Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
Company Overview
We are one of the world’s leading online marketplaces for connecting design lovers with many of the best sellers and makers of vintage, antique, and contemporary furniture, home décor, jewelry, watches, art, and fashion. We believe we are a leading online marketplace for these luxury design items based on the aggregate number of listings on our online marketplace and our Gross Merchandise Value (“GMV”). Our sellers, who undergo an evaluation by our in-house experts to vet the integrity of their listings, in-depth marketing content, and custom-built technology platform create trust in our brand and facilitate high-consideration purchases of luxury design items online. By disrupting the way these items are bought and sold, we are both expanding access to, and growing the market for, luxury design.
1stDibs began over two decades ago with the vision of bringing the magic of the Paris flea market online by creating a listings site for top vintage and antique furniture sellers. The quality of our initial seller base enabled us to build a reputation in the design industry as a trusted source for unique luxury design. Since then, we have strengthened our brand as well as deepened and broadened our seller relationships. We launched our e-commerce platform in 2013 and transitioned to a full e-commerce marketplace model in 2016. We had 7.0 million users and approximately 1.8 million listings as of December 31, 2024, compared to 6.3 million users and approximately 1.7 million listings as of December 31, 2023. Users represent non-seller visitors who register on our website and include both buyers and prospective buyers identified by a unique email address.
Our online marketplace seller stock value, the sum of the stock value of all available products listed on our online marketplace, was consistent year over year and exceeded $10.0 billion as of both December 31, 2024 and 2023. An individual listing’s stock value is calculated as the item’s current price multiplied by its quantity available for sale. As of December 31, 2024, we had approximately 5,900 unique sellers, compared to approximately 7,800 unique sellers as of December 31, 2023. In 2024, we shifted our seller acquisition strategy and monetization approach to concentrate on fewer, but more highly engaged sellers. We discontinued the pricing option with no monthly subscription fees and higher commission rates during the year which contributed to the seller churn.
We provide our sellers, the vast majority of which are small businesses, access to a global community of buyers and a platform to facilitate e-commerce at scale. Our sellers use our platform to manage their inventory, build their digital marketing presence, and communicate and negotiate prices directly with buyers. We provide our buyers a trusted purchase experience with our user-friendly interface, dedicated specialist support, and our 1stDibs Promise, our comprehensive buyer protection program outlined in-depth below. The uniqueness, diversity, and high quality of the items on our online marketplace, together with an active marketing effort, have produced a large global base of design-loving buyers. We operate an asset-light business model which allows us to scale in a capital efficient manner. While we enable shipping and fulfillment logistics, we do not take physical possession of the items sold on our online marketplace.
During the year ended December 31, 2024, we had approximately 64,300 active buyers, compared to approximately 61,000 in the year ended December 31, 2023, who are buyers who have made at least one purchase through our online marketplace during the 12 months ended on the last day of the period presented, net of cancellations (“Active Buyers”).
We had an on-platform average order value (“AOV”) of approximately $2,500 and $2,600 in the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. We had a median order value (“MOV”) of approximately $1,200 in both the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. We do not focus on AOV or MOV as key metrics in evaluating our business given our priority to make unique, high-end design items available across various price points through our online marketplace. The percentage of Active Buyers who make more than one purchase in any given year has been generally consistent from year to year and comprised approximately 30% of total Active Buyers in each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. Highly experienced interior designers, whom we refer to as Trade Buyers, are frequent, repeat purchasers on our online marketplace and accounted for 31% of our on-platform GMV in each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Through our Trade 1st program, we offer these Trade Buyers, who comprise a subset of our buyers, additional benefits such as trade-only personalized support, exclusive trade pricing, and buyer incentives for which members do not pay any fees to participate in this program.
We are driving consumer demand for luxury design items online by providing global access to a traditionally fragmented, local, and offline market. As sellers and buyers of luxury design gain experience transacting online, we believe our combination of technology, service, brand positions and demand generation enable us to grow this market by providing sellers and buyers the tools and access they need.
We believe our proprietary technology platform enables a purchase funnel that is more robust and interactive than the conventional e-commerce experience. The discovery and transaction process in our industry is more complex than in most e-commerce categories. Specifically, transacting in unique luxury design requires the ability for sellers and buyers to exchange
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messages, negotiate prices, arrange customized shipping support, and pay swiftly and securely through various payment methods. Our platform turns this complex order flow into an easy-to-use process and converts the valuable data we collect from buyers’ browsing and purchase activity into actionable insights for both sellers and buyers. Our platform is scalable, which we believe enables us to grow over time. We empower buyers to engage directly with sellers on our platform throughout all stages of a transaction. Our technology and data represent the cumulative experience of over 20 years of business activity, and we believe are extremely difficult to replicate.
Our Market Opportunity
We connect sellers and buyers in what has historically been a fragmented and highly localized global market for unique luxury design items. This market has generally operated offline, functioning mostly through independent galleries, boutiques, and auction houses, thereby restricting a seller’s potential buyer audience and limiting a buyer’s product selection. These offline operations create barriers to both new supply and new demand, limiting the market’s overall growth potential.
We created a single online marketplace that consolidates previously fragmented sellers and buyers globally. We believe our online marketplace, powered by our technology platform, has transformed almost all dimensions of the luxury design buying experience by increasing accessibility and enhancing selection and convenience.
Expanding the Luxury Goods Market
While the global luxury design market is already large, we believe that as a digital disruptor we have the potential to further expand the overall size of our market. We believe we are growing the market by: (1) increasing the number of digital global luxury design sellers by enabling them to transact on a global online marketplace that materially expands their potential customer base; and (2) growing the luxury design buyer base by introducing our online audience to unique products previously only accessible via in-person galleries, boutiques, and auction houses. We have sold items on our online marketplace ranging from less than $100 to over $1 million, demonstrating that high-end luxury design items are attainable and within reach of the expanding buyer audience we are attracting to the market.
Increasing Online Penetration
One of the most significant trends driving online penetration in the luxury goods market is an increasingly digitally native customer base. We hosted approximately 1.8 million listings as of December 31, 2024, compared to approximately 1.7 million listings as of December 31, 2023. Additionally, we had 7.0 million users as of December 31, 2024, compared to 6.3 million users as of December 31, 2023.
The 1stDibs Marketplace
Trust
Trust is at the core of the online marketplace that we have built over two decades of operating history. Trust in our online marketplace is critical to facilitating online transactions of purchases with high price points. For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, approximately 3% and 5% of orders had an item value of $100,000 or more, respectively. Our seller onboarding process which includes our in-house experts evaluating the integrity of sellers’ listings inspires buyer confidence in our sellers and in the quality of the luxury design items sold on 1stDibs. Extensive fraud protection and secure payment solutions further establish the trust sellers and buyers have in our online marketplace. We believe the ability for buyers to interact and negotiate prices directly with sellers increases both on-platform conversion and buyer retention rate. Our 1stDibs Promise gives our buyers peace of mind with every purchase by providing the following features and commitments:
• a Money-Back Guarantee if a purchased item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, a buyer can contact us within 7 days, or longer for Trade Buyers, for a full refund.
• a community of sellers from around the world to ensure high-quality products;
• confidence at checkout with multiple secure payment options and a comprehensive fraud protection and prevention program;
• customer service support from dedicated specialists to answer questions, assist with orders, and stand ready to resolve any transaction or technical issues throughout the buying process;
• worry-free cancellations within 24 hours;
• a Price-Match Guarantee to ensure that if a buyer finds a 1stDibs seller that has the same item for a lower price elsewhere, 1stDibs will match it; and
• enablement of a seamless and transparent global end-to-end shipping, logistics and delivery experience focused on security and a high level of care.
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Value Proposition to Sellers
• Demand Generation: As of December 31, 2024, we provided sellers access to a global base of approximately 7.0 million users in over 190 countries, who would otherwise largely be inaccessible in an offline market. Our Active Buyers had 81 and 86 sessions and viewed 266 and 218 product pages, on average, during the years ended December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively. We built 1stDibs to empower and inspire confidence in our sellers by using our proprietary technology to digitize and transform their businesses. We believe that creating a digital presence and enabling access to buyers across the globe allows us to expand the addressable market for luxury sellers. Expanding a seller’s ability to share their story across various forms of media, including text, photographs, and videos, significantly increases buyer engagement and conversion. Once sellers are added to our online catalog, we help build sellers’ online presence through editorial and social placements, including our online magazine Introspective , which offers sellers additional avenues through which to advertise online.
• Digital Presence: We help sellers establish a digital presence on our online marketplace. Sellers can customize their listings on 1stDibs by uploading biographies, item descriptions, photos, videos, and content to distinguish themselves. This allows sellers to provide nuanced details about each piece, show scale and curate their inventory to feature specific items. Sellers can make changes at their discretion at any time. This information provides more context about our sellers’ listings and builds trust with our buyer community. As sellers increase sales they are potentially more able to tap into our platform benefits, such as partner managers, elevated listing visibility, and paid media coverage.
• Data Analytics: Our platform provides us with rich data throughout the entire user journey. This data allows sellers to offer more relevant products and optimize their pricing strategies, which enables them to efficiently scale their businesses. We provide sellers with a comprehensive suite of seller tools, education, and analytics, including reporting, tracking, and inside perspectives on pricing based on the historical sales of similar items. Sellers also benefit from our proprietary algorithms and targeting technologies to connect with both Consumer and Trade Buyers.
• Listing & Pricing: We empower sellers with tools useful for them to control item pricing and item visibility on our online marketplace. Sellers can leverage our proprietary classification methodologies and structured data to create listings tailored to their inventory. We have created a pricing index, “1stDibs Insider,” which provides pricing guidance to our sellers based on historical pricing trends. By providing historical pricing data for similar items that have recently sold, we believe this helps sellers price items more competitively. We have also invested in artificial intelligence and machine learning to help our sellers with pricing guidance. On our platform, sellers can set item pricing based on user type (Consumer vs. Trade) or a specific user (Private Listing). We also provide sellers purchase format flexibility beyond the standard list price model. Sellers can choose to list items without a price using the “Price Upon Request” purchasing format. Furthermore, sellers can review, accept, or counter-offer negotiation requests, or create “Private Offers” for prospective buyers and “Automated Private Offers” (preset and triggered by buyer behavior).
• Operational Efficiency: Our sellers can efficiently scale their businesses without the friction associated with in-person sales and multiple third-party platforms. The ability to offer a convenient, seamless transaction experience, including on-platform communications and a wide range of payment solutions, such as credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Automated Clearing House (“ACH”), and wire transfer further drives buyer conversion. We maximize Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) to help buyers find items and connect with our sellers, allowing them to purchase products tailored to their tastes and preferences with ease. We have assembled a robust network of logistics providers to help sellers fulfill orders at a lower cost, giving them an advantage relative to conventional offline sales and allowing them to focus more time on what they do best: curating and selling unique luxury design items.
Value Proposition to Buyers
We provide buyers with tools to communicate directly with sellers, receive quick responses, negotiate prices, and access multiple payment methods for a convenient checkout experience. We curate our buyers’ experience to target their specific tastes and preferences and provide them with design inspiration through our expertly merchandised collections and our online editorial publications. Our platform calculates a “salability” score for items using machine learning and gives items with a higher likelihood of selling increased priority in buyers’ search and browse sort order. Additionally, our platform offers pricing insights to show buyers historical pricing data for similar items that have recently sold which can increase buyer confidence and help buyers with decision-making and in negotiations. Our customized Private Client and Trade Service teams provide high-touch human support for Consumer and Trade Buyers. Our buyer services include:
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• Largest Selection of Unique Luxury Design Items: We offer one of the largest online selections of luxury design items from leading sellers and makers of vintage, antique, and contemporary furniture, home décor, jewelry, watches, art, and fashion. We believe our growing collection of approximately 1.8 million luxury design items is unmatched and makes us the premier destination for design lovers and enthusiasts. Luxury design tends to retain value over time as a result of their scarcity and durability. We aggregate supply from a large number of globally distributed sellers, offering buyers an online destination to access a variety of luxury products across the globe. As of December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, we had approximately 45% and 44% of our listings located outside the United States, respectively. The percentage of our unique sellers based outside of the United States was 53% and 55% as of December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively.
• Buyer-Seller Communication : Given the unique inventory available on our online marketplace and the relatively high price points, buyers are likely to have questions regarding origin and item attributes. We have developed tools to facilitate communication between sellers and buyers and have added incentives for sellers to respond quickly. Negotiation is a common purchase format in our verticals; Buyers can negotiate via the “Make Offer” experience, and also receive a personalized “Private Offer” after initiating a conversation with a seller or “favoriting” an item.
• Mobile: During the year ended December 31, 2024, the majority of user sessions came to our online marketplace via a mobile device, either by browsing our mobile site or by using our highly rated mobile app. The bulk of our users are browsing via our mobile site. Our mobile app users take advantage of app-specific features, personalized notifications, and the ability to “see” items in their homes via our augmented reality feature.
• Personalization: We collect rich data around our users’ preferences, site engagement, item and seller attributes, buyers’ browsing patterns and purchase behaviors. As a result, we are able to curate our buyers’ experience to target their specific tastes and preferences. We use this data to personalize our marketing efforts and listing suggestions. These include alerts when new items from followed creators are listed, item recommendations, discovery feeds, and highly contextual emails. This personalization improves user engagement. We provide high-touch human support for Consumer and Trade Buyers through our customized Private Client and Trade teams, which further enhances the buying process.
• Curated Assortment: We are a highly sought after destination for unique, high-quality luxury design items. We provide buyers with design inspiration through our expertly merchandised collections and our online editorial publication Introspective .
• Quality of Experience: Unlike conventional offline alternatives, we offer our buyers convenient 24/7 access to approximately 1.8 million listings. Multiple possible payment methods offer our buyers a convenient checkout experience compared to traditional offline retail channels by removing complexity and introducing transparency to the purchasing process. We allow buyers to transact securely from their homes, bypassing the complicated and time-intensive process, and often opaque pricing associated with traditional offline channels. Our valuable buyer base also appreciates the privacy and anonymity associated with purchasing products online through our marketplace. Our Price-Match Guarantee further increases purchasing confidence, as buyers are assured they will always transact at the lowest price. In addition, we provide additional benefits to Trade Buyers, including trade exclusive pricing, buyer incentives, priority support, sourcing expertise, and enhanced buyer protection, among others through our Trade 1st program. Our client service associates help ensure the satisfaction of sellers and buyers by addressing and assisting in the resolution of questions relating to orders, deliveries, returns, and disputes. For certain individual Consumers or Trade Buyers, respectively, we provide support at the individual level through our Private Client and Trade Services to provide a seamless buying process.
Our Growth Strategies
Expand Our Buyer Base
We are focused on continuing to grow our buyer base and believe we are still in the early stages of introducing a unique and growing supply of luxury design items to a much broader audience. Of our 7.0 million users as of December 31, 2024, we estimate based on the available information provided by our users that approximately 64% are U.S.-based and 36% are international, which represents approximately 1% penetration of the U.S. population and less than 1% of the international population. As of December 31, 2023, we estimated that approximately 66% of our 6.3 million users were U.S.-based and 34% were international. Approximately 20% of our buyers are located internationally as of both December 31, 2024 and 2023.
To date, we have primarily grown our current buyer base organically through word-of-mouth, mentions in the press, and earned media, as well as paid media, promotions, and third party partnerships. We believe we can significantly increase our buyer base by utilizing targeted, data-driven marketing efforts that generate meaningful returns. We believe we can continue to
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expand our buyer audience across a wide swath of buyer demographics including income, geography, and age, as well as level of design experience and design preference.
Grow Our Marketplace Supply
We intend to further increase the supply on our online marketplace by offering a captivating value proposition and enhanced item listing tools, adding new inventory from existing sellers, and growing the range of sellers from whom we source. We continue to enhance our value proposition for sellers by providing broad and growing access to a global base of design-minded buyers and a platform with a comprehensive suite of tools that help our sellers successfully transact and scale their business. This value proposition drives sellers to our online marketplace, deepens the breadth of our inventory, and helps attract new buyers.
We may also choose to expand our network of sellers inorganically, either through acquisitions of, or partnerships with, companies or design brands.
Investment in Technology and Innovation
We have made, and will continue to make, strategic investments in our platform to drive seller success through new tools, convert users to buyers, grow our long-term revenue and operating results, drive technological innovation, and enhance the overall experience of our online marketplace. As we continue to scale, we plan to strategically invest in innovation, including continued investment in machine learning and artificial intelligence, to address the needs of our sellers and buyers and drive efficiencies in our business, localize our platform, and may enter new verticals and geographies. Overall, investments in our platform are focused on maximizing traffic, increasing conversion rate, and improving the overall efficiency of our operations.
Marketing
We acquire new buyers and drive traffic to our online marketplace through a mix of direct response marketing channels, with an emphasis on digital and a focus is on efficient growth. We derive a relatively low percentage of our traffic and orders from paid media. During the year ended December 31, 2024, we estimate that approximately 69% of new user sessions came from non-paid channels, including organic search, direct web, direct app, organic social, email, and referral compared to 76% during the year ended December 31, 2023.
We utilize user data and rigorous A/B testing to improve the user experience, and continuously optimize the performance of our marketing campaigns and channels. We use highly targeted promotional incentives, where appropriate, to profitably acquire and retain buyers. We focus on engaging and retaining our users with personalized experiences and elevated storytelling. We understand user preferences from their discovery and purchase history, and use that data to recommend products that are most likely to drive engagement, conversion, and repeat purchasing. We offer Private Client services to our most engaged consumers; and cultivate interior designer engagement and retention through the Trade 1st program. We communicate with our buyers primarily through email, site, text, mobile push notifications, print catalogs, and organic social.
We acquire new sellers through a combination of inbound applicants who primarily find us by word of mouth from other sellers, as well as focused lead sourcing. We review all applications from these efforts, tier them according to desirability based on their inventory quality and “salability” onsite, and then invite the approved sellers to join our online marketplace.
Pursue New Product Verticals and Diversification Opportunities
We have demonstrated our ability to successfully grow and diversify beyond our original offering of vintage furniture, as exemplified by our proven track record of expanding both across verticals, such as art, jewelry, and fashion, and within verticals, such as the expansion from vintage and antique furniture to include new and custom furniture. Antique and vintage furniture comprised less than 50% of our on-platform GMV in the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. We expect antique and vintage furniture to account for less than 50% of on-platform GMV for the foreseeable future. Adding verticals has several benefits, including increasing our addressable market, the number of sellers and buyers, purchase frequency, and offering our buyers a wider supply of inventory while strengthening our brand as a preeminent online destination for luxury design items. We intend to continue to evaluate such diversification opportunities as part of our overall growth strategy. Our platform infrastructure is designed to scale with growth and diversification in mind.
Expand Internationally
During the year ended December 31, 2024, the vast majority of our buyers were located in the United States and other English-speaking countries. As of December 31, 2024, 45% of the supply on our online marketplace comes from outside the United States, while only 20% of buyers are located internationally. We believe that this presents a large international expansion opportunity. Our website traffic also indicates strong international presence and opportunities for conversion, with approximately 44% of current traffic coming from outside the United States. We had 53% and 55% of unique sellers and 45% and 44% of the supply on our online marketplace come from outside the United States in the years ended December 31, 2024,
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and 2023, respectively. On-platform GMV from buyers in non-U.S. markets constituted 18% and 17% in the years ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively. We believe there is an opportunity to grow our GMV from non-U.S. markets, and may also expand internationally through acquisitions.
Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2024, we had 284 full-time employees, including 104 in technology development, 78 in sales and marketing, 38 in general and administrative, and 64 in operations. The 20% increase in full-time employees from December 31, 2023 is primarily due to an acquisition of a Lithuanian technology support company that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
Our human capital resources objective is to ensure that we have the best possible team to reach our business goals, and that the team has a positive employee experience. We do this through striving to attract and hire the best talent and developing our team in ways that contribute to their personal and business growth. We regularly receive input from our team members through employee surveys, feedback interviews, and events to gauge employee engagement and identify areas of focus.
Our Technology and Data
Technology powers all aspects of our business. Our proprietary services-based architecture is the foundation of our platform. It is designed to connect sellers and buyers worldwide, enabling online transactions of unique products by removing purchase friction. We leverage appropriate technologies to ensure security, performance, and scalability. Key features of our technology platform include:
• Services-based Architecture : Allows us to scale individual parts of the platform independently from others, increasing engineering efficiency. It also facilitates using different programming languages appropriate for specific tasks, including python for machine learning, java for big data jobs, and node for front end integrations.
• Proprietary Database : We created an extensive digital catalog in luxury design with associated metadata that is used to simplify the buyer experience in an ordinarily complex purchase process. This database includes taxonomies, structured metadata, an expansive catalog of luxury brands and designers, and an extensive library of luxury design items, product attributes, and pricing data. Our highly sophisticated, purpose-built technology stack facilitates complex, multi-step online transactions and is extremely difficult to replicate. Technology powers all aspects of our business, including our complex single-SKU and multi-SKU order management system.
• Big Data : We leverage browsing history on our platform, followed searches, “favorited” items, and previous purchases to generate personalized emails and on-site recommendations. This data provides us the ability to predict the relative likelihood of an item selling, as compared with other items, based upon price point and the quality of the listing, images, and shipping quotes. We leverage this data, including user behaviors, sales trends, and seller behaviors, to improve the effectiveness of our buyer targeting and conversion efforts, and increase supply growth from existing and prospective sellers.
• Scalable Page Creation : We utilize unstructured on-platform search query data to create new indexable pages automatically to increase our long-tail organic search traffic and enable broader Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (“SEM”) coverage.
• System Security and Business Continuity : Our infrastructure has been designed to adhere to industry best practices for secure storage and management of all sensitive data, including encryption (for data at rest as well as in transit), access logging, and internal change controls. Physical and logical access controls are in place, and personally identifiable information is obfuscated. Utilize third-party servers across multiple availability zones with data securely backed up in real time across multiple regions.
As our online marketplace grows, our data becomes increasingly valuable. This data advantage allows us to develop business processes to optimize our operations, including marketplace supply, merchandising, authentication, pricing, marketing, and servicing. We collect and share data from across the platform to improve seller tactics and help them make informed decisions about sourcing, pricing, and selling products on our online marketplace. We use internal and external data to target, acquire, and retain qualified buyers through performance-based, data-driven marketing campaigns.
Data Security and Protection
We are committed to the security of the sellers and buyers who transact on our marketplace. We collect and store certain personally identifiable information provided by our sellers and buyers and other third parties with whom we transact, such as names, email addresses, and the details of transactions. We do not directly collect, transmit, and store personal financial information such as credit card data and other payment information and rely on third-party payment processors who provide these services on our behalf. The collection, transmission, and storage of such information is subject to stringent legal and regulatory obligations. Some of our third-party service providers, such as identity verification and payment processing
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providers, also regularly have access to seller and buyer data. We undertake administrative and technical measures to protect our systems and the consumer data those systems process and store. We have developed policies and procedures designed to manage data security risks, including employment of technical security defenses and continual monitoring of servers and systems. Further, as part of our efforts to protect sensitive information, we rely on a variety of security measures, including encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties. We also use third parties to assist in our security practices and prevent and detect fraud. We intend to continue to invest in efforts associated with the detection and prevention of security breaches and any security-related incidents.
Segment and Geographic Information
We have one operating and reportable segment. See Note 2 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion of our operating and reportable segment.
Regulatory
Our business is subject to a growing number of local, national, and international laws and regulations, which are applicable to any company conducting business on the internet and in the resale market. These laws are often complex, unclear, sometimes contradict other laws, and are frequently changing. Compliance is costly and can require changes to our business practices and significant amounts of management time and focus.
Laws may be interpreted and enforced in different ways in various locations around the world, posing a significant challenge to our global business. These include laws governing areas such as personal privacy and data security, consumer protection, payment processing, sales and other taxes, and unfair and deceptive trade practices, among other areas. Related laws may govern the manner in which we store or transfer sensitive information, or impose obligations on us in the event of a security breach or inadvertent disclosure of such information. International jurisdictions impose different, and sometimes more stringent, consumer and privacy protections.
We list luxury design items from numerous sellers located throughout the United States and from over 75 countries. As such, we need to comply with various laws and regulations associated with doing business outside of the United States, including regarding the handling of antique and vintage items and licensing requirements of antique and vintage dealers, export control laws, economic and trade sanctions, anti-money laundering laws, and anti-corruption laws. Further, various countries regulate the import of certain technology and have enacted or could enact laws that limit our ability to provide sellers and buyers access to our platform or could limit our sellers’ and buyers’ ability to access or use our services in those countries.
Although we take precautions to prevent violations of these laws, our exposure for violating these laws increases as our international presence expands and as we increase sales and operations in foreign jurisdictions. See Part I, Item IA, “Risk Factors—Regulatory, Compliance, and Legal Risks.”
New legislation or regulation or changes thereof due to federal elections, the application of laws from jurisdictions whose laws do not currently apply to our business, or the application of existing laws and regulations to the internet and e-commerce generally could result in significant additional compliance costs and responsibilities for our business.
Competition
We compete with a broad range of sellers of new and pre-owned luxury design items, including traditional brick-and-mortar entities, such as department stores, branded luxury goods stores, and specialty retailers, and entities providing access to more unique luxury goods, such as galleries, boutiques, and auction houses. We also compete with the online offerings of these traditional retail entities, as well as online marketplaces that may offer the same or similar goods and services that we offer.
We believe that we compete effectively based on the volume, quality, and assortment of unique luxury design items available on our online marketplace, our brand awareness and history built on trust and authenticity, the experience and value proposition we offer to sellers and buyers, and the global scale of our online marketplace, including the effectiveness of our mobile app.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, contractual protections, and other practices to protect our brand, proprietary information, technologies and processes. We primarily rely on copyright, trademark, trade secrets, confidentiality agreements, and domain name registration in the United States and abroad to protect our brand, proprietary information, proprietary technologies and proprietary processes, including the algorithms we use throughout our business. Our principal trademark assets include the registered trademark “1stDibs” and our logos and taglines. Our trademarks are valuable assets that support our brand and consumers’ perception of our services and merchandise. We also hold the rights to the “1stDibs.com” Internet domain name and various related domain names, which are subject to Internet regulatory bodies and trademark and other related laws of each applicable jurisdiction. Although we do not currently have any issued patents, we may pursue patent protection for aspects of our technology in the future. We seek to protect our proprietary information, in part, by entering into
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confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with our employees and independent contractors. Our employees are also subject to invention assignment agreements. See “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Intellectual Property.”
Website Access to Company’s Reports
Our website address is www.1stdibs.com, and our investor relations website is www.investors.1stdibs.com. Copies of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are available free of charge on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings. The SEC website address is www.sec.gov.
Disclosure Information
We use our investor relations website to announce material nonpublic information to the public including filings with the SEC, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD of the Exchange Act.
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