Earnings Call Transcript - FLWS Q2 2024

Operator, Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the 1-800-Flowers.Com Fiscal 2024 Second Quarter and Year End Earnings Call. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andy Milevoj, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Andy Milevoj, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations

Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 2024 second quarter 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. 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 financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the tables of our earnings release. And now, I'll turn the call over to Jim.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Thanks, Andy, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. This morning, I'll begin with a brief overview of our second-quarter performance and then turn it over to Tom, who will provide a business update. We will conclude with a financial review from Bill, and then we'll open the call for your questions. Heading into the second quarter, we expected our sales trends to improve, our gross profit margin recovery to continue and our operating expenses to decline. Our performance was essentially in line with our expectations, as our gross profit margin recovery and expense optimization efforts helped to offset what turned out to be a softer than anticipated consumer environment. Most notably, our gross profit margin expanded nicely. And as Bill will highlight further, our pace of margin recovery is happening at a good rate. This was our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year margin expansion and we are well on our path to returning to our historical mean annual gross margin rate in the low 40% 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 buoyed by the improvements we are seeing in our gross and operating margins. 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, enhances life skills, and fosters socialization. This holiday season, we are proud to partner with another organization whose mission is closely aligned with that of Smile Farms. During this past holiday season, we partnered with a non-profit called the First Step Staffing to employ approximately 350 individuals in our Atlanta distribution facility. First Step Staffing 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 transportation to and from work to position these individuals for success. They are a terrific organization that does great work and we are glad to be able to partner with them. Now, I'll turn the call over to Tom for the business update.

Thomas Hartnett, President

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll provide an update on our business performance, as well as an update on our relationship innovation developments, which encompasses new or enhanced product offerings, our merchandising efforts, as well as user interface enhancements. During the second quarter, we generated $130.1 million in adjusted EBITDA as our Work Smarter efficiency initiatives, combined with improving macroeconomic factors contributed to a 230 basis point improvement in our gross profit margin. Our quarter-over-quarter revenue trends continued to improve, but we encountered a softer 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, average order value increased approximately 3% as our upper-income customers continue to represent a greater portion of our overall population and they continue to gravitate towards our higher price bundle products that provide a great gift and value. 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 appropriate 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 second quarter, 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 1-800-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. 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 websites. 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 leverage Personalization Mall to launch a set of food gifts, with a personalized item such as our Harry & 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 is a lot of opportunity here and it once again demonstrates how our brands can complement one another and give our customers an elevated experience compared to others in the market. As we look ahead to Valentine's Day, this year we have a slightly better date 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. We are excited about our new trio bundle that features our 1-800-Flowers roses, Harry & David wine, and Shari's Berries to create a magnificent gift. This trio bundle combines gifts from three of our brands and ships them in a single box that can be delivered overnight. They are sure to provide an extraordinary experience for the recipient and is a great last-minute gift idea. Through our Gift & 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. 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.

William Shea, CFO

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. As Jim and Tom highlighted, we continue to see significant improvements 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 second-quarter top-line performance. Going into the second quarter, we expected the consumer environment for discretionary spending to remain pressured, but 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%. But we had anticipated the pace of improvement to occur at a faster rate. Our gross margin improvement helped to offset the softer top line. The pace of improvement is better than we anticipated. Second quarter gross margin improved 230 basis points to 43.3% and this was on top of the 90 basis points improvement a year ago. This represents our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement. As Jim said, we are well on our path to 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 that are driving operational efficiencies. A great example of these efficiencies include the labor savings we've been able to produce through our automation efforts. Our main distribution facilities in Medford, Oregon and Atlanta are all in their second or third year of automation, and we continue to achieve further productivity gains. We reduced the labor cost per package at these 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 from Mother Nature, who provided us with good weather this holiday season, leading to fewer shipping delays and related customer credits. These factors helped to offset a more promotional environment, as well as a new fuel shipping surcharge that was introduced later in the holiday period. We also continued to optimize expenses and excluding the impairment charge and the accounting impact of the non-qualified compensation plan on our P&L, we reduced our operating expenses by $10.8 million as compared to a year ago. As a result of these factors, our second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $130.1 million, as compared to $131.4 million 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 Floral and Gifts group segment related to the Personalization Mall trademark. As many of you know, we periodically review the value of our intangible assets. Our revenue forecast for Personalization Mall, 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 $19.8 million non-cash impairment charge for our Personalization Mall business during the quarter. Net income for the quarter was $62.9 million or $0.97 per share, including the non-cash impairment charge of $19.8 million or $0.30 per share. Adjusted net income was $82.7 million or a $1.27 per share compared with adjusted net income of $82.7 million or $1.28 per share in the prior year period. Let's review segment results. Our Gourmet Food and Gift Baskets segment revenues declined 8.2% to $540 million, compared with $588.4 million in the prior year period. Contributed to this decline was our wholesale business, which declined $18.7 million as several retailers had reduced their orders last spring for the holiday season in light of the consumer environment. This segment's gross profit margin expanded 220 basis points to 43.2%, compared with 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 $5.4 million to $118.2 million compared with segment contribution margin of $123.5 million in the prior year period, primarily due to the revenue decline. In our Consumer Floral & Gifts segment, revenues decreased 8% to $254.8 million, compared with $277 million a year ago. Profit margin expanded 230 basis points to 42.8%, compared with 40.5% in the prior year period, improving on lower freight and labor costs. Segment contribution margin, excluding the impairment charge, was $30.4 million compared with segment contribution margin of $27.9 million in the prior year period. Now BloomNet segment. Revenues for the quarter decreased 17.1% to $27.2 million. Revenues were impacted by the lower order volume processed by BloomNet, which included the expected decline in orders by one 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. Segment contribution margin was $9.1 million, compared with $9.3 million in the prior year period. Turning to our balance sheet, our cash and investment position was $312 million at the end of the second quarter. Inventory declined to $161.3 million with inventory of $201.1 million at the end of last year's second quarter. In terms of debt, we had $195 million in term debt and no borrowings under our revolving credit facility. As a result, our net cash was $117 million, compared with $34.7 million at the end of last year's second quarter. During the quarter, we entered into a 10b5-1 stock repurchase plan and repurchased $5.4 million of our stock under this plan as of last Friday. 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 a softer revenue outlook. For 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 million to $100 million and our free cash flow to be in the range of $60 million to $65 million. Now, I'll turn the call back to Jim for his closing comments before we open it up for Q&A.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

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 occurring 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. 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 Work Smarter 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 and we suggest you place your orders for all those special people in your life today. Now, your questions.

Operator, Operator

The first question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

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 versus non-members? And give a little bit of color around passport membership and order frequency and whether that changed much from the prior year?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

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. But I would say, overall, the Passport 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 programmatic plans to enhance the Passport program. It's gradually moving from just a free shipping capability to now a loyalty program, and special offers. 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 - spending patterns of...

Thomas Hartnett, President

Yes. So trend lines year-over-year are the same as a year ago, which we continue to see that Passport customer purchasing 2 times to 3 times more than our average customer. So all those signs continue to move in the same direction.

William Shea, CFO

And the Passport customer represents about 20% of our revenues.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

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 Houthi attacks and the Red Sea, are you seeing any significant freight cost increases?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

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

William Shea, CFO

Yes, due to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, certainly the spot markets have jumped up pretty dramatically on ocean freight. We have contracted rates that basically carry us through the end of the fiscal year, and so far the carriers have honored those rates. The bigger 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 a few months and a lot will depend on what happens in that area.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

So, Alex, in general, like many U.S.-based companies, we are taking steps to reduce our reliance on imported commodity items by sourcing them domestically. Nearly every U.S. company has initiated a program like this, and we will continue to pursue it. However, if tensions in the Red Sea area persist into the summer, we expect that they could affect our holiday imports that primarily arrive in the summer. As Bill mentioned, we don’t foresee any impact through the end of the fiscal year in June.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Appreciate the color there. And last question from me. Curious how you guys are thinking about acquisition opportunities for '24, '25?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

We are always exploring ways to enhance our offerings for customers and identify services that could benefit our suite of service offerings. Additionally, we are looking for talent acquisitions. Currently, there are many opportunities available due to changes in the cost of capital over the past couple of years, which has affected many companies. While there are plenty of options, we are being very selective and disciplined in evaluating whether these opportunities genuinely enhance our company and improve our service offerings for customers. We are active in this area but do not expect to make any major moves.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

I appreciate all the context there. Thanks for taking questions.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Sure. Thanks, Alex.

Operator, Operator

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

Michael Kupinski, Analyst

Thank you for taking my questions. Can you discuss the opportunities related to commodity prices and their current positioning compared to the average? Specifically, could you give us a percentage that provides insight into the remaining opportunities in commodity prices from our current standpoint?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Well, this is Jim. Michael, two years ago marked a peak for us regarding commodity prices, starting with fuel prices exceeding $100 a barrel, which led to high surcharges. As Bill mentioned, we experienced a surcharge early in December that cost us a few million dollars. We use a lot of important commodities in our operations, particularly in baking and food preparation, such as butter, flour, and eggs. Bill, can you provide an update on where we stand regarding these commodities? I know we haven't returned to 2019 levels. Also, labor, while not a commodity, is a significant cost and those increases are here to stay; however, the pressure in that area has eased. What is our current position on actual commodity prices, Bill?

William Shea, CFO

Yes, it's split. There's certain commodities, you mentioned butter and eggs. Those are certainly back to more their historical means, but there are others like sugar and cocoa that are still very high. I think if you take a step back from a gross margin standpoint, we're actually exceeding where our expectations were, up 230 basis points for the quarter, up 280 basis points year-to-date in the first two quarters of the year. You can kind of split those gains into almost two buckets there kind of. Some of the macro items, ocean freight, some of those commodity costs that you mentioned, labor availability. And having labor availability just gives us a lot of flexibility. So it allows us our automation efforts, our operational efficiencies, our logistics initiatives, our inventory planning, inventory go both in and out of the quarter was at the proper levels that we needed it to be at, which led to less inventory write-offs.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

But last year, on the inventory side, like so many companies, we inventoried 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.

William Shea, CFO

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 Smarter initiatives that we have.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

So overall, commodity costs are still higher than the mean we talk about, but have been improving.

William Shea, CFO

That's correct.

Michael Kupinski, Analyst

Okay.

William Shea, CFO

Certain components of commodity costs have come back to the mean, but others are still at very high levels.

Michael Kupinski, Analyst

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

William Shea, CFO

Work Smarter is an ongoing effort, so we continue to add to that. But certainly, an example is our automation efforts were in many of our distribution facilities, we're now in the second year. In one facility, we're in the third year of those automation efforts. Yet our labor efficiencies are down, and our labor costs per package are down like 4% this year over last year.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

No, our efficiencies are up. Our labor efficiencies are up, but our labor costs per package are down because of the automation.

William Shea, CFO

Exactly. Right.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

And we'll continue, Michael, with those automation efforts. So, as Bill mentioned, we're in a third and/or second year, depending on the facility, and we're implementing new programs on top of that now.

William Shea, CFO

So this is an ongoing effort, Michael, and we're going to continue to get savings into the future.

Michael Kupinski, Analyst

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?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

There's a combination of things that have happened with Personalization Mall. Tom will give you the full color on that.

Thomas Hartnett, President

Yes, Michael. The Personalization Mall 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.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

One program you introduced there in Personalization Mall is, 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, and it gives us the opportunity to be in a broader range of products. So higher price points, really fancy items. Like the vase we have that you’re wearing, actually tell Michael about that.

Thomas Hartnett, President

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

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Beautiful item.

Thomas Hartnett, President

Yes, beautiful item. So our average order values, and again, we're just kind of getting started there because when we acquired the IP, it has taken us some time to build up the inventory and their best sellers. So we got to a portion of that this holiday season. But the average ticket is 175 basis points higher, or 175 times the Personalization Mall average order value. So it's a good price point. Great gifts dealing and addressing a different cohort of customers, whether it be weddings or retirements or special moments in people's lives, so.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

But all leveraging off the same fixed cost, same fixed facility that we have there at Personalization Mall, Michael.

Michael Kupinski, Analyst

Got you. One last question, if you don't mind. Regarding your revenue guidance for the year, what expectations are factored into your guidance concerning the overall economy? Can you provide some insight into what those expectations are?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Bill?

William Shea, CFO

Michael, we revised our revenue guidance to be down 7% to 9%, with the first half of the year being 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 through 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 had hoped it would be.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

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

Michael Kupinski, Analyst

Got you. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Thank you, Michael.

Operator, Operator

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

Linda Bolton-Weiser, Analyst

Yes, hello.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Hi, Linda.

Linda Bolton-Weiser, Analyst

Hi. I would like to hear your thoughts on the current consumer environment. Consumer sentiment, particularly in Michigan, has remained below 70 for approximately two years, indicating a persistent low sentiment that isn't favorable for your business. If this trend were to continue for another year, what changes would you consider making in your business? Are there adjustments you might contemplate regarding your cost structure, or how would you approach the situation if revenue declines were to persist? What different strategies would you consider?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Thanks for your question, Linda. We missed you in the last quarter. That's a great question, and we've discussed it quite a bit over the past month or two. The answer involves a couple of factors. First, we are still recovering from the COVID effects, which many ecommerce companies are experiencing. We are at the tail end of that wave. Second, consumer sentiment is generally positive but varies significantly across different segments. Our category is one that feels this impact. We analyze the competitive data that we acquire, and while it's bad news that all companies in our category are feeling the effects of this COVID wave, the good news is that we are either maintaining or gaining market share. If the current recovery trend does not continue at its current pace and takes a downturn, we have several strategies we can employ to ensure we maintain the healthy profitability trend we are currently on. If consumer sentiment improves, that would be very beneficial, but if it declines, we have significant leverage within our operating model to compensate for that and keep our bottom line strong. Bill, do you have anything else to add?

William Shea, CFO

Yes, just from a top-line perspective, we continuously evaluate our offerings, our pricing, our bundling opportunities 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 experience on that, ultimately to buff against some of those macro trends.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

So when you talk about elasticity, you mean price points both at the higher end and the lower end.

William Shea, CFO

From a costing perspective, our trend lines on our gross margin are moving at an accelerated pace back towards the mean in the low 40s. Therefore, we continue to expect an improvement in gross margins. We have been focusing on expense optimization for the past year and a half, and we will maintain these efforts to counter any softness in the top line.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

In summary, we hope it doesn't happen, but we are prepared and have plans in place to respond appropriately if the trend were to turn negative.

Linda Bolton-Weiser, Analyst

Thanks. Can I ask one more about Google? I think they've made some additional changes with regard to their blast e-mail 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?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

We have many changes taking place. This includes the changes that Google is implementing, as well as significant macro trends occurring in the marketplace. We believe we're well positioned to adapt and respond to these changes. Additionally, some of the experiences from the last quarter give us optimism that we will become less dependent on major search engines in the future. One of the key advantages we've gained during the COVID period is a substantial increase in our database, which provides us with more flexibility and decreases our reliance on search engine activity. However, Tom is more familiar with the specific details of Linda's question.

Thomas Hartnett, President

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, in how the landing pages for Google showed up this year, which we're always reacting to. Overall, this was a competitive environment. Their CPMs and CPAs were up, et cetera, and we kind of expected that to occur.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

If most of your marketing budget is focused on bottom-of-the-funnel activities, it could lead to significant consequences for you. Thankfully, that is not the case for us.

Linda Bolton-Weiser, Analyst

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Thanks, Linda.

Operator, Operator

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

Alex Fuhrman, Analyst

Hi, guys, thanks very much for taking my question. And congratulations on the strong bottom line results in the quarter. Bill, I was wondering if 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 lull 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?

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

It's definitely too early to make predictions. Valentine's Day can be quite hectic since it involves a short, intense spike in business. Unlike Mother's Day, which has a two-week ramp up, Valentine's Day creates a significant rush in a few days. We see a shift in customer demographics from predominantly women to more men during this time. While male customers are valuable, they tend to shop less frequently than female customers, which makes planning for this holiday costly, as our costs increase significantly in preparation for the surge. There's uncertainty around forecasting Valentine's Day. However, as Tom pointed out, the timing of promotions is crucial. Last year, the Super Bowl fell just before Valentine's Day, which affected buying behavior. This year, with three selling days leading up to Valentine's Day and no Super Bowl distraction, we anticipate a positive impact on sales. Weather can also play a significant role, so we will monitor it closely. Overall, we are looking forward to Valentine's Day, even if it presents challenges. We haven't identified any alarming trends that would cause us concern.

William Shea, CFO

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 at, that's where we changed our guidance.

Alex Fuhrman, Analyst

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

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Thanks, Alex.

Operator, 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.

James McCann, Chairman and CEO

Well, 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. Today's February 1. Valentine's Day is the 14th. Valentine's weekend begins around the 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, Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.