Industry customer Revolve Group Inc. plans to significantly boost marketing spending this year as the online fashion retailer looks to take advantage of the pandemic easing.
The company saw a surge in spending in March when vaccines started to roll out, stimulus payments hit bank accounts and COVID-19 restrictions rolled back.
Overall, Revolve’s Q1 revenue reached $179 million, up 30% over Q1 2019.
That spending continued into April, the start of Q2. April sales were 30% above April 2019 levels.
Revolve was most excited that dress sales have surged. That category, a core piece of the business, “fell off a cliff” during the pandemic, CFO Jesse Timmermans said during an earnings call last week. Even though sales of “going out” clothes have surged, sales of pandemic-friendly categories such as beauty, intimates and active have remained strong, executives said.
“These results support our view that we can return to strong growth in our core offerings of occasion wear while continuing to drive growth in newer categories to pursue a deeper share of wallet,” Co-CEO Mike Karanikolas said.
Because of the strong results and a return to socializing, Revolve plans to “aggressively” ramp up marketing for the rest of the year.
“We want to take full advantage of the pent-up demand among consumers who are finally going to be able to get out the house, socialize and celebrate in person again,” Karanikolas said.
In 2021, Revolve marketing expenses will be at least a full percentage point higher than the 14.8% of net sales spent in 2019.
“We see there just being a great opportunity to invest large amounts of marketing dollars this year,” he said.
