ThredUp - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ThredUp second quarter 2023 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, the eighth of August, 2023. I would like to turn the conference over to Alon Rotem, Chief Legal Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Alon Rotem (Chief Legal Officer)

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss ThredUp's second quarter 2023 financial results. With me are James Reinhart, ThredUp CEO and Co-founder, and Sean Sobers, CFO. We posted our press release and supplemental financial information on our investor relations website at ir.thredup.com. This call is being webcast on our IR website, and a replay of this call will be available on the site shortly.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that we will make forward-looking statements during the course of this call, including but not limited to, statements regarding our earnings guidance for the third and fourth fiscal quarters and full year of 2023, future financial performance, including our goal of reaching adjusted EBITDA breakeven, market demand, growth prospects, business strategies and plans, our ability to attract new buyers, and the effects of inflation, increased interest rates, changing consumer habits, and general global economic uncertainty. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," and "expect," as well as similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

You can find more information about these risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could affect our operating results in our SEC filings, earnings press release, and supplemental information posted on our IR website. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. In addition, during the call, we will present certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, GAAP measures. You can find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP measures, in our earnings press release and supplemental information posted on our IR website. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to James Reinhart.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm James Reinhart, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of ThredUp. Thank you for joining ThredUp's second quarter of 2023 earnings call. We are excited to share ThredUp's financial results and key business highlights from our second quarter. In addition to our financial results, we will provide an update on key company-specific initiatives that are contributing to our growth and expansion of adjusted EBITDA. I will then hand it over to Sean Sobers, our Chief Financial Officer, to talk through our second quarter of 2023 financials in more detail and provide our outlook for the third and fourth quarters of 2023. We'll close out today's call with a question and answer session. We are proud to share that we exceeded the high end of our guidance for revenue, gross margin, and adjusted EBITDA.

Revenue was $82.7 million, increasing 8.2% year-over-year. Consolidated gross margin declined 150 basis points year-over-year due to the continued growth of our lower-margin European business. U.S. gross margins were a record 76.4%, increasing 220 basis points year-over-year. Our active buyers in Q2 slightly decreased year-over-year, but were sequentially up 2.5% Q1 to Q2 and have now positively inflected. Orders were up 5% year-over-year. We're very pleased with our improvements to adjusted EBITDA, as we posted a loss of just $5 million, which was a 1,160 basis point expansion year-over-year, and a sequential improvement of 260 basis points from the prior quarter.

Before we dive into the rest of the call, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past 2 years of being a public company. It's been a wild ride. Since ThredUp's initial public offering in March 2021, we have consistently, though, hit or exceeded every single quarterly guidance. Faced with a persistently challenging macro environment and a competitive retail landscape, our team has demonstrated exceptional rigor in forecasting, predicting, and managing the business. I'm proud that we continue to make progress towards our growth and profitability goals, and that notably, at the midpoint of guidance through 2023, we're aiming to grow revenue 13.4% and expand EBITDA 1,000 basis points. When we look across the consumer universe on a revenue growth and margin expansion basis, we believe we are one of the very best performing companies in 2023.

Our leadership philosophy has always been to control the controllable: how we spend our time, the quality of the decisions we make during times of uncertainty, the urgency we have to innovate on behalf of our customers, and the willingness to keep learning what's different this time around. My hat goes off to the incredible team here at ThredUp that's making this happen every day. Let me turn to provide an update on some of the key company initiatives that have powered our growth and market expansion. First, we're continuing to refine our marketplace acceptance strategy. As I shared on last quarter's call, we started testing a new fee for our cleanout service to improve the quality of supply in our marketplace....

After validating that this increased our bag yield of resellable items, as well as the quality and the sell-through of items we received, we've rolled out this new feed to nearly all sellers in our marketplace. We're continuing to collect high margin fees, all while creating a better cleanout service for our best customers and a better selection for our best buyers. Demand for our cleanout service accelerated in Q2, and we don't anticipate any pullback in demand. With increased processing power, our backlog is now at 6 weeks for regular buyers and under 1 week for those who pay for our VIP Services. Second, we're doubling down on efforts to boost growth, retention, and achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction in our history. Last quarter, I detailed our efforts to intercept customers when they are most likely to be unhappy with their experience.

After months of testing an offering called Keep for Credit, where customers can opt to keep select, often low-priced items in exchange for shopping credit instead of making a costly return, we've now rolled this option out to 100% of our customers. The work we've done in this area has generated meaningful improvements to our unit economics, with our return rate year-over-year in Q2 decreasing by more than 500 basis points. In connecting with our Thrift Promise efforts, we also rolled out a new resolution hub in July, a self-service portal that offers instant fixes to common issues that make our experience fall short of being a 10 out of 10 for customers. We believe that collectively, through these initiatives, we will be able to deliver an ever better experience that keeps customers coming back again and again.

Third, we continue to be impressed with the performance and progress of Remix, our European business. The shift to consignment sales has been processed, and early feedback from customers has been positive. We believe that this change will improve Remix's margins over the long term and also expand the selection of high-quality supply. Fourth, our Resale-as-a-Service business continues to provide brands and retailers with the fastest and easiest way to deliver customizable and scalable resale experiences to their customers. In Q2, we launched new programs with 11 brands, including American Eagle, Palm, and SoulCycle. As a reminder, RaaS is the leading provider of end-to-end resale solutions for the apparel ecosystem, including global brands like J.Crew and smaller heritage brands like Michael Stars.

By leveraging ThredUp's marketplace infrastructure, RaaS amplifies our supply advantage, increases our sell-through and return on assets, and expands our long-term profitability metrics by adding sources of recurring high-margin revenue. Finally, given the proliferation of dialogue around artificial intelligence, I want to briefly mention how we are deploying AI at ThredUp. As a business that has now processed more than 172 million one-of-a-kind secondhand items, we have relied on AI for many years across our distribution network. AI helps us to reduce processing costs by substituting activities that would otherwise be done manually, in turn, creating greater economic value. We're leveraging AI in various ways across our product experience, including enhanced search functionality, so the customers can more easily find what they're looking for across our vast selection. Each of these investments positions our business to drive sustainable growth in the quarters and years to come.

I'd like to provide an update on our goal of reaching adjusted EBITDA breakeven. In Q2, we saw yet another quarter of sequential EBITDA improvement since announcing our intention to hit breakeven earlier this year. With each quarter, our confidence level in achieving this goal increases, and we have even clearer sight of hitting this milestone in Q4 of 2023. Let me also emphasize that breakeven is just a waypoint. We are committed to building an enduring business that generates significant free cash flows over time. On our road to profitability and growth, it's also important that we don't lose sight of our pursuit of purpose. ThredUp is, and always has been, a business rooted in an ambitious mission to inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand first.

As we work to further our mission and make a dent in the universe, we hold ourselves accountable to following a business and brand-aligned environmental, social, and governance strategy that guides us and fuels our success. We recently published our second annual impact report, which outlines our strategy and provides a transparent look at how we're impacting our people, our communities, and the planet. We're committed to disclosing our progress each year and raising the bar for what it means to balance purpose and profit. I'm also proud to share that we were recognized for the impact we're having as one of TIME's 100 most influential companies of 2023. This list highlights 100 companies making an extraordinary impact globally. We are honored to be listed alongside some of the world's most iconic brands, including Apple, Patagonia, and Microsoft.

In conclusion, before I turn it over to Sean, I want to close by restating the strength of our Q2 results and our management team's ability to forecast, predict, and manage the business effectively quarter after quarter, driving top-line growth and EBITDA expansion. As we enter our third year as a public company, could not be more proud of the work we are doing and the progress we have made. We are eager to tackle the opportunity in front of us and remain committed and focused on our mission to usher in a more sustainable era for the fashion industry.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Thanks, James, and again, thanks everyone for joining us on our second quarter 2023 earnings call. I'll begin with an overview of our results and follow up with guidance for the third and fourth quarters and full year. I will discuss non-GAAP results throughout my remarks. Our GAAP financials and a reconciliation to GAAP and non-GAAP are found in our earnings release, supplemental financials, and our 10-Q filing. We're very proud of our Q2 results. For the second quarter of 2023, revenue totaled $82.7 million, an increase of 8% year-over-year. Consignment revenue grew 10% year-over-year, while product revenue grew 5%.... We're happy to report that consignment revenue has reflected growth for the first time in 4 quarters, as we make progress in transitioning our European business and our route supply to a consignment model.

While the transition of these businesses to consignment should be a tailwind to growth margin over time, we expect it to slightly mute revenue growth simply due to the accounting treatment. As a reminder, consignment payouts reduce revenue, while owned payouts are in COGS and reduce growth margin. Orders increased 5% year-over-year to 1.8 million. Active buyers declined slightly year-over-year to 1.7 million for the trailing 12 months, but improved 2.5% quarter-over-quarter. As we evolve our customer acquisition strategy to focus on higher quality buyers, we are pleased with the quarter-over-quarter improvement. The second quarter of 2023, growth margin was 67.4%, 150 basis point decline over the same quarter last year.

The decline in our consolidated growth margins was due to the dynamics driven by our European business. The continued growth of Europe's lower margin operating model continues to affect our consolidated results as it becomes a larger portion of our total revenue. We are proud to report that our consolidated results exceeded the high end of our guidance, driven by record U.S. growth margins of 76.4%. This outperformance was the result of continued improvement in how we optimize our marketplace, including pricing, promotions, returns, payouts, and fees. For the second quarter of 2023, GAAP net loss was $18.8 million, compared to GAAP net loss of $28.4 million in the same quarter of last year. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $5 million, or -6.1% for the second quarter of 2023.

This represents an approximate 1,160 basis point improvement compared to the same quarter last year, as we tightly managed expenses and leveraged our investments on higher revenue. We are proud to report that our hard work drove an 8.2% year-over-year revenue increase on an 8.1% decline in operating expenses, driving us forward on our path to breakeven. Turning to balance sheet, we began the second quarter with $99.5 million in cash and marketable securities and ended the quarter with $83 million. Our cash usage from operations was $10.4 million, including our annual payment of D&O insurance of $2.5 million, while we spent $6.6 million on CapEx as we complete our investment in our Dallas DC.

Based on our progress and our strategic initiatives, we remain confident in our ability to reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2023. For us, reaching breakeven is just a waypoint on our path to free cash flow and profitability, and we believe that this timeline balances our commitment to reaching breakeven with foundational investments and our long-term goals of growth and expanding profits. When modeling our free cash flow, adjusted EBITDA and our CapEx spend are key drivers of positive cash flow, given that as a marketplace, our working capital needs are minimal. After spending $56 million in CapEx over the last 6 quarters, we expect to spend $4 million in the back half of 2023 and expect maintenance CapEx of $1 million-$2 million per quarter until 2026.

Due to our significantly reduced CapEx needs and our ability to manage our expense structure, we expect to be able to fund the core business through our existing cash. As a result, we want to reiterate that we do not anticipate our cash and marketable securities balance falling below $50 million before reaching free cash flow positive, nor do we expect to turn to the capital markets or draw down on our existing debt before then. We are pleased to provide guidance that emphasizes our control of the levers in the path to long-term revenue growth and free cash flow. Turning to the guidance for the third quarter, we expect revenue in the range of $82 million-$84 million, which is a 22% growth rate at the midpoint. Gross margin in the range of 66.5%-68.5% of revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA loss of 6.5%-4.5% of revenue, which is a 1,080 basis points improvement at the midpoint. Basic weighted average shares outstanding of approximately 106 million. For the fourth quarter, we expect revenue in the range of $84.5 million-$86.5 million, which is a 20% growth rate at the midpoint. Gross margin in the range of 64.5%-66.5% of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA breakeven, which is an 820 basis point improvement and basic weighted average shares outstanding of approximately 108 million.

For the full year of 2023, we now expect revenue in the range of $325 million-$329 million, with margins in the range of 66.5%-67.5% of revenue, adjusted EBITDA loss of 5.5%-4.5% of revenue, and basic weighted average shares of approximately 105 million. In closing, we are excited to deliver a second half outlook that illustrates our confidence in our ability to generate strong growth while achieving adjusted EBITDA breakeven and ultimately profitability. We believe that our first half results and our second half guidance demonstrate our capacity to flex our marketplace model as we execute on a variety of strategic initiatives, allowing us to distinguish ourselves in the current environment. James and I are now ready for your questions.

Operator, please open the line.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star followed by 1 on your touchtone phone. You will hear a 3-tone prompt acknowledging your request. Your first question comes from the line of Ike Boruchow from Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Ike Boruchow (Managing Director and Senior Equity Consumer Analyst)

Hey, guys. Congrats on the quarter. Just wanted to dig in a little bit more on the scale, the profitability. Sounds like you're highly confident in the margin progression into next year. I was wondering, James or Sean, if you could give a little bit more color. It sounds like adjusted EBITDA profitability is the plan for next year. Just kind of curious if you could give a little bit more framework for fiscal 2024, whether it's on the gross margin line or just adjusted EBITDA margin line. Then again, on the CapEx, Sean, so we should be thinking $1 million-$2 million a quarter throughout through next year as well? I guess that's all my questions. Thanks.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

... Sure. Thanks, Ike. Yeah, I mean, I think, as we said, we feel very good about the path to Q4 break even. You know, we continue to, to sort of generate that through, you know, margin expansion, and sort of the elements of our marketplace that are really working. I think, you know, as we get into 2024, I think we feel confident that you can continue to see expansion, you know, quarter after quarter. Obviously, like, there's some seasonality in our business, and so, you know, it's probably not a straight line. I think we're, we're hopefully putting these questions of, can ThredUp, you know, be, be break even behind us, and kind of excited about the ability to expand those margins into 2024.

I think that relates to the free cash flow question, which I'll let Sean address around CapEx.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Yeah, I would say even when you're thinking about how we end the year at breakeven in Q4, we march our way through expansion of EBITDA in 2024, is free cash flow shouldn't be too far off of that, right? It's not far away from when we get to breakeven EBITDA. As it relates to your CapEx question, yeah, I think $1 million-$2 million, kind of the maintenance mode, actually all the way through 2025. It's not until about 2026, we start to think about CapEx again at a greater size than that.

Ike Boruchow (Managing Director and Senior Equity Consumer Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Trevor Young from Barclays. Your line is now open.

Trevor Young (Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks. Just on RaaS for a second, you're continuing to add some well-known brands there. Of some of the brands that you've had, you know, for a year or more, like a Health Figure, for example, how are those programs ramping? Not specific to any one brand, but just overall, are volumes and engagement from buyers as well as the brands themselves, where you expected any key learnings there, any changes in strategy? Then any sort of mark to market in terms of the proportion of inventory or volumes or even revenue coming from RaaS programs.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Sure. thanks, Trevor. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm pleased with the overall adoption of RaaS by the brands, right? I mean, I think you've seen, you know, pretty significant growth. I think it varies a bit brand by brand around the momentum and, you know, who's leading the charge at the brand side. I mean, it's been a difficult time for retailers over the last 6 quarters, so, so I do think you're gonna continue to see momentum as we get into a more normal inventory environment. That's certainly been a headwind, I think, for retail, Trevor. look, I think lots of these brands have gotten started, and I think it's going to be one of these things that you're gonna see continued momentum year-over-year.

We put in our impact report, how many bags we've been processing through our RaaS partners, and I think we, we put that in there to show it's a pretty significant amount of supply that we're continuing to generate through that platform. We expect to, you know, grow that again in 2024. I think RaaS is an integral part of our business, and I think we'll continue to see momentum there.

Trevor Young (Equity Research Analyst)

That's really helpful, James. Just a, a quick follow-up: What are you seeing kind of in the competitive environment from retail in terms of promo? You always have some good color on that. What are you seeing today, and what do you think evolves over the next, you know, couple of months?

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Things seem to be getting better, Trevor, I, I think you're still having lingering, you know, a lingering inventory overhang that, you know, that's going to be real. I think as we get into back to school, you know, which we're, we're sort of already in, and as we get into holiday, I think it's gonna continue to be competitive out there. I think from, from where we sit, holiday is never really the strong suit of resale. I think it's an area where we're gonna be, you know, observers of what happens in, in Q4 across the retail environment.

I expect things to continue to get better, and I think as we get into 2024, you'll start to see the purchasing behavior of retailers that we've seen over the past year, like, start to kind of hit the PNL. I think that's an area where resale should really shine as the inventory environment is finally kind of rolled over.

Trevor Young (Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks, James.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Dylan Carden from William Blair. Your line is now open.

Dylan Carden (Consumer Technology and Specialty Retai)

Hey, thanks. I'll kind of just follow up on that thought, actually, James. Why then, sort of in the guidance, as fourth quarter, and albeit I take that it's modest, but inflecting, from just a pure absolute dollar, number from $82ish to $85-$86 in your expectation?

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Yeah, Dylan, part of that is the seasonality in our business. Specifically in Europe, Q4 tends to be a seasonally stronger quarter for them than Q3, given the summer holidays. That's what you're seeing as you move from Q3 to Q4.

Dylan Carden (Consumer Technology and Specialty Retai)

Got it.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Yeah.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Dylan, I would add into that, too, because you'll see it in the guide, is the Q4 guide for gross margins is down for that exact same reason. Europe gets to be a bigger piece of the pie in Q4, which has a structurally lower gross margin now, and so that drags down gross margins a bit in Q4.

Dylan Carden (Consumer Technology and Specialty Retai)

Excellent. Thank you. Actual question, just on, on the fee, it's exciting that you're kind of rolling that out. Can you speak to timing when you rolled it out more broadly in the quarter? Kind of how that shows up in the model. Is that something where we would expect to see higher revenue per order, or is that a sort of a contra cost? What's sort of the best way to think about modeling that rollout out?

Anna Andreeva (Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, I'll, I'll start with... Yeah, I mean, Dylan, I think we treated it as an experiment for some time, and then I think month-over-month, we expanded the, the number of sellers that are in, you know, that are in that treatment. Yes, I would say almost all sellers are now exposed to it.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

There, there are obviously some pockets of experimentation that we do around, you know, when do we waive?... fees, when do we give people expedited service, you know, for a, for a shorter fee? I think those are areas we'll continue to investigate, but it is, it is fully deployed. As to where it'll hit in the P&L, I'll sort of let Sean hit that.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Yeah, it's, it's in consignment revenue on the line in the P&L, and it would show up in revenue per order, too, as well.

Dylan Carden (Consumer Technology and Specialty Retai)

Okay. If you'd indulge me here, just from a capacity utilization standpoint, how are you thinking about the new distribution capacity ramp? Any sort of change there in expectations as far as timing? I guess because the break-even target is still in place, probably not a lot, but just wanted to make sure.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

No, no change on timing. I think we, we actually provided incremental guidance around the CapEx needs is, you know, not needing any new CapEx still until 2026. You know, previously, we thought that would come in 2025. I think we feel very good about the capacity that we have in place, and, and the fact that we can continue to grow into that capacity, you know, through the next, you know, 10 quarters before we have incremental CapEx. I think that's a really nice place to be able to, to grow the business and, you know, generate free cash flow over time.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Yeah, just for a point, so you guys know, the Dallas is open at about 1.5 million slots or available spaces.

Dylan Carden (Consumer Technology and Specialty Retai)

Great. Thank you very much. Nice work.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Thank you.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Anna Andreeva from Needham. Your line is now open.

Anna Andreeva (Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you so much, and congrats, guys. Nice quarter. A couple of questions. Curious if there was any variability in the business by month in the second quarter, and what are you seeing quarter to date? James, anything to call out about the budget shopper behavior? You had talked about seeing some stabilization there previously. To Sean, as we think about the bridge, to get to EBITDA break even in the fourth quarter, just anything we should be mindful of, in the model by line item? Thank you, guys.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Sure. I mean, on the, on the variability by month, I think sort of consistent with what, with what we've seen in, in prior years. I think June was a little stronger than pre-previous Junes, and I think we did a bunch of work to really hit the consumer, you know, as they moved into their summer, their summer holiday. I think June was a little better probably than it had been in previous years. I think, you know, quarter to date, I think we're, we're seeing the sort of same patterns we've seen in previous years. You know, you're really starting to see back to school, you know, kick in now. So, you know, I think that's, that's sort of the story for the rest of Q3.

As for the budget shopper, I mean, we, we continue to see that that is a customer that is, that is more challenged, right? I mean, I think, it's definitely a customer who is, who's feeling the pinch across their discretionary purchasing power. While I think the numbers on it have stabilized, I would not say that customer is in better shape than they were, you know, 90 days ago. I think as we continue to evolve the supply mix, we're going to have to continue to evolve our customer acquisition strategy and, and how we retain those customers over time. I'll let Sean talk about the, the walk on fourth quarter.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Yeah, I think of, think of it this way: it's probably simple as in, you know, revenues are up, Europe expands. At the same point, that drives gross margin rate down a little bit in Q4, and then it's offset really by leveraging OpEx across the board, SG&A, OP&T, and marketing. I think historically, you guys have known for quite a while from a U.S. perspective, marketing is slightly less in Q4 than any other quarter, so that helps us drive towards break even when we get to Q4.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

I would say one thing on it, which I think should, should make people feel, pretty good, is fourth quarter tends to be the softest quarter for us, you know, in the year. I think the fact that that can be a quarter where we're achieving break even in what is traditionally not our, our best quarter, I think is really important. I think then as you roll the calendar forward to 2024, and you get into Q1, Q2, Q3, which tend to be, at least historically, stronger quarters, I think that gives us a lot of confidence in the momentum that's building in the business.

Anna Andreeva (Equity Research Analyst)

All right. That's great. Thanks so much, guys.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Edward Yruma from Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.

Edward Yruma (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess 2 for me. First, I know you've implemented this new fee, are there other enhancements that you can do to the supply side of economics, given the bag backlog, that can kind of put you back on the, or continue on down the path of adjusted EBITDA profitability? As a 2nd question, I noticed that Anthony departed the business. I guess, kind of how have you moved around his responsibilities? Thank you.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Sure, Ed. I mean, I think, yeah, we continue to look at other ways to, you know, balance monetization of the seller, the seller community, but making sure we have, you know, deliver them a great experience. I think one of the things that we've become very confident in is that the fees help us really deliver a high-quality seller experience, by enabling really the best sellers in the marketplace, you know, to have their bags processed in a timely way. As we pointed out in the call, I mean, you know, processing times have continued to come down, and I think for our VIP sellers, who are, who are people who are, you know, really passionate about the ThredUp selling experience, you know, they're getting processing times in days, you know, it's under 1 week.

So we feel very good about that mix of sellers, we'll continue, to try and manage, you know, optimizing both their experience, and the ways, that they generate revenue for the business. I think on, you know, Anthony Marino's been up at ThredUp for, you know, 10 years. He was an integral, vital part of everything that we did. You know, he was great, and, I think now he's just decided to, you know, pursue another passion in his life. We have an incredibly talented bench of folks and, feel very good about, you know, picking up that mantle and, doing him proud.

Speaker 13

Thanks very much.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey from Telsey Advisory Group. Your line is now open.

Dana Telsey (CEO)

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone, nice to see the progress. As you think about the number of active customers, I think it was down just under 1%, how are you thinking of the active customer cohorts? What are you seeing? How is it differing at all? James, you've given out some product trends in terms of what you're seeing, given the consumer environment overall, anything you'd note there? Just lastly, on the gross margin, anything to unpack ticks and ties of how you're thinking about the components of the gross margin go forward? Thank you.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Sure, Dana. I mean, on the active buyer side, I think probably more than, more than any time recently, we're really focusing on the quality of the customer and how she is engaging and shopping, you know, the mix of goods that we have on ThredUp. As we talked about over the last couple of calls, you know, with the efforts around sculpting and the mix in sellers, we're generating like incrementally better product on the site. I think as part of that, you know, we're really focused on that incrementally more premium buyer. Again, I want to emphasize, it's not a luxury buyer by any means, but incrementally more premium. We think that that strategy really has legs because I think that buyer population is more stable in the macro environment.

They tend to have they tend to generate higher LTVs over time. So you're seeing a little bit of a mix in the tactics that I think actually will compound as we get into 2024. As for the product side, I think, you know, I don't have any, I don't have any news to break on, on that, Dana. I, I think what we're really focused on is, is making sure that the, the seasonal mix on ThredUp is as good as ever, and I think it's an area where, as a two-sided marketplace, you can often end up, you know, not being as, as able to hit the mark, right, on seasonality because you're a little bit exposed to what people send you. I think we've done a really great job.

The team has done a really great job of educating sellers on what we want, and therefore, the seasonal mix on ThredUp, I think, has, has, has been as, as good as ever. So I think that gives me a lot of confidence as we move through the back half of the year, and, and I think those learnings will, will help in 2024 as well.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

On the gross margin, I mean, you guys saw in Q2, we posted, like, a record U.S. gross margin. That's really due to the transition of the RaaS business more to consignment, as well as kind of improving across the board unit economics. As we go forward from here, we still have some more room to go there on the consignment switch or transition on the RaaS business, so there's more to go there. Europe has just started the consignment switch, so that transition is going to take some time, but it'll start to become a tailwind. Keep in mind, it's a little bit of a headwind on revenue growth as well. As you go forward from here, probably all the way through next year, you'll start to see some nice tailwinds on the gross margin side.

Dana Telsey (CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Alexandra Steiger from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Speaker 13

Hi, this is Pierre on for Alexandra. Thank you so much for taking our question. Just one from us on fulfillment and contribution margins. You've previously talked about how your more recent distribution centers can carry higher contribution margins relative to older generations. Just wondering how we should think about the broad messaging around that being a potential tailwind for margins for the U.S. business, kind of both in current results and over the next several quarters, as you see kind of utilization improve and as some of those volumes also come in at higher unit margins. Thank you.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Yeah. Hi, Pierre. Yeah, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head, which is, you know, we're continuing to, you know, focus on our most productive distribution centers. That would be DC06 in Atlanta, and DC07, you know, coming online or that's online, in Dallas. As we flow more product through those two important hubs, you will see some, you know, flow through on the contribution basis, both on the shipping and outbound logistics side, as well as, you know, labor and fulfillment. We do think those are tailwinds over time. I think even so, if you roll forward into 2025 and into 2026, as those become even bigger parts of the network, you should see continued flow through.

I'm feeling very good about contribution margin expansion and ultimately how that flows through to free cash flow.

Sean Sobers (CFO)

Yeah, you'll start to see some different pieces of automation, innovation through both of those DCs. You know, as you look into 2024 and 2025, you guys get a chance to visit, you can come see those in person.

Speaker 13

That's great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, if you have a question, please press Star, followed by the number 1 in your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Noah Zatzkin from KeyBanc. Your line is now open.

Ashley Helgans (Analyst)

Hi there. Thanks. This is Ashley on for Noah. Just wanted to dial in a little bit on the backlog. You know, the timing continues to tick down. Just curious on any updated thoughts on the timeline it'll take to get to that 2-3 week target. On RaaS, just hoping you can provide some more color around the line of sight for additional clients in the back half. Just also how you're thinking about 2024 and the impact on the P&L, as you transition a lot of these clients to consignment. Thanks.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Yeah, hi, I don't know if it's Ashley or is it Ashley, is that, that right?

Ashley Helgans (Analyst)

Yeah, Ashley.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think on the backlog, we, we continue to make progress. I think where we've, where we've ended up is that those customers who want super fast service are, are paying for VIP services, and we're getting it to them under a week. Those customers who want, you know, regular service, I think, are getting that in that six-week range. I think we'll make a little bit more progress towards that, but I, but I think we've identified there are really two segment populations: those who want it, you know, normal speed and those who want it VIP. I think the current backlog estimates, I think, hit that bid, very well.

On the RaaS side, you know, we, we ended the year, last year with, you know, 40-ish clients. I think we continue to grow from there. I think right now we're focused on adding new clients and also really growing the engagement of clients and how they're working with their customers. I think RaaS will continue to see momentum into 2024. As I mentioned, I think as the inventory environment for broader retail gets better, I, I think RaaS will actually have an opportunity to work a little bit harder for us, so feel, feel good about that.

Speaker 12

Great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Rick Patel from Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Rick Patel (Analyst)

Hey, guys. Congrats on the progress. Can you talk about what you're seeing with Remix, early on as that moves to a consignment model? Are you getting the kind of products that, you know, you would deem to be attractive from a merchandising perspective like you are in the U.S., or does this take time? Then secondly, you know, how should we think about you implementing best U.S. practices over at Remix, you know, things such as charging fees for the cleanout kits, and the opportunity there?

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Yeah, sure, Rick. Rick, I mean, I, I, I think on the Remix consignment side, I, we've been pleasantly surprised with, you know, how well the team has been able to execute on that, and then the customer adoption. I mean, there's clearly product market fit for the cleanout kit, right, in the lives of consumers. So I, I think, you know, the fact that there's willingness to pay in the U.S. for that experience only solidifies, you know, how strong we think product market fit is. So far, we've not seen that the European seller is, is, is different in that way of, of looking for convenience. I think consignment is becoming an increasingly, you know, acceptable part of the way that, that selling happens online.

I think the team has rolled it out well, and we, we feel good about the adoption. I think, to your question about best practices, I think one of our core theses in buying, buying the business was that we had learned so much over the past 10 years that we could bring over to Remix, and I think the team there has been incredible, with, you know, the learning and the ability to sort of adopt what we've done in the U.S. and then adapt that to how to roll it out in Europe. Yeah, we feel, we feel great about how that business is, is executing and performing and the team there. You know, I think that environment in Eastern Europe is, is been really challenging over the past year. Despite all that, the team has, has done great.

We feel, we feel really confident as we roll the, roll the calendar into 2024 as well.

Rick Patel (Analyst)

Any additional color on the drivers for the quarter-over-quarter acceleration in active customers? Just curious if that represents higher income consumers or a different cohort than you've seen in the past.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

It's a little bit, you know, incrementally higher income, but I think also just as we, you know, we have the right product mix online, Rick, you're just seeing, you know, customers conversion improve, right? The seasonality mix has hit the bid. You know, I think there's gonna continue to be some puts and takes as we, as we get the right mix of goods, and we really find the right buyer. But feeling very good about that sequential improvement and, and ultimately, you know, how we drive that into 2024.

Rick Patel (Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to James. Please continue.

James Reinhart (CEO and Co-founder)

Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us on, on the earnings call. Appreciate all the good questions. For those of you who dialed in, a big shout-out to the ThredUp team for continuing to execute at such a high level. Appreciate all the work that you guys have been doing and will continue to do. We're, we're optimistic and excited for the year ahead. Thanks, everyone.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes-