Good morning. Welcome to the conference call of Vivara to announce the results of the first quarter of 2021. This conference call is being recorded and is simultaneously translated, all participants will be listen-only mode during the company's presentation. We are going to start a questions and answer session. The questions that they've received through the webcast are going to be answered later by the investor relations team. We would like to give the floor to Ms. Melina Rodrigues, Head of Investor Relations, who's going to start the presentation. Ms. Rodrigues, please, you may start.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you very much for attending our conference call for the first quarter 2021. Before we start talking about the results, I'm going to make a brief introduction to explain what we are going to have today.
Differently from past quarters and since the IPO, today, in addition to the results, we are going to share with you a little bit of our evolution and everything that we shared with everyone during the IPO process. We hope that very soon we can have a live event in person with many executive officers sharing many things with you. Otavio, the CFO, is going to start the presentation with the results, and then Paulo is going to give you a business update, giving you the details of our 2021 projects. For the Q&A session, you can ask questions about performance and projects. This is it. Otavio, you may start the presentation talking about our performance.
Thank you very much. Good morning. I'm going to start on slide number three, talking about the highlights of Q1 2021.
Here we are demonstrating continuous revenue growth, a positive expansion of same-store sales, continuous growth in digital sales, a consolidation of the project during action. In March, once again, we had more restrictions affecting the company's revenue. In April and May, as part of Q2, we are already seeing a positive trend with the growth of sales. In April, we had 92% of sales in the same period of 2019. We started May with the best Mother's Day ever, with a growth of 10% in same-store sales as compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. We're really excited with the results of Mother's Day and all other results that we share with you today. We have launched the company's sustainability report. We talk about our main strategic actions. It's interesting to read it. Last year, we had 82% of the projects were related to the theme.
They were all delivered and already linked to the compensation of the company's senior management. I'm going to give you more details about that with more than BRL 200 million revenues. Of the usual retailers listed, we were the only ones with positive same-store sales. Moving to slide number four, you can see the good side of the pandemic and making the most of it and all restrictions that affect our operation. We were able to navigate and making use of a very strong digital operation. We caught the first wave in 2020 and in an environment where scale matters. For this reason, we have made a difference on a day-to-day with 1.7 percentage points of expansion in the last 12 months, which is a quite good result, and we have been analyzing it closely. Here to understand the proxy of how we see that.
We look at the market size, and then we monitor the major fluctuations. This is data of credit card transactions. It's a quite significant sample for us to effectively assess what we have today. The company had in the first quarter 13.5%, which is above what we had in Q1 2020. We continue this movement. We think this is a year of acceleration. We have 40 to 50 new stores for this year of 2021, when there's a slight slowdown. Last year, we didn't really know what was going to happen, how long the cycles would be, and impact on everything. Now we kind of know better the ground, so this will affect less our investments. On slide five, you can see the operating revenue evolution. We are comparing our numbers to 2020 and to 2019.
In 2021, we have reached BRL 273,000 in revenues, then minus 0.2, almost the same level. In January, we closed eight watch kiosks. In this period of the pandemic, the kiosks are the kinds of point of sale that first reacted in reopening in kiosks exclusively dedicated to watches, where the revenue, the ticket's lower. We pay more. We want to make the category more profitable. You're going to see when we talk about sales mix, we're going to give you more details about that further ahead, the number of products and brands available, and also this change in channels. Because of the good performance of the online sales, the volume of kiosks will be gradually transferred to online, and also to stores that have been performing quite well.
In April, in contrast, we opened four points of sales and another seven for Vivara, and another for Vivara in April and 4 in May. We opened one today, a new concept, something that we are really excited about. We'll be telling you how we see that. Two kiosks completing the 11 new points of sales that will be added in the second quarter this year. The highlight in May until the date is BRL 96 million in revenues with a significant growth as compared to 2019, which is pre-pandemic. On the next slide number six, here you can see it's broken down by channel in terms of revenue growth. We have 5.6% growth in net revenue or 3.6% in gross revenue. Here, you can see the sales in a period with a growth of 160.2% digital sales growth.
Physical stores shrunk by 10.6%, even though this is very good result, relatively speaking, comparing to what we've been seeing retail and very much driven by the performance in March. In January and February, as we shared with you in our last conference call, with similar growth trends, similar to what we've been having last year. Obviously since March the 8th, we started having a stronger restriction in the main markets where the company operates. Naturally, the pace of growth in the quarter was affected. The growth came from price, 19% from prices. What we saw in last quarter is very much because of two very strong years. Now looking at the right-hand side on slide number six, you can see movements in the sales mix, very much following the trends that we've been demonstrating.
We have grown 2.5 percentage points in share in the period. Life has grown 60 x here, watches shrunk and reduced, especially because of our approach of making the category more profitable, as I mentioned a few minutes ago. On slide number seven, here you can see our heat map of the regions that were most affected. It's more like a map of restrictions and how we were affected in each one of the regions with a negative highlight here, is the Amazonas, Rio Grande do Sul, and Paraná, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Bahia suffered restrictions too, where we had a performance that was slightly below in other regions. The highlight here is the Northeast, where we had a positive sales evolution, and we have gained profitability. In terms of physical stores, we have seen a slight change in the mix.
Jewelry gained 1 percentage point share in the period as compared to the same quarter last year, whereas watches lost the same 1 percentage point. On slide number eight, you can see the evolution of quarters. In terms of operating revenue, in March, we had restrictions as of the 8th. We are still building brand relevance. In terms of e-commerce in Brazil, we have a very relevant brand reaching 43% share of search. We are number four, just behind Amazon, Cacau Show. We have 49% market share accesses. Obviously, we'll try to leverage that and explore this differential as compared to our competitors in the sector where we operate.
On slide number nine, you can see our e-commerce mix, very similar to what we had in the past and the main differential in contrast with one quarter when we had not developed our program, which in the period accounted for 36.6% of sales. E-commerce sales in Q1 2021, with an expansion of 16.3% in jewelry and then a reduction in watches, and we lost just one point in share, thereby contributing to make this channel more profitable. This is very favorable for our margins mix, especially jewelry and Life, and not so much in watches. On slide number 10, you can see gross profit and gross margin from BRL 42.7 million of gross profit in a period with 65.5% in margin. It's a good management of category with interesting profitability in product margins.
More than offset by the loss in inventory that provisioned in a period due to the higher level of product melting in a quarter. This is a more specific effect. We had a higher frequency of Gold Week as compared to Silver Week, higher volume of items, so that we could do all that melting and then insourcing more strong in the basis. We are going to invest very much on that to gain assortment and to adjust the mix we are going to insource. To have better product quality. We had a slightly larger share or larger volume for the Vivara line. We want this line to have less or a small volatility in margin, and this is our main direction and our mission of continuous offset as our inventory is turned over. On slide 11, you can see our sales expenses.
We had 84.9 million BRL, 39% of the company's net sales, an increase of 0.8 percentage points. The impact that creates margin pressure in this period, this is a more digital operation than last year. Obviously within the sales profile, it's slightly more than 8% in Q1 2020 and now above 21.4% in Q1 2021. We see expenses with rates and marketing and taxes, gaining greater weight in sales expenses as it is natural. The marketing line follows the same trend. It's important to highlight that it accounts for more of our revenue in Q1 2021. When we isolate the digital, we gain efficiency in marketing investments, just considering this business unit in the company. It was from 22% of revenue in Q1 2020 to 17% of revenues in Q1 2021.
The additional weight comes especially for a higher share of digital operations and this investment in performance that we have been making. A very important point for us to highlight. On slide number 12, you can see the evolution of general administrative expenses. We had BRL 32.6 million or 15% of net revenues, 4.5% than what we had last year. Here, higher rate as compared to what we did during the year in the expenses of strategic consulting so that we can grow in the middle long term. On the next slide, we show the effects of everything in the company's operating revenue. Here you can see adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA margin. We had 10.5% almost in Q1 2021, with a margin of 4.8%. Here this was affected the comparability between the different profitabilities.
On slide number 14, you can see the evolution of net income and net margin. We booked almost BRL 4 million of net income and in contrast with BRL 19 million in the same period last year with 9.2% margin. Here the highlight is also the same BRL 12.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. Moving on to CapEx on slide 15. Here, you're going to see more speed along the quarters this year. We have invested almost BRL 30 million in the period, especially in new stores, factory renovations, and maintenance. We are having a physical expansion, and we did this during the restriction in March. We delayed a little bit the opening of some points of sales. In April, we already opened four points of sale, and then we're going to open another seven, now we are accelerating.
We have more than 35 points of sale approved by company's committee. We are really well advanced in negotiations both for Life and Vivara. It's a year of accelerated investments. The company will invest more than BRL 130 million, especially in these three components, new stores, systems, and a factory, especially for Life, to accommodate all this gain in complexity, productivity, and insourcing that we will conduct this year in our Manaus factory. On slide 16, you can see the evolution of debt in the last quarter, as already shared with you, that the intention of us to leveling out and going back to a level of about BRL 300 million in debt. Additional debt in Q4. To use the exemption of IOF that was extended and now in the maturities of February and March, we are going to adjust that.
We ended the period with BRL 295.2 million and now a quite significant share for the long term, which is much more appropriate for the time and with very interesting cost levels still. A strong balance sheet assures us good prices, good rates. We end the period with a net cash of BRL 325.6 million, almost in line with the year's closing. Now, on slide number 17, you can see the free cash generation. The company generated BRL 16 million in terms of operating cash in contrast with BRL 32.9 million in the same period last year or BRL 18.7 million after BRL 14 million of investment.
The main differential obviously is the result, the lower operating result, but also investment in inventory in the first quarter that remained close last year with lower inventory levels than we wanted to back up the growth that we want in 2021 due to the time during which the factory was closed as affected by the pandemic during 2020. Here we see a more intense recovery and higher metal prices contributing to a higher level of inventory. This is supporting our sales in April and May. This will help us to grow during the year. I finish the presentation of the results here. Thank you again. Now I'm going to give the floor to Paulo, who's going to continue the presentation.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for your presence here today.
Our idea is to give you a business update and the evolution of our business, and we see our investment thesis in the medium and long term. Our agenda, first, we are going to share with you our mission and vision. We are going to go through the growth lever, the growth avenues. We'll talk a little bit about Vivara Digital and then the empowerment of the brand Life. On slide 20, I would like to emphasize our team, our vision, and mission. Our vision is we exist to fascinate our customers by offering the best experience when choosing the perfect gift. Here when we say fascinate, there's intensity that is more than just enchant. Fascinate is the highest level of loyalty. A fascinated customer will hardly ever find a replacement.
The best experience when we see here is to think about our omni-channel model, having customers at the center of experience, having them as leaders, protagonists. They can buy the presents they want whenever they can. The perfect present is related to assortment. In our portfolio with our product and price grid, this will be enough to always provide the best solution for times of celebration. Our mission is to be the most desired brand in Latin America to celebrate special moments. The most desired brand means that we'll be the immediate preference for anyone thinking of giving a present. Latin America means a pursuit for international presence and a very large basis for growth and expansion, both for Vivara and Life. Celebrate special moments is part of our DNA.
From the opening of Vivara, our objective has always been to lead to customers the opportunity of making true the dream of owning a piece of jewelry. Here on slide 21, you can see our growth levers. On the left-hand side chart, we can see the addressable market of BRL 10.2. We have reached 13.1% as Otavio mentioned. This is a really significant increase in market share, and we still have a lot of room to gain relevance within the market. We can expand our core with different brands within increasing the portfolio products to complete our pyramid. In a core business transformation, a very tangible objective of what happened to Vivara last year, which is the physical transforming with digital. Our digital projects of omni-channel, we are transforming the jewelry industry. We can provide services to our customers wherever they are and whenever they want.
It's not just OMS, but the endless aisle in stores. We have created new channels and new modes of operation. Why not expanding our portfolio with accessories or semi-jewelry in the future? These are adjacent categories. Now the brands in the medium and long term, without forgetting our potential of adding customers and capabilities to our bases, which is fundamental to strengthen our structure. On slide number 22, here, talking a little bit about our growth avenues. We see several opportunities to create value on the medium and long term. New channels, new brands, new segments, new categories, new geographies, and additional positioning. We have a lot to develop organically.
Imagine, for example, Life that as a channel, as a business unit, has less than 3% of penetration in shopping malls, and that has changed the most recently, is our vision of inorganic growth, which is something that was outside our pipeline and now is part of our internal discussions. There's opportunity in all these fronts. We want to unlock value that, yes, they are in our radar. When we look at an agenda of capital allocation, and we have a lot of potential to growth inorganically, but we cannot give up the capacity to complement projects that will complement our product and customer base, that will add capabilities of offering a new material. Vivara is a brand that consolidates the brand. We have other players and have increased the gap of Vivara in face of other competitors.
Our midterm agenda for 2021 is based on two fronts that I will talk about now. The first front is the evolution of digital. On the next slide, number 24. Now we'll talk about the market trends in the jewelry market as digital evolves in 2021. Live streaming has been growing considerably in the jewelry segment, and it's very important to see on the online period adapting and making it possible for customers to see products through a screen or in other medium. Virtual consulting, assisted remote sales is a trend that has been growing since 2020 and will be very relevant in 2021. Multiple payment options, Link, Pix, other options to make sure that customers have many options in checking out, even if remotely.
The O2O concept, online to offline, is very important for us to interact and relate to our customers in all phases of the purchase journey. It's very important for us to capture customers at the beginning of the funnel and not just buying media and converting them. The mobile-centric shopping experience with the reflex of changing consumer behavior is making it possible to have this mobility and to assure their experience through the cell phone. In this manner, on slide number 25, you can see the long-term digital vision and transformations to use the strength of Vivara brand and the change in consumer behavior to consolidate our leadership position, to transform the shopping journey, and to fascinate customers in all channels. In this manner, we can generate more revenue to make customers even more loyal and to attract new customers. Now a little bit about our current status.
Where are we in this journey? 2025 was a very important year for digital. We accelerated many initiatives that contributed, but we still have a lot to develop. Almost 50% of access share, 43% of the search share, they are numbers that really show the relevance of our brand. The omni solution today is what we offer very well. Today, the front store is in 100% of the market through the hub model, and same-store sales to us is a reality already. The pickup store already accounts for 40% of our online sales. Another important point here that I would like to share with you is on Mother's Day, on the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before the event, we had more orders to ship from store than in January.
We had more than 1,000 on average. This shows the evolution of this channel and how we are being able to integrate stores with digital. Our inventory is already integrated in 80% of the market. This will increase delivery speed and will contribute to the endless aisle. The inventory belongs to the customer, not to the store, and wherever they are, they can buy and have this experience. We've been talking about customer in a more segmented way. This is how we are talking to the customers, and we want to evolve in a model of recency, frequency, and value. On slide number 27, you can see the strategic fronts for 2021. Thinking of a unique customer journey, traffic machine, and the omni-commerce model that I will share with you in a little bit more detail.
On slide 28, thinking of a single customer journey, our idea is to extract value from CRM to gain scale, to have a journey that is seamless, fluid. We are already working with customer relationship based on persona. Our objective is to evolve and to be able to work on a personalized relationship with customers. Based on our business model, we already have capabilities to analyze all this information. We are working to have automatic measurements of engagement and to increase conversion. We want to increase frequency, loyalty, and input as a behavioral trigger. Here, the vision of the customer as a single journey, no matter whether they are in a store, on a site, or mobile, or if they want to change channels, whether they are impacted by on and off, that it's a single journey through all channels. They can close sales wherever they want.
We already know our customers. We have competitive advantage as compared to other retailers, and we are segmenting by group. Now we want to seek and try, look at persona in a much more segmented way. On slide number 29, you can see our traffic machine, which is to boost brand value, balance out our traffic better, and not to depend so much on paid media. We want to have and to be a company that generates strong, very intensely, to have a direct relationship with our customers to generate demand, not just purchases at the end. We no longer want to be a generator of flow, we want to become a generator of demand, if possible, with a content factory. One example of that is the digitalization. The Mother's catalog this year was 100% digital. We never printed anything.
This was the first time ever, and this was the catalog that converted the most in Vivara's history. For 2020, we evolved a lot in this concept of digital media. For 2021, we want 100% of our media to be online. Just as a reminder of our O2O concept is to interact with customers even before they even think of the journey. It's not just capturing them when they have the demand, but it's to create demand. We're going to work very much this year and in the future to create demand for jewelry and not just to try and find customers when they think about it. On slide number 30, and now in talking a little bit about omni-commerce. Digital becomes a present tool in the physical retail along the customer's journey.
It's mobile checkout at stores, rolling out the inventory integration, having inventory hub stores to optimize inventory levels, to have more than 50 stores spread out throughout Brazil, and to replenish more frequently, to work with the idea of rupture and capture of new customers, seeking the generation of incremental revenue. Unify Vivara home platform with all the functions that we have today with the offer of relationship services, trying to find an application where the customer can have virtual consulting, can monitor their services in terms of orders and guarantee, and to have more information in the hands of saleswomen so that they can use all the knowledge when the customer is in contact with them. To us, the universalization of inventory in all channels, this is something very important. Inventory belongs to the customer, not to the store.
In 2021, we will work with the structural gaps, and we'll start working on expediting digital at Vivara, bringing incremental revenue, building loyalty with our customers, and attracting new customers too. On the next slide, we will be talking about our other strategic front that is going to be very strong this year, Life. Here on Life, we'll talk about empowerment of the brand Life, the product, customer profile, and the new store that we are assessing today as a concept. On slide number 33, brand empowerment. We think how to drive value in the medium long term, as remembering that Life has only 2.6 penetration in shopping malls, and in the next few years, we want an expansion of 20-25 stores per year when the best malls in the country mature.
Malls that have already very good experience with Vivara and a gradual penetration in malls. To increase the production of Life in our factories and a wider assortment. The ideal of the brand with all this expansion is for us to become a brand that customers will recognize and to increase our penetration. About the brand on slide 35. Vivara is a brand that is present at special moments. It represents luxury, desire, solidity, and trust. Life is different. It carries the strength of Vivara, but it wants to make each person to become special with different attributes. It's a younger brand, represents the day-to-day life of women, a moment. It carries trends and will work much more in expression and lifestyle.
Expression of working with many more styles to be in different fronts and jewelry that will be part of any look in any time in the day. They can wear it during the day, at night, and the jewelry will transform as an attribute of the person and co-creation of the person who buys it. When you build your bracelet and your earring with mix and match, you can vary styles with very good cost-effectiveness. It plays a very important social role that each woman will feel unique and special based on their nature. It's a jewelry that invites women to tell us their story. On the next slide. The Life brand here. We say that is a relaxed, collectible, customizable brand, democratic too, with a fashion approach and with Vivara's brand.
The pillars of the brand is that brand very much focused on lifestyle, collectible. Once you buy a piece of jewelry, you start a collection and start evolving with it. You can give it as a gift, it's for everyone. About the product on slide number 38. Here we are seeking to increase its portfolio with a wider assortment of bracelets, it's been working very well with this wider array of bracelets. Lifestyle, to increase the concept of collectible, to work better on mix and match, the combinations in endless different combinations for this product, combining categories and collections to work a little bit more on the combination of materials, gold with silver with our exclusive rose gold. We have better average prices and better value for customers.
The collectible aspect of our items is very important for us, and the idea of collecting and stacking, not just bracelets, but earrings too. This is very important aspect of Life as a product. Customer profile. As I said before, women who buy Life is a woman who is attuned, cool, romantic, delicate, creative, and stylish. As you can see on slide number 40. They are slightly younger than the Vivara women. When we look into our customer base, the profile of those who buy Life is very similar here. Two-thirds of the customers who buy Vivara buy Life too. Life works like as an entry brand for new customers to make our base younger and to increase our base of active customers.
There's a huge potential here that will gain a lot of relevance with younger women, or people who want to give presents to younger women, not just with the usual Vivara customer profile. Oftentimes, these people, they might feel intimidated of walking into a Vivara store, but they can walk into a Life store. We want very much to increase shopping frequency with a Life model. In slide 41, there's a novelty. Our first loyalty program, Life Lovers, whose aim is to offer unique experience for each Life Lover. The first step is to build a loyalty program. It was launched on April 23rd. It's a loyalty club. We invited all premium customers and some invited customers to be acknowledged by this program to have an exclusive access in the launch of lines, so they will have special content.
We are going to work on the top of the pyramid here. Customers will be the center of our community. Here we want to work with exclusiveness and expectation. This is a group of people who buy more than 900 BRL per year of Life. This is an active construction of our community. I really believe they will be ambassadors of our brand. They work as genuine engagers. We will be able to work in a different way to increase the funnel. On the next slide, the new store that we are opening today. First of all, I would like to congratulate everyone in our team involved in this project. I've been talking to you, this project has everything to be successful. This is the jewelry of the crown on slide number 43.
You can see a 3D picture of the store with an air of sophistication. There is a fluidity, a seamless with counters, straight lines. It's a 360 closer to the customer approach. Saleswomen become much more important and style consultants can get closer to customers in this lifestyle trend. Here the space is focusing on providing services and interacting with customers. You can see more pictures of the store. Communication on the walls. I don't know if you can see on the picture, but it makes references to our items and the items here, they are protagonists in our journey. It accounts for 50% of our sales together with bracelets. We have a ludic with affective memory of whatever is present and people. This is related to our portfolio and collection. We work very much with mix and match.
We have different combinations on the store. They can walk through the lines. Here you can see a much more humanized approach. On slide 45, the new store is 100% divided by sectors with an important role for us to launch our new collections, and the customer is always the most important. They can walk around and discover the line and learn more about Life on their own. The highlight here is interaction between physical and digital, so they can look up an iPad to know what's going on, to buy and receive at home. It really receives a highlight to take to them a little bit of the Vivara World. This is all I had to share with you today. We are going to move to the questions and answer session. Thank you all very much.
We are now going to start our questions and answer session only for investors and analysts. If you have a question, please dial star one, and if your question is answered, please press star two to take a question from the list. We are going to answer questions in the order we receive them. We kindly request you to pick up your headset when asking your question in order to assure optimal audio quality. Please wait while we collect the questions. Our first question comes from Ms. Olivia Petzollinen from JP Morgan.
Hello. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Could you give me more details about your expansion plan? How many stores have already been contracted for this year for Vivara and for Life? One thing we discussed a lot during the IPO was the training of saleswomen.
They need much more training than usual retail or clothing retail.
Hi, Olivia.
Thank you for the question. I think that I briefly mentioned during the presentation, but so that we can look ahead when we're calm. We are going to start, we have postponed it slightly, delayed it to start in April instead of March for obvious reasons. The main markets where we are opening stores or the malls are 100% closed. We depend on the opening of those points. We have more than 35 points that have already been approved. We have really advanced very well to meet the company's objectives, which is to open between 40 and 50 new points of sale. The distribution is very much equivalent if you consider Vivara and Life.
Vivara's were the first openings, so four in April and then seven in May and four in Vivara. Life pipeline is quite interesting and very fast. They are stores within this new concept. They are the new wave of expansion, and where we are going to have a quite interesting thing in terms of marketing, and we can show. I think that the pictures are a small illustration of what we are doing. We're going to share more things with you as to the store that we are opening in Santos as part of the new model.
In gaining relevance, gaining significance, we hope it's very successful with similar return rates similar to our previous investments, even though we are moving to points of sale that once again are the best malls in the country and we are paying a little bit more to go into those as it was expected. Our wish list goes through another 40 new points in addition to the 35 that the committee has already approved. We have many options for choice. As of April and May, we are going to do it very intensely in late October and November, no later than that. Thank you. Now talking about training.
Your question was very good, Olivia. Vivara has evolved a lot during the pandemic in terms of remote training. Last month we launched a new version of Vivara World.
This is our internal e-learning platform and communication training. We have a wide array of training. Test stores where we can monitor. Notes, performance of saleswomen. We have 50 school stores spread throughout Brazil where saleswomen can go to those stores to undergo training. One example of success that we have, as Otavio mentioned, just three days ago, we opened seven new stores, seven points of sale. It was very good work in terms of training so that these people are okay for sales. This is what technology suggests in terms of tests, and we have videos too. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Eric from Eleven Financial.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my question. You say you want to keep it within very well-controlled levels.
In terms of quality adjustments and in-sourcing of Life, what can we expect from that? What to expect in the next new quarters? In terms of expenses regarding the maintenance and expansion and the more strategic projects, what can we expect in future quarters for the company? Thank you very much.
Hi, Eric. Thank you for your question. Starting with gross margin. This is very much in line with what we had in terms of expectations with you. Especially in this beginning of the year, we have an accumulation of meltings. This pressure will go down in next quarters. Most of the items of the meltings will turn into gold and silver.
There is a movement for the year. We are going to close it above 80% of the manufacturing of Life will be in-sourced in our Manaus factory. There are some changes in the products that we manufacture in-home and that are done off-site. Considering what we are going to have along the year, we have selected products. With all these meltings and adapting the line so that we can effectively offer from now on. The main effect comes from Vivara, from gold products, not Life. When Life is smaller. This pressure is going to fade along the next quarters and the evolution of results are going to be interesting.
Product margins are still under control and obviously in a scenario where revenues respond faster, the operational pressure in the factory where we are investing more, it will gain efficiency and will help us in this comparison period. Here, looking at expenses structural fronts, when we lose relevance in revenue, especially in March, when the main markets closed, we saw a retraction in sales of about 6%. In the main month in the quarter, it increases the relevance of those expenses in our performance, especially other operating expenses and expenses with consulting, as you can see the more detailed when we break down in our financials. In terms of relevance and amount of those lines, we had already been showing an increase, especially last year. This higher level will continue along the year.
Once again, a more mid and long-term investment to support growth and what will reduce, it will worsen in the future. In a scenario of full revenue that is not so affected in terms of circulation of customers and limitation in the opening hours in shopping malls all over the country. Of course, this is lighter to us and seasonally Q1 is usually the quarter with the lowest sales. The last one is usually the main one for us, from which we derive most of the company's operational profit and more interesting seasonality and performance. It's not just growth revenues, but growth margin with a more favorable mix in these two times of the year. We hope that this more specific pressure will become smoother along the period.
We have cost increase, and this is under control for the management with super stability as compared to previous periods. This loses relevance as compared to revenues as we evolve. This has been evolving very well over the past two months.
Our next question comes from Helena Vilares from Itaú.
Hello. Thank you for taking my question. We have two questions here. Going back to what we've been discussing over the past few quarters, we have M&A consolidation, new categories, and a consolidation in the addressable market. Could you give us more details? How has it been evolving along quarters? Just to give us an update on that theme. Today you talked a lot about digital. You have a lot of digital presentation as compared to traditional retail. We think about the omni-channel strategy. You started doing it last year.
Just penetration data. Could you tell us in a little bit more details the levels you are in now?
In answering the first question about the M&A, it was not an active agenda in the company. Yes, it has become an active agenda. We really believe in the growth of Vivara and Life and why not within that brand strategy or category strategy to look out and see how we can consolidate the market even further. One important point here is our gain in market share and its evolution. We've been able to do it in a very intensely fragmented market. We had 11%, now we have 13%. That's just with the strength of Vivara and Life.
Why not an M&A. That will make it possible for us to have new channels, new sales strengths, and that we could go in a market where Vivara and Life are not today. It makes sense so long as it may complement our core environment and that it is something that we can work and see as a business potential. As to digital, this is an evolution in the company. When you see digital, we are working on website sales and sales of saleswomen working as a consultant, working in that platform, tablet sales. It's not just the physical stores. It's how this experience of physical store will be impacted by the digital experience and how we can have many tools for saleswomen to sell more. Something that was very nice, this Mother's Day, we are working with a very good portfolio of endless aisle.
Grids, for example, I have a ring that is number 12 in a store, and then through the tablet, I can sell up to size 27. I have a chain that is 50 centimeters, but I can sell 70 centimeters. If I have a small ring and I sell the large one, or bigger or smaller, with an inventory that is not present right there and then. They can see the inventory in all stores for the future. Today, we have 110 stores connected in EOMS, and I don't need to have 100%, because giving the example of a store that is very close to another. For example, two close by stores here in São Paulo. I can take a store that has a very intense flow and then focus the marketplace, both to sell and to do this omni-shipping.
I mentioned that we had more than 1,000 orders shipping from the store. 40% of the stores already have pickup. Once we reduce lead time and reduce rupture, it makes sense to have these operations inside the stores. You will not see 100% of our stores locked or plugged. It depends on the delivery logistics. Shipping from store is still low, but we can increase it very much with a model that we are using to ship to a different state. We are proving that. Some states are already working like that. You can buy from Manaus a good that is in Recife and you have it shipped to Rio Grande do Sul. This is the beginning, but there will be something new coming up in the next quarter.
Okay, thank you very much.
As a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please press star one. Our next question comes from Ms. Aguiar from XP Investimentos.
Good morning, Paulo, Otávio and Melina. Thank you for taking my question. First is a follow-up regarding M&A. You said that you are analyzing new categories. Just to understand, are these categories in a jewelry world something addressing lower social classes, or is it a new category that would complement accessories? Just to understand better that point. In the release, you talk that you're seeing a significant recovery in sales. Mother's Day was really exceptional, not just for you, but we've been hearing the feedback from all retailers. Can you give us some color in the after Mother's Day? How has it been evolving? Are you seeing a higher flow in stores or is it more digital? How has the recovery been?
The last question, if I may, is about your loyalty program. Earlier collection, something exclusive or are there points or something, and you say it's still very much limited to your main customers. What would be the criteria for those customers to fit into the categories? Frequency, shopping amount, shop?
Now in answering your first question, we are looking at everything that strengthens your core. We sell jewelry in gold and silver. When I say silver, the value perceived by customers for our silver stores is not similar to silver or to semi-jewelry. We have a very good markup and very good prices. We are looking into segments and categories that can complement our core business.
Mother's Day, we still have good flow, good performance in our stores, above our plan for the after Mother's Day. We are satisfied with everything that we have been seeing both in physical and digital stores. As to Life Lovers plan, as I said, this is very much in the beginning. We started with premium customers who bought more than 900 BRL in a year. They're at the top of the pyramid. They will have access to exclusive launches, to directed launches. Our idea is to, yes, work to build their loyalty, maybe giving discount. We have a nice program this week. We have the Gold Week, we have a Silver Week, and then can bring their old pendant to change it for a new one, so they can use it as part of the payment.
This is very embryonic still, and we want to increase it and to make it recognized. We want to work with an awards program. In the future, if they are in that program, they may have access to exclusive pendants and to be recognized for that. We are really excited with the engagement of these customers with the beginning and how much they are fans of the brand, and they may serve as ambassadors of the brand.
Excellent. Thank you very much. Congratulations on your performance.
Thank you.
If there are no further questions, I would like to give the floor back to Mr. Paulo for his closing remarks. Please, you may proceed with the closing remarks. Paulo?
Thank you all very much. Thank you everyone for attending our results live, and I wish you a good day.
Thank you. The conference call of Vivara has now ended.
Have a good day. Thank you