Welcome to Olaplex Inc.'s Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participant lines are on a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. To ask a question, you will need to press star then one on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star then zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to Allison Malkin of ICR. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and welcome to the Olaplex Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2021 Earnings Call. With me today are JuE Wong, Chief Executive Officer, and Eric Tiziani, Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, JuE will begin with a review of Olaplex's mission and strategy and highlight our third quarter performance. Then Eric will provide additional details regarding the company's financial performance and introduce the company's outlook for 2021. Following these prepared remarks, the operator will open the call to take the questions you have for JuE and Eric today. Before we start, I would like to remind you that management will make certain statements which are forward-looking, including statements about the outlook of Olaplex's business and other matters referenced in the company's earnings release issued today.
Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in or implied by such statements. Additional information regarding these factors appears under the heading Cautionary Note regarding Forward-Looking Statements in the company's earnings release and in the company's filings that it makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that are available at www.sec.gov, and on the investor relations section of the company's website at ir.olaplex.com. The forward-looking statements on this call speak only as of the original date of this call, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Also, during this call, management will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures which management believes can be useful in evaluating the company's performance. The presentation of non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP.
You will find additional information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of these non-GAAP to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the company's earnings release. A live broadcast of this call is also available on the investor relations section of the company's website at ir.olaplex.com. I will now turn the call over to JuE Wong.
Thank you, Allison, and good morning, everyone. I am delighted to speak to you today and share our strong third quarter performance. The quarter also marked an important milestone for our company as we completed our initial public offering. Before I discuss our results, for those new to Olaplex, let me first highlight who Olaplex is, why we believe we have been successful, and why we believe we are positioned to continue to be disruptors in the global haircare and beauty industry. Olaplex is an innovative, science-enabled, technology-driven beauty company with unique competitive advantages. We were founded with a mandate to deliver effective, patent-protected, and proven performance in the categories where we compete. We believe every person deserves to have healthy, beautiful hair, and our commitment is to deliver results that are visible from the very first application.
Studies have shown that 91% of women do something to damage their hair daily. With consistent and regular use of Olaplex products, consumers will have stronger, healthier-looking hair. With our patent-protected technology, our consumers of all diverse hair types will see shine, hydration, less frizz, more body, and bounce because their hair is repaired, strengthened, and protected from that very first application. Today, we have 11 key products, eight for take-home use and three exclusive for use by professional stylists, which are sold in three channels, professional, specialty retail, and direct-to-consumer. We believe we have been successful because our products are able to deliver visible results. We believe consumers who purchase at least one Olaplex product on average have purchased over three and a half other products from our product suite in the last 12 months.
We are focused on innovation with a strong pipeline of products under development. We have over 100 patents in our patent portfolio and patent protection in numerous countries around the world. These patents not only cover what we now sell, but also what we expect to sell in the future. We are supported by a highly engaged community of over 250,000 professional stylists on our private Facebook group. Our Instagram community alone, comprised of our committed trade partners and loyal, growing consumer base with 2.2 million followers, which we believe makes us the number one prestige haircare brand on social media. We have a synergistic omni-channel mix, where each channel is mutually reinforcing across professional, retail, and direct-to-consumer, and all experience strong growth in the third quarter of 58%, 128%, and 87% respectively.
Our business is global, with more than 40% of sales outside the U.S. in fiscal year 2020, and for the nine months ended September 30, 2021. We operate in a growing category with a large addressable market. Per Euromonitor, the global total addressable market for haircare is $77 billion, and within that TAM, prestige haircare is the fastest-growing segment. In addition to hair, we have patents for applications of our technology in skincare, which has a $140 billion TAM. We believe all of this positions Olaplex for consistent strong growth at robust margins that we believe are amongst the best in our industry. Now turning to our third quarter results. Net sales rose 81%, driven by broad-based strength for our Olaplex regimen across our omni-channel distribution, from professional to specialty retail to direct- to- consumer.
This growth comes on top of already a very strong growth in the third quarter of last year. Our margins remained strong in this third quarter of 2021, including gross profit margin of 78.9%, adjusted gross profit margin of 79.9%, and adjusted net income rose 62.6% to $74.4 million, with adjusted EBITDA increasing 63.3% to deliver an adjusted EBITDA margin of 66.1%. Our adjusted EBITDA margin in this year's third quarter includes investments to support future growth, which Eric will review in more detail shortly. In addition, the quarter included progress against our growth initiatives with increased sales productivity, new product innovation, and growth from new distribution and international expansion. Sales growth was led by increased productivity in existing distribution across our professional, specialty retail, and direct-to-consumer channels.
We have launched three new highly incremental products this year, two for take-home use and one exclusive to the professional channel. In the third quarter, we launched Nº.4P, our first toning shampoo. We are very excited about this product, which uses our exclusive multi-patented technology to hydrate, strengthen, soften, and neutralize brassiness for brighter blondes, highlights, grays, and platinum strands. Third quarter sales also benefited from first half introductions of the 4-in-1 Moisture Mask Pro RX treatment, a new professional backbar reparative treatment designed to moisturize and smooth hair while adding shine and body in just 10 minutes, and Nº. 8, our first Bond Intense Moisture Mask. We expanded our distribution, adding shelf space in Sephora with an increase in Olaplex to six linear sq ft from three in the majority of their U.S. locations as of the end of the quarter.
Olaplex was part of Sephora's rollout into Kohl's with 200 locations through October. In October, we entered Ulta salons with our professional offering as their exclusive bond builder in salon services. Overall, I am extremely proud of our passionate and dedicated team that contributed to our strong performance this quarter and believe we are well-positioned to continue our success for the benefit of all Olaplex stakeholders. As we look ahead, we remain excited about our business prospects and expect our positive momentum to continue in the near- and long- term. We believe we can expand our loyal base of Olaplex users globally and continue to launch incremental non-cannibalizing new products supported by a robust innovation pipeline that is focused on solving real consumer problems. Now I would like to turn the call over to Eric to review our financial results and guidance in more detail.
Thanks, JuE, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to speak with you all today. I'll begin with an overview of our business, then move to our third quarter results, and finally, I'll introduce our outlook for full- year 2021. Let me start by saying that I'm thrilled to be a part of telling the Olaplex story on behalf of our passionate team. Olaplex has an outstanding financial profile with top-tier profitability metrics, deep competitive advantages, and a disruptive business model. We believe that our strategy provides us with a sustainable platform from which to deliver long-term sales and earnings growth. We see substantial white space to grow Olaplex within our core category of hair care across channels and geographies. Now turning to our results.
Pertaining to any remarks on adjusted results, you can find reconciliation tables to the most comparable GAAP figures in our earnings release, which was also furnished on Form 8-K with the SEC today. Net sales for the third quarter increased 81% to $161.6 million from $89.4 million during the third quarter of last year. As JuE mentioned, sales were strong across channels, including a 58% increase in professional to $75 million, a 128% increase in specialty retail to $46.3 million, and an 87% increase in direct-to-consumer to $40.3 million. This growth was driven by increased velocity of existing products, successful product launches, and the addition of new customers.
We are also happy with the resilience of our supply chain in the quarter, which enabled us to deliver this growth and build the appropriate inventory to support forward-looking demand. Gross profit rose 103.1% to $127.5 million from $62.8 million in the 2020 third quarter. Gross profit margin expanded 870 basis points to 78.9%. The margin increase was primarily due to lapping the one-time fair value inventory adjustment in the prior- year period related to the business acquisition of Olaplex in January 2020. Adjusted gross profit increased 77.9% to $129.2 million from $72.6 million in the 2020 third quarter.
Adjusted gross profit margin was 79.9% versus 81.2% in the 2020 third quarter. The 127 basis points decline was primarily due to higher input costs, particularly for inbound distribution in the current environment and some product mix. Our operating expenses consist primarily of SG&A and amortization of other intangible assets. SG&A in the third quarter of 2021 was $30.3 million compared to $8.2 million in the 2020 third quarter. This increase was driven by $6.1 million of non-capitalizable IPO and strategic transition costs and $1.4 million of stock comp expense, which are add backs for our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income.
The increase was further driven by $4.3 million in cash-settled unit compensation expense, $3.4 million in sales and marketing expense, $2.6 million in payroll for expansion of our workforce, $1.6 million in distribution and fulfillment costs related to the increase in sales volume, and $2.6 million in other expenses relating to general business growth. Strong increases in sales and gross profit more than offset higher expenses, leading to a third quarter adjusted net income improvement to $74.4 million or $0.11 per diluted share, which gives effect to the corporate reorganization effected in connection with the IPO. This compared to $45.8 million or $0.07 per diluted share in the 2020 quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA grew 63.3% to $106.8 million from adjusted EBITDA of $65.4 million in the 2020 third quarter . Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 66.1% compared to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 73.1% last year for the third quarter, which reflects increased investment in SG&A to support our higher sales. This included a year-over-year increase of 170 basis points, expressed as a percentage of sales, in sales and marketing expense and a 141 basis point increase in payroll and other G&A, excluding the IPO-related and strategic transition costs. In addition, adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter this year was negatively impacted by 265 basis points, expressed as a percentage of sales, due to the incremental cash-settled units compensation expense.
The majority of this is a one-time pull forward of vesting for an approximately four-year period into Q3 for one particular tranche of awards for non-executive employees, which was triggered by the upsizing and pricing of the IPO. Turning to the balance sheet. As of September 30, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents of $121.5 million, and our long-term debt balance stood at $742.4 million. Inventory at the end of the quarter was $69.1 million compared to $21.2 million at the end of the fiscal 2020 third quarter. We are pleased with the composition of our inventory at quarter end, which is well-positioned to meet demand.
Regarding the cash flow statement, we had net cash provided by operating activities of $130.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, compared to $84.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. This was primarily driven by net income and the amortization add back, partially offset by investments in working capital. Additionally, our purchase of property and equipment, primarily for internal use software for the period, was slightly under $1 million, reflecting our asset-light business model. Now to our outlook. For fiscal year 2021, we expect net sales in the range of $580 million-$588 million. Based on the midpoint of this range, this is a 107% growth versus full- year 2020. Adjusted net income in the range of $263 million-$268 million, or based on the midpoint, +103% growth versus full- year 2020.
Finally, adjusted EBITDA in the range of $392 million-$398 million, or based on the midpoint, +98% growth versus full- year 2020. Our full- year 2021 outlook reflects our plans for growth, both with existing and with new distribution opportunities. Keep in mind, we are not able to provide without unreasonable effort, a reconciliation of the guidance for adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, because the company does not currently have sufficient data to accurately estimate the variables and individual adjustments included in the most directly comparable GAAP measure that would be necessary for such reconciliations. In summary, we are very pleased with our third quarter results and the positive momentum of our business, which is reflected in our full- year 2021 outlook.
We believe that our disruptive business model is working and that our deep competitive advantages have us poised to continue delivering strong results. We look forward to reporting our progress in the quarters and the years to come. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now turn the call back over to the operator for questions. Operator?
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star then one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press the pound key. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up, then you may rejoin the queue for additional questions. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Erinn Murphy with Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you. Good morning, and congratulations on your first quarter out of the gates. My first question is just for JuE on the launch of the Nº.4P product. It seems incredible, at least from our channel checks. Would love if you could share a little bit more detail of how that's compared to some of your former product launches over the history of the company. I do have a follow-up for Eric.
Yeah. Thank you, Erinn, for the question. Yes. As we have said, the Nº.4P Blonde Toning Shampoo, which is our first toning shampoo, has been very well received because most purple shampoo tends to be drying and only brightens the hair. In our case, with our technology, with the patents that we have, we not only are able to repair with the Bis-Aminopropyl, but we are also able to hydrate with a lot of the moisturizing ingredients that we have, and to highlight any kind of brassiness in blondes, as well as people who are getting their hair to a natural gray situation. As a comparison, I would just say that it is very successful.
It is definitely a product that is very professionally honed in, and a lot of the customers are very much about looking for something of this nature that does not exist currently, in the retail market. We have been very happy with this performance.
Great to hear. Then I guess my follow-up is for Eric on the fourth quarter implied guidance. I think it would imply about $152 million in sales at the mid-point. I guess I'm curious, why is it implied down versus the third quarter's kind of $162 million quarter? You know, just given everything with Nº.4P that JuE just talked about, holiday. Is there anything else on the sequential deceleration that you're implying at the midpoint for the fourth quarter? Thanks so much.
Yeah. Thank you, Erinn. While we don't have a lot of material seasonality to our business. There is some. One thing that we do see is in the third quarter, we tend to sell in the kits that are sold through in end of year holiday. That's one of the reasons that we traditionally see Q3 sales in absolute terms a bit higher than Q4. We also see, particularly in the professional channel, you know, stylists buying up inventory in Q3 to get ready for the holidays, get ready for Q4, and that's a seasonality we've seen over the years between Q3 and Q4. All of that said, we feel confident, you know, good about the momentum we've reflected in our Q4 guidance, and we think it's a strong quarter.
Great. Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of Dara Mohsenian with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning, guys. Much better revenue results than we expected on the professional side here in the quarter. Can you just discuss some of the key underlying drivers there as you look on a year-over-year basis? Obviously pretty strong growth year-over-year. How much of that was driven by a more normalized environment here from a COVID perspective versus other factors that maybe are more sustainable? While we're on the subject, can you talk about longer term, sort of the biggest revenue opportunities as you look at growth over the next few years in the professional channel? Is it increasing the number of salons, customers within salons, etc ? However you wanna break it out. Just also looking out from a longer term perspective over the next few years.
Eric, if you want, I'll take the question on, you know, the outlook. And I'll let Eric cover, you know, some of the more specific numbers. If you kind of look at what is happening with us in the United States, the number of stylists and salons for Olaplex are now above pre-COVID levels. We are seeing significant growth in our professional channel with both new and repeat customers. Outside of the U.S., all the professional markets are open. While there are still some limitations in their ability to conduct business with vaccine mandates, but as well as social distancing, we still believe that at the end of it, because of our runway and opportunities, we are still going to continue to experience growth in the professional channel. Hopefully that answers your question on where we see ourselves on the professional side.
I'll turn this over to Eric on the revenue, you know, expansion.
Thanks, JuE. Hi, Dara. Yeah. So, you know, professional had a strong quarter in the third quarter. We think all of our channels did. I must say it is broad-based. Broad-based across channels, but also within professional. It's really momentum in our core portfolio as awareness is building. It was momentum in the new products that we've launched, 4-in-1, which was our professional exclusive launch in the second quarter, continued to do well in the third quarter, as well as the launch of Nº.4P and also, you know, the support for the holiday programming that's being sold in across all three channels. We really just saw it broad-based across the portfolio and across geographies.
Great, that's helpful. Just one follow-up in specialty retail. Obviously very strong growth also in the quarter. So far your retail partner footprint is fairly limited, obviously, particularly in the U.S.. Can you talk a little bit about the potential to expand to additional partners in the U.S. over the next couple years here, the longer- term door opportunity versus where you stand today on the specialty retail side? Thanks.
Thanks, Dara, for the question. As you can see, we are very focused on our current distribution. If you look at our footprint, even at Sephora from our publicly resourced documentation, you will see that our penetration still has a lot of runway. While we are a very successful standalone brand at Sephora, you also have seen that we have recently expanded into 200 doors with Kohl's through, you know, October. In October, we entered into the Ulta salons with our standalone treatment as well as our professional offering. We are going to continue to focus in our core distribution in a couple of those new distribution opportunities that we have that I've just articulated for you.
We believe that if we continue to monitor how we perform in those areas, we will continue to deliver the performance that, you know, we believe we can deliver. Ultimately, I think what is exciting for us is our core footprint has still a lot of runway and opportunity for ourselves to grow.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Our next question comes from the line of Jason English with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning, folks. Thanks for slotting me in. Congrats on a successful IPO and a strong quarter out of the gates. I wanted to put a slightly finer point on Dara's question there on distribution. You mentioned that you've gone into the salons, the back bar at Ulta. Can you give us an update on how that's going so far? And can you describe maybe some of the criteria or milestones that need to be met for you to start to sell your products on the front- end of the store there?
Thanks, Jason, for that question. Let me take your first part of your question. We are going to continue to monitor how, you know, our professional products are doing at Ulta because we know that the opportunity to grow our service offering as well as awareness at Ulta is tremendously high because more women actually visit the Ulta salon. How we're gonna track is we're gonna track the number of customers that get color services and how many of them actually choose to add Olaplex to their service as a key metric for success.
As to, you know, what else are we going to go in terms of expansion of distribution in specialty retail, as I've mentioned, we just have so much with our core accounts that we really want to be the number one haircare brand or the top five beauty brand in their offering so that we become an anchor brand for them. When we are anchor brands for any of our partners, we then are able to really partner up on marketing, brand building, as well as growth. Those are key growth considerations for us in our partnership with our existing players.
That's helpful. Thank you. You also just talking about expansion, but shifting from distribution to portfolio. You mentioned in your prepared remarks that you've got patents covering not only what you sell today but what you could sell in the future, and then you went on to specifically call out skincare. I think most listeners are gonna interpret that as you foreshadowing a launch into skincare. Two questions, or two-part question. A, is that a reasonable interpretation? B, if so, what and when would it look like?
Again, thank you, Jason, for the question. I think what we were doing is what we were just reiterating, you know, what we have previously shared. We have patent applications for skincare. We did a study through our transformation team with an independent agency to really kind of see, do we have permission, you know, to play in adjacencies such as skincare? We saw the data as being very promising. 82% of people familiar with Olaplex actually said, "Look, we want to see a skincare from you, Olaplex." 51% of them basically say, "I would switch my skincare to an Olaplex product sight unseen because you guys lead with science and technology." We know we have the permission to play. We have the permission to win.
As to when we will get in there, at this time, it's all about exploring and giving ourselves options. I would not be able to give you anything definitive at this time.
Got it. Great stats, though. Thanks for sharing those. I'll pass it on.
Sure.
Our next question comes from the line of Andrea Teixeira with JP Morgan. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Good morning, and congrats again. My question first is on innovation and if the success of 4P or the 4P launch would allow you to potentially launching hair dye infused with bis-aminopropyl. I think that probably paves the way for you to do that, and I was curious to see if you're looking at that more closely. Then just a clarification on the Ulta salon backbar availability. JuE, your comments on waiting for that performance, is there any timetable for that decision? Do you have any potential exclusivity with other retailers, including Sephora, that needs to be lapped in order for you to go into Ulta or anything that prevents you to go right away?
Again, thank you so much for the question because it will help us clarify. First and foremost, we have a clear line of sight in our product development platform of launching an average of two-three products a year all the way through 2024. The way our R&D works is we are working on a long haul, meaning that when we look at opportunities for ourselves, we look at data-driven studies as well as trend analytics, and that's how we will continue to really serve up what our consumers want and need because consumer insights really guide us in delivering, you know, what is the most appropriate products for the market. Secondly, in terms of Ulta, we are in early innings with Ulta. If you've seen, we've just entered the salon offering with them in October. We will continue to monitor our strength.
Early indications is we are doing very, very well from our sales team, led by Tiffany Walden, you know, who's our COO, and she has been really keeping very close to the pulse of it. As to exclusivity, you have seen we are in Sephora. We are in Bluemercury. We are now in Ulta salons. We will continue to really double- down on being the number one haircare brand, the top 10 beauty brand with all of these retailers, so that we can continue, you know, to be an anchor partner with them.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Olivia Tong with Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you. Congrats on the IPO and the quarter. First question is around further increasing brand recognition because obviously it sounds like your consumers are incredibly satisfied with the product. We've obviously seen the holiday program at Sephora, which looks like a great trial builder. Can you talk about other things that you're doing either through the holiday season or beyond that helps build the brand recognition and potentially the consumer base? Thank you.
Thanks, Olivia, for the question. I think what is important to note is, you know, we are very focused on what really builds long-term growth. When studies have shown us that the three sources of truth when it comes to brand building and marketing awareness, first and foremost is, especially for hair, where they want to take recommendations from their professional hairstylist. Building that community will continue to be our focus. With that said, the number two areas, the number two source of truth is product reviews and word of mouth, which is the third one, which means that we are already in that space through our social media engagement, connection, and conversion with our performance marketing, whether it's via digital media or search engine optimization. We will continue all of these interactive tools to connect, engage, and convert our customers.
If we continue to do that, the marketing, branding, and the awareness built will just be, you know, a lot more organic as well as strategic, because this is in partnerships, not only with what we are doing, but driving traffic to both online and offline retailers that we partner with.
Great. That's helpful. Then, hopefully, I'm not getting too ahead of myself here, but clearly, as we sort of cycle into Q4 into next year, the first half comps are quite impressive. Just if you could give a little bit of color in terms of thinking about the comps, maybe as you lap those quarters next year, you know, was there pent-up demand, anything else in the base that we have to be concerned about, whether stimulus had an impact or anything like that. Just trying to think through, you know, as you start to comp some pretty big, even bigger growth numbers heading into next year. Thank you.
Eric, do you want me to?
Hi, Olivia.
Eric, do you wanna take that? Yeah.
I'll take that one. You know, we provided and introduced our full- year 2021 guidance, which takes us through Q4. We would anticipate providing full- year 2022 guidance when we come together for Q4 results. I can't say much there other than you know, we're happy with the guidance and outlook that we've provided for 2021, and we're gonna aim to grow at our ambition on top of that new higher base. I'm not gonna get into you know, into the quarters, which there's always gonna be some noise in the quarters. We're gonna focus on delivering over longer periods of time. Thank you.
Thanks very much. That's a block.
Our next question comes from the line of Steph Wissink with Jefferies. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We had a follow-up question on costing. I think, Eric, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned some inbound distribution costs, higher input costs. Just wanna make sure we're thinking accurately about the fourth quarter, what's implied in the guidance for gross margin. If you could just remind us how your inventory mechanism works. Is it first in, first out, last in, first out? How should we be thinking about kind of more recent costs versus what's on the balance sheet and any considerations for gross margins going forward? Thank you.
Absolutely. Thanks. Thanks, Stephanie. Yes, when we talk about Q3 gross margin performance and adjusted gross margin performance, we noted that there was some pressure there, particularly from inbound freight costs, the freight costs, you know, between warehouses into our warehouses, that falls into our cost of goods really in the current environment, and that's in the current macro environment that we're all well aware of. We do project that forward, you know, into 2022, and we've assumed that, and we've reflected that, and take it into consideration in the guidance that we provided for full- year 2021. There's one other element in Q3 that we mentioned, which was some product mix. You know, that really relates to.
We do sell more kits in Q3 as we sell in Q3 for end of year holiday programming. Those come at a slightly lower gross margin, and that's something, for example, that we don't project forward into Q4. It was more of a Q3 thing, which is per usual, per our normal annual programming there.
Okay, that's great.
Yeah, go ahead.
I'm sorry. Go ahead, Eric. My apologies.
I was just gonna say, in terms of our inventory builds, you know, it does mean that we believe, based on our inventory accounting and cost accounting, that we do have good line of sight to the finished goods costs and the input costs that we've assumed in our Q4 gross margin outlook.
Very helpful. Thank you so much.
Sure.
Our next question comes from the line of Lauren Lieberman with Barclays. Your line is now open.
Great. Thanks. Morning. I wanna talk a little bit about DTC, and I was curious if you could comment on how much of your growth, qualitatively or quantitatively is coming from your own DTC website versus Amazon or other, you know, third parties. Then also anything you can share on investments you're making to improve the DTC experience beyond the kind of initial sort of rudimentary diagnostic tool that exists today. Thanks.
Eric, do you want to take that, the first part, and I'll take the second part on what we're gonna build out on the DTC?
Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Lauren. I just took a look specifically at that, and It's a pretty easy answer. The growth we're seeing between our own dot- com and pure-play e-com. When we report direct- to- consumer, just to clarify for everyone, it's the combination of both of those things, our own olaplex.com and pure-play e-com. They're very similar growth rates, so we're seeing similar trends across both.
Great. All right.
Yeah. You know, in terms of our own olaplex.com, one of the things that we have also highlighted is that we are expanding our bespoke olaplex.com to key markets, and this includes markets outside of the U.S., like Canada, the U.K., Australia, some of those markets that we have already shared earlier on. What is important to note is that our hair diagnostic program is also going to go through a 2.0 version. We believe that as consumers continue to be so engaged in wanting to know what about their hair, we are also gonna expand on that opportunity for them to answer more questions, to provide more data about themselves so that we can serve up better recommendations and regimen programs for them. Those are all in the works, and we are excited, and hopefully, we'll be able to share with you at the appropriate time.
JuE, is that in pilot today? Like, 'cause I think you've talked a bit about your ability to collect data also. I was wondering if that data collection that's already serving you so well is primarily from the existing diagnostic or if it's also some of the, if there's a pilot of this 2.0 or it's still premature.
Our transformation team has been working, you know, on a tear to make sure that the 2.0 is up to speed together with our e-com team. What is important to note is consumer insights have been gathered, you know, not necessarily just on dot-com, but also from our own sales team. As you know, we updated our own dot-com in April of 2020, so there is a lot of data that we are able to glean from and be a lot more sort of disciplined and structured in analyzing those data to help us make better decisions.
Okay, great. I had one follow-up on the professional conversation from earlier, which was, I was just curious if there's any you could share on your strategy for penetrating the professional network outside the U.S. and just same kind of question, I guess, on DTC. Any you can share on the positive surprise in professional this quarter being U.S. or international.
Yeah. You know, in terms of expansion, we will continue, again, the plan that we have. Like I said, we are here for the long game. We, as we have successfully introduced in the U.S. that plan, that program that we have, we will continue to use that and introduce that into the international space, which we are already doing parts of it, meaning that we will have multiple distributors serving each segment of the salon market, while we will then layer in specialty retail to really drive brand awareness, partnering, you know, with premium retailers in those respective countries.
DTC, as you have correctly pointed out, it is really getting our sales ability to gain more consumer insights to serve up what our consumers want and need from us, while at the same time providing, you know, 24/7 convenience for them to buy from us. Our international playbook and our domestic playbook is very similar, but obviously, you know, we will look at the nuances that is in each region or in each market.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Just to expand on the.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, yeah, sorry. Lauren, just to expand on the question you had around the U.S. versus international in the fourth quarter. It was strong in both, but I will say it was particularly strong in the U.S., which is great to see as we have our channel flywheel that we've talked about really humming.
Okay, thank you very much.
Our next question comes from the line of [John Kipper] with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Hey, guys. Congrats on a very strong quarter. I mean, a bunch of good questions got asked. I kind of wanted to tag one on to Stephanie's question around the inflation environment and all that. I understand, you know, you guys have good line of sight on how to manage it. I was just wondering, near- or long- term, what is your willingness to move away from that $28 price tag that's sort of become associated with the brand? You know, I just wonder how hesitant you guys might be to move away from that price point, and if so, can you guys drive margin support from, you know, like pack size, architecture or mix or something like that? Just wanted to get a sense of the potential for margin support.
Absolutely, Jonathan. Thanks for the question. You know, let me start by saying, as we see cost inflation pressures, first and foremost, you know, we're gonna be focused on efficiencies we can drive in purchasing and efficiencies we can drive in our supply chain, particularly as we're growing at the rate that we're growing, there are efficiencies that come from that higher volume. That is an offset to some extent both this year and what we assume moving forward. We will. You know, we're not gonna comment on any intentions we have on pricing, but you asked a great follow-up question there, which is, we're always looking at net revenue management opportunities, pack price architecture, you know, as we go into new markets, as we launch new products, and those are absolutely levers that we will pull over time and that we look at constantly.
You know, I just close it by saying we believe the equity of our brand is very strong. You know, we'll have options in the future, but we're not gonna talk about our intentions there.
Yep, fair enough. I guess lastly, I was just wondering about the innovation timeline in 2022. You know, I think we all understand that you guys have a long runway of products lined up for the next few years. I was just wondering about timing. Quarterly, when should we expect those to land? Will you guys be consistent year-over-year in when new products do land? I guess sort of as a follow-up, I was just wondering, and this is sort of a long shot, the Bis-Aminopropyl technology has done well to expand the product offering to 11 different products. I was just wondering, you know, should we expect, you know, a new technology or a new chemical near- term, or is that something that's slated for, you know, beyond 2025?
Well, thank you very much for that question. I'll take your last question first because that's the very exciting one for us. As we've mentioned prior before, you know, as we were, you know, getting ourselves ready for an IPO, it was very clear to us that R&D, we are a science-enabled, technology-driven beauty company. So for us, the technology piece is very important. We are not going to rest on one, you know, on our laurels.
We already, our R&D team has already started, you know, before even the IPO process on looking and partnering with research institutes as well as, universities with their grants that will look at opportunities as well as biotech companies where we can really partner up and really leapfrog the technology space and be able to use delivery systems that are unique, not only for, what we call, you know, results that are visible on the first application, that is what we stand for, but also in terms of a long runway in helping us to be defined in that space in science. Our R&D team, managed by a Chief Scientist that has at least close to 30 years of experience, is going to help lead that charge for us.
Hopefully that answers your question on our R&D and our dependency on one or two technology. The other question that you asked about is launch timing. We have, as you have seen in 2021, we have launched three products. We are going to keep to that cadence of two to three products a year. And when the time comes, we will make the announcement because being able to make a launch announcement is critical to a marketing campaign. You will hear about it in good time, and we are very excited of what we have in 2022.
Great. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Jonna Kim with Cowen. Your line is now open.
Hi. Thank you for taking our question. I'm just curious. I know it's early on, but Sephora at Kohl's, how'd those stores perform, you know, out of the gate versus the regular Sephora stores, as you kind of monitor the progress? Just another follow-up is obviously you have an impressively lean organization currently, and as you scale the business across channels and geographies, do you expect to, you know, invest higher on the headcount than just building up your organizations? Thank you so much.
Let me take the Sephora at Kohl's. It is very early innings and very early days. They've just really launched through October the 200 doors with us. But early indications is just very promising. We are one of the few, sort of. They have 125 brands, let's put it this way, and we are one of the 125 in a slate of 300+ brands that Sephora has in their proper standalone Sephora doors. To be part of that 125, you will know that our performance will continue to be strong and that we have delivered for them prior.
In terms of our organization, we are growing our organization, and this is the reason why you've heard from Eric, where some of our expenses has been going, you know, in really managing for investment that is ahead of growth. We will continue to do that primarily because we expect ourselves to continue to deliver, and we need the people to really support us, and we will continue to invest behind them.
Got it. Thank you. Just one follow-up is I know China is still small, but did you see any sort of notable performance there? Sort of what initiatives do you have in place to drive higher awareness in the country? Thank you so much.
Right. We are very excited. As you know, 11.11 is just, in fact, tonight in China, and we are seeing very strong early indications. As you know, even though it's 11.11, a lot of brands started in mid-October, and we have seen very promising results. In fact, we believe China Tmall Global online business will be something that will continue to grow. The reason why that is exciting for us is we are able to still build brand awareness online with the mainland Chinese consumers. If and when we are able to get into the mainland Chinese proper, those consumers will already be familiar with our brand.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group. Your line is now open.
Good morning and congratulations on the results. As you launch new products, you've mentioned in the past about higher margins on the new products. What are you seeing in new products? Is there a difference between the type of product and the margin you would be achieving? I have a follow-up on any update on the Tmall partnership. Thank you.
Hi, Dana. I'll take that first one. You know, I think what we've said in the past is in our product development process, you know, we will set thresholds and goals for the margins of those new products and really design around that and design it accordingly. That's worked well for us to either be accretive or neutral to the rest of the portfolio. It will always depend, product- by- product. As you know, we have some new products that are exclusive to professional, some that are across channels for at home. We're not gonna talk about specific margins at the product level, but just reassure that we have a very robust process that goes into the design and ensuring that those are profitable for us.
You have a follow-up on Tmall Global?
Exactly. How did that do? Then, JuE, how are you thinking about skin? I know that is expanding into other categories, and when do you start investing in a potential skin launch? Thank you.
On that question, as I've answered, I think Jason was the one who asked that question as well. We are going to continue to explore opportunities for ourselves. I will not be able to share with you definitively the timing of this because ultimately, we need to understand the market better, and we will do our due diligence accordingly.
Got it. Tmall?
What's your question on Tmall, sorry?
How's that partnership progressing? Any update on that partnership expanding or what, how you're benefiting from it?
Yes. Again, you know, this is our first year anniversary in 2021. 11.11 will be, you know, where we are. We have studies that shows that we are the one of the most socially buzzed brand in China. As you can appreciate, social media is the leading indicator of success in that market. We will continue to do, you know, to build our brand awareness through our portfolio with our distribution on Tmall Global online. Because of what we have already done in terms of the social media platform build-out, we will continue to do the connection, the engagement, and the conversion as we have done. Again, I emphasize, this is a long game for us. We don't go in and out on specific activation.
We really drive our activation and really measure it and then double down on it if it works, and then drop it if it doesn't work and go on to something else. The discipline is in our marketing disruption.
Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you.
Our last question.
Go ahead, operator.
Our last question comes from the line of Robert Ottenstein with Evercore. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you very much. I also wanna offer my congratulations to a terrific start as a public company. My first question is a follow-up to I think one of the first questions of the Q&A, and that is, I think you mentioned that your number of stylists is now above pre-COVID levels. Can you talk about what is the best way to measure your penetration in the professional segment? Is it by stylists? Is it by salons? And where would you see, you know, how would you know, calculate or guesstimate what your penetration is of that segment?
I think first and foremost, if you look at the Professional Beauty Association data, they will let you know that there are 800,000 professional hairstylists that's registered with them. We have well over 250,000 that is in constant engagement and connection with us on our Facebook group. Meaning that they are interacting with us, they are engaging with us, they are producing content for us. We feel very strongly that that continuous community build will continue to serve us very well.
Great. Do you have any kind of sense of the 800,000, how many buy your products on an annual basis?
I think at this time, you know, we would not be able to serve up, you know, specific data. As you can tell from our growth of +58% year-over-year in the professional channel, it will indicate for you that we have a lot of the stylists as part of our ecosystem.
Terrific. My real question is we did a lot of survey work on your product, and one of the things that was most surprising is that 70% of all women that we surveyed, and it was a pretty good group, I think 2,500, 70% had not even heard of Olaplex. Number one, is that consistent with your data? Number two, what do you think the best ways are going forward to increase awareness in the general public? Thank you.
Thank you for that question. As we have always said, you know, our one way to kind of really do well is brand awareness. Therefore, in building brand awareness, it's about being disruptive by building our community as well as using data-driven marketing performance to help us really hone in on what works and what does not work. We are going to continue with that platform and really building the professional community to be our strongest advocate. That we will not stray from that. At the same time, through data performance, we are going to also look at digital media buy and driving consumers to both brick- and- mortar and online retailers so that that awareness build can be more long-lasting.
Terrific. Thank you very much.
Absolutely.
Thank you. There are no further questions. I will now turn the call back to CEO JuE Wong for closing remarks.
Thank you so much, Sarah. Thank you everyone, you know, for joining us today. We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and a new year. We look forward to speaking with all of you again at the upcoming investor conferences and when we report our fourth quarter results in March of next year. See everyone soon.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.