1stdibs.com, Inc. (DIBS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the 1stDibs Quarter 2 Earnings Call 2026. Operator provided instructions regarding the conference call. I will now hand the conference over to Kevin LaBuz, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to the 1stDibs earnings call for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. I'm Kevin LaBuz, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Joining me today are Chief Executive Officer, David Rosenblatt; and Chief Financial Officer, Tom Etergino. David will provide an update on our business, including our strategy and growth opportunities, and Tom will review our second quarter financial results and third quarter outlook. This call will be available via webcast on our investor relations website at investors.1stdibs.com. Before we begin, please keep in mind that our remarks include forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding guidance and future financial performance, market demand, growth prospects, business plans, strategic initiatives, business and economic trends and competitive position. Our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, including those described in our SEC filings. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on our beliefs and assumptions as of today, and we disclaim any obligation to update them, except to the extent required by law. Additionally, during the call, we will present GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release, which you can find on our investor relations website, along with the replay of this call. Lastly, please note that all growth comparisons are made on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise noted. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, David Rosenblatt. David?

Thanks, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. Our second quarter results confirm that we are on track to sustainable top line growth and positive adjusted EBITDA. GMV of $96 million, up 7%, came in above the high end of our guidance range and was our strongest growth since the fourth quarter of 2024. Despite ongoing headwinds from our sales and marketing reductions, we believe that we gained market share in the second quarter based on credit card panel data we track. Driving that result is a product that is measurably better than it was a year ago. Conversion grew for the 11th consecutive quarter, average order values expanded and the number of sessions stabilized sequentially. The improvements we have been making in our platform in discovery, pricing, shipping and service are showing up in the numbers. Based on Q2's performance, we now expect GMV to grow year-over-year for 2026 as a whole. We also continue to expect that GMV will grow in Q4. The demand environment remains challenging. The U.S. housing market continues to hover near a 30-year low and the spring selling season ended on a weak note. High-end furniture demand, based on the credit card data we track, continues to decline year-over-year and has not shown material improvement. Our 2026 GMV growth expectation does not depend on the macro recovery. Q2 is evidence of that. When conditions do normalize, as they eventually will, we are well positioned to benefit. Turning to the financials. The second quarter demonstrated that our reengineered cost structure is working as intended. GMV of $96 million and revenue of $23.3 million both came in above the high end of guidance and did so despite substantial sales and marketing reductions. Adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 6% came in well above the high end of guidance, an improvement of over 13 percentage points versus a year ago. From 2022 through 2025, we reengineered the business to be able to convert revenue recovery into outsized margin expansion. This dynamic was on full display in Q2 and our confidence in positive full year adjusted EBITDA remains. With that context, let me walk you through the drivers of the quarter's performance. The funnel told an encouraging story on all 3 dimensions. Traffic declines moderated relative to the first quarter. And in absolute terms, sessions were flat sequentially, an encouraging sign. Conversion grew for the 11th consecutive quarter, a streak that reflects compounding product improvements. Average order value expanded as well, supported in part by 2 high-value art sales in the quarter, totaling over $2 million. That speaks to something important, the trust that buyers place in 1stDibs to facilitate transactions at the high end of the market is a genuine strategic asset and it is reflected in our AOV trends over the past year. Together, these 3 dynamics, moderating traffic declines, expanding order values and continued conversion growth, drove a return to GMV growth. All 3 give us confidence that our 2026 roadmap is working. That roadmap is organized around 4 pillars: discovery, pricing, shipping and service; each is designed to solve specific customer problems that exist independent of the macro environment. AI-assisted development now accounts for over 70% of our new code, up from over 50% last quarter, enabling our team to ship faster than ever. Let me walk you through our progress in the second quarter. Discovery is where we are making the most visible progress and search is at the center of it. Our goal is to make 1stDibs searchable in the way that buyers naturally think rather than the way design experts talk. A buyer who spots a cocoon pendant in a hotel lobby shouldn't need to know what it's called to find something similar on our marketplace. Our catalog is full of one-of-a-kind items that can be difficult to describe, yet many buyers can recognize exactly what they want when they see it. They simply lack the design vocabulary to search for it. In June, we launched image search on mobile web and desktop, allowing buyers to upload a photo and find visually similar items across our catalog of nearly 1.9 million listings. More broadly, we continued our progression towards semantic and natural language search. This is not a single feature launch, but a year-long build toward a search experience that understands buyer intent rather than just keywords. To date, we've made real progress by enriching our catalog with AI-powered metadata and by beginning to test semantic hybrid search. On personalization, we are building something meaningfully different from what existed a year ago. Historically, our recommendations worked by surfacing items similar to what a user had viewed, favorited, or searched. Today, we are developing genuine user level understanding, matching each buyer's affinities and behaviors to inventory they may never have found on their own. The early data is compelling. Personalized homepage recommendations, which launched in Q2, generated our highest ever click-through rate on a homepage recommendation module. The homepage itself is now evolving to reflect this shift, moving from an editorialized destination to a personalized feed with improvements rolling out over the coming quarters. Favorites is also a critical enabler of this strategy. In Q2, we overhauled the Favorites experience to make saving, browsing and organizing items easier, and we are driving broader adoption across the platform. This matters because Favorites provide powerful personalization signals. The more buyers engage with them, the more precisely we can tailor their experience. Since last quarter, our favorite rate has improved, a trend which has continued in Q3. Notably, Favorites usage is one of our strongest predictors of repeat purchase on 1stDibs, creating a positive feedback loop between engagement and customer lifetime value. Our Tastemakers Ambassador Program completed its pilot in the second quarter with tangible results. Our Instagram following topped 1 million, our Reels production doubled year-over-year and total video view time on Instagram tripled versus the first quarter. This content is doing double duty, building organic reach and brand affinity while simultaneously improving the efficiency of our paid media program. By incorporating Tastemaker video into our creative mix, we expanded reach and reduced the cost per ad impression, making new buyer acquisition more efficient even as we maintain spending discipline. We plan to scale the Tastemaker program significantly in the second half of 2026. Once the buyer finds what they are looking for, the next question is simple. Can they trust the price? That is what our pricing roadmap is designed to answer. In the second quarter, we doubled our price parity coverage using AI to identify and flag items priced inconsistently across competitor sites. Initial results validate the approach. Items corrected for price parity are showing an increase in sell-through rates. This sends an important signal to buyers that they don't need to cross-reference pricing on 1stDibs. Price parity is one of many elements of consumer trust in our platform. Based on our progress this quarter, we are expanding our pricing pillar into a broader trust initiative, one that addresses the full range of signals buyers rely on when deciding whether to transact on 1stDibs, including authenticity, seller quality and platform integrity. Pricing gives buyers confidence in the value of an item, trust that gives them confidence in the platform itself. And given how central trust is to our brand and to buyer confidence, we believe that expanding this work will drive conversion. More to come on this evolution in the third quarter. Even a buyer who trusts the price can be stopped by shipping uncertainty. That is the friction our shipping roadmap is designed to eliminate. Three priorities guide that effort: upfront competitive pricing, on-time delivery and accurate tracking. In Q2, we made the most progress on the competitive pricing front. In May, we deployed ML-powered freight quoting, increasing freight pre-quote coverage from approximately 50% to 75% of listings and growing overall pre-quote coverage to nearly 90%. More items now show an upfront shipping cost before a buyer reaches checkout, reducing a common source of purchase friction. We also optimized our parcel rates, making certain shipping categories up to 8% cheaper. For verticals like furniture and art, where shipping can represent a meaningful portion of the total purchase price, lower rates directly improve the economics of the transaction and reduce the barrier to completing a purchase. On tracking, we integrated with a third-party logistics platform that will significantly expand our carrier coverage over time, giving buyers greater visibility into their purchases from seller to doorstep. Together, these improvements are building blocks of our broader multiyear vision, a shipping experience that is fully transparent and cost competitive, anchored by all-in pricing so that every buyer knows their total cost before they commit. All-in pricing eliminates one of the most persistent sources of checkout abandonment in our category, the moment a buyer discovers the shipping cost. When the total price is visible up front, the path from intent to purchase becomes more direct. Exceptional service extends an order into a relationship. That is the animating idea behind our fourth pillar. In the quarter, we launched the pilot of an AI-powered customer service chatbot built in partnership with a top provider in the space, available to both buyers and sellers. Early results are promising. The chatbot is resolving a meaningful share of inquiries without human intervention, allowing our service team to focus on the complex high-touch interactions where human expertise matters the most. For sellers, we improved the item listing creation process in our seller app, reducing the friction involved in bringing inventory to market. The easier we make it for sellers to list, the faster high-quality supply reaches buyers. The through line across all four pillars is growing confidence, confidence that our roadmap is the right one, that our team is executing against it and that the results are showing up where it matters. Our roadmap is not the only place we are building new revenue streams. The 1stDibs 50, our annual celebration of the world's top interior designers, marked its ninth year in May. This year, for the first time, we introduced paid event sponsorships. Miele, House of Rohl, and CÎROC partnered with us to reach our audience of top interior designers and high net worth buyers, an audience they cannot easily access elsewhere. The core insight is straightforward. Over the years, we have aggregated a uniquely valuable audience and live events give us a new and differentiated way to monetize it. The timing is right as well. As AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous, advertisers are placing a growing premium on authentic curated experiences, exactly what 1stDibs' events deliver. It's early, but the initial sponsor interest validates the premise that our audience has real commercial value beyond the marketplace itself. We plan to host one additional sponsored event in 2026 and to scale events in the future. The 1stDibs 50 is a reminder of what makes this platform distinctive, a community of influential designers, a catalog of one-of-a-kind objects, and a level of trust that brands and buyers alike are willing to pay for. Q2 confirms that the roadmap is working, but we are early. The work of improving discovery, trust, shipping and service across a marketplace as complex as ours is a multiyear endeavor. We have made a strong start, and there is a great deal more to do. Thank you for your continued support. I will now turn it over to Tom to review our second quarter financial results and third quarter outlook.

Thanks, David. Good morning, everyone. From 2022 through 2025, we systematically reengineered our cost structure, reducing headcount, rationalizing expenses and rebuilding the foundation of this business with one objective in mind: ensuring that when revenue growth resumes, it would flow disproportionately to the bottom line. Q2 provides early evidence that this is working exactly as designed. Across all three metrics, GMV, revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin, we beat the high end of our guidance. GMV grew 7%, revenue grew 5% and adjusted EBITDA margin reached approximately 6%. Critically, that margin expansion is happening alongside a deliberate rebalancing of our team towards product and engineering, the highest ROI investment we can make. We are expanding margins while simultaneously concentrating more of our resources on the work that will drive our next phase of growth. Let me walk you through the numbers. GMV of $96 million was up 7% and above the high end of our guidance range. That growth reflected progress across all three dimensions of our funnel: easing traffic declines, expanding average order values and continued conversion growth. Traffic declines moderated relative to the first quarter and sessions were flat on a sequential basis. We ended the quarter with approximately 75% of traffic from organic sources, a continued reflection of the enduring strength of the 1stDibs brand. Average order value reached approximately $2,850, up 10% year-over-year. Median order value, which excludes the impact of outlier transactions, also grew 10% to approximately $1,500. That trend tells us order value expansion is broad-based, a clear signal of the trust buyers place in our platform. Conversion grew for the 11th consecutive quarter, reflecting the compounding impact of our product investments and giving us continued confidence in our roadmap. While order volume declined year-over-year, orders grew sequentially. Consumer and trade GMV both grew year-over-year. Together, the two channels reinforce the same story: our platform is gaining traction across buyer types independent of the macro environment. On a vertical basis, growth rates improved across all categories relative to the first quarter with strength in vintage and antique furniture, art and fashion. We ended the quarter with approximately 57,700 active buyers, down 10%, reflecting the deliberate reduction in sales and marketing spend enacted in late 2025. Turning to supply. Unique sellers held steady at approximately 5,700, flat sequentially, reflecting continued stabilization following our 2024 and 2025 pricing actions. Listings grew 1% year-over-year to nearly 1.9 million, providing buyers with a deep and expanding catalog of one-of-a-kind inventory. Turning to the income statement. Net revenue reached $23.3 million, up 5%, exceeding the high end of our guidance range. Transaction revenue, which is tied directly to GMV, represented approximately 74% of total revenue. The quarter also included approximately $270,000 of non-endemic advertising revenue related to the 1stDibs 50 sponsorships, an early but tangible contribution from this nascent revenue stream. Take rates declined approximately 30 basis points year-over-year, largely driven by a mix shift to higher-value orders, which carry a lower blended commission rate. Gross profit was $17.2 million, up 8%. Gross margin was 73.9%, up 210 basis points year-over-year at the high end of our target range of 72% to 74%, helped by modest reductions in professional services, depreciation and shipping costs. Total operating expenses were $19.3 million, down 11%. That decline did not come at the expense of product investment. Technology development continues to grow year-over-year, consistent with our decision to rebalance resources towards product and engineering even as total OPEX declined. Sales and marketing expenses were $5.4 million, down 34%. This reduction reflects the strategic realignment implemented in late 2025, which fundamentally reset our marketing organization and rationalized performance marketing spend as well as lower headcount-related expenses following our first quarter reorganization. Sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue was 23%, down from 37% a year ago. Technology development expenses were $6.3 million, up 7%. This increase reflects continued investment in product and engineering in support of our 2026 roadmap, including the impact of our annual merit cycle in March. Technology development as a percentage of revenue was approximately 27%, flat year-over-year. General and administrative expenses were $6.7 million, up 1%, reflecting the ongoing discipline in our overhead cost base. General and administrative as a percentage of revenue was approximately 29% versus 30% a year ago. Lastly, provision for transaction losses was approximately $930,000 or 4% of revenue, in line with our historical range of 2% to 4%. As I mentioned previously, total operating expenses were $19.3 million, down 11%. In addition, operating expenses as a percentage of revenue were at the lowest level since we went public in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.3 million, representing a margin of approximately 6%, well above the high end of our guidance range. This result is a direct product of the cost structure we rebuilt starting in 2022, revenue upside flowing disproportionately to the bottom line, exactly as designed. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $67.7 million, down $17.6 million sequentially. That decline primarily reflects two items: $11.1 million in share repurchases and approximately $5.9 million related to a change in our agreement with our payment processors that resulted in an accounting reclassification of cash and cash equivalents to receivables from payment processors and seller accounts. This reclassification has no economic impact. It is a presentation change only. Total assets remain unchanged. The offsetting liability to sellers is unchanged, and there is no impact to net income, working capital or overall financial position. The cash balance appears smaller, but this cash was always offset by an equal payable to the sellers. The offset now simply sits against a different asset account. Excluding it, cash declined approximately $11.7 million, driven primarily by capital returns to shareholders. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 2.4 million shares for $11.1 million under our 2026 stock repurchase program, exhausting the authorization. Since inception of our repurchase programs, we have repurchased approximately 11.4 million shares for approximately $55.3 million. Before moving to guidance, I want to address our full year free cash flow directly. Our 2026 financial framework includes a commitment to positive free cash flow and the operational performance of the business supports that. If anything, performance has exceeded our expectations year-to-date. However, the reclassification I just discussed affects our reported free cash flow and means we are no longer likely to generate positive free cash flow in 2026. Excluding the reclassification, the underlying business is generating cash ahead of our original expectations. Turning to the outlook. Our guidance reflects quarter-to-date results and our forecast for the remainder of the period. We forecast third quarter GMV between $89 million and $94 million, or flat to up 6%. Net revenue of $22 million to $22.9 million, or flat to up 4%. And adjusted EBITDA margin between negative 1% and positive 2%. Our GMV guidance reflects three factors. First, product-driven growth: continued year-over-year GMV growth at the midpoint, a reflection of compounding roadmap progress against the backdrop of significant sales and marketing reductions. Second, quality-driven performance: while traffic remains a headwind, we expect continued growth in conversion and AOV. Third, seasonal dynamics: the third quarter is our seasonally softest period, and we are facing our toughest year-over-year GMV comparison of 2026. Our revenue guidance reflects take rate dynamics. Revenue is expected to grow year-over-year, though at a modestly slower rate than GMV at the midpoint, reflecting a continued mix shift towards higher-value orders. These transactions carry a lower blended commission rate. Our adjusted EBITDA margin guidance reflects two factors. First, structural efficiency: continued operating expense discipline from actions taken in late 2025. Second, seasonal dynamics: the third quarter is our seasonally softest period. A sequential step down in revenue is the primary driver of lower margin versus Q2. Turning to our 2026 financial framework. We are upgrading our expectations for GMV growth based on Q2 performance. We now expect GMV to grow year-over-year for 2026 as a whole. We also expect Q4 GMV to grow year-over-year, our original milestone. We expect revenue take rates of approximately 24% to 25%, down from our prior outlook of 25% to 26% as higher order values, which carry a lower blended commission rate, represent a growing share of our GMV. We expect to deliver a third consecutive year of revenue growth, reflecting the resilience of our marketplace in the face of a soft market for luxury home goods. We expect gross margins of 72% to 74%, up from 71% to 73% in 2025. We remain focused on efficient growth with a full year outlook of positive adjusted EBITDA. On free cash flow, as discussed, because of our accounting reclassification related to our payment processor agreements, we are no longer likely to generate positive free cash flow for 2026. Underpinning this plan is the assumption that macroeconomic conditions, particularly those impacting the housing market and consumer discretionary spending, remain stable. In 2022, we began resetting our expense base with a specific goal in mind: ensuring that when revenue recovered, it would flow disproportionately to the bottom line. Q2 is the clearest evidence yet that this design is working. GMV, revenue and adjusted EBITDA all came in above the high end of guidance. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached approximately 6%, and we achieved all this while continuing to invest in product and engineering, the engine of our long-term growth. We are on plan. We are executing and our conviction in the path ahead has never been stronger. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to updating you on the progress in the coming quarters. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to the operator to take your questions.

Operator provided instructions regarding the conference call. Your first question comes from the line of Bobby Brooks with Northland Capital Markets.

So it's clear that the strong 2Q results are beginning to reflect the growth and cost initiatives enacted over the last several quarters. But I know you guys aren't satisfied with the current success and want more. I was curious to hear what are some growth or cost initiatives you are planning to implement in the coming quarters or took action on during the second quarter that could continue to bolster results in the coming quarters?

Hi, Bobby. We're really driving growth off our roadmap. That's our focus. We got there a couple of quarters earlier than we had expected, and I think that is attributable to the strength of our product roadmap. The first half has been focused on building a foundation in our four primary areas of focus, and the second half of the year is going to be focused on broadening the deployment of those across as many service areas as possible. The four pillars of our roadmap are discovery, trust, which used to be pricing only but has now expanded to trust, shipping and services. We had wins in each area. In terms of discovery, the biggest win is we rolled out a new machine learning model to drive personalization. We applied that initially on the homepage and saw really good results, and so we're going to roll that out in the second half alongside continuing to build toward a better semantic and natural language search capability. In the area of trust, we doubled our price parity coverage in Q2, and we're going to expand that in the second half to include issues around item and seller quality, item authenticity and overall platform integrity alongside our continued focus on pricing transparency. In terms of shipping, we had a nice win in the second quarter. We used a new machine learning model to expand freight pre-quote coverage from roughly 50% to 75% of listings, which had the impact of growing our overall pre-quote coverage to 90%. Going forward, we have other initiatives focused on incentives for faster handling time, better and broader tracking and also a continued focus on reducing shipping costs to the buyer. Lastly, in terms of service, we successfully tested an AI-powered customer service chatbot in Q2. The second half is going to be about rolling that out more broadly to our service infrastructure, which will free up people to focus on more complex customer service issues. Overall, it was a good quarter. We're happy with where we are, but we have much more in front of us than behind us. We're off to a good start.

For sure. And you touched on this a bit in the prepared remarks. It seemed like 2Q results were not bolstered by any trends in the luxury market. First, is my assumption correct? And second, how big of a benefit might we see if a recovery in the luxury housing market plays out for your growth?

You are correct. The syndicated credit card data that we use to track the market says that luxury home furnishings declined mid-single digits in Q2. Relative to our own expectations, we attribute the outperformance versus guidance in Q2 to traffic, which stabilized, and average order value, which was up 10%. Significantly, it wasn't just average order value that increased; median order value increased by the same percentage, which indicates the strength was relatively broad-based. If the market comes back, it's tough to quantify the impact on us other than saying it will certainly be positive. We're also still comping our sales and marketing spend cutbacks enacted at the end of last year. Overall, sales and marketing spend was down over 30% year-over-year in the quarter. Plus 7% GMV on the quarter versus a 30% decline in sales and marketing spend and a negative mid-single-digit market decline is something we interpret as a proof point that our roadmap is taking effect.

For sure. That is impressive. I want to unpack the financial dynamics and expectations going forward as you scale out the Tastemakers program. You mentioned the tripling of Instagram view time sequentially, which struck me. As you scale that out in the second half, how does that impact the sales and marketing line item? And maybe just discuss how you pay those influencers. Second, while a tripling sequentially is unlikely to continue, what might be your expectations for growth and engagement as you scale out this program?

Let me talk qualitatively about the Tastemaker program, and then Tom can discuss the cost impact. We've been incredibly happy with our progress. We were a little late to focus on social media as a channel, but we're there now. We launched in Q2, and it's off to a great start. In addition to the metrics you cited, qualitatively it's important not just because it's a hedge against uncertainty around SEO and trends in the search market, but because it's a way to reach a broader, younger audience in a cost effective and engaging way. This is something we will put significant energy into. Over time, it also helps our paid program. At the end of the day, it's a win across many dimensions, which is why we're so pleased. Tom, I'll let you say a few words about the cost impact.

As you know, we're very disciplined in our paid marketing program. Sales and marketing spend has declined significantly year-over-year, and we're focused on unit economics. As we see that we can buy traffic profitably, we'll continue to buy. You could see some increase in paid marketing going forward if it's profitable, but we will stay very disciplined in our paid marketing spend.

Congrats on the strong quarter.

Operator provided instructions regarding the conference call. Your next question and final question comes from the line of Ralph Schackart with William Blair.

This is Jack Brenczewski on for Ralph. I wanted to ask about GMV specifically. You reiterated growth in Q4 and for the full year. I know you don't provide 2027 guidance, but can you provide a framework for continued growth beyond Q4? What are the components driving that growth considering that the housing macro remains muted?

We feel good about our GMV trajectory beyond the end of this year, and our conviction is even higher now given our recent performance. First, the sales and marketing lapping effect will improve from here. We made those cuts at the end of Q3 last year, so we'll get a full quarter's impact in Q4 and then further benefit in the quarters after that. Second, the roadmap will continue to compound. The areas of focus are foundational drivers of marketplace performance; our marketplace is complex, so this is a multi-year endeavor. Third, in each of the four focus areas, AI is the primary driver of our highest priority, highest impact initiatives, giving us capabilities we wouldn't have had otherwise. Longer term, once we rebuild the foundation of the marketplace, we have opportunities to expand our addressable market. Regarding the housing market, as it wasn't a driver in Q2 and likely won't be for the next few quarters, our ability to grow does not depend on a recovery in that market. When the market recovers, we'll benefit, but I don't think recovery is required for us to sustain growth beyond 2026.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.