Thank you, everyone, for joining us here at the Bank of America Consumer Conference in Miami. I'm very pleased to have Martin be with us from Mytheresa, CFO, with me on stage. Martin, last time we were together was actually at our European Consumer Conference in Paris in November, and you were pitching to me at the time the very strong investment thesis for Mytheresa. I was wondering for the investors in the room if you wouldn't mind kind of re-pitching them the equity story and the investment thesis of the company and the stock from here.
Yeah, thanks, actually. Happy to do so. I mean, let's start with the numbers, and maybe I don't know exactly what I pitched last time with you, but let's start with the numbers on the equity story. The equity story is, if you relate the share price to the share price potential. Mytheresa is one of the stocks that has a very high potential for an increase in the share price. End of next month, we will hopefully close the acquisition and move from a $1 billion company to a $3 billion company. With that, we will obviously target the 8% adjusted EBITDA margin medium term that we have. You can do the math by yourself. The EBITDA will be $240 million. With applying a certain growth multiple for, obviously, a growth company as Mytheresa, you come to market cap over $3 billion.
If you relate that to the market cap of today at around $800 million, you clearly see a tripling of the share price and the market cap. I think this was what I indicated the last time we saw each other. It is driven by more the fundamentals, and that is why the equity story and the growth story did not change. If you look at the core business, that is Mytheresa , we see an ever-increasing brand support from the luxury brands doing close collaborations with us, exclusive money-can't-buy experiences, co-sponsored events every quarter for the last quarters. We have an increasing number and caliber of brands that want to do collaborations with Mytheresa and increasing that digital visibility towards our customers. Also on the customer side, very strong improvement.
Not only last quarter, we reported a +12% top-line growth, but if you look at the customer KPIs, they all look very healthy. Increasing GMV per top customer, increasing GMV for all customers, underlying increasing AOV, and also improving the profitability level. Especially in the current situation, that is quite remarkable, also driven by a much healthier state of the luxury industry with less excess inventory in the market, less promotional intensity, and a lot, and you saw that in the press, a lot of struggling competitors that help us clearly position us as a clear winner. This is the core Mytheresa element.
Obviously, with the acquisition of Yoox Net-A-Porter as a combined group, being the number one global player in this online multi-brand luxury, we clearly see also for the combined group to embark on this route for 8% adjusted EBITDA profitability in the medium term. That is why not only for the numbers it adds up, but also from the underlying trends and drivers that keep fueling the Mytheresa success story.
Thank you. Thank you for those opening remarks. Perfect intro to the story. Maybe if we could take a little bit of a step back. Obviously, your fourth quarter results are very solid relative to what we saw elsewhere in the industry. I think if we look at the listed luxury companies, they were growing revenues in that fourth quarter around 2%. As you rightly point out, Mytheresa is delivering double-digit growth in that period. If we look at what's happened since the fourth quarter, I think that on a lot of the data that we track, there is kind of no real indication that the industry is seeing sequential improvement from here. Actually, in fact, a little bit of a softening coming through in the first quarter versus fourth quarter momentum.
Can you talk to kind of how you're seeing the industry dynamics play out in this early part of the year?
I mean, the industry dynamics, as I just mentioned, is much healthier than before. Clearly, if you look at the promotional intensity, if you look at customer sentiment, especially on the high-end side, on the top customer side, which Mytheresa clearly is focusing on, very strong. You mentioned the 2% on average. Obviously, we all see a high polarization on the brand side. There are some brands that are struggling, and there are, on the other side, also some brands that are growing double-digit growth. This polarization on the brand side obviously helps somebody like Mytheresa , who is kind of an ETF in luxury. We can balance the brand portfolio, working together on the woman's side with about 250 brands and also delivering in 230 countries.
We can grow in regions that are now set up for growth much more than other regions where it's more difficult and also focus on brands that are really performing well and can increase our performance as well. Yeah, Q4 was a great quarter also for Mytheresa , 12% top-line growth, first half of the fiscal year, 10% growth. We see a continuation of those trends. I mean, obviously, the quarter January, February, March is our third fiscal year quarter, is always a bit weaker than the preceding quarter and the quarter afterwards. Q2 and Q4, which are usually stronger quarters because they are more having a fully delivered season and focus on full price. That's why those quarters are stronger. The overall advantage in the industry and also for a player like Mytheresa is in the focus on the top customer side.
The top customer side, which is less affected by a weakening or a softer customer sentiment, has a higher resilience in really fulfilling their needs of having attractive luxury shopping, wanting to position themselves there. Overall, very strong and a much healthier state of the industry than one year, two years ago.
You obviously made the differential between the performance of the top customers versus the rest. I was wondering if there is anything to call out from a regional or a nationality perspective that you also see within the demand dynamics?
The share of top customers and standard customers for Mytheresa worldwide is very similar. It is not because we are a European-based company that the share of top customers to standard customers is significantly different in Europe versus the U.S. or rest of the world. Obviously, there are differences in the growth between the regions. There are regions where, due to several reasons, for example, Germany with the election uncertainty was a bit weaker in the last quarters and other regions, obviously Middle East, U.S., Canada, Singapore are very strong. The overall growth can be leveraged through different regions, and our focus on top customers really plays out.
You mentioned before the health of the industry is better than what it has been previously. Can you talk a little bit more about the level of promotional activity that exists at Mytheresa and also the level of promotional activity that you're seeing within the luxury industry more broadly?
That's exactly what I call the better state of the industry because with having less excess inventory in the market, there's also less need or willingness to embark on heavy promotional activities by competitors, by other retailers, or by the brands themselves. We clearly see a return to a stronger full price, also enabling stronger sell-through rates for all the seasons. That plays then is a key ingredient of a healthier state of the industry. The excess inventory level is balancing out, and you see that the players are in a much better state today.
It is fair to say then the inventory in the channel is cleaner than it has been.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Okay.
Thanks. Just taking a bit of a step back, can you remember what differentiates Mytheresa from your competitors and what makes it the go-to platform for curated luxury?
Yeah, I mean, the key differentiation of Mytheresa is that we always stay true to really focusing on the high end, on really true luxury with the focus of the brands. Some competitors have 500 brands, others have 800 brands. We really focus on the true luxury brands and also a top customer that is a wardrobe-building customer that does not save money for a bag every two years, but is really a wardrobe-building customer, focusing on ready-to-wear. That enables the customer to come 10-15 times per year and spending significant amounts on ready-to-wear. This is a key and unique focus of Mytheresa with our ready-to-wear share significantly above 50% and have a customer, a very strong, loyal top customer that comes back and back with a high retention without requiring additional promotions or additional marketing spend.
I guess as a follow-up, can you just explain us a little bit maybe the differences in business models between Mytheresa on the one hand and Net-A-Porter the other hand, obviously considering the upcoming acquisition?
I mean, Net-A-Porter is our biggest competitor. From a positioning, it is very similar to Mytheresa on the curated luxury. Not a marketplace, but really catering to top customers, focusing on top customers. Obviously, and this is then even better felt for the focus customers, the go-to-market strategy is a bit different in nuances. Mytheresa has a higher share of really established, well-known luxury brands. Net-A-Porter also has a share of up-and-coming new brands, has also more content-driven go-to-market strategy on their platform. Overall, it is very comparable. If you really compare why a customer shops at Mytheresa or why they shop at Net-A-Porter, they will clearly explain the differences that Net-A-Porter has a different tonality, has a different go-to-market strategy than Mytheresa. That is why also in the upcoming acquisition, we, after closing, want to keep the storefront separate.
We want to keep the Net-A-Porter DNA of having a comparable business model, but complementary as well. Really keeping the storefronts separate, also with separate buying teams and on the marketing side, but in the backend on IT and operations, craft the synergies and optimize the overall go-to-market strategy.
Fantastic. Can you just explain a little bit what the secret is behind Mytheresa's high customer loyalty? How do you nurture loyalty in a competitive market?
I mean, it starts with everything that we do in our business model. The core essence of why a top customer comes to Mytheresa is also our curated edit. It is our brand selection and our product selection that they find on the website. There is a high emotional attachment of our top customers to the brand, to what we do. This is the core essence. That is why, especially the top customers that are a wardrobe-building, ready-to-wear focus customers want to see and have access to this merchandise. With our close brand relationships that even more every quarter and every month do collaborations with us on exclusives and capsules, that enables the customer to every week discover something new, something exclusive on our website and therefore fuels this curated edit on the website.
Therefore, for a top customer, it is a great discovery on the Mytheresa website. Do not forget, Mytheresa is not a transactional platform. It is really an emotional attachment that the customers have with Mytheresa. It is an inspiration-driven buy. It is more an event-driven buy, not so much a focused, targeted buy where I exactly know the product and want to shop for the best price. This is not what the customer comes to Mytheresa . Therefore, the core essence on the product side is a key ingredient. The second key ingredient is the operational excellence. We are the best operator in the industry, highest Net Promoter score. Those, especially the top customers, demand excellent service. They look at that speed of delivery and quality of delivery. We get a lot of positive feedback on the speed and quality of the delivery.
They are obviously, as you said, this is the secret sauce of Mytheresa to have built and continue to build this loyal top customer base, which is highly profitable and which comes back, which comes back with a high degree of loyalty with low level of promotions and low level of marketing. That is why we have customers who shop with us two years or longer, we have 100% net sales retention. Every year, I build an existing customer cohort on top, which expands my very loyal top customer base. Right now, 4% of my customers make 40% of revenues. At the IPO, I think four years ago, it was 3% and 32%. Increasing top customer share also isolates me a bit from the current aspirational customer weakness and the overall market sentiment.
That clearly differentiates us from the competition to have such a continuous focus on this top customer and such a track record of delivering to it. The DNA of Mytheresa was always this. It was never a hockey stick. It was always a highly profitable business and a strong focus on this top customer.
I guess just maybe as a follow-up on this and to finish up the business model discussion, how long does it take you to make a customer profitable from scratch? What's the average cost per customer or for customer acquisition?
I mean, when we look at the LTV over CAC analysis and look at the different customer cohort performance, the customer is in the first year profitable. Obviously, the pure customer acquisition cost is per se not a KPI because you always have to relate it to the quality of the customer. Therefore, the implicit or expected lifetime value that this customer will bring. Obviously, with optimizing our bidding algorithm and looking at acquiring top customers, we obviously focus more and more on acquiring the high potential customers, high potential customers that obviously have then the highest LTV over CAC. Usually after two years, it is clear that this customer is a top customer, not because they get richer or they develop, but they experience the Mytheresa platform. They really love the service. They love every aspect. They shift sale towards Mytheresa .
We might pause there to see if there are any questions from the room.
So many hand raises.
Yeah. Otherwise, I can follow up with a question on my side. I was just wondering, over the last couple of years, one of the key stories that existed in the online arena has been this idea of shift from wholesale to e-concession. I was wondering, where are we in that journey? If you still see a lot of the brands that you work with continuing to kind of prioritize the desire to have e-concessions over sell wholesale, if you can remind us what percentage of your revenues or profit comes from that concession model rather than wholesale, and also how do the economics look today and if they've evolved at all?
Yeah. No, happy to speak to that. First of all, our curated platform model that we also engage with the brands is not a concession model per se because for the customer, all the positive ingredients of the wholesale model and all of the Mytheresa go-to-market strategy stay the same. Even though Mytheresa is not the financial owner of the product, Mytheresa still selects, still curates, still decides which product to put on the platform. It is not the brand. It is us. The brand delivers, so to say, the seasonal selection, the seasonal buy to our warehouse. It is also not a dropshipping model. That enables us to fully own and fully manage the value chain to the customer and deliver the seamless customer experience that is the key element of the Mytheresa go-to-market strategy.
Therefore, for the customer, it is completely not visible or not felt whether this product is a wholesale product or whether this product is a curated platform model product. The curated platform model, as we hook up our IT with the supply chain IT of the brand, has additional benefits also for Mytheresa on having in-season replenishment. Every week, we get in-season replenishment of products that we run out of a certain size, color, or style. That also helps on boosting sale with that brand. Obviously, it's a different cash cycle. We don't buy the inventory. We pay the brand when the customer pays us. It's a model, but yeah, the benefit for the brand is that the brand keeps owning, be the financial owner of the inventory and clear the decision maker on all pricing.
It is a different logic than the wholesale model. At the end of the season, everything that I do not sell, I send back to the brand except for the carryover styles. Overall, you asked that profitability level on the absolute adjusted EBITDA profit pool, it is very comparable for us. We are agnostic. We enable, we are able to work and collaborate with brands either way, whether they prefer the wholesale model or the curated platform model. From what I said and the difference in the cash flow and also the inventory risk, as the curated platform model, the brand keeps on having the inventory risk. It depends on the brand, the willingness also to participate in that model. It is not a model that is for every brand.
We can only reflect on what our current discussions with the brands are. That is why I always said we will engage with one or two brands per year more where a brand shifts from the wholesale model to the curated platform model. It will never be a major driver of the business model. Never a major change. At the beginning, I said this share will never be above 30%. It is significantly lower than 30%. The brands that are on this platform in this model are very happy. They called out that it really works well for them. Again, it also has to play also for the brand's appetite. It is not for every brand to engage in that model. For us, as it is, it has very comparable profitability levels and has no difference for the customer.
It is not a key factor for us to drive the performance or the business model. It is more or less a way, an alternative to engage with the brands and to work with them and be able to offer both models to the brands.
Okay. If I understand correctly, then it's more the discussion of the brand in which model they would have a preference to sell platform on the supply as opposed to something that Mytheresa is.
Exactly. No, it has to work both ways. Obviously, there are certain limits on IT capacity at brands, willingness to engage in that model along the key ingredients. Yeah, I think Mytheresa obviously wants to be able to offer both models to the brands, which is good. Therefore, you have to see where there is common interest in pursuing this model.
Oh, we have a question. Sorry, that's just a question.
Can you please provide any color on performance of different categories like apparel versus shoes and leather goods, and ideally in the U.S. versus Europe?
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah. Happy to do so. I mean, Mytheresa, first, I think it's always important to know that we are the player with the biggest ready-to-wear share. Ready-to-wear share is over 55%. Really strong focus for us on ready-to-wear. That speaks and enables to cater to the wardrobe building customer that comes back and obviously needs more ready-to-wear. We also have obviously shoes and then bags and accessories to a lower degree. Performance of those categories is very similar right now. It is more related to the brand. Some brands, they perform very well, clearly reflecting the polarization in the brand portfolio. Obviously, for example, on the shoe side, the sneaker trend was never so big at Mytheresa and right now is also not so important. I mean, we increased the menswear business a lot.
There, obviously, shoes play a different role. Bags also, yeah, some significant highlights on the brand side. There are some high-performing bags. It keeps on being a great adjacent category. The core focus of Mytheresa is on the ready-to-wear side. This is worldwide. The category performance is very similar if you look at U.S. versus Asia versus Europe.
Maybe I'll finish with one final question from my side. Just a question on tariffs and how tariffs will potentially impact the Mytheresa business. I think it's a hot topic that's kind of played out the whole way through the conference today and I'm sure will tomorrow as well. If you can just help us understand what would the implication or what is the implication today for you and what would the implication be if we continue to see this?
Yeah. I mean, definitely a high level of uncertainty on the tariff side. The positive thing to call out on the tariff side is that we are operating in the luxury market where the price elasticity is very low. The recommended retail price by the brands is always a price that reflects all tariffs because those brands are predominantly produced in Europe, France, and Italy. Therefore, an increase in tariff is expected to be then reflected in the price levels in the respective markets. As we consider in our pricing, oftentimes the level of the recommended retail price, then this would then also lead to an adjustment of our pricing, a pricing increase in that respect. It is a special situation. Overall, I mean, tariffs are never good. Yeah.
Do you think the U.S. consumer is resilient enough to absorb incremental price increases even if they're related to tariffs, considering where pricing has gone to in luxury over the last couple of years? Do you think there's still more space to push?
That's exactly difficult to say. You're completely right that in the last years, prices on the luxury side have increased significantly. There are differences in the brands. Some brands have a bit overplayed it. There is always this big discussion on whether the price increases have been justified or not and what to do with it right now. Yeah, I mean, if there are tariff increases, the customer still has to reflect on those prices and see whether they're still willing to engage. There are also Mytheresa's focus on top customers with the lowest price elasticity, lowest level of price elasticity, obviously is the best protected from those tariffs. We obviously have to see how tariffs and the degree of tariffs play out. I think the focus on the top customers is the best way to be positioned there.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate you being here with us in Miami today.
Thank you.