Brilliant Earth at TD Cowen: Strategic Growth and Market Insights

On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Brilliant Earth (NASDAQ:BRLT) presented at the TD Cowen 9th Annual Future of the Consumer Conference, providing a strategic overview of its market positioning and growth trajectory. While the company highlighted its unique brand and innovative strategies as strong points, it also acknowledged the challenges posed by fluctuating market conditions.

Key Takeaways

• Brilliant Earth aims for low-teens sales growth by 2027 with a strong gross margin.
• The company sees significant growth in fine jewelry, expanding its showroom footprint.
• Dynamic pricing and a diversified supply chain are central to its strategy.
• Marketing efforts focus on increasing brand awareness and customer engagement.
• The company plans to maintain a double-digit adjusted EBITDA margin by 2027.

Financial Results

• Sales Growth: Aims for a year-over-year low-teens growth rate by 2027.
• Gross Margin: Expected to remain in the high 50s percent through 2027.
• Marketing Spend: Continues to drive leverage as a percentage of sales from 2024 to 2027.
• Fine Jewelry: Represents 14% of Q1 bookings, with a 350 basis point increase year-over-year.
• Inventory Management: Inventory turns were approximately four, above the industry average.

Operational Updates

• Showroom Expansion: 42 showrooms, with the latest in Alpharetta, focusing on metro uplift rather than individual sales.
• Engagement Trends: Year-over-year unit growth in engagement rings, with signature collections leading.
• Fine Jewelry Innovation: Focus on unique designs and partnerships, like the Jane Goodall collection.

Future Outlook

• Growth Drivers: Continued improvement in engagement trends and fine jewelry outperformance.
• Showroom Strategy: Expanding with interactive elements like "try on bars."
• Marketing Strategy: Engaging content and collaborations, such as with Beyoncé, to boost brand awareness.
• Pricing Strategy: Premium positioning with dynamic pricing adjustments based on market conditions.

Q&A Highlights

• Consumer Health: Rated 7 out of 10 by CFO Jeff Kuo, consistent with the previous year.
• Consumer Behavior: Shift towards authenticity and flexible shopping preferences.
• Diamond Procurement: Longstanding supplier relationships support a balanced offering of natural and lab-grown diamonds.

For more detailed insights, readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - TD Cowen 9th Annual Future of the Consumer Conference:

Oliver, Analyst: analyst. We’re excited today to have Brilliant Earth here. Raise your hand if you’ve been in a Brilliant Earth store. What was your experience like? Engagement ring?

Oh, maybe you should come up and show it

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: to us.

Oliver, Analyst: Who else has been in a Brilliant Art store? Tom, what did you think? Was very busy when he was there. Yeah. And, a lot

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: of younger consumers.

Oliver, Analyst: Yeah. So Brilliant Earth is a digital first jewelry company founded with a mission to provide ethically sourced and transparent diamonds to consumer, companies known for exclusive designs and highly personalized omnichannel digital first but bricks plus clicks experience. 70% of sales are from custom diamond rings. Jeff Kuo has served as CFO of Brilliant Earth since 2020. Jeff joined Brilliant Earth in 2015 and was VP of Finance and Technology, and previously he founded a watch company, Zedim.

Prior to that, he was at Bain and Company. Jeff, it’s been great to work with you since the IPO.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, likewise. Thanks for having us.

Oliver, Analyst: We also appreciate your vote in the XTEL poll, so if you can, look out for us in the II poll. Jeff, so we’ll jump right in on the Brilliant Earth story. For those who are less familiar, you know, what sets Brilliant Earth apart from many other fragmented options of getting jewelry and bridal product?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, think what makes us unique is a combination of a few different things, a combination of an authentic mission driven brand that really resonates with our customers, distinctive, ownable, proprietary products, many of which are only available with Brilliant Earth, many of which have won awards for the distinctive designs, as well as a seamless, compelling omnichannel experience. Since this is a considered purchase. It’s a higher AOV purchase. And oftentimes customers are engaging with us across multiple touch points, including digital coming into one of our showrooms. And we want to cater to customers how they shop, when they shop, where they want to shop.

And I think the combination of those things combined with a really nimble and asset light model really make us distinguished across the space.

Oliver, Analyst: How would you compare and contrast your longer term growth algorithm relative to what you’re seeing this year in guidance?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, so in terms of our medium term algorithm that we’ve communicated, we’ve talked about growth accelerating on the top line to a low teens growth rate year over year in 2027, keeping a strong gross margin in the high 50s percent through 2027, continuing to drive leverage in marketing spend as a percentage of sales year over year, as we have done in 2024 through 2027. And that gets us to a double digit adjusted EBITDA margin in 2027. And so I think that there’s a number of things that really help us get there. I think one is we’ve talked about continuing improvement in engagement, and we’re seeing good signs of that. And I’m sure we’ll talk more about that later.

Also continued performance and uplift from our showrooms. As we open showrooms, we do look to and have seen uplift across entire metros after we’ve opened the showrooms, as well as continued outperformance in strategic areas like fine jewelry, which is an important growth lever and an area where we’ve seen a lot of success.

Oliver, Analyst: That’s a good point. How many showrooms do you have now versus long term? And how would you characterize the digital versus physical revenue mix?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, so right now we have 42, with the most recent opening being in Alpharetta, and so this is one where, you know, I think, we think that we can achieve coverage of our customer base with an efficient showroom footprint. Berliner showrooms often tend to be destinations where people may already be aware of us and they come and seek us out. We’re now complementing that with more different ways that people can walk in and discover us in a street level center or outdoor or mall or strategically targeted locations there. So I think it does tend to be a destination. And so we think we can achieve efficient coverage.

This isn’t a thousands of showrooms type of strategy. We think we can do so in a capital efficient way. And in terms of the breakdown between digital and physical, we do think it is truly an omnichannel purchase. It’s a considered purchase. And because those touch points are often going to be across multiple different mechanisms, we do think of it really as a omnichannel integrated purchase rather than distinctly one or the other.

Oliver, Analyst: Bridal has been a little tougher in terms of engagement trends across the whole industry as well as some pressure in pricing. We’re seeing that across retail actually. What’s happening in the bridal environment? What should people know who are less familiar with the tougher engagement trends and tougher comparisons?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So maybe just going back a few years, we did see in ’twenty one and ’twenty two engagement levels that were above typical levels and then came down for ’twenty three. And we’ve been talking about expected trajectory of improvement in engagements over the next few years. And we’re seeing promising indicators of that. I think some of the things that we’ve seen include, for Q1, having year over year unit growth in engagement rings, as well as Q2 to date as of the date of our earnings call.

So I think that’s a nice indicator. Also, our signature collection bookings for the quarter, for Q1, outpaced the overall engagement ring assortment by double digits. And those are collections and products that are proprietary to us. And I think this really tells us that the brand in our products are resonating with customers and people are coming to us for products that are unique to Brilliant Earth. And so I think that’s a bit about what we’re seeing and we think things are moving in the right direction and we’re continuing to focus on delivering on the brand and product experience.

Oliver, Analyst: What do you think about units within bridal and unit trends as well as pricing? How are you monitoring those factors within the bridal environment?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yes. So in terms of units, as I mentioned, we’re seeing the positive signs with the year over year unit growth, both for Q1 and Q2 Q2 to date, as with the earnings call. In terms of pricing, I think there’s a couple of things. We continue to focus on premium positioning. We’re not discount oriented, as you know.

And I think the one thing that we called out is that we saw comparatively strong performance in Q1 in the sub $5,000 engagement ring assortment. And I think the way that we think about it is our asset light model allows us to have a broad yet curated inventory across different price points and meet demand where we see it, and that’s where we saw some of the comparatively strong demand in Q1.

Oliver, Analyst: Yeah. You’ve done a great job with loyalty customer happiness. What should we know about repeat purchases and also strategies to continue to build customer connections?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So over the last several quarters, we have driven repeat order growth year over year faster than total order growth. And that’s something that we’ve been glad to see. I think some of the drivers of that include the success that we’ve been having in fine jewelry. As we talked about during our earnings call, fine jewelry for Q1 was about 14% of our bookings in And so that was something that we shared and is illustrative of a few different things.

I think, one, the success that we’ve been having, because that 14% represented about a three fifty basis point expansion year over year. So that talks to the success that we’ve had in expanding fine jewelry as a proportion of our assortment. Also, think it illustrates the magnitude of the opportunity for those if you’re not aware, for the jewelry industry overall, it’s majority fine jewelry versus the 14% of bookings where we were at. And so I think that illustrates the opportunity to if we can grow that 14% to a much bigger percentage, that represents a significant upside opportunity, and that’s one of the drivers of how we’ve been able to drive repeat faster than total order growth.

Oliver, Analyst: Yeah, what’s next on the fine jewelry roadmap? Obviously, love fine jewelry, so what’s happening with innovation there?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, well, we definitely wanna keep you engaged with an interesting fine jewelry assortment. So I think there’s a few different pieces of that. One, it’s gonna be like for everything that we do, like product and design led. And continuing to come with distinctive designs, whether you’re talking about diamond essentials or unique proprietary collections. For example, like our Jane Goodall collection.

So that was something that we launched last year. It’s a top selling collection of ours. And really, I think that for us is really a luster of what we can do with an authentic partnership where we’re both very aligned with unique design elements. And so that’s an example of things that we’ve done to lead with design. Our sole collection from the prior year is another example of that.

And then also how we bring that collection to life and merchandise it across showrooms and e commerce is also an important part. Some of our newer showrooms, we’ve done things like Nolita, for example, is a showroom that features this as well as some of our other recent showrooms. It’s called a try on bar. So that really allows people to engage with and see the collection in more depth and just more up close and personal way of experiencing fine jewelry in a way that we think fine jewelry and showrooms can be complementary to each other.

Oliver, Analyst: Yeah. Highly interactive. That’s great. Another part, Jeff, has been really your pricing algorithm and how you think about pricing. Speak to that, how that differentiates your product, and also what does it reveal about this current competitive environment?

What price points are working best?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, so the price optimization engine is, maybe just in case you haven’t heard us talk about it before is basically a tool that allows us to take in a variety of different inputs. And that can include input costs, market conditions, seasonality, consumer demand, and really, on a dynamic basis and on a granular basis, determine what’s the right pricing to set our products at to achieve that right combination of top line growth and gross margin capture. And so you can think of it in some ways as ongoing price testing to see what’s that right combination. And I think this differentiates us in the ability to react in real time to what we’re seeing and be able to price to where we see the right opportunity. And I think this also pairs well with our asset light model.

Our asset light model, combined with the dynamic pricing, allows us to really meet demand where it is, price to where we think the opportunity is, and to do so in an agile way. And I think with respect to what we’re seeing, I think I commented earlier on some of the comparatively stronger demand that we’re seeing in the sub $5,000 engagement rings. And then just as we have done, we continue to focus on premium positioning, not being discount oriented. And I think that we are going to continue to manage and adjust to where we see the demand, and I think that same model that has served us well will continue to serve us well in environments like this.

Oliver, Analyst: Earlier we talked about this, but as you think about your guidance longer term, what key milestones do you expect to achieve? Because we should see that low teens sales growth versus what’s happening now.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, so in terms of some of the milestones and the drivers to get there, I think one is we were driving and working towards continued improvement in engagements. So that’s because we are majority engagement. That’s one area, and we are seeing good signs there. Continued uplift from our showrooms as we expand our showroom fleet, continuing to drive uplift. Because I think the way that we look at showrooms, we’re not looking at just opening a showroom, crediting sales that previously would have been e commerce to the four walls, and then saying that constitutes success.

We’re looking to drive uplift across an entire metro. And we’re continuing to see post opening uplift across our showrooms, as well as continued outperformance in fine jewelry. Growing from that 14% of bookings to something a lot bigger, I think that’s another part of the opportunity. And I think these are some of the levers that we have been focused on and where we continue to see opportunity for the year and for the longer term.

Oliver, Analyst: Gross margins, you’re very good at gross margins in general. What’s happening lately with gross margins, there have been higher costs in gold, labor and supply chain occupancy. Can you unpack some of these drivers, and what should we consider as we model the year?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So in terms of gross margin, as you pointed out, we did note in Q1 some impact from gold prices since they’re at near record high levels. And I think there’s a few things that I think make us well positioned to navigate this gross margin environment. I think one is that we have a globally diversified supply chain, and so and as well as longstanding trusted supplier relationships that really allow us to navigate a variety of different environments. And so we’ve been able to do that.

We also have an agile model, an asset light model, that allows us to pivot to where we see opportunities. And that couples with the price optimization engine that allows us to take the different input costs and say, what’s the right pricing and how should we be setting those based on what we’re seeing in the market? And so I think the combination of those allows us to navigate this environment better than most in the industry.

Oliver, Analyst: Jeff, what’s happening with gold? Do you expect that to continue to go up or down or is your base case it’ll stay where it is now?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, so I wish I had a crystal ball to allow me to exactly predict gold prices, but, you know, I say, like, we don’t know which way things will go. But I think that we’re confident we’ve navigated through different types of environments where input costs have fluctuated. And I think the agility of the supply chain, the ability to price according to what we’ve seen, really give us the ability to manage our gross margins effectively and give us confidence in our medium term target of having gross margins in that high fifties.

Oliver, Analyst: I’d love to ask you about diamond procurement. What are you seeing with pricing and scale? And you’ve been a leader at understanding lab and embracing What should people know about your latest thinking there, Lab Diamonds as well?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So we’ve been selling natural and lab alongside each other for more than a decade. So we’re one of the first to really do so at scale. And we think that our brand allows us to sell both alongside each other really well. And it’s a dimension of choice that we offer to customers.

And I think with respect to procurement, I think there’s a few different things. And this applies both to natural and lab. I think one is we have a longstanding history of trusted relationships with our suppliers. We’re a large independent player. And so I think that allows us to be a compelling partner to many of our suppliers.

And I think the coupling of the asset light model that allows us to bring in the inventory where we’re seeing the demand with our price optimization engine that allows us to price according to the conditions that we’re seeing. I think the scale, the trust, the agility, the dynamic pricing, and the data driven nature those all combine to allow us to manage the supply chain effectively and this is true across natural and lab diamonds.

Oliver, Analyst: What kinds of customers like lab relative to natural, if there’s any trends that you’ve noticed as you’ve done it for ten years, so now versus prior.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So I think that some of the things that people may be looking for when you’re purchasing a lab diamond, you know, some people like that it is a mining free alternative. So I think is something that can be interesting. Also, some customers may like the technology driven aspect, that it’s something that was created using modern technologies. And so I think those are some of the things that people come to us for for lab.

And some people like the romance of the earth created natural diamond that’s come up over long periods of time. And we want to offer that dimension of choice. Some people will come to us with a strong preference for one or the other. Some come in looking to get advice and counsel

Oliver, Analyst: regarding Do your customers have a preference more broadly or it’s mixed?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: I think there’s still a mix. There is increasing awareness of lab generally. But I think that people come in with their different preferences. It’s a very personal, very emotional driven decision and we want to be able to meet them there where they are.

Oliver, Analyst: Marketing spend was around 26% last year, but you leveraged this. What’s happening with marketing spend as a rate in dollars and also how you’re thinking of allocating it? It’s pretty dynamic, you know, when you think about return on ad spend trends.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So as you pointed out, we did leverage marketing spend as a percentage of sales last year. And that was a year ahead of our target. When we set out at the beginning of 2024, we had noted that we were hoping to drive leverage beginning in 2025. And so we’re glad to drive that leverage a year ahead of our original target in 2024 and have communicated that for this year and through to 2027 to expect to continue to drive leverage there.

And I think that there are some of the drivers that allow us to get there are, one, continuing to drive increased awareness of the Brilliant Earth brand. I think that is a helpful factor. The uplift in showrooms across these metros is accretive to customer acquisition economics. The success that we’ve been having in areas like fine jewelry allows us to really continue to engage with the customer at more and more different touch points, whether it’s self purchase, whether it’s purchase for different occasions. So that also allows us to drive more of that repeat and the success that we’ve been seeing there.

So I think those are those are some of the different different factors that we see.

Oliver, Analyst: What aspect does TikTok a big theme is TikTokification of retail that we’re constantly talking about. How do you approach that as well as virality and ways to embrace that and leverage it for your brand?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So we do have a strong social following across multiple different platforms. I think our team has been very good at driving and developing very engaging content. I think that’s amplified by viral moments. I think probably one of the most notable is that, as you may have seen, Beyonce wore a custom designed piece that we had made for her.

And so that was something that really speaks to, one, the resonance of our products and the fact that celebrities want to wear products that were designing, we should talk offline and we can figure out how to make you

Oliver, Analyst: borrow it and I can rent it from you.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Should talk immediately after this. Yeah. But I think that’s I’ll

Oliver, Analyst: sketch it for you right now. Sketch it.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Alright. Well, I’m I’m taking a mental I believe

Oliver, Analyst: in some green and some lab, but we need it to look very

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: It’s it’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. But yeah, I think that’s an example. That How does that happen?

Oliver, Analyst: That’s cool with Beyonce. Beyonce and Brilliant Earth, I didn’t think you guys were married or like within the same I everybody loves Beyonce.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah, think it speaks to how we’re increasingly becoming known as really a designer like of high jewelry and really our design capabilities. And I think it’s a beautiful product, one of a kind like she is. And I think that’s a showcase of our product design capabilities, viral moment, and something that we hope to really continue to drive and elevate the brand.

Oliver, Analyst: Okay, lots of good customization ideas for the future consumer conference here with the diamonds. Inventories grew plus 2%, sales were negative 3.5, you are careful in how you manage inventory, what are the key drivers going forward and as you think about fine jewelry, you may need more inventory in terms of the dynamic there as well as new showroom growth.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Yeah. So there are needs for incremental inventory for things like fine jewelry and showrooms. I would say a couple of things. If you’re looking at, say, a couple year period, so from the end of twenty twenty two to the most recent reported quarter, our inventory was about flat over that period. And that includes us opening more than a dozen showrooms, having success in growing fine jewelry during that period.

And so I think that maybe is a view of how we’ve been responsible and thoughtful in growing the inventory, even as we’ve been expanding in areas like fine jewelry and showrooms. And our most recent inventory turns were around in the four range. And that’s above the industry average for inventory turns. And I think that speaks to the agility, the effectiveness of our asset light model. And so I think it’s something that’s obviously important to us.

We’ve always operated in an asset light and capital efficient way. And we think we have levers to continue to do that.

Oliver, Analyst: We’d love briefly in CapEx too. What areas are big priorities and how do you model that? What’s your framework for CapEx on a longer term basis as well?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: On CapEx, one of the areas of investment there has been our showrooms and expanding the showroom fleet. And we’ve been doing so while diversifying different formats, including ground level retail centers, as well as clustering in different locations, multiple different showrooms in a metro. And so that’s an area of investment. As you can see from our recent CapEx trends, you think our CapEx as a percentage of sales has been in the low single digits over the last few years. We don’t have specific guidance out there for longer term CapEx specific numbers.

But I think we’ll continue to allocate our CapEx in an efficient way to drive strong returns with our investments.

Oliver, Analyst: Jeff, we’re asking every C suite this. How would you rate the health of the consumer on a scale of one to 10?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Say a seven.

Oliver, Analyst: And what was, how has it been trending? If I had asked you this a few quarters ago, what was it previously?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: I think you actually asked this same question last year when I was on stage and I think I said also a seven if memory serves me It’s consistent.

Oliver, Analyst: Okay, and if you had to bet on one consumer behavior shift that will define the next five years, what have you spotted?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: I think I may take a couple. I would say one is authenticity. It’s really consumers are millennials and Gen Zs, which make up a lot of our consumer base, are really authentic in terms of how they’re looking to resonate and connect with their brands. And I think they’re able to really sniff out what’s truly authentic. And we’ve had a consistent mission from our founding.

And I think that connects with a lot of our consumers. And I think the other is people looking to shop how they want, when they want, where they want. And I think our seamless omnichannel model allows us to connect with customers the manner that they’re looking to. And so I think that’s probably a couple of trends.

Oliver, Analyst: What in your fine jewelry line, what are the hottest products that we should all go and look at and buy or save money to buy?

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: So the Jane collection is definitely one that, you know, has been a good seller for us And I think others, like Diamond Essentials, we’ve had strong performance, as well as areas like our Signature and Heart collections. But I think the assortment, there are really a lot of compelling and distinctive designs.

Oliver, Analyst: So I did it. It’s like two leopards kissing, that’s what we can

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: do. It’s too bad this isn’t a video webcast.

Oliver, Analyst: And voting, of course, voting for II. So, Jeff, it’s been a pleasure, Brilliant Earth is clearly has a lot of growth opportunity and you’ve always been differentiated in your approach to to an evolving sector and understanding this this new customer as well as embracing a whole ecosystem of being digitally native, digital at first, but a physical experience with lots of product innovation. Thanks for your time.

Jeff Kuo, CFO, Brilliant Earth: Thanks Oliver, great to be here.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.