to parse the commodity price opportunity there. Can you talk about how commodity prices and where they are relative to the mean in terms of maybe 1%? So you can kind of give us a sense of What are the opportunities left yet from where we are right now in terms of commodity prices relative to the means?

Speaker 2

Well, I would say, this is Jim, Michael. I would say 2 years ago, it was a peak in terms of how we got hit with commodity prices. It started, of course, fuel when it went to well over $100 a barrel, surcharges were high. We did Bill already mentioned that we did have a surcharge hit That came at the very beginning of December this year that cost us a few $1,000,000 this year. The other commodities that are important to us, you know, we bake a lot, we prepare a lot of food.

Speaker 2

So butter, flour, Eggs are all commodities that we use a lot of. Bill, where would you say we are on Natsky? Now I know we're not back to the 2019 kind of levels Where labor by the way is 1, it's not a commodity, but it's a cost ingredient and that's not going to come back. Whatever we did in terms of increases are going to stay, but the pressure there is alleviated. Where are we on actual commodities now, Bill?

Speaker 4

Yes, it's split. There's Some commodities you mentioned, butter and eggs, those are certainly back to more their historical means, but there are Others like sugar and cocoa that is still very high. If you take a step back from a gross margin standpoint, we're actually exceeding where our expectations were, up 2 30 basis points for the quarter, up 2 80 basis points year to date, 1st 2 quarters of the year. You can kind of split those gains into almost 2 buckets, the kind of some of the macro items, ocean freight, some of those commodity costs that you mentioned, labor availability, The course that you mentioned, labor availability and having labor availability just gives us A lot of flexibility, so it allows us automation efforts, operational efficiencies, our logistics initiatives, Inventory planning, inventory goes both in and out of the quarter, was that the proper levels that we needed it to be at, which led to less inventory

Speaker 2

But last year on the inventory side, like so many companies, we inventory up because of the logistic challenges, so we were sure we had the product. This year we didn't have to buy so much so early.

Speaker 4

That's right. So again, as a result of maybe some of the macro trends and the global supply chain being more secure at the time, us being able to manage inventory at the appropriate level, which led to less inventory write offs, which led to improved margins. So really a combination of both macro as well as internal work

Speaker 2

So overall, commodity costs are still higher than the mean we talked about, but have been improving? That's correct.

Speaker 4

Okay. Certain components of commodity costs have come back to the mean, but others are

Speaker 3

still at very high levels.

Speaker 6

Okay. And when do we begin to comp against the substantial portion of the Work Smarter initiatives you implemented?

Speaker 3

WorkSmart is an ongoing effort.

Speaker 4

So we continue to add to that. But certainly, an example is all automation efforts. We're in many of our distribution facilities, we're now in the 2nd year. In one facility, we're in the 3rd year of those automation efforts. Our labor efficiencies are down and our labor cost per package are down like 4% this year

Speaker 2

No, our efficiencies are up. Our labor efficiencies are up, but our labor costs per package are down because of the automation. And we'll continue, Michael, with those automation efforts. So as Bill mentioned, we're in a 3rd and or second year depending on the facility and we're implementing programs on top of that now.

Speaker 4

So this is a long following effort, Michael, and we're going to continue to get savings

Speaker 6

Got you. And then can you talk a little bit about Personalization Mall then in terms of its performance and how you are looking at Personalization Mall for the balance of this year and what expectations you might have there?

Speaker 2

This is a combination of things that have happened with personalization mold. Tom will give you the full color on that.

Speaker 3

Yes, Michael. The personalization wall business was roughly in line with the segment, maybe a little bit better performance than the segment for the quarter. And we're expecting just like our other segments that the rate of The sales trend for the second half of the year will be in a better direction than they were in the first half of the year.

Speaker 2

What program you introduced there in personalization models, we launched the rechristened IP around Things Remembered. So that's a new brand with a new product line and a different range of product. That brand is a well known brand It gives us the opportunity to be in a broader range of products. So we higher price points, really fancy items like the vase we have, Tell Michael about that.

Speaker 3

Yes. So that's one of our better sellers every day. I mean it's a value that I think retails for over $150 and Obviously it's personalized and it's a wonderful

Speaker 2

Beautiful item.

Speaker 3

Beautiful item. So our AOVs and again we're just Getting started there because when we acquired the IP, it is taking us some time to build up the and their best sellers. So, you know, we got to a portion of that this holiday season, but the average ticket is, you know, 175 basis points higher or 175 times, you know, The personalization wall of AOD, so, you know, it's a good price point, great gifts in dealing and addressing a different cohort Whether it be weddings or retirements or special moments in people's lives. But all leveraging off the same fixed cost, Right. Same fixed facility that we have there at personalization mall, Michael.

Speaker 6

Got you. One last question, if you don't mind. In terms of your revenue guidance for the year, What expectations are baked into your guidance in terms of like the general economy? Are you can you kind of give us some sense of what those expectations are?

Speaker 4

Bill? Michael, we revised our revenue guidance It could be down 7% to 9% with the first half of the year, you'll be down around 9%, so applying a slightly better trend into the second half of the year. I think we've modified our guidance. I think at the beginning of the year, we were hopeful that the improvements that we're seeing would be even more accelerated both to the second quarter and into the second half of the year. So it is improving at a slower pace than what we originally anticipated and that is tied to the macro environment not being as robust as we hoped it would be.

Speaker 2

So baked into that is the trend continues to improve just not at the pace we were hoping for.

Speaker 6

Got you. Okay, that's all I have. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Michael.

Operator

And our next question today comes from Linda Bolton Weiser with D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Yes, hello.

Speaker 2

Hi, Linda.

Speaker 7

Hi. So I was wondering just Your comments about the consumer environment, I mean consumer sentiment, Michigan consumer sentiment has been below 70 now for like 2 years. So it just seems like we're stuck in This low consumer sentiment thing, which is not good for your business, obviously. But if it just persists, let's say, for another year, What would you do different in your business? Is there anything additional you could do in terms of cost structure?

Speaker 7

Or like how would you think about things if this just continued on like this with revenue declines like this for another year? How would you think about What would you think about doing differently?

Speaker 2

Thanks for your question, Linda. We missed it last quarter. Really good question and one we've talked a lot about over the last month or 2. And the answer is a couple of things. One is, we're still recovering from The COVID bounce that so many of our e commerce kinds of companies like us experience.

Speaker 2

So we're still in that Back end of the wave of that. The second thing is that I think the consumer sentiment generally is pretty good, But it's bifurcated and there are categories like ours are seeing it. We look very hard at the competitive data that we have, that we buy. And the good news, bad news. Bad news is everyone in our categories has gotten hit with the back end of this COVID wave.

Speaker 2

The good news is that we're holding share or gaining share. So good and bad. And what we think would if this trend didn't continue on the pace and it is the recovery And it went the other way. We have several levers that we could pull to make sure that we continued On the profitability trend that we're on, which is quite healthy, but we think could be if the consumer trend continues on this pace and maybe improves a little bit, Then it's really good. If it can if it declines from the trend we're on and gets worse, then we have quite a bit of leverage in our operating model to make that to make up for that and to make sure our bottom line continues to be strong.

Speaker 4

Bill, what

Speaker 2

else would you add to that?

Speaker 4

Yes, just from a top line perspective, we continuously evaluate our offerings, our pricing, our bundling To ensure we have the appropriate price points for each of our consumer segments and we have some pricing elasticity In that, so we are very consumer focused trying to improve the consumer Ultimately, to buck against some of those macro trends.

Speaker 2

When you talk about elasticity, you mean price points both at the higher end and the lower end?

Speaker 4

From a costing perspective, our trend lines on our gross margin Moving at an accelerated pace back towards the mean of the kind of the low 40s. So we continue to expect And gross margins will improve and our expense optimization, you've seen that for the last year and a half and we're going to continue those efforts to watch any softness in the top line.

Speaker 2

So in summary, we hope it doesn't happen, but we do have capability and plans that if the trend would have turned negative that we'd be in a we'd have the ability to respond to it appropriately.

Speaker 7

Can I ask one more about The Google, I think they've made some additional changes with regard to their blast email marketing that some of my Consumer companies have mentioned, they're trying to figure out what that means for them? Have you analyzed what those changes mean for your marketing processes?

Speaker 2

We have Linda. There's lots of changes and there's both the changes that Google is implementing or talking about implementing what they have implemented and there's also big macro trends that are happening in the marketplace that we feel we're in an awfully good position To weather and respond to and frankly some of the things we experienced during the last quarter give us hope that We're going to be less dependent on the big search engines in the future than we were. 1 of the big assets we've accumulated through the COVID burst was a huge increase in our database and that gives us some flexibility and less dependency on search engine activity. But Tom, you know Really well, the specifics of Linda's question.

Speaker 3

Yes, I mean, I think we're talking up Linda is just another change For Google, which is a very dynamic business and always has changes going on, certainly we also Saw some significant changes in just the SERP and how the landing pages for Google showed up this year, which You know we're always reacting to, you know overall this was, you know a competitive environment. There are CPMs and CPAs, you know were up etcetera. And we kind of expected that to occur. And if you all of your marketing budget or a substantial part of

Speaker 2

your marketing budget Is that that bottom of the funnel kind of activity there, it's going to have big ramifications on you. Fortunately for us, that's not the case.

Speaker 7

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Linda.

Operator

Today's next question comes from Alex Fuhrman with Craig Hallum. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hey guys, thanks very much for taking my question and congratulations on the strong bottom line results in the quarter. Bill, I was wondering You could unpack the lower revenue guidance a little bit more. It seems like the Q2 results were not very far off from what we were all expecting, but the change to the full year revenue guidance is not insignificant. So is it something maybe you're seeing in kind of the low period between Christmas and Valentine's Day that was maybe a little bit disappointing or just curious if you're seeing any kind of early trend lines into Valentine's Day now Or if that's maybe too early?

Speaker 2

Well, it's I would say definitely too early. Valentine's Day is a real pain in the neck Because it's very, very busy for several days. Mother's Day, it's a 2 week ramp up. The holiday quarter is from Thanksgiving on this maybe a week or 2 before Thanksgiving, but Valentine's Day, it's a big burst of business. Customer dynamic changes.

Speaker 2

It goes from majority women to So it's something we it's expensive to prepare for, our cost of goods jumps way up and we have this big burst of business. So yes, it's A little difficult for us to project exactly what will happen at Valentine's Day. But as Tom mentioned, day placement is critical for Valentine's Day. Last year for the first time, the Super Bowl was right before Valentine's Day. So Valentine's Day was Tuesday last year And the Super Bowl was at Sunday and they moved it back a week and it's from its normal schedule to allow more time for the extra Regular season game and it still have 2 weeks from the divisional playoffs till the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2

So We think that we're still going to have that this year. So it's still close to Valentine's Day, but now you have 3 selling days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with people in their normal work routines and not having the distraction of the Super Bowl just 48 hours before So we're expecting all of those things will endure to our benefit. Also we have to watch the weather carefully because that's a big variable. So nothing we're Excited that Valentine's Day is coming. It's a pain in the neck as I've mentioned, I've been through a few of these, but we don't see anything trend wise that would give us any concern or frankly any reason to get up and kick on deals.

Speaker 4

Yes, but Alex, I mean, while our sales trend did improve in the second quarter, It didn't move at the pace of recovery that we had anticipated. So, still a little softer than we wanted it to be. And as a result, our second half of the year, which we had originally thought to be At a faster improvement than we currently That's why we changed our guidance.

Speaker 8

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you both.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Alex.

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Jim McCann for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thanks so much for your time and interest today. Please let us know if you have any other questions. We're available to answer them for you. Please reach out. And Do remember, as Alex just mentioned, Valentine's Day is fast approaching.

Speaker 2

Today is February 1. Valentine's Today is the 14th Valentine's weekend, begins around 8th or 9th. So make sure the people in your life that you care about know how much you care for them. Thanks for your time today.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's

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