VTEX Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 27, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Audra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the VTech's 4th Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

Operator

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Julia Vadar Fernandez, Investor Relations Director.

Speaker 1

Please go ahead. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Vitex earnings conference call for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. I'm Giulia Barro Fernandez, Investor Relations Director for Vitex. Our senior executives presenting today are Gerardo Tomas, Jr, Founder and Co CEO and Ricardo Camata Sombre, Chief Financial Officer. Additionally, Mariano Gomideres Faria, Founder and Co CEO and Andres Polliador, Chief Services Officer, will be available during today's Q and A session.

Speaker 1

I would like to remind you that management may make forward looking statements related to such matters as continuous growth prospects for the company, industry trends and product and technology initiatives. These statements are based on currently available information and our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. While we believe that our assumptions, expectations and projections are reasonable in view of the currently available information, you are due not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements. Certain risks and uncertainties are described under Risk Factors and Forward Looking Statements section of BTEX Forms 20 F for the year ended December 31, December 31, December 31, and other BTEX filings within the U. S.

Speaker 1

Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on our Investor Relations website. Finally, I would like to remind you that during the course of this conference call, we may discuss some non GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures can be found in the Q4 2023 earnings press release available on our Investor Relations website. Now, let me turn the call over to Gerardo. Gerardo, the floor is yours.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Julia. Welcome, everyone, and thanks for joining our Q4 2023 earnings conference call. In reflecting on our performance throughout the year, it's evident that despite navigating a persistently uncertain macroeconomic landscape, we have consistently surpassed expectations quarter after quarter. The Q4 of 2023 was no exception with GMV and revenues growing 38% 34% year over year in U. S.

Speaker 2

Dollars respectively. Our performance is a testament to the resilience of our sticky enterprise customer base, which affects neutral same store sales and net revenue retention reached 15% and 107 percent respectively in 2023 and the successful on boarding of new customers onto our platform. Beyond our robust top line performance, our business model also came to the forefront as demonstrated by our operational relationships. As evidence, we increased the number of customers with annual recurring revenue above $250,000 to 126, up from 94 last year. And these customers increased their online store count to 692 from 557.

Speaker 2

Additionally, we increased our global presence to 43 countries from 38 countries last year. Our continuous progress in the top tier customer base not only highlights our commitment to enterprise customers, but also our product market fit around the globe. This year, we have achieved significant commercial milestones. Some of the net new customers that went live on our platform were Renew in Canada and Osha, Hunter Raymoo in Canada and Osha, Hunter Douglas and Pro Beauty in Europe. We also have expanded with existing customers such as Colgate, Motorola, Unilever and Whirlpool to many countries around the globe.

Speaker 2

With the segue, let me go to the newly added customers during Q4 of 2023, including Biscuit, Jon Jon, ObaBox, Osklin and Tiffany in Brazil, Megatenders and Biso in Colombia, Macondo in Italy, 711, Shapur and Voigt in Mexico, Hunter Douglas in the Netherlands, Yape Market in Peru and Hearst and Shop Hero in the U. S. In addition to attracting new customers, we have also focused on strengthening our relationship with existing customers, actively supporting their growth initiatives. During the Q4, several premier brands and retailers chose to expand their operation with us, opening new stores and further integrating with us. This includes Carrefour, who added a new store in Brazil, Atacadao, now operating 7 stores in Latin America Colgate, who added a new store in the U.

Speaker 2

S, PCA scheme, now operating in Brazil in the U. S, both with B2C and B2B models. Motorola, who added a new store in Ecuador, now operating in 20 countries across North America, Latin America and EMEA. Oshkosh Corporation, who added a new store in the U. S, Oshkosh Airport Products together with Prisma Refractory, they are now operating 2 B2B stores in the West.

Speaker 2

And Pro Beauty, who added a new store in Romania, Eterno, now operating both B2C and B2B stores in Romania. In 2023, we achieved remarkable milestones in the digital commerce realm. We started the year being recognized as established in Gartner Peer Insights Voice for after customer, digital commerce. In the second quarter, IDC acknowledges as a major player and we achieved medals in all 24 categories of the 2023 paradigm B2B combined, being the exclusive vendor to secure a gold medal for marketplace product capability. The Q3, we were named a visionary in Gardner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce and became the only vendor ranked in the top 5 for all use cases in the 2023 Gardener critical capabilities for Digital Commerce Reports.

Speaker 2

In the Q4, we were recognized as a leader in IDC's market scape. Worldwide mid market growth B2B Digital Commerce Applications 2023, 2024 Vendor Assessment. Vitex was also recognized by the ecosystem. We were honored as the Global Industry Partner of the Year in Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods at the 2023 AWS Partners Awards and as the best interface developer portal at the DAS Portal Awards 2023. This underscores our commitment to reshaping commerce through innovation and collaboration.

Speaker 2

We are happy to share that 2024 started strong. In January, Vitex was exclusive vendor recognized as the customer choice in 2024 Gardner voice of the customers for digital commerce. According to the report, 90% to 80% of Vitek's customers expressed the willingness to recommend the e commerce platform to their peers. This month, we were recognized as the top leader in IDC market space worldwide B2C digital commerce platform for mid market growth vendor assessment study, rated the highest out of 25 vendors, we stood out for our comprehensive solutions and strategic focus on B2C Excellence. We are proud about all the recognitions we got through 2023 and it fuels our dedication to pioneering solution that empower business for lasting success.

Speaker 2

Continue our commitment to foresting our ecosystem and offering our customers the most comprehensive solutions. We're thrilled to announce that in the Q4, we've launched a strategic partnership with Dynamic Yield, a Mastercard company and Vitex native innovative app that seems to be integrated with dynamic yield cutting edge customer experience optimization platform. In an ever evolving landscape, we seek to empower our customers to leverage dynamic use AI driven tool in order to optimize engagement, lifetime value and revenue generation. Together, we aim to empower brands to easily build tailored experience that resonate with each individual consumer, ultimately we're volitionizing the standards of customers engagement and commerce success. Before leaving the stage to Ricardo, I would like to share some customer success cases demonstrating our platform tangible impact and potential.

Speaker 2

Our customers are in the spotlight at the core of our organization and their success will always remain our focus. Electrolux, the leading brand in innovative Roma appliances, addresses the challenge of absence of physical stores by developing enormous stores with a digital experience at the 2023 Home Fair, a crucial event in the Colombian consumer calendar. These adaptable stores set up at a specific event like the home fair, featured kiosks and the sales team equipped with the Vitek subaccount offering customized catalog and inventory for each occasion. Using the sales app, representatives seamlessly presented products facilitated van sales during their walk through the fair, while attendees also had the option to purchase through the self-service kiosk screens. The innovative approach result in a 73% sales increase compared to 2020 2 with the pickup point contributing 30% of total sales and a remarkable 84% growth in units.

Speaker 2

This success demonstrates Electrolux ability to sell without physical stores, emphasizing the effectiveness of the digital strategy and the integration of sales app for an enhanced customer experience. Motorola, the global telecommunication leader faced a significant challenge with its multiple commerce platform leading to high maintenance cost and impediments to launching new stores. By migrating to Vitex, Motorola benefited from the platform that adaptability, which was instrumental in streamlining operations and accelerating the establishment of new storage globally. Motorola was able to test 3rd party application, optimizing architectures by country and reducing total cost of ownership. As a consequence, Motorola experienced a remarkable 20% annual growth in the company e commerce businesses.

Speaker 2

Jefferies Pet, the leading U. S. Animal health and supply company expanded its operation through the text, now managing 1 physical stores and 2 websites. They launched the 2nd website, Lumbert Vets Supply, boosting over 4,000 SKUs. Leveraging the text adaptability, they tailored the sites for detailed path registration, seamlessly integrated with master data for streamlined checkout process.

Speaker 2

Moreover, Vitex allowed customizations to support Lambert's subscription strategy, offering varying time spans from 2 weeks to 6 months alongside a tailored vaccine delivery approach, enhancing the consumer experience. The unified web platform across multiple sites proves Beneficial reflected in Lambert's Vets exceptional results, a staggering 2 0 8% sales surge within 3 weeks of its launch. Flamingo, a retailer with over 40 stores across Colombia, partnered with Zitax to expand their online payment options by integrating the widely used private label credit card, MiFIA. Flamingo was able to reach a wider audience through the Vitex platform. MIFIA was seamlessly integrated as a native payment option, ensuring scalability and adaptability for Flamingo and all willing Vitex customers who wants to use these payment methods.

Speaker 2

For Flamingo, with these native payment methods now represents more than 60% of digital sales, significantly improving its user experience, accelerating its sales and solidifying its position in the digital market. The largest tool company in the world recognized the immense potential of implementing a self-service platform on its B2B operation through Vitex. The implementation allowed them to expedite its user ordering experience across 3 major business units by eliminating cumbersome offline processes. The project generated time and effort saving in the ordering process, while at the same time reducing costs and increasing efficiency. By migrating to Vitex, they merged their traditional e commerce site with the B2B site, creating To conclude this session, I would like to express my gratitude to our 1277 Vitex employees dedicated to making VITEX the backbone for Connected Commerce and to our customers, partners and investors.

Speaker 2

I will now hand the call over to Ricardo to discuss our financial performance for the quarter.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Geraldo. Hi, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here updating you on our financial performance for the Q4 of 2023. In the last quarter of the year, our GMV reached $5,400,000,000 representing a year over year increase of 38 percent in U. S.

Speaker 3

Dollars and 30% in FX neutral. With this, we concluded the full year 2023 reaching $16,500,000 in GMV, representing a growth of 30% 25% in U. S. Dollars and FX neutral, respectively. Our same store sales in 2023 reached 15% in FX neutral on top of 17% from 2022.

Speaker 3

Despite the same store sales slight decrease versus 2022, the upsell of new features to existing stores and contract inflation adjustment contributed to a net revenue retention increase to 107% in FX neutral in 2023 compared to 105% last year. Also, the contribution to GMV from new stores added throughout the year, especially for customers paying us more than $250,000 per year and helped us achieve a solid GMV performance in the year. Our revenue reached $60,700,000 in the Q4 2023, a year over year increase of 34% in U. S. Dollars and 25% in FX neutral.

Speaker 3

This helped us achieve $201,500,000 revenue for the full year 2023, showing a 28% growth in U. S. Dollars and 24% on FX neutral basis. Most of the over performance versus guidance was driven by better than expected FX neutral performance during October November as well as the appreciation of the basket of Latin America currencies versus the U. S.

Speaker 3

Dollar. Subscription revenue reached $58,200,000 in the Q4 of 2023 from $42,700,000 in the same quarter last year, a year over year increase of 36% in U. S. Dollars and 27% in FX neutral. For the full year, subscription revenue reached $190,300,000 up from $148,500,000 in 2022.

Speaker 3

Double clicking on our 2023 subscription revenue, existing stores revenue increased to $146,000,000 Our net revenue retention reached 107% in FX neutral. As mentioned, despite a challenging retail market and slightly lower same store sales versus 2022, our upsell efforts of Sales App, Pick n Pack, Extensions Hub and the inflation adjustment of customer contracts resulted in an increase in our net revenue retention. On top of our existing stores growth, we continue attracting new stores, adding $27,700,000 in revenue to our base, representing approximately 20% of our 2022 PTX platform revenue. This year's outcome indicate a stabilization to modest improvement in our sales cycle compared to the elongation observed in 2022. As anticipated, we saw a slight improvement in our sales efficiency compared to the previous year, a testament to the strategic high efficiency measures implemented in mid-twenty 22 and follow through 2023.

Speaker 3

Consequently, our LTV over CAC ratio continues to stand strong, exceeding the 6x mark. As mentioned by Gerardo, we continue expanding our geographical reach with revenues outside of Brazil accounting for 46% of our total revenues. In 2023, Brazil, Latin America excluding Brazil and the rest of the world grew 23%, 21% and 37% on a year over year FX neutral basis, respectively. Now moving down our P and L, it's important to notice that all the figures I'll present are on a non GAAP basis. You can find a reconciliation of those measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures in our Q4 2023 earnings press release available on our Investor Relations website.

Speaker 3

In the Q4 of 2023, our subscription gross margin saw a significant increase, reaching $45,800,000 representing a margin of 78.6% compared to 73.5% in the same quarter of last year. The 510 basis point margin expansion underscores our team's dedication to consistently find efficiencies in our code, providers and other hosting aspects. Looking forward, we expect to deliver less significant year over year subscription gross margin improvements. As a result, we have achieved a 74% gross margin, representing a year over year expansion of 5 62 basis points. This expansion on top of our subscription gross margin is further amplified by additional improvements in our services gross margin.

Speaker 3

In the Q4 of 2023, our total operating expenses decreased quarter over quarter to $33,400,000 from $34,100,000 demonstrating the expenses discipline we have maintained over the past few quarters. About a year ago, we committed to achieving our sustainable breakeven point on an operating income and free cash flow basis by the Q4 2023. Surpassing our initial projections, we accomplished these milestones a quarter earlier than anticipated. In the Q3 of 2023, we reached a positive 3.4 percent operating margin and a positive free cash flow of $2,700,000 Now in Q4 2023, we achieved a notable 19% positive operating margin and a positive free cash flow of $9,500,000 Looking at the full year, we reached a positive 3.8% operating margin and a free cash flow of $3,800,000 This demonstrates our dedication to sustainable growth, positioning us ahead of our target financial milestones. Our Q4 2023 performance showcased the operational leverage inherent in our business model, setting a solid foundation for future and supporting the target model we share at the Investor Day.

Speaker 3

For instance, our subscription gross margin reached 79%, slightly below the 80% target model, and our overall gross margin stood at a solid 74%, closely in line with the 75% target model. Expenses in S and M, R and D and G and A were 23%, 20% and 11%, respectively, closely in line with the 20 percent to 25% for both S&M and R and D and 10% for G and A from our target model. As a consequence, our EBITDA margin reached 19%, also quite close to the 20% from the target model. Moreover, given our 25% FX neutral revenue growth, this translated into a rule of 44%, which is over the 40% plus indication from the target model. Now it's important to mention that our Q4 results are strongly supported by seasonality.

Speaker 3

Although this performance demonstrates our operational leverage and a clear path to sustainable growth, we are still a few years away from reaching our target model on a yearly basis. Before moving to our Q1 and full year 2024 outlook, I would like to remind the audience that from a business perspective, we think about our P and L as a combination of 2 P and Ls, our existing stores P and L and our new stores P and L. You will find this reference in Slide 28 of our Q4 earnings presentation. VTech's existing stores revenue excluding our SMB platform represented approximately 80% of our revenue, while our new stores revenue also excluding our SMB platform represented approximately 20%. Our existing customers' gross margin reached 77% this year, approximately 400 basis points higher than last year.

Speaker 3

The gross margin profile of our new stores remained stable at 45% despite the pressure on services margins generated by the hypercare mode for specific global expansion customers. The operating margin from existing stores increased from low 20s in 2022 to mid-30s in 2023, while the operating margin losses from new stores improved by 74 percentage points. 2023 notably served as the initial clean year following our organization restructuring and efficient growth plan initiated in May 2022. We believe it's fair to assume that while we anticipate ongoing margin expansion given our operational leverage, we have already attained a normalized operational level for the demand that we are perceiving from the market. On the share repurchase program we approved in August of 2023, as of December 31, 2023, no remaining balance is available for share repurchase under this authorization.

Speaker 3

We purchased 1,900,000 shares at an average price of $5.41 per share. Considering repurchase since August of 2022, total shares repurchased reached 10,700,000 with an average price of $4.48 per share and a total cost of $48,000,000 As we move forward with our business outlook, it's important to note that the macroeconomic conditions remain uncertain. Even though we have witnessed a stabilization and slight improvement in our sales cycle, they haven't yet returned back to its normal duration. Despite these challenges, which mostly impact our new stores' time to revenue, we remain confident in our ability to help our customers outperform the market and control our costs and expenses to deliver operational leverage. Considering the macro conditions, we are currently targeting revenue in the $52,500,000 to $53,500,000 range for the Q1 of 2024, implying a year over year growth of 22% on an FX neutral basis in the middle of the range.

Speaker 3

Also, given the persistent macroeconomic uncertainty for the full year 2024, we are targeting FX neutral year over year revenue growth of 18% to 22%, implying a range of $234,000,000 to $243,000,000 based on January's average FX rate, with free cash flow and non GAAP operating income margins reaching mid to high single digits. With that, let's open it up for questions now. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We'll go first to Leonardo Olmos at UBS.

Speaker 4

Hi, good evening everyone. Congrats on the results once again. So my question is around the employee requirement the company may have versus growth. So in the end, all I wanted to know was that if the guidance of mid to high single digits of operating margin, does it imply is it obviously correlated to your lower growth expectations, your deceleration expectation on an FX neutral base for 2024, right? What then my question, what happens if you accelerate, if you deliver additional growth to grow as you grow in 2023?

Speaker 4

Do you think your operating margin would be lower? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Hi, Leo. Ricardo here. Thanks for the question. Great question. Important for us to be aligned.

Speaker 3

So talking about the overall expenses and then we can think about the guidance and what is our mental model on this topic. So as you can see from our Q4 results, we continue to be disciplined on our expenses. Right, you can see that the expenses were roughly flattish quarter over quarter, a slight decrease. Now looking forward, this quarter, we are also providing guidance on our free cash flow and non GAAP operating income margins for 2024. And our guidance suggests achieving mid to high single digit operating income margin, as you mentioned.

Speaker 3

So considering our growth outlook and anticipating more limited gross margin improvements, we will remain disciplined on our expenses profile for 2024. You should expect some incremental expenses given inflation, promotions and a potentially small headcount increase. And we are confident in our level of investments in sales and marketing to meet demand and our robust G and A team. And we plan to make some hires in research and development, targeting the opportunities outlined in the founders letter in our annual report. Now, any expenses increase should be significantly below our revenue growth.

Speaker 3

Having said that, it's important for us to maintain flexibility in adapting the company as needed in response to demand. So this goes to your question like how we will adapt the company given different growth rates. If we look further out, it's important to emphasize that VTech's mindset is aligned with the rule of worry. This means that in a hypothetical case, we see a higher revenue growth opportunity, we may adjust our investments accordingly to capture this opportunity. Or if we see a lower revenue growth scenario, we will adjust our expenses to improve profitability.

Speaker 3

So hopefully that answered the question, Lal.

Speaker 4

Yes. So that's crystal clear. So not guiding, but just an interpretation

Speaker 5

of what you said. If you have

Speaker 4

growth slightly above what you had, we're probably going to see operating leverage. But if you have superb growth, we may see some additional investments. That would be a proper interpretation.

Speaker 3

Yes. No, I think as I said in my answer, this is maybe looking further out for other years. I think for the 2024, we have our budget and our guidance, right? So I think it's a little bit less what we will adjust within the year because you started the year already contracted in some things. But as the mental model and as you think about the mindset, this is how we would think about it going further out.

Speaker 4

Okay. This is helpful. A quick follow-up, another question in my last one. Sorry about that. With the share repurchase program that you did, how do you see what opportunities do you see in capital locations this year, more kind of repurchases or are there other things?

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, Lo, happy to take this one as well. So as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we already consumed 100% of the 2023 buyback program. So we no longer have an active plan in place right now. And as a high growth company, we always seek opportunities to invest our resources and drive growth.

Speaker 3

With our robust cash position and a clear understanding of this year's capital allocation, we will always seek to balance our organic growth plans, M and A opportunities and buybacks in the best interest of the long term oriented shareholders. So I would say probably in this order, but that's the mindset.

Speaker 4

Understood. Thank you very much. Have a good evening.

Operator

We'll go next to Luca Brendon at Bank of America. Mr. Brendam, your line is open. You may be muted.

Speaker 5

Hello. Can you hear me?

Speaker 1

Yes, we can.

Speaker 5

Okay, perfect. Thank you. Actually, this is Fred here. Thanks for the call. I have two questions here.

Speaker 5

The first is, if you can just give us an idea about what type of environment is included in the guidance given the strong 4Q results, the guide looks at first a little conservative, so just kind of the environment that you are seeing for that? This will be my first question. And then my second question, for the year of 2023, assuming that was basically no growth in the e commerce segment and you grew a lot, it looks like you gained a lot of market share, especially in Brazil. So just trying to understand if you can comment a little bit of that on the environment, if actually you saw yourself gaining a lot of market share, where you're gaining? Any color you could give on that, it would be great.

Speaker 5

Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, Fred. Thanks for the question to give us the opportunity to explain a little bit how we're thinking about the guidance for 2024. So we are starting this year in a more favorable position than we started 2023. So just to rewind the tape a little bit, we started 2023 with our guidance of 15% to 19% FX neutral revenue growth.

Speaker 3

We are now starting this year with 18% to 22%. And as the range shows, there is still a relevant level of uncertainty in the market. Top down, we see that uncertainty expressed by the 30% to 40% percent recession probability currently priced by the market. And bottom up, we see that expressed by our customers' GMV volatility. And going into the assumptions that's basing our guidance, from the perspective of existing customers, we are assuming that our same store sales and net revenue retention will remain around the current levels.

Speaker 3

And looking at new customers, we are assuming that the sales cycle, including implementation and ramp up times, will also remain relatively stable versus what we saw over the second half of twenty twenty three. And then on margins, we will continue to control our costs and expenses and therefore our operating leverage should lead our non GAAP operating income and free cash flow margins to reach mid to high single digits. Finally, we always talk about our guidance in FX neutral, and we mentioned the implied U. S. Dollar revenue based on certain FX assumptions.

Speaker 3

So on this part, for 2024, we are assuming the January average FX for the full year, which is also aligned with the year end FX consensus. In the case of Argentina, as already mentioned in our Q3 earnings Q and A session, the 50% plus devaluation of last December should result in a mid single digit percentage point headwind in our 2024 U. S. Dollar growth and a more moderate impact in FX neutral as economic activity and retail may get impacted by the macroeconomic adjustment of the country. And it's also important to mention that the devaluation in Argentina should have a lowtomidsingledigitoperatingmarginimpact for VITEX in 2024, which was already accounted for in our 2024 margin guidance.

Speaker 3

Having said that, although with some GMV volatility, we are happy with how we are starting the year and we consider our guidance well balanced given the macro uncertainty that we see in the market. And then I think question 1 was our overall performance on the GMV side versus the market. So I'll pass this over to Gerardo.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Thank you, Ricardo. Thank you for this question. And in fact, you're right, like the global commerce grew according to marketeer around 9% in globally and 14% in Latin America last year. And this is one of one statistic.

Speaker 2

There are other statistics, especially for Brazil. They say that, eventually e commerce was flattish or even negative in Brazil for some statistics. And we consistently out spaced the market. Our GMV growth for the whole company was 25% FX neutral and 30% USD dollars and even bigger growth in Q4 of last year, 38% in GMV growth for U. S.

Speaker 2

Dollars and 30% in FX neutral. This growth is caused by new customers. We added in revenue $28,000,000 with new customers last year, which is notable like we grew the customer logo. But our current customer, they seem to be we always noticed that and last year was not different. Our customer are resilient customer for crisis.

Speaker 2

Our same store sales reached 19% in USD and 15% growth in FX neutral. And I think our healthy same store sales performance can be attributed to the seamless integration of physical stores into the digital commerce experience. I think we did a lot of this last year that there was relevant customers that started to deliver from store and use the store for the digital commerce experience. And this resulting higher conversion rate, expanded inventories, fewer inventories, breakages, faster deliveries among other advantages. So I think in summary, our value proposition resonates here.

Speaker 2

We're empowering customers to achieve sustainable profitable growth by reducing their total cost of ownership and simplifying their e commerce architecture. This aligns seamlessly with the evolving demands of the market, enabling them to design strategy that outperform the market. I think you saw right and again, we were able our customers were able to outperform the market.

Speaker 5

Perfect. Super clear. Thank you, Gerald. Thank you, Ricardo.

Operator

We'll move to our next question from Marcellus Santos at JPMorgan.

Speaker 6

Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions. I have 2. The first, I just wanted to go again to the guidance. Sorry about that.

Speaker 6

I wanted to understand a bit better, if the existing customers will have same store sale and net revenue retention kind of around current levels and the sales cycle remains stable, shouldn't you kind of have similar growth than you had in 2023? Just wanted to understand why I'm losing it, what I'm missing here, but it seems you're keeping stable the same assumptions. So why isn't the growth the same? And the second question is more conceptual. The new stores increased here 100, right, versus last year.

Speaker 6

And in the past you used to increase much more. Is it because you are adding larger and larger stores? I mean, how are you keeping growth but adding fewer stores? What's the change in profile and how should this move forward? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Hi, Marcelo. Thanks for both questions. I'll start here and then others feel free to chime in. So on the guidance, right, as I mentioned, the same store sales, we are assuming to be in the productively same level. And the new stores, we are assuming also that will continue in a similar sales cycle.

Speaker 3

Now you have to rewind the tape to think about the effects on the growth, because we saw an elongation of the sales cycle in 2022 that pushed some revenue further out. And then in 2023, we saw the sales cycle stabilizing, getting slightly better that pulls some revenue forward, right. So we don't have that pull forward effect in 2024 that we saw in 2023. And maybe explain a bit more on the overall what we're seeing here is that as we mentioned, we see a good level of uncertainty in the market, which is expressed to us by our customers GMV volatility. And looking at Q4, we saw stronger months and less strong months, and we continue to see that volatility going into 2024.

Speaker 3

And despite starting the year in a better position than the previous one, our ability to predict short term outcomes is more reliable than making predictions for the entire year. Nevertheless, we maintain optimism about our capability to surpass market growth and achieve our profitability targets. And we reinforce our commitment to excellence in execution regardless of the external circumstances. We are gaining market share, managing costs and expenses and expanding internationally. By staying focused on delivering outstanding results, we can emerge from this macro uncertainty as a stronger and more resilient company.

Speaker 3

So hopefully this answers the first question. On the second question on number of customers, although the number of customers stayed relatively flat this year versus last year on 2,600 customers, Our number of stores increased by 4% to 3,500 stores. And most importantly, the number of customers that pay us more than $250,000 per year increased by 34% to 126 customers. These larger customers with more than $250,000 in revenue to us per year are the ones that move the needle. They are the customers that are receiving most of our commercial efforts.

Speaker 3

And in 2023, they represented roughly half of our subscription revenue. And this customer group was responsible for roughly 2 thirds of our subscription revenue growth. It's also important to note that more than 1 third of the increase in this customer group count came from net new customers. It's also nice to see a meaningful number of customers growing and up queuing to now join this group. And finally, although with some volatility from year to year, we continue to see our annual revenue churn in the mid single digit percentages, an attractive rate for e commerce enterprise software as a service solution.

Speaker 6

Perfect. Very comprehensive. Thank you.

Operator

We'll go to our next question from Clark Jefferies at Piper Sandler.

Speaker 7

Hello. Thank you for taking the question. 2 for Ricardo. Great to see that the operating margin from the existing storefronts. I think that's a pretty impressive number in terms of expansion year over year.

Speaker 7

I think we've talked before about a longer term ambition of being a rule of 40 company. I would expect that that existing store margin would continue to trend higher. But any way to think about the shape of the curve for further improvement from here? I mean, would it may not be right to assume that it will be as pronounced in 2024 in terms of the margin improvement, but we'll be steadily moving to an accretive margin to the corporate number from existing stores? And then one follow-up.

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, Clark. Great question. On the existing store margin, we update these every year, right? So you can see that in 2020 3, we reached roughly 35% operating income margin for the existing stores coming from low 20s in 2022, so a meaningful improvement there.

Speaker 3

And then if you think about that P and L and the rule of 40 of that P and L, right, the net revenue retention, it's the growth of that P and L, right, and it was 107, so 7% growth. So on a rule of 40 basis, the existing stores, it was like 42, right, for the year. So it's nice to see that. Now as I said in the prepared remarks, we adjusted the company for the level of the demand that we are seeing and also for the projects that we are working on and the G and A expenses. So we see this company as well adjusted on the existing store side.

Speaker 3

So improvements from here, it's more on the operational level, operational leverage type of movement than any significant move in movement that we saw year over year from 2022 to 2023. So nothing as meaningful that we are indicating for now on this. But it's nice to see this at a good level as it shows the potential for the company down the road, right? Hopefully that answers the question.

Speaker 7

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. And then just in terms of the composition of growth, this year it seems like you were able to have above 20% FX neutral growth in all of LatAm accretive to that in rest of world. In the coming year, would you say it's fair to say that you would have expected 20% plus FX neutral growth in the coming year in LatAm if it wasn't for the devaluation currency effects or any way to think about the sort of sustainable growth threshold for LATAM as a 90% mix of the business? Thank you.

Speaker 8

Hey. So Latin America continues to be a region with incredible potential for Vitex. While we are we hold a leadership position in the region, it is still different from the stronghold we have in Brazil. So furthermore, we still see an opportunity to advance the ecosystem maturity towards the level we currently see in Brazil to the entire region of LATAM. We remain committed to executing our nurturing strategy and reinforcing our regional ecosystem in the whole region.

Speaker 8

So countries as Mexico are in a less advanced stage comparing to Brazil, comparing to Colombia, as it was one of the last markets we enter in Latin America. So we see great opportunity to enhance our network in Mexico. However, it is experiencing health growth, as we are excited about the opportunity it represents for Vitex. There are many volatility in LatAm as well. So we are cautious, optimistic with the LatAm expansion.

Speaker 8

We see great opportunities in B2B, great opportunities in the penetration of e commerce, but we need to be cautiously optimistic about it. We already have notable success histories in Mexico, for example, in Elektra, Chedrau, in Nador, and we persist to acquire more heiferences cases as we speak. As you can see, our results in 2023, Brazil and LATAM grew in a similar basis. So Brazil is supported by strong ecosystem and high win rates, and LATAM supported by large opportunity with big market shares still to be developed. So the foundations, if I can summary my answer, the foundations for growth in LatAm will come from the e commerce penetration and our positioning as the leader in the region and also the B2B demand that is increasing consistently in the region, creating a growth opportunity.

Speaker 8

As well, it is also increasing in U. S. And Europe. So B2B is summing up on the foundations for the future growth.

Speaker 7

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

And we'll move next to Maddy Schrage at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Hey guys, and thanks for taking my question. My first one is, we saw a healthy step up in NRR this year. Just wondering if you have kind of like a long term sustainable NRR rate that may be targeted. And then my second question is on the pricing environment.

Operator

Wondering if you've seen any changes in pricing in LatAm, but also as you're entering the U. S. Market, we saw Shopify take up pricing. I'm just wondering if that might create some opportunity for you guys as well. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, Mehdi. Thanks for the question. I can start with the first one on the net revenue retention and then I'll pass it over to Mariano on pricing. So the mental model for our net revenue retention is basically going back to our revenue model, roughly 1 third of our revenue comes from a fixed fee and 2 thirds from a take rate.

Speaker 3

So roughly 2 thirds of our same store sales growth turns into revenue growth for us. And then if you take out the churn, you kind of get to the net revenue retention. Now if you do this math with the 2023 numbers, you get to slightly below to the net revenue retention that we had for the year. And that's because, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we had the inflation adjustment on our fixed fee portion of the revenue. And 2, and most importantly, we upsold some of our existing customers with sales app, Pick N Pack, Extensions Hub, integrating the TSCO stores into the Vitex platform and so on, so they can do the fulfillment from the store.

Speaker 3

And that helped slightly on our net revenue retention performance. Now thinking further out, it depends on the overall e commerce growth and our potential over performance versus the overall market growth. As historically we have over performed as Gerald mentioned, but it's hard for us to pinpoint a specific number here given that it depends on how this will evolve going forward. Now if we look historically, we have been at 105 for the past 2 years and then last year 107. Pre pandemic, this was more in the 110 type of range as e commerce was still in the initial phases of penetration.

Speaker 3

Now we still see a good potential of growth in the penetration of e commerce since Latin America is roughly in the 10%, 11%, 12% penetration depending on the source. And then the U. S. Is 18% to 20% depending on the source. So we still see a good level of potential incremental penetration to happen and e commerce growth once the macro uncertainty stabilizes.

Speaker 3

So I think that's it on the net revenue retention and then on pricing, I'll pass it over to you, Mariano.

Speaker 2

I can take it. I can take it, Iqal. This is Gerardo speaking. Thank you for the question. Let me I'll do a quick recap about our pricing strategy.

Speaker 2

And we are here to have long term relationship with our customers. We want predictable pricing, we want our customers to do a business model on top of our pricing and want them to be healthy using us with no total cost of ownership. And this is the origin of us having a price that is a take rate. I think this is very fair and we model this pricing so that the customer pays less take rate as they grow. This is a pricing strategy that we use since 2012, very stable price.

Speaker 2

You know ecosystem knows about the price already and people trust us because of this price structure and the stability of our pricing. So our pricing general and our pricing general like every other e commerce platform are kind of the same across the globe, because other platforms also charge almost the same. We charge mostly the same as well. You mentioned that Shopify is charging more for the U. S.

Speaker 2

Customers. I would say we saw that, we saw this happening. Shopify deals with the different kind of customers than we did, than we do. We deal with more enterprise customers. So Shopify change in pricing doesn't affect our positioning and competitiveness that much.

Speaker 2

Naturally, if they increase their pricing, it gives us some room to eventually in the long term future increase ours as well. But we do believe that the stability in the price is important for us. But we also do some upselling. Most of the upselling that we do naturally is on the take rate. We have big incentives to make our customers grow their GMV.

Speaker 2

And if they grow, we will upsell them. But recently, we also because of our R and D efforts, we are developing other kind of add ons to the platform. So that add on and new products so that we can upsell customers. The biggest one of them is B2B. We can upsell our customers for the B2B scenario and this is a very good upsell with them for that affects the it doesn't affect the ANR because it's a different store usually.

Speaker 2

But we do also have the live shopping. We charge a little bit of fixed rate when they are delivering from store. We charge when they're using the Pick N Pack app. We usually charge an extra fee when our customer use a feature that is not broadly available among other e commerce platforms. So this is and this is how we will also contribute to a better NRR in the medium and long term, selling other products that we develop using our R and D investments.

Speaker 2

But most of our NII will continue to come from us grow helping growing the GMV of our customer.

Operator

Thank you for the thorough response guys. Appreciate it. And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference over to Gerardo for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Look ahead to 2024, our dedication to drive innovation remains stronger than ever. Zetechs remains steady fast in supporting our customers' strategic commerce investments, fostering growth and boosting profitability. We're thrilled to serve as the backbone for Connected Commerce, dedicated to empowering our customers in achieving their growth ambition. Latin America's Internet penetration continues to offer a promising growth opportunity. We will be focused on strengthening our regional leadership and expanding our presence in the U.

Speaker 2

S. And Europe, unlocking further growth for Bitext. We're thrilled by the progress we've made in our global expansion this year, but this journey is far fall over. We're truly optimistic about the promising opportunities ahead. This year marks just the beginning of what we envision as transformative journey for Vitex.

Speaker 2

Thank you very much for being part of this ongoing journey with us. We look forward to keep you updated at our Maxine earnings call. Have a wonderful week.

Operator

And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
VTEX Q4 2023
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