Revolve Group, Inc. 10-K

Item 1A. RISK FACTORS Investing in our Class A common stock involves certain risks. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, in addition to the other information contained in this report, including the section of this report captioned “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes. If any of the events described in the following risk factors or the risks described elsewhere in this report occurs, our business, operating results and financial condition could be seriously harmed. This report also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of factors that are described below and elsewhere in this report. Our Risk Factors are not guarantees that no such conditions exist as of the date of this report and should not be interpreted as an affirmative statement that such risks or conditions have not materialized, in whole or in part. Risks Related to Our Business and Industry If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March 2020, we were growing rapidly; however, with the onset of COVID-19 pandemic and the related social distancing and stay-at-home orders around the world, demand for our products was materially negatively impacted. While our business performance has improved with an increase in demand for our products in recent periods, this trend may not continue, consumer demand may decline again and we may not be able to sustain the current patterns and levels. To effectively manage future growth, we must continue to implement our operational plans and strategies, improve our business processes, improve and expand our infrastructure of people and information systems, and expand, train and manage our employee base. To support future growth, we must integrate, develop and motivate a large number of new employees while maintaining our corporate culture. We face significant competition for personnel. Our ability to sustain our growth may be complicated by the actions we have taken and their effect on service providers who may seek opportunities with other companies. To attract top talent, we offer, and expect to continue to offer, competitive compensation and benefits packages before we can validate the productivity of new employees. We may also elect to increase compensation levels to remain competitive in attracting and retaining talented employees. We may not be able to hire new employees quickly enough to meet our needs. If we fail to effectively manage our hiring needs or successfully integrate new hires, our operational efficiency, our ability to fulfill 15 orders and provide customer service, our ability to meet forecasts and our employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. We are also required to manage numerous relationships with various suppliers, vendors and other third parties. Changes in our operations, vendor base, fulfillment center, information technology systems or internal controls and procedures may not be adequate to support our operations. If we are unable to manage the return to growth of our organization effectively, our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected. The COVID-19 pandemic has materially adversely affected, and may continue to adversely affect, our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects. The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and may continue to have, severe negative repercussions across local, state and national economies, financial markets and our industry. Our employees, suppliers and customers are located in areas affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has subjected us to many risks, including the impact from: • business restrictions and social distancing mandates, which have caused us to adjust how we operate our business; • the cancellation of large, in-person brand marketing events, including the #REVOLVEfestival, which have historically driven customer acquisition and demand for our merchandise, and the relatively increased expense and lower return from hosting smaller in-person events; • changes in consumer behavior, confidence and discretionary spending; • increased reliance on remote work arrangements; • supply chain disruptions; • increase in the cost of goods due to an increase in the cost of materials as well as an increase in the cost of freight on inbound shipments due to various supply chain challenges across the industry and world; • positive COVID-19 cases at our facilities; and • a global slowdown and profound economic uncertainty. In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of our corporate employees continue to work remotely. It is possible that continued widespread remote work arrangements may have a negative impact on our operations, the execution of our business plans, the productivity and availability of key personnel and other employees necessary to conduct our business, and on third -party service providers who perform critical services for us, or otherwise cause operational failures due to changes in our normal business practices necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and related governmental actions. If a natural disaster, power outage, connectivity issue, or other event occurred that impacted our employees’ ability to work remotely, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The increase in remote working may also result in privacy, data security, and fraud risks, and our understanding of applicable legal and regulatory requirements, as well as the latest guidance from regulatory authorities in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, may be subject to legal or regulatory challenge, particularly as regulatory guidance evolves in response to future developments. The ultimate scope and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the global economy and our industry are difficult to predict. There can be no assurances that the actions we have already taken or will take in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will prevent or mitigate any associated risks or repercussions. The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration, spread and severity of the pandemic, the availability, effectiveness and uptake of vaccines for COVID-19, the emergence of new variants of COVID-19 and whether existing vaccines are effective over the long term and with respect to such variants, the actions to contain the disease or mitigate its impact, and the duration, timing and severity of the impact on customer behavior, including any recession resulting from the pandemic, all of which are unpredictable. An extended period of economic disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic would have a 16 material negative impact on our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects. The COVID-19 pandemic may also intensify the risks described in the other risk factors disclosed in this report. Our business depends on our ability to maintain a strong community of brands, engaged customers and influencers. We may not be able to maintain and enhance our existing brand community if we receive customer complaints, negative publicity or otherwise fail to live up to consumers’ expectations, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and growth prospects. Over the course of 2021, we offered over 850 emerging and established brands through REVOLVE, including 30 brands developed and owned by us, which we refer to as owned brands, and almost 400 brands through FWRD. Our ability to identify new brands and maintain and enhance our relationships with our existing brands is critical to expanding our base of customers and retaining our existing customers. Third-party brands, particularly in the luxury sector, are increasingly limiting wholesale distribution, shifting to selling directly to the consumer. Furthermore, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ecosystem of emerging and established brands is unpredictable. If we are unable to maintain an assortment of brands and styles that resonates with our customer, our operating results and brand could be negatively impacted. A significant portion of our customers’ experience depends on third parties outside of our control, including vendors, suppliers and logistics providers such as UPS, FedEx and DHL. If these third parties do not meet our or our customers’ expectations, our business may suffer irreparable damage. If these third parties increase their rates or add incremental surcharges, our costs may increase which could have a material adverse impact on our financial results. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and other events have negatively impacted the global supply chain. If our third-party service providers are negatively impacted and they are not able to meet our or our customers’ expectations or if rates increase, our operating results and our brand may be negatively impacted. In addition, maintaining and enhancing relationships with third-party brands may require us to make substantial investments and these investments may not be successful. Also, if we fail to promote and maintain our brands, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brands may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend largely on our ability to provide high quality products to our customers and a reliable, trustworthy and profitable sales channel to our vendors, which we may not do successfully. Customer complaints or negative publicity about our sites, products, product delivery times, customer data handling and security practices, customer support or other actions taken by us, especially on blogs, social media websites and our sites, could rapidly and severely diminish consumer use of our sites and consumer and supplier confidence in us and result in harm to our brands. We believe that much of the growth in our customer base to date has originated from social media and our influencer-driven marketing strategy. As a result of COVID-19-related travel restrictions and social distancing measures, our ability to engage with consumers through activations such as #REVOLVEfestival, #REVOLVEaroundtheworld and other large scale in-person activities that we have used to acquire customers and drive sales were significantly reduced in 2020 and certain periods during 2021. With recent easing of restrictions, we have been able to host in-person events with reduced attendance capacity such as The REVOLVE Gallery and the Dundas Fashion Show. However, these reduced capacity events may be less impactful and our ability to continue to conduct these in-person events is uncertain. If our shifts in marketing to address these restrictions and changes in consumer behavior and preferences are not effective, our operating results will be adversely affected. Over the long term, if we are not able to develop and maintain positive relationships with our large network influencers, our ability to promote and maintain awareness of our sites and brands and leverage social media platforms to drive visits to our sites may be adversely affected. Use of social media and influencers may materially and adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties. We use third-party social media platforms as, among other things, marketing tools. For example, we maintain Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter accounts. We also maintain relationships with thousands of social media influencers and engage in sponsorship initiatives. As existing eCommerce and social media platforms continue to rapidly evolve and new platforms develop, and as customer behavior changes as a result of the 17 COVID-19 pandemic, we must continue to maintain a presence on these platforms and establish presences on new or emerging popular social media platforms. If we are unable to cost-effectively use social media platforms as marketing tools or if the social media platforms we use change their policies or algorithms, we may not be able to fully optimize such platforms, and our ability to maintain and acquire customers and our financial condition may suffer. Furthermore, as laws and regulations and public opinion rapidly evolve to govern the use of social media platforms, our ability to use certain platforms as marketing tools may become limited or restricted, which could adversely impact our business and operating results. The failure by us, our employees, our network of social media influencers, our sponsors or third parties acting at our direction to abide by applicable laws and regulations in the use of social media platforms or otherwise could subject us to regulatory investigations, class action lawsuits, liability, fines or other penalties and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, an increase in the use of social media for product promotion and marketing may cause an increase in the burden on us to monitor compliance of such materials and increase the risk that such materials could contain problematic product or marketing claims in violation of applicable regulations. For example, in some cases, the FTC has sought enforcement action where an endorsement has failed to clearly and conspicuously disclose a financial relationship or material connection between an influencer and an advertiser. We do not prescribe what our influencers post and if we were held responsible for the content of their posts or their actions, we could be fined or forced to alter our practices, which could have an adverse impact on our business. Negative commentary regarding us, our products or influencers and other third parties who are affiliated with us may also be posted on social media platforms and may be adverse to our reputation or business. Influencers with whom we maintain relationships could engage in behavior or use their platforms to communicate directly with our customers in a manner that reflects poorly on our brand and may be attributed to us or otherwise adversely affect us. It is not possible to prevent such behavior and the precautions we take to detect this activity may not be effective in all cases. Our target consumers often value readily available information and often act on such information without further investigation and without regard to its accuracy. The harm may be immediate, without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction. Failure to continue to obtain or maintain high-quality endorsers of our products could harm our business. We establish relationships with both celebrity endorsers and design, celebrity and brand collaborators to develop, evaluate and promote our products as well as strengthen our brand. In a competitive environment, the costs associated with establishment and retention of these relationships may increase and there can be no assurance that our investments and efforts will ultimately result in new customers or increased sales to existing customers. If we are unable to maintain current associations or establish new associations in the future, this could adversely affect our brand visibility and strength and result in a negative impact to our financial results. In addition, any repeated or sustained negative shifts in the public or industry perception of any of our celebrity endorsers or collaborators could also seriously harm our brand image with customers and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. If we fail to acquire new customers, or fail to do so in a cost-effective manner, our financial results may be materially adversely impacted. Our success depends on our ability to acquire customers in a cost-effective manner. In order to expand our customer base, we must appeal to and acquire customers who have historically used other means of commerce in shopping for apparel and may prefer alternatives to our offerings, such as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and the websites of our competitors. We have made significant investments related to customer acquisition and expect to continue to invest significant amounts to acquire additional customers. For example, we engage in social media marketing campaigns and maintain relationships with thousands of social media and celebrity influencers. Such campaigns are expensive and may not result in the cost-effective acquisition of customers. In addition, the competition for relationships with influencers is increasing and the cost of maintaining such relationships will likely continue to increase. We cannot assure you that the net sales contribution from new customers we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring those customers. If we fail to deliver a quality shopping experience, or if consumers do not perceive the products we offer to be of high value and quality, we may not be able to acquire new customers. If we 18 are unable to acquire new customers who purchase products in numbers sufficient to grow our business, we may not be able to generate the scale necessary to drive leverage and efficiency with our suppliers, our net sales may decrease, and our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. As social media and influencer-based marketing gains popularity, the market for these channels has become increasingly competitive. We believe we have maintained the effectiveness and efficiency of these channels in recent periods; however, if competition continues to increase, it may impact our operating results. We also seek to engage with our customers and build awareness of our brands through sponsoring unique events and experiences such as #REVOLVEfestival, #REVOLVEaroundtheworld, #REVOLVEawards and the REVOLVE Gallery, as well as short-term pop-up retail experiences. Our marketing initiatives have and may continue to become increasingly expensive as competition increases and generating a meaningful return on those initiatives may be difficult. In addition, several of such events have been, and may in the future be, postponed, significantly modified or cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether the behavior of our target demographics will change as a result of the pandemic in a manner that makes such events less effective. If our marketing efforts are not successful in promoting awareness of our brands and products, driving customer engagement or attracting new customers, or if we are not able to cost-effectively manage our marketing expenses, our operating results will be adversely affected. We obtain a significant amount of traffic via social networking websites or other channels used by our current and prospective customers. As eCommerce and social networking continue to rapidly evolve, we must continue to establish relationships with these channels and may be unable to develop or maintain these relationships on acceptable terms. We also use paid and non-paid advertising. We acquire and retain customers through paid search and product listing ads, paid social media marketing, affiliate marketing, retargeting, personalized email marketing and mobile “push” communications through our mobile apps. If we are unable to cost-effectively drive traffic to our sites, our ability to acquire new customers and our financial condition would suffer. If we fail to retain existing customers or fail to maintain average order value levels, we may not be able to maintain our revenue base and margins, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. A significant portion of our net sales are generated from sales to existing customers, particularly those existing customers who are highly engaged and make frequent purchases of the merchandise we offer. If existing customers no longer find our offerings appealing, or if we are unable to timely update our offerings to meet current trends and customer demands, our existing customers may make fewer or smaller purchases in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic also initially adversely impacted our ability to retain existing customers. A decrease in the number of our customers who make repeat purchases or a decrease in their spending on the merchandise we offer could negatively impact our operating results. Further, we believe that our future success will depend in part on our ability to increase sales to our existing customers over time, and if we are unable to do so, our business may suffer. If we fail to generate repeat purchases or maintain high levels of customer engagement and average order value, our growth prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected . We purchase inventory in anticipation of sales, and if we are unable to manage our inventory effectively, our operating results could be adversely affected. Our business requires us to manage a large volume of inventory effectively. We add new apparel, footwear, accessories and beauty styles to our sites every week and we depend on our forecasts of demand for and popularity of various products to make purchase decisions and to manage our inventory of stock-keeping units. Demand for products, however, can change significantly between the time inventory is ordered and the date of sale. Demand may be affected by, among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic and events like it, seasonality, new product launches, rapid changes in product cycles and pricing, product defects, promotions, changes in consumer spending patterns, changes in consumer tastes with respect to our products and other factors, political instability and social unrest, and our consumers may not purchase products in the quantities that we expect. Seasonality in our business has not historically followed that of traditional retailers, such as typical concentration of net sales in the holiday quarter. We believe our historical results have been impacted by a pattern of increased sales leading up to #REVOLVEfestival in April and during May and June, which results in peak sales during the second 19 quarter of each fiscal year. We have experienced seasonally slower activity during the first quarter. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement and cancellation of several events such as #REVOLVEfestival in 2020 and 2021, our seasonality has not followed typical patterns in recent periods. The duration of COVID-19 is highly uncertain and if large scale in-person events such as #REVOLVEfestival are postponed or cancelled, our seasonality will likely be impacted in 2022 and potentially beyond. It may be difficult to accurately forecast demand and determine appropriate levels of product to purchase. We generally do not have the right to return unsold products to our suppliers. If we fail to manage our inventory effectively or negotiate favorable credit terms with third-party suppliers, we may be subject to a heightened risk of inventory obsolescence, a decline in inventory values, and significant inventory write-downs or write-offs. In addition, if we are required to lower sale prices in order to reduce inventory levels or to pay higher prices to our suppliers, our profit margins might be negatively affected. Any failure to manage owned brand expansion or accurately forecast demand for owned brands could adversely affect growth, margins and inventory levels. In addition, our ability to meet customer demand may be negatively impacted by a shortage in inventory or appropriate assortment due to reduced inventory purchases or disruptions in the supply chain due to a number of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and shipping delays. Historically, a majority of our owned brand products and a substantial portion of the products we source from third parties have been manufactured in China. The COVID-19 pandemic and other factors and events have impacted, and will continue to impact, our supply chain and may delay or prevent and may also increase the cost to manufacture or transport product that is sourced in China. While we seek to further diversify our supply chain and sourcing, we may not be able to diversify in a cost-effective manner, or at all, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, COVID-19 has impacted the supply chain worldwide and therefore, diversification of the supply chain and sourcing may not yield the targeted benefits. Merchandise returns could harm our business. We allow our customers to return products, subject to our return policy. If the rate of merchandise returns increases significantly or if merchandise return economics become less efficient, our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed. Further, we modify our policies relating to returns from time to time, which may result in customer dissatisfaction or an increase in the number of product returns. From time to time our products are damaged in transit, which can increase return rates and harm our brand. We generally accept merchandise returns for full refund if returned within 30 days of the original purchase date and for exchange up to 60 days from the original purchase date. Given the interruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we instituted a policy that merchandise returns will be accepted for full refund if returned within 60 days of the original purchase date and may be exchanged up to 90 days from the original purchase date. Due to this extension of the return period and as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted, we may experience heightened levels of returns, which may negatively impact our operating results and financial position. Our business, including our costs and supply chain, is subject to risks associated with sourcing, manufacturing and warehousing. A majority of the merchandise we offer on our sites is sourced from third-party vendors and as a result, we may be subject to price fluctuations or demand disruptions. Our operating results would be negatively impacted by increases in the prices of our merchandise and we have no guarantees that prices will not rise. In addition, as we expand into new categories and product types, we expect that we may not have strong purchasing power in these new areas, which could lead to higher prices than we have historically seen in our current categories. We may not be able to pass increased prices on to customers, which could adversely affect our operating results. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a delay in the manufacturing and delivery of goods to us. In the event of an extended and significant disruption in the supply of the fabrics or raw materials used in the manufacture of the merchandise we offer as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, we and the vendors that we work with might not be able to locate alternative suppliers of materials of comparable quality at the right time and at an acceptable price. In addition, merchandise and materials we receive from vendors and suppliers may not be of sufficient quality or free from damage or such merchandise may be damaged during shipping, while stored in our fulfillment center or when returned by customers. We may incur additional expenses and our reputation could be harmed if customers and 20 potential customers believe that our merchandise does not meet their expectations, is not properly labeled or is damaged. We rely on third-party suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and other vendors and they may not continue to produce products or provide services that are consistent with our standards or applicable regulatory requirements, which could harm our brand, cause consumer dissatisfaction, and require us to find alternative suppliers of our products or services. We do not own or operate any manufacturing facilities. We use multiple third-party suppliers and manufacturers based primarily in China and, to a lesser extent, the United States and other countries, including India, to source and manufacture all of our products under our owned brands. The outbreak of COVID-19 led to the temporary closure and reduced capacity of our manufacturing partners for a period of time, which resulted in delayed delivery of product to us. While we have maintained long-standing relationships with many of our largest suppliers, we engage our third-party suppliers and manufacturers on a purchase order basis and are not party to long-term contracts with any of them. The ability of these third parties to supply and manufacture our products may be affected by competing orders placed by other customers and the demands of those customers. If we experience significant increases in demand, or need to replace a significant number of existing suppliers or manufacturers, there can be no assurance that additional supply and manufacturing capacity will be available when required on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, or that any supplier or manufacturer will allocate sufficient capacity to us in order to meet our requirements. Furthermore, our reliance on suppliers and manufacturers outside of the United States, the number of third parties with whom we transact and the number of jurisdictions to which we sell complicates our efforts to comply with customs duties and excise taxes; any failure to comply could adversely affect our business. In addition, quality control problems, such as the use of materials and delivery of products that do not meet our quality control standards and specifications or comply with applicable laws or regulations, could harm our business. In the past, we have experienced negative press and government enforcement actions as a result of our vendors’ failure to comply with certain applicable laws and regulations, and may experience similar negative press as a result of any future non-compliance by our vendors. We do not regularly inspect these vendors and quality control problems could result in regulatory action, such as restrictions on importation, products of inferior quality or product stock outages or shortages, harming our sales and creating inventory write-downs for unusable products. We have also outsourced portions of our distribution process, returns processing, customer support and local marketing, as well as certain technology-related functions, to various third-party service providers, including third parties in a number of foreign countries and territories. We are also dependent on third-party vendors for credit card processing, and we use third-party hosting and networking providers to host our sites. The failure of one or more of these entities to provide the expected services on a timely basis, or at all, or at the prices we expect, or the costs and disruption incurred in changing these outsourced functions to being performed under our management and direct control or that of a third party, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We are not party to long-term contracts with some of our distributors, and upon expiration of these existing agreements, we may not be able to renegotiate the terms on a commercially reasonable basis, or at all. Further, our third-party manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, fulfillment centers and other vendors may: • have economic or business interests or goals that are inconsistent with ours; • take actions contrary to our instructions, requests, policies or objectives; • be unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations under relevant purchase orders, including obligations to meet our production deadlines, quality standards, pricing guidelines and product specifications, and to comply with applicable regulations, including those regarding the safety and quality of products; • have financial difficulties; • encounter raw material or labor shortages; 21 • encounter increases in raw material or labor costs which may affect our procurement costs; • encounter difficulties with proper payment of custom duties or excise taxes; • misuse our confidential information or intellectual property or disclose them to competitors or third parties; • engage in activities or employ practices that may harm our reputation; and • work with, be acquired by, or come under control of, our competitors. Shipping is a critical part of our business and any changes in our shipping arrangements or any interruptions in shipping could adversely affect our operating results. We primarily rely on two major vendors for our shipping. If we are not able to negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with these entities or if they experience capacity constraints, performance problems or other difficulties, it could negatively impact our operating results and our customer experience. In addition, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship merchandise to customers may be negatively affected by public health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, inclement weather, fire, flood, power loss, earthquakes, labor disputes, acts of war, including the current conflict in Ukraine, or terrorism, trade embargoes, customs and tax requirements, political crises and social unrest, and similar factors. For example, strikes at major international shipping ports have in the past impacted our supply of inventory from our vendors. Trade disputes between the United States and China have and may continue to lead to increased tariffs on our goods and restrict the flow of the goods between the United States and China. The COVID-19 pandemic caused delayed shipments from our manufacturing partners and other third-party suppliers, initially in China, but over time impacting third parties worldwide. We are also subject to risks of damage or loss during delivery by our shipping vendors. If our merchandise is not delivered in a timely fashion or is damaged or lost during the delivery process, our customers could become dissatisfied and cease shopping on our sites, which would adversely affect our business and operating results. If we are unable to anticipate and respond to changing customer preferences and shifts in fashion and industry trends in a timely and cost-effective manner, our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed. The retail industry is driven in part by fashion and beauty trends, which may shift quickly. Our continued success depends on our ability to anticipate, gauge and react in a timely and cost-effective manner to changes in consumer preferences for products, consumer attitudes toward our industry and brand and where and how consumers shop for those products. We must continually work to develop, produce and market new products, maintain and enhance the recognition of our brands, maintain a favorable mix of products and develop our approach as to how and where we market and sell our products. Failure to respond to changing customer preferences and fashion trends could negatively impact our brand image with our customers and result in diminished brand loyalty. We have an established process for the identification, development, evaluation and validation of our new products. Nonetheless, each new product launch involves risks, as well as the possibility of unexpected consequences. For example, sales of our new products may not be as high as we anticipate, due to lack of acceptance of the products themselves or their price or limited effectiveness of our marketing strategies. In addition, our ability to launch new products may be limited by delays or difficulties affecting the ability of our suppliers or manufacturers to timely manufacture, distribute and ship new products. Sales of new products may also be affected by inventory management. We may also experience a decrease in sales of certain existing products as a result of newly-launched products. Any of these occurrences could delay or impede our ability to achieve our sales objectives, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. We typically enter into agreements to manufacture and purchase our merchandise in advance of trends, shifts in customer preference and typical selling seasons. Our failure to anticipate, identify or react appropriately or in a timely manner to changes in customer preferences, tastes and trends or economic conditions, could lead to, among other 22 things, missed opportunities, excess inventory or inventory shortages, markdowns and write-offs, any of which could negatively impact our profitability and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. The spread of COVID-19 also negatively impacted consumer demand. In response, we reduced inventory receipts by canceling or delaying orders, which led to a significant decline in our inventory balance. With consumer demand trends improving beginning in the second quarter of 2020 and continuing to improve through 2021, we have invested and will continue to invest in inventory. Despite our efforts to increase our inventory purchases in response to increased consumer demand, there is a risk that we may not be able to secure sufficient inventory in the appropriate categories or in total to support this increased demand. Furthermore, if consumer demand decreases again, we may not be able to respond quickly enough to adjust our inventory position accordingly. As part of our ongoing business strategy, we expect we will need to continue to introduce new products in our traditional product categories of clothing, shoes and accessories, while also expanding our product launches into adjacent categories in which we may have little to no operating experience. The success of product launches in adjacent categories could be hampered by our relative inexperience operating in such categories, the strength of our competitors or any of the other risks referred to above. Furthermore, any expansion into new product categories may prove to be an operational and financial constraint which inhibits our ability to successfully accomplish such expansion. Our inability to introduce successful products in our traditional categories or in adjacent categories could limit our future growth and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. There is no assurance that consumers will continue to purchase our products in the future. Customers may consider our offerings to be premium products and purchase fewer or lower-priced products if their discretionary income decreases. During periods of economic uncertainty, we may need to reduce prices in response to competitive pressures or otherwise in order to maintain sales, which may adversely affect margins and profitability. We rely on consumer discretionary spending, which may be adversely affected by economic downturns and other macroeconomic conditions or trends. Our business and operating results are subject to global economic conditions and their impact on consumer discretionary spending. Some of the factors that may negatively influence consumer spending, many of which were highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and political instability, include high levels of unemployment, higher consumer debt levels, reductions in net worth, declines in asset values and related market uncertainty, home foreclosures and reductions in home values, fluctuating interest rates and credit availability, fluctuating fuel and other energy costs, fluctuating commodity prices and general uncertainty regarding the overall future political and economic environment, and recent large-scale social unrest across much of the United States. Economic conditions in certain regions may also be affected by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms and wildfires. Consumer purchases of discretionary items, including the merchandise that we offer, generally decline during periods of economic uncertainty when disposable income is reduced or when there is a reduction in consumer confidence. Adverse economic changes reduce consumer confidence and have, and in the future could, negatively affect our operating results. In challenging and uncertain economic environments, we cannot predict when macroeconomic uncertainty may arise, whether or when such circumstances may improve or worsen or what impact such circumstances could have on our business. Our business was adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and while we have experienced recent recovery in the demand for our products, the duration and severity is still uncertain and our recent trends may not be sustainable. Our industry is highly competitive and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be adversely affected. The retail industry is highly competitive. We compete with department stores, specialty retailers, independent retail stores, the online offerings of these traditional retail competitors, brands that we offer and also offer their merchandise directly to the consumer, and eCommerce companies that market merchandise similar to the merchandise we offer. We believe our ability to compete depends on many factors within and beyond our control, including: 23 • attracting new customers and engaging with existing customers; • cultivating our relationships with our customers; • attracting and retaining personnel; • further developing our data analytics capabilities; • maintaining favorable brand recognition and effectively marketing our services to customers; • the amount, diversity and quality of brands and merchandise that we or our competitors offer; • maintaining and curating an appealing portfolio of owned brands and merchandise; • the price at which we are able to offer our merchandise; • maintaining and growing our market share; • price fluctuations or demand disruptions of our third-party vendors; • the speed and cost at which we can deliver merchandise to our customers and the ease with which they can use our services to return merchandise; and • anticipating and quickly responding to changing apparel trends and consumer shopping preferences. We expect competition to increase as other established and emerging companies enter the markets in which we compete, as customer requirements evolve and as new products and technologies are introduced. Many of our current competitors have, and potential competitors may have, longer operating histories, larger fulfillment infrastructures, greater technical capabilities, faster shipping times, lower-cost shipping, larger databases, larger customer bases, and greater financial, marketing, institutional and other resources than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to derive greater revenue and profits from their existing customer bases, acquire customers at lower costs or respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in apparel trends and consumer shopping behavior. These competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, enter into or expand their presence in the personalized retail market, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns, and adopt more aggressive pricing policies, which may allow them to build larger customer bases or generate revenue from their existing customer bases more effectively than we do. If we fail to execute on any of the above better than our competitors, our operating results may be adversely affected. Competition, along with other factors such as consolidation within the retail industry and changes in consumer spending patterns, could also result in significant pricing pressure. These factors may cause us to reduce prices to our customers, which could cause our gross margins to decline if we are unable to appropriately manage inventory levels or otherwise offset price reductions with comparable reductions in our operating costs. If our prices decline and we fail to sufficiently reduce our product costs or operating expenses, our profitability may decline, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate, which could cause our stock price to decline. 24 Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond our control. These reasons include those described in these risk factors as well as the following: • fluctuations in net sales generated from the brands on our sites, including as a result of the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, seasonality trends and the timing and success, including the reduction in scale or cancellations of large, in-person events that we host, such as the #REVOLVEfestival in the Coachella Valley; • fluctuations in product mix, including between sites and between owned and non-owned brands; • our ability to effectively launch and manage new sites and brands; • fluctuations in the levels or quality of inventory; • fluctuations in the percentage of full price sales, levels of markdowns and gross margins; • fluctuations in capacity as we expand our operations; • our success in engaging existing customers and attracting new customers; • the amount and timing of our operating expenses; • our ability to attract and retain personnel; • the timing and success of new products and brands we introduce; • the impact of competitive developments and our response to those developments; • our ability to manage our existing business and future growth; • rising inflation and our ability to control our costs, including employee wages and benefits and other operating expenses; • disruptions or defects in our sites, or actual or perceived privacy or data security breaches; and • economic and market conditions, particularly those affecting our industry. Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results may cause those results to fall below the expectations of analysts or investors, which could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline. Fluctuations in our results could also cause a number of other problems. For example, analysts or investors might change their models for valuing our Class A common stock, we could experience short-term liquidity issues, our ability to retain or attract key personnel may diminish and other unanticipated issues may arise. In addition, we believe that our quarterly operating results may vary in the future and that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. For example, our historical growth may have overshadowed the seasonal effects on our historical operating results. These seasonal effects may become more pronounced over time, which could also cause our operating results to fluctuate. You should not rely on the results of one quarter as an indication of future performance. Certain of our key operating metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business. We track certain key operating metrics using internal data analytics tools, which have certain limitations. In addition, we rely on data received from third parties, including third-party platforms, to track certain performance indicators. Data from both such sources may include information relating to fraudulent accounts and interactions with 25 our sites or the social media accounts of our influencers (including as a result of the use of bots or other automated or manual mechanisms to generate false impressions that are delivered through our sites or their accounts). We have only limited abilities to verify data from our sites or third parties and perpetrators of fraudulent impressions may change their tactics and may become more sophisticated, which would make it still more difficult to detect such activity. Our methodologies for tracking metrics may also change over time, which could result in changes to the metrics we report. If we undercount or overcount performance due to the internal data analytics tools we use or issues with the data received from third parties, or if our internal data analytics tools contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate or comparable with prior periods. In addition, limitations, changes or errors with respect to how we measure data may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our longer-term strategies. If our performance metrics are not accurate representations of the reach or monetization of our brand, if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics or the data on which such metrics are based, or if we can no longer calculate any of our key performance metrics with a sufficient degree of accuracy and cannot find an adequate replacement for the metric, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. We may be unable to accurately forecast net sales and appropriately plan our expenses in the future. We base our current and future expense levels on our operating forecasts and estimates of future net sales and gross margins. Net sales and operating results are difficult to forecast because they generally depend on the volume, timing, value and type of the orders we receive, and return rates, all of which are uncertain. In addition, we cannot be sure the same growth rates, trends and other key performance metrics are meaningful predictors of future growth. Our business is affected by general economic and business conditions in the United States, and we anticipate that it will be increasingly affected by conditions in international markets. In addition, we experience seasonal trends in our business and our mix of product offerings is highly variable from day-to-day and quarter-to-quarter. This variability makes it difficult to predict sales and could result in significant fluctuations in our net sales, margins and profitability from period-to-period. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced even further uncertainty to our operating forecasts and estimates of future net sales and gross margins. The COVID-19 pandemic may continue to impact our operating results for some time and consumer behavior may continue to shift, even in a post-COVID world, introducing further uncertainty into our forecasting. A significant portion of our expenses are fixed, and as a result, we may be unable to adjust our spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in net sales. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative impact on our net sales, we reduced our marketing investments and certain fixed costs. These short-term reductions may have a longer-term negative impact on customer acquisition and the lifetime value of our customer. Furthermore, we may be unable to adjust our investments in a timely manner to support increasing demand and higher net sales or compensate for any incremental unexpected shortfall in net sales. Any failure to accurately predict net sales or gross margins could cause our operating results to be lower than expected, which could materially adversely affect our financial condition and stock price. Our past growth rates are not indicative of expected results in the near term. Although our net sales and profitability grew rapidly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and have grown in recent periods, this should not be considered as indicative of our future near term performance. The duration, spread and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic is still uncertain and its impact on our business and consumer behavior over the long term, is unknown and may impede or prevent sustained future growth. Even if we manage through the COVID-19 pandemic, we may not be successful in executing our growth strategy, and even if we achieve our strategic plan, we may not be able to sustain profitability. In future periods, our net sales may not fully recover and could decline or grow more slowly than we expect. 26 We believe that the sustainability of our recent revenue growth, and potential future growth, will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to: • address the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by adjusting our cost structure, meeting our customers’ service expectations, shifting our marketing strategy and maintaining a relevant merchandise assortment; • identify new and emerging brands, maintain relationships with emerging and established brands, and develop, grow and curate existing owned brands or develop new owned brands; • acquire new customers and retain existing customers; • offer an assortment of merchandise that is attractive to consumers; • develop new features to enhance the consumer experience on our sites; • increase the frequency with which new and repeat customers purchase products on our sites through merchandising, data analytics and technology; • add new suppliers and deepen our relationships with our existing suppliers; • attract and retain personnel; • enhance and scale the systems our consumers use to interact with our sites and invest in our infrastructure platform; • target additional categories and price points beyond premium apparel for Millennial and Generation Z consumers, such as luxury, beauty, men’s apparel and lower price points; • expand internationally; and • pursue strategic acquisitions. We cannot assure you we will be able to achieve any of the foregoing. Our customer base initially declined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and may continue to decline in the future due to increased competition, the maturation of our business or other factors. Failure to continue our revenue growth rates could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results. You should not rely on our historical rate of revenue growth as an indication of our future performance or the rate of growth we may experience in any new category or internationally. If we do not successfully optimize, operate and manage the expansion of capacity of our fulfillment center, our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed. If we do not optimize and operate our fulfillment center successfully and efficiently, it could result in excess or insufficient fulfillment capacity, an increase in costs or impairment charges or harm our business in other ways. If we do not have sufficient fulfillment capacity or experience a problem fulfilling orders in a timely manner, our customers may experience delays in receiving their purchases, which could harm our reputation and our relationship with our customers. We have designed and built our own fulfillment center infrastructure, including customizing third-party inventory and package handling software systems, which is tailored to meet the specific needs of our business. If we continue to add fulfillment and warehouse capabilities, add new businesses or categories with different fulfillment requirements or change the mix in products that we sell, our fulfillment network will become increasingly complex and operating it will become more challenging. Failure to successfully address such challenges in a cost-effective and 27 timely manner could impair our ability to timely deliver our customers’ purchases and could harm our reputation and ultimately, our business, financial condition and operating results. Our fulfillment operations are largely centralized in a single 281,000 square foot facility. We expect that our current capacity in this facility will support our near-term growth plans. Over the long term, we cannot assure you that we will be able to locate suitable facilities on commercially acceptable terms in accordance with our expansion plans, nor can we assure you that we will be able to recruit qualified managerial and operational personnel to support our expansion plans. If we are unable to secure new facilities for the expansion of our fulfillment operations or to effectively control expansion-related expenses, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results could be materially and adversely affected. If we grow faster than we anticipate, we may exceed our fulfillment center capacity sooner than we anticipate, we may experience problems fulfilling orders in a timely manner or our customers may experience delays in receiving their purchases, which could harm our reputation and our relationship with our customers, and we would need to increase our capital expenditures more than anticipated. Many of the expenses and investments with respect to our fulfillment center are fixed and any expansion of such fulfillment center will require additional investment of capital. We expect to incur higher capital expenditures in the future for our fulfillment center operations. We may incur such expenses or make such investments in advance of expected sales and such expected sales may not occur. Our primary fulfillment center is located Los Angeles County, which has imposed varying restrictions on businesses over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Although we have adopted safety measures and continue to operate our fulfillment center, these restrictions impact the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. Government authorities may impose more stringent restrictions on businesses, including ones that would require closure of our fulfillment center. We have experienced positive COVID-19 cases in our fulfillment center and may experience more positive COVID-19 cases. If more stringent restrictions are put into place or if there is a COVID-19 outbreak in our fulfillment center, we may not be able to meet customer demand in a timely way which would have a materially adverse impact on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. Our failure to adequately and effectively staff our fulfillment center, through third parties or with our own employees, could adversely affect our customer experience and operating results. The vast majority of our merchandise is currently received at and distributed from a single fulfillment center in Los Angeles County, which is not operated by a third party. If we are unable to adequately staff our fulfillment center to meet demand or if the cost of such staffing is higher than historical or projected costs due to mandated wage increases, regulatory changes, COVID-19-related shelter-in-place orders and other business restrictions, international expansion or other factors, our operating results could be harmed. In addition, operating fulfillment centers comes with potential risks, such as workplace safety issues and employment claims for the failure or alleged failure to comply with labor laws or laws respecting union organizing activities. Various health and safety restrictions imposed by state and local authorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have also adversely impacted our ability to staff our fulfillment center. If government authorities impose more stringent restrictions on businesses, including ones that would require closure of our fulfillment center, or if there is a COVID-19 outbreak in our fulfillment center, we may not be able to meet customer demand in a timely way which would have a materially adverse impact on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. Any such issues may result in delays in shipping times or packing quality and our reputation and operating results may be harmed. Increases in labor costs, including wages, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Labor is a significant portion of our cost structure and is subject to many external factors, including unemployment levels, inflation, prevailing wage rates, minimum wage laws, potential collective bargaining arrangements, health insurance costs and other insurance costs, and changes in employment and labor legislation or other workplace regulation. From time to time, legislative proposals are made to increase the federal minimum wage in the United States, as well as the minimum wage in California and a number of other states and municipalities, and to reform entitlement programs, such as health insurance and paid leave programs. As minimum wage rates increase or related laws and regulations change, we have and may need to continue to increase not only the wage rates of our minimum wage employees, but also the wages paid to our other hourly or salaried employees. Any increase in the 28 cost of our labor could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations or if we fail to pay such higher wages we could suffer increased employee turnover. Increases in labor costs could force us to increase prices, which could adversely impact our sales. If competitive pressures or other factors prevent us from offsetting increased labor costs by increases in prices, our profitability may decline and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In particular, the job market in Southern California, where our principal offices and fulfillment center as well as the majority of our employees are located, is very competitive. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unforeseen financial challenges and uncertainties for us. In response, we determined that cost-cutting measures were necessary and prudent to position us to continue to operate in a successful manner. The various cost-cutting measures included salary reductions, furloughs and, to a lesser extent, layoffs, which may implicate the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or the WARN Act, and the analogue California law. As business results improved in late 2020, many of the furloughs and salary and wage reductions were reversed and our corporate employees returned to their pre-COVID wages and salaries. We believe that these measures were necessary to improve the likelihood of preserving the jobs of our remaining employees. The WARN Act typically requires, among other things, that companies notify affected employees and certain government agencies and elected officials of any mass layoff at least 60 days before the layoff, with associated wage and hour penalties for failure to provide proper notice. However, under both federal law and, as a result of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-31-20, California law, employers may, as we have done, avail themselves of exceptions from providing the full 60 days’ notice based on unforeseen business circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We provided notice to affected employees and required government agencies and elected officials as soon as practicable. If we fail to attract and retain key personnel, or effectively manage succession, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. Our success, including our ability to anticipate and effectively respond to changing style trends, depends in part on our ability to attract and retain key personnel on our executive team, particularly our co-chief executive officers, and in our merchandising, data science, engineering, marketing, design and other organizations. Competition for key personnel is strong and we cannot be sure that we will be able to attract and retain a sufficient number of qualified personnel in the future or that the compensation costs of doing so will not adversely affect our operating results. We do not have long-term employment or non-competition agreements with any of our personnel. If we are unable to retain, attract and motivate talented employees with the appropriate skills at cost-effective compensation levels or if changes to our business adversely affect morale or retention, we may not achieve our objectives and our business and operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, the loss of one or more of our key personnel or the inability to promptly identify a suitable successor to a key role could have an adverse effect on our business. In particular, our co-chief executive officers have unique and valuable experiences leading our company from its inception through today. If either of them were to depart or otherwise reduce their focus on our company, our business may be disrupted. We do not currently maintain key-person life insurance policies on any member of our senior management team or other key employees. Increased scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, customers, employees and others regarding our environmental, social and governance practices and reporting could cause us to incur additional costs, devote additional resources and expose us to additional risks, which could adversely impact our reputation, customer acquisition and retention, access to capital and employee retention. Companies across all industries are facing increasing scrutiny related to their environmental, social and governance, or ESG, practices and reporting. Investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders have focused increasingly on ESG practices and placed increasing importance on the implications and social cost of their investments, purchases and other interactions with companies. For example, many investment funds focus on positive ESG business practices and sustainability scores when making investments and may consider a company’s ESG or sustainability scores as a reputational or other factor in making an investment decision. In addition, investors, particularly institutional investors, use these scores to benchmark companies against their peers and if a company is perceived as lagging, these investors may engage with that company to improve ESG disclosure or performance and may also make voting decisions on this basis. A growing number of our customers also want to shop more sustainable 29 fashion. With this increased focus and demand, public reporting regarding ESG practices is becoming more broadly expected. If our ESG practices and reporting do not meet investor, customer or employee expectations, which continue to evolve, our brand, reputation and customer retention may be negatively impacted. The Social Impact section of our website and other ESG disclosure we make include our policies and practices on a variety of ESG matters, including corporate governance, environmental compliance, employee health and safety practices, human capital management, product quality, supply chain management and workforce inclusion and diversity. It is possible that stakeholders may not be satisfied with our ESG reporting and disclosure, our ESG practices or our speed of adoption. We could also incur additional costs and devote additional resources to monitor, report and implement various ESG practices. If we fail, or are perceived to be failing, to meet the standards included in any sustainability disclosure or the expectations of our various stakeholders, it could negatively impact our reputation, customer acquisition and retention, access to capital and employee retention. In addition, new sustainability rules and regulations have been adopted and may continue to be introduced in various states and other jurisdictions, and our failure to comply with any applicable rules or regulations could lead to penalties and adversely impact our reputation, customer acquisition and retention, access to capital and employee retention. Our operating results could be adversely affected by natural disasters, public health crises, political crises, social unrest or other catastrophic events. Our principal offices, data centers and our fulfillment center are located in Southern California, an area which has a history of earthquakes and wildfires, and are thus vulnerable to damage. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and other adverse weather and climate conditions; unforeseen public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; political crises, such as terrorist attacks, war and other political instability; including the current conflict in Ukraine; social unrest; or other catastrophic events, whether occurring in the United States or internationally, could disrupt our operations or the operations of one or more of our third-party providers or vendors. Customer growth and activity on mobile devices depends upon effective use of mobile operating systems, networks and standards that we do not control. Purchases using mobile devices by consumers generally, and by our customers specifically, have increased significantly and we expect this trend to continue. To optimize the mobile shopping experience, we are dependent on our customers downloading our specific mobile applications for their particular device or accessing our sites from an Internet browser on their mobile device. As new mobile devices and platforms are released, it is difficult to predict the problems we may encounter in developing applications for these alternative devices and platforms and we may need to devote significant resources to the creation, support and maintenance of such applications. In addition, our future growth and our results of operations could suffer if we experience difficulties in integrating our mobile applications into mobile devices, if problems arise with our relationships with providers of mobile operating systems or mobile application download stores, such as those of Apple Inc. or Google Inc., if those providers impose restrictions on the data collection or use practices or other functionality of our applications, if our applications receive unfavorable treatment compared to competing applications, such as the order of our products in the Apple App Store, or if we face increased costs to distribute or have customers use our mobile applications. For example, Apple Inc. has imposed requirements for consumer disclosures regarding privacy practices and has implemented an application tracking transparency framework that requires opt-in consent for certain types of tracking. This transparency framework was launched in April 2021. This transparency framework has and may continue to negatively impact the effectiveness of our advertising practices. We are further dependent on the interoperability of our sites with popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as iOS and Android, and any changes in such systems that degrade the functionality of our sites or give preferential treatment to competitive products could adversely affect the usage of our sites on mobile devices. In the event that it is more difficult for our customers to access and use our sites on their mobile devices, or if our customers choose not to access or to use our sites on their mobile devices or to use mobile products that do not offer access to our sites, our customer growth could be harmed and our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially and adversely affected. We are subject to payment-related risks. 30 We accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit card, gift cards, debit card, PayPal and other third-party payment vendors, which subjects us to certain regulations and the risk of fraud, and we may in the future offer new payment options to customers that would be subject to additional regulations and risks. We pay interchange and other fees in connection with credit card payments, which may increase over time and adversely affect our operating results. While we use a third party to process payments, we are subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI-DSS, and rules governing electronic funds transfers. If we fail to comply with applicable rules and regulations, we may be subject to fines or higher transaction fees and may lose our ability to accept online payments or other payment card transactions. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. We may incur significant losses from fraud. We have in the past incurred and may in the future incur losses from various types of fraud, including stolen credit card numbers, claims that a customer did not authorize a purchase, merchant fraud and customers who have closed bank accounts or have insufficient funds in open bank accounts to satisfy payments. Although we have measures in place and utilize third parties to detect and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activity in our marketplace, those measures and providers may not always be effective. In addition to the direct costs of such losses, if the fraud is related to credit card transactions and becomes excessive, it could potentially result in us paying higher fees or losing the right to accept credit cards for payment. In addition, under current credit card practices, we are liable for fraudulent credit card transactions because we do not obtain a cardholder’s signature. Our failure to adequately prevent fraudulent transactions could damage our reputation, result in litigation or regulatory action and lead to expenses that could substantially impact our operating results. If we fail to maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our stock price. We are subject to the SEC’s rules implementing Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require our management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. Additionally, beginning with this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we are required to obtain an annual audit of our internal controls over financial reporting from our independent registered public accounting firm under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our compliance with applicable provisions of Section 404 requires that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues as we implement additional practices and comply with expanded reporting requirements. Our testing of key controls over financial reporting, or the testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock would likely decline and we could be subject to lawsuits, sanctions or investigations by regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. We continue to invest in more robust technology and in more resources in order to manage applicable reporting requirements. Implementing the appropriate changes to our internal controls and remediating a material weakness may distract our officers and employees, result in substantial costs to implement new processes or modify our existing processes and require significant time to complete. Any difficulties or delays in implementing such new processes or modifications could impact our ability to timely report our financial results. In addition, we currently rely on a manual process in some areas which increases our exposure to human error or intervention in reporting our financial results. For these reasons, we may encounter difficulties in the timely and accurate reporting of our financial results, which would impact our ability to provide our investors with information in a timely manner. As a result, our investors could lose confidence in our reported consolidated financial information and our stock price could decline. In addition, any 31 such changes do not guarantee that we will be effective in maintaining the adequacy of our internal controls and any failure to maintain that adequacy could prevent us from accurately reporting our financial results. We may expand our business through acquisitions of other businesses, which may divert management’s attention and/or prove to be unsuccessful. We acquired Alliance, Inc. in 2014 and may acquire additional businesses or technologies in the future. Acquisitions may divert management’s time and focus from operating our business. Acquisitions also may require us to spend a substantial portion of our available cash, incur debt or other liabilities, amortize expenses related to intangible assets or incur write-offs of goodwill or other assets. In addition, integrating an acquired business or technology is risky. Completed and future acquisitions may result in unforeseen operational difficulties and expenditures associated with: • incorporating new businesses and technologies into our infrastructure; • consolidating operational and administrative functions; • coordinating outreach to our community; • maintaining morale and culture and retaining and integrating key employees; • maintaining or developing controls, procedures and policies (including effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures); and • identifying and assuming liabilities related to the activities of the acquired business before the acquisition, including liabilities for violations of laws and regulations, intellectual property issues, commercial disputes, taxes and other matters. Moreover, we may not benefit from our acquisitions as we expect or in the time frame we expect. We also may issue additional equity securities in connection with an acquisition, which could cause dilution to our stockholders. Finally, acquisitions could be viewed negatively by analysts, investors or our customers. Adverse litigation judgments or settlements resulting from legal proceedings in which we may be involved could expose us to monetary damages or limit our ability to operate our business. We have in the past and may in the future become involved in private actions, collective actions, investigations and various other legal proceedings by customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, government agencies, law enforcement, customs officials or others. The results of any such litigation, investigations and other legal proceedings are inherently unpredictable and expensive. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, damage our reputation, require significant amounts of management time, result in impositions of fines or other remedial measures as a result of underpayment and divert significant resources. If any of these legal proceedings were to be determined adversely to us, or we were to enter into a settlement arrangement, we could be exposed to monetary damages or limits on our ability to operate our business, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. We may require additional capital to support business growth and this capital might not be available or may be available only by diluting existing stockholders. We intend to continue making investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to support this growth and respond to business challenges, including the need to develop our services, expand our inventory, enhance our operating infrastructure, expand the markets in which we operate and potentially acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Any debt financing secured by 32 us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities. In addition, we may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited and our business and prospects could fail or be adversely affected. Our credit facility contains restrictive covenants that may limit our operating flexibility. Our credit facility contains restrictive covenants that limit our ability to, among other things, incur debt, create liens and encumbrances, engage in certain fundamental changes, dispose of assets, prepay certain indebtedness, make restricted payments, make investments, and engage in transactions with affiliates. We therefore may not be able to engage in any of the foregoing transactions unless we obtain the consent of the lender or terminate the credit facility, which may limit our operating flexibility. In addition, our credit facility is secured by all of our assets, including our intellectual property, and requires us to satisfy certain financial covenants. There is no guarantee that we will be able to generate sufficient cash flow or sales to meet these financial covenants or pay the principal and interest on any debt under our facility. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that future working capital, borrowings or equity financing will be available to repay or refinance any such debt. Any inability to make scheduled payments or meet the financial covenants on our credit facility would adversely affect our business. Risks Related to Regulation and Taxation Any failure by us or our vendors to comply with product safety, labor or other laws, or to provide safe conditions for our or their workers may damage our reputation and brands and harm our business. The merchandise we sell to our customers is subject to regulation by the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and similar state and international regulatory authorities. As a result, such merchandise could be in the future subject to recalls and other remedial actions. Product safety, labeling and licensing concerns, including consumer disclosure and warning regarding chemical exposure, may require us to voluntarily remove selected merchandise from our inventory. Such recalls or voluntary removal of merchandise can result in, among other things, lost sales, diverted resources, potential harm to our reputation and increased customer service costs and legal expenses, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. We purchase our merchandise from numerous domestic and international vendors. Failure of our vendors to comply with applicable laws and regulations and contractual requirements could lead to litigation against us, resulting in increased legal expenses and costs. In addition, the failure of any such vendors to provide safe and humane factory conditions and oversight at their facilities could damage our reputation with customers or result in legal claims against us. If our suppliers fail to use ethical business practices and fail to comply with changing laws and regulations, our brand image could be harmed due to negative publicity. Developing the highest quality products while operating with integrity, is an important component of our brand image and operating philosophy, which makes our reputation sensitive to allegations of unethical or improper business practices, whether real or perceived. We do not control our suppliers and manufacturers or their business and they may not comply with our guidelines or the law. A lack of compliance could lead to reduced sales or recalls or damage to our brand or cause us to seek alternative suppliers, which could increase our costs and result in delayed delivery of our products, product shortages or other disruptions of our operations. In addition, we rely on our manufacturers’ and suppliers’ compliance reporting in order to comply with regulations applicable to our products. This is further complicated by the fact that expectations of ethical business practices continually evolve and may be substantially more demanding than applicable legal requirements. Ethical business practices are also driven in part by legal developments and by diverse groups active in publicizing and organizing public responses to perceived ethical shortcomings. Accordingly, we cannot predict how such regulations or expectations might develop in the future and 33 cannot be certain that our guidelines or current practices would satisfy all parties who are active in monitoring our products or other business practices worldwide. Developments in labor and employment law and any unionizing efforts by employees could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We face the risk that Congress, federal agencies or one or more states could approve legislation or regulations significantly affecting our businesses and our relationship with our employees and other individuals providing valuable services to us, such as our influencers and models. For example, the previously proposed federal legislation referred to as the Employee Free Choice Act would have substantially liberalized the procedures for union organization. None of our domestic employees are currently covered by a collective bargaining agreement, but any attempt by our employees to organize a labor union could result in increased legal and other associated costs. Additionally, given the National Labor Relations Board’s “speedy election” rule, our ability to timely and effectively address any unionizing efforts would be difficult. If we enter into a collective bargaining agreement with our domestic employees, the terms could materially adversely affect our costs, efficiency and ability to generate acceptable returns on the affected operations. Federal and state wage and hour rules establish minimum salary requirements for employees to be exempt from overtime payments. For example, among other requirements, California law requires employers to pay employees who are classified as exempt from overtime a minimum salary of at least twice the minimum wage for executive, administrative and professional employees employed by employers that have 26 or more employees. Minimum salary requirements impact the way we classify certain employees, increase our payment of overtime wages and provision of meal or rest breaks, and increases the overall salaries we are required to pay to currently exempt employees to maintain their exempt status. As such, these requirements may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, the laws and regulations that govern the status and classification of independent contractors and other similar non-employee services providers are subject to change and divergent interpretations by various authorities, which can create uncertainty and unpredictability for us. For example, in California, Assembly Bill 5 codified and extended an employment classification test set forth by the California Supreme Court that established a new standard for determining employee or independent contractor status. This bill, and other similar initiatives throughout the United States, could lead to additional challenges to the classification of influencers and models and a potential increase in claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, administrative actions, government investigations and other legal and regulatory proceedings at the federal, state and municipal levels challenging the classification of any influencers or models as independent contractors. Such regulatory scrutiny or actions over such classification practices also may create different or conflicting obligations from one jurisdiction to another. Although we are currently not involved in any material legal actions and, to our knowledge, there have been no material claims of misclassification made against us, the likelihood of misclassification claims in states like California has increased in light of laws such as Assembly Bill 5, and the results of any such litigation or arbitration are inherently unpredictable and legal proceedings related to such claims, individually or in the aggregate, could have a material impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Regardless of the outcome, litigation and arbitration of misclassification and wage and hour claims can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs individually and in the aggregate, diversion of management resources and other factors, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Failure to comply with federal, state and international laws and regulations and our contractual obligations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection, or the expansion of current or the enactment of new laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection, could adversely affect our business and our financial condition. We collect and maintain significant amounts of personal data and other data relating to our customers and employees. A variety of federal, state and international laws and regulations, and certain industry standards, govern or apply to our collection, use, retention, sharing and security of consumer data. We are subject to certain laws, regulations, contractual obligations and industry standards (including, for example, the PCI-DSS) relating to privacy, data protection, information security and consumer protection, including California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act and unfair competition and false advertising laws, which are evolving and subject to potentially differing 34 interpretations. These requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another or may conflict with other rules or our practices. As a result, our practices likely have not complied or may not comply in the future with all such laws, regulations, requirements and obligations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our privacy policies or with any federal, state or international laws, regulations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject or other legal or contractual obligations relating to privacy, data protection, information security or consumer protection could adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others or other liabilities or require us to change our operations and/or cease or modify our use of certain data sets. Any such claim, proceeding or action could hurt our reputation, brand and business, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of such proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, result in a loss of customers and suppliers or an inability to process credit card payments and may result in the imposition of monetary penalties. We may also be contractually required to indemnify and hold harmless third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any laws, regulations or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection or any inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of data that we store or handle as part of operating our business. Additionally, any failure by us to comply with the PCI-DSS may violate payment card association operating rules, applicable laws and regulations, and contractual obligations to which we are subject. Any such failure to comply with the PCI-DSS also may subject us to fines, penalties, damages, and civil liability, or the loss of our ability to accept credit and debit card payments, any of which may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Federal, state and international governmental authorities continue to evaluate the privacy implications inherent in the use of third-party “cookies” and other methods of online tracking for behavioral advertising and other purposes. The United States and foreign governments have enacted, have considered or are considering legislation or regulations that could significantly restrict the ability of companies and individuals to engage in these activities, such as by regulating the level of consumer notice and consent required before a company can employ cookies or other electronic tracking tools or the use of data gathered with such tools. Additionally, some providers of consumer devices and web browsers have implemented, or announced plans to implement, means to make it easier for Internet users to prevent the placement of cookies or to block other tracking technologies, which could if widely adopted result in the use of third-party cookies and other methods of online tracking becoming significantly less effective. Regulation of the use of these cookies and other online tracking and advertising practices, or a loss in our ability to make effective use of services that employ such technologies, could increase our costs of operations and limit our ability to track trends, optimize our product assortment or acquire new customers on cost-effective terms and consequently, materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. For example, Apple Inc. has imposed requirements for consumer disclosures regarding privacy practices, and has implemented an application tracking transparency framework that requires opt-in consent for certain types of tracking. This transparency framework was launched in April 2021. This transparency framework has and may continue to negatively impact the effectiveness of our advertising practices. Foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, information security, and consumer protection often are more restrictive than those in the United States. The European Union, or EU, for example, traditionally has imposed stricter obligations under its laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection than the United States. The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, governs the EU’s data practices and privacy. The GDPR requires companies to meet more stringent requirements regarding the handling of personal data of individuals in the EU than were required under predecessor EU requirements. The GDPR provides for substantial penalties for non-compliance, which may result in monetary penalties of up to 20.0 million Euros or 4% of a company’s worldwide turnover, whichever is higher. European privacy and data protection laws, including the GDPR, regulate the transfer of personal data from Europe, including the European Economic Area, or EEA, the United Kingdom, or UK, and Switzerland, to third countries that have not been found to provide adequate protection to such personal data, including the United States, unless the parties to the transfer have implemented specific safeguards to protect the transferred personal information. The safeguard on which we have primarily relied for such transfers has been use of the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, or SCCs. We have undertaken certain efforts to conform transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area, or the EEA, to the United States based on our understanding of current regulatory obligations and the guidance of data protection authorities. In the “Schrems II” decision issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, on July 16, 2020, the CJEU invalidated one mechanism for cross-border personal 35 data transfer, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, and imposed additional obligations on companies relying on the SCCs to transfer personal data. The Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield framework subsequently was invalidated by the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. The Schrems II decision and other developments relating to cross-border data transfer may result in European data protection regulators applying differing standards for, and requiring ad hoc verification of, transfers of personal data from Europe to the U.S. The European Commission released a draft of revised SCCs addressing the CJEU concerns in November 2020, and on June 4, 2021, published new SCCs. The CJEU’s Schrems II decision, the revised SCCs, regulatory guidance and opinions, and other developments relating to cross-border data transfer may require us to implement additional contractual and technical safeguards for any personal data transferred out of the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, which may increase compliance costs, lead to increased regulatory scrutiny or liability, may require additional contractual negotiations, and may adversely impact our business, financial condition and operating results. The UK has implemented legislation similar to the GDPR, including the UK Data Protection Act and legislation similar to the GDPR referred to as the UK GDPR, which provides for fines of up to the greater of 17.5 million British Pounds or 4% of a company’s worldwide turnover, whichever is higher. Additionally, the relationship between the UK and the EU in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains unclear following the UK’s exit from the EU, including with respect to regulation of data transfers between EU member states and the UK. On June 28, 2021, the European Commission announced a decision of “adequacy” concluding that the UK ensures an equivalent level of data protection to the GDPR, which provides some relief regarding the legality of continued personal data flows from the EEA to the UK. Some uncertainty remains, however, as this adequacy determination must be renewed after four years and may be modified or revoked in the interim. We cannot fully predict how the Data Protection Act, the UK GDPR, and other UK data protection laws or regulations may develop in the medium to longer term nor the effects of divergent laws and guidance regarding how data transfers to and from the UK will be regulated. Further, the GDPR and other similar regulations require companies to give specific types of notice and in some cases seek consent from consumers and other data subjects before collecting or using their data for certain purposes, including some marketing activities. In addition to the GDPR, the European Commission has another draft regulation in the approval process that focuses on a person’s right to conduct a private life. The proposed legislation, known as the Regulation of Privacy and Electronic Communications, or ePrivacy Regulation, would replace the current ePrivacy Directive. Originally planned to be adopted and implemented at the same time as the GDPR, the ePrivacy Regulation is still being negotiated. Most recently, on February 10, 2021, the Council of the EU agreed on its version of the draft ePrivacy Regulation. If adopted, the earliest date for entry into force is in 2023, with broad potential impact on the use of internet-based services and tracking technologies, such as cookies. Aspects of the ePrivacy Regulation remain for negotiation between the European Commission and the Council. We expect to incur additional costs to comply with the requirements of the ePrivacy Regulation as it is finalized for implementation. Outside of the EU, many countries and territories have laws, regulations, or other requirements relating to privacy, data protection, information security, localized storage of data, and consumer protection, and new countries and territories are adopting such legislation or other obligations with increasing frequency. In China, for example, the Personal Information Protection Law, or PIPL, was adopted on August 20, 2021 and went into effect on November 1, 2021. The PIPL shares similarities with the GDPR, including extraterritorial application, data minimization, data localization and purpose limitation requirements, as well as obligations to provide certain notices and rights to citizens of China. The PIPL allows for fines of up to 50 million renminbi, or 5% of a covered company’s revenue in the prior year. More generally, many of these foreign laws and regulations may require consent from consumers for the use of data for various purposes, including marketing, which may reduce our ability to market our products. There is no harmonized approach to these laws and regulations globally. Consequently, international activities and operations increase our risk of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and we would increase our risk of non-compliance with applicable foreign data protection laws by expanding internationally. We may need to change and limit the way we use personal information in operating our business, may be required to make additional investments in compliance programs, may be required to update our policies and procedures and may have difficulty maintaining a single operating model that is compliant. In addition, various federal, state and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies, or self-regulatory organizations, may expand current laws or regulations, enact new laws or regulations or issue revised rules or guidance regarding privacy, data protection, information security and consumer protection. For example, in 2018, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which, among other things, requires new disclosures to California consumers and affords such consumers new abilities to opt out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA, which became effective January 1, 2020, was amended on multiple occasions and is the subject of regulations issued by the California Attorney General regarding certain aspects of the law and its 36 application. Moreover, California voters approved the California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, in November 2020. The CPRA significantly modifies the CCPA, creating obligations relating to consumer data beginning on January 1, 2022, with implementing regulations expected on or before July 1, 2022, and enforcement beginning July 1, 2023. On March 2, 2021, Virginia enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, or CDPA, which becomes effective on January 1, 2023, and on June 8, 2021, Colorado enacted the Colorado Privacy Act, or CPA, which takes effect on July 1, 2023. The CPA and CDPA share similarities with the CCPA, CPRA, and legislation proposed in other states. Aspects of these privacy statutes remain unclear, resulting in further uncertainty and potentially requiring us to modify our data practices and policies and to incur substantial additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply. As a general matter, compliance with laws, regulations, and any applicable rules or guidance from self-regulatory organizations relating to privacy, data protection, information security and consumer protection may result in substantial costs and may necessitate changes to our business practices, which may compromise our growth strategy, adversely affect our ability to acquire customers, and otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Government regulation of the Internet and eCommerce is evolving and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these regulations could substantially harm our business and results of operations. We are subject to general business regulations and laws as well as regulations and laws specifically governing the Internet and eCommerce. Existing and future regulations and laws could impede the growth of the Internet, eCommerce or mobile commerce. These regulations and laws may involve taxes, tariffs, privacy, data protection, data security, anti-spam, content protection, electronic contracts and communications, consumer protection, website accessibility, Internet neutrality and gift cards. It is not clear how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes and consumer privacy apply to the Internet as many of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by the Internet or eCommerce. It is possible that general business regulations and laws, or those specifically governing the Internet or eCommerce, may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. We cannot be sure that our practices have complied, comply or will comply fully with all such laws and regulations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation, a loss in business and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. Any such proceeding or action could hurt our reputation, force us to spend significant amounts in defense of these proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, decrease the use of our sites by consumers and suppliers and may result in the imposition of monetary liability. We may also be contractually liable to indemnify and hold harmless third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any such laws or regulations. In addition, it is possible that governments of one or more countries or territories may seek to censor content available on our sites or may even attempt to completely block access to our sites. Adverse legal or regulatory developments could substantially harm our business. In particular, in the event that we are restricted, in whole or in part, from operating in one or more countries or territories, our ability to retain or increase our customer base may be adversely affected and we may not be able to maintain or grow our net sales and expand our business as anticipated. We are subject to various governmental export control and trade sanctions laws and regulations that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to liability if we violate these controls. In some cases, our products are subject to export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and our activities are subject to trade and economic sanctions, including those administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, which we collectively refer to as Trade Controls. As such, a license may be required to export or re-export our products to certain countries and end users and for certain end uses. The process for obtaining necessary licenses may be time-consuming or unsuccessful, potentially causing delays in sales or losses of sales opportunities. Trade Controls are complex and dynamic regimes and monitoring and ensuring compliance can be challenging. Any failure to comply with these regimes could subject us to both civil and criminal penalties, including substantial fines, possible incarceration of responsible individuals for willful violations, possible loss of our export or import privileges, and reputational harm. 37 We may experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate, which could adversely affect our operating results. We are subject to taxes in the United States and the UK. We record tax expense based on current tax liabilities and our estimates of future tax liabilities, which may include reserves for estimates of probable settlements of tax audits. At any one time, multiple tax years are subject to audit by various taxing jurisdictions. The results of these audits and negotiations with taxing authorities may affect the ultimate settlement of these issues. As a result, we expect that throughout the year there could be ongoing variability in our quarterly tax rates as taxable events occur and exposures are re-evaluated. Further, our tax liability, after-tax profitability and effective tax rate in a given financial statement period may be materially impacted by changes in tax laws, including legislation implementing changes in taxation of international business activities, changes in the mix and level of earnings by taxing jurisdictions or changes to existing accounting rules or regulations. There are numerous other factors that could affect our tax rate, including, among others, intercompany transactions, losses incurred in jurisdictions for which we are not able to realize the related tax benefits, exercises of stock options and vesting of restricted stock units, and entry into new businesses and geographies. Fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. We could be required to collect additional sales taxes or be subject to other tax liabilities that may increase the costs our customers would have to pay for our offering and adversely affect our operating results. The U.S. Supreme Court held in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. that states could impose sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state retailers even if those retailers lack any physical presence within the states imposing sales taxes. Under Wayfair , a person requires only a “substantial nexus” with the taxing state before the state may subject the person to sales tax collection obligations therein. An increasing number of states, both before and after the Supreme Court’s ruling, have considered or adopted laws that attempt to impose sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state retailers. The Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision has removed a significant impediment to the enactment of these laws and it is possible that states may seek to tax out-of-state retailers, including for prior tax years. Although we believe that we currently collect sales taxes in all states that have adopted laws imposing sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state retailers since Wayfair was decided, a successful assertion by one or more states requiring us to collect sales taxes where we presently do not do so, or to collect more taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently do collect some sales taxes, could result in substantial tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest. The imposition by state governments of sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state retailers in jurisdictions where we do not currently collect sales taxes, whether for prior years or prospectively, could also create additional administrative burdens for us, put us at a competitive disadvantage if they do not impose similar obligations on our competitors and decrease our future sales, which could have a material adverse impact on our business and operating results. Risks Related to Our International Operations We have operations and do business in China, which exposes us to risks inherent in doing business there. We use multiple third-party suppliers and manufacturers based primarily in China. With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, the cost of labor has increased and may continue to increase in the future. Furthermore, pursuant to Chinese labor laws, employers in China are subject to various requirements when signing labor contracts, paying remuneration, determining the term of employees’ probation and unilaterally terminating labor contracts. Our results of operations will be materially and adversely affected if the labor costs of our third-party suppliers and manufacturers increase significantly. In addition, we and our manufacturers and suppliers may not be able to find a sufficient number of qualified workers due to the intensely competitive and fluid market for skilled labor in China. We also sell our merchandise to customers in China and use Chinese-owned social media and payment platforms such as TikTok, WeChat and AliPay to market to and transact with customers inside and outside of China. Operating and doing business in China and using Chinese-owned social media platforms as tools for marketing, messaging and transacting with our customers in China exposes us to political, legal and economic risks. In particular, the political, legal and economic climate in China, both nationally and regionally, and China’s relationship with the United States, is fluid and unpredictable. Our ability to operate and do business in China and use Chinese-owned 38 social media platforms may be adversely affected by changes in U.S. and Chinese laws and regulations such as those related to, among other things, taxation, import and export tariffs, custom duties, social media, environmental regulations, land use rights, intellectual property, currency controls, network security, employee benefits, hygiene supervision and other matters. In addition, we may not obtain or retain the requisite legal permits to continue to operate in China and costs or operational limitations may be imposed in connection with obtaining and complying with such permits. In addition, Chinese trade regulations are in a state of flux and we may become subject to other forms of taxation, tariffs and duties in China. Furthermore, the third parties we rely on in China may disclose our confidential information or intellectual property to competitors or third parties, which could result in the illegal distribution and sale of counterfeit versions of our products. If any of these events occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. See also “—Tariffs imposed by the U.S. government or a global trade war could increase the cost of our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.” In addition, the U.S. government has in the past implemented restrictions, and may implement still further restrictions, which affect conducting business with certain Chinese companies. Due to the uncertainty regarding the timing, content and extent of any changes in policy and regulatory restrictions, we cannot assure you that we will successfully mitigate any negative impact, including any ability to continue to procure items or services from entities linked to China or other designated countries. Depending upon their duration and implementation, such executive or regulatory actions could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our reliance on overseas manufacturing and supply partners, including vendors located in jurisdictions presenting an increased risk of bribery and corruption, exposes us to legal, reputational and supply chain risk through the potential for violations of federal and international anti-corruption law. We derive a significant portion of our merchandise for our owned brands from third-party manufacturing and supply partners in foreign countries and territories, including countries and territories perceived to carry an increased risk of corrupt business practices. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, prohibits U.S. corporations and their representatives from offering, promising, authorizing or making payments to any foreign government official, government staff member, political party or political candidate in an attempt to obtain or retain business abroad. Likewise, the SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice, OFAC, the U.S. Department of State, as well as other foreign regulatory authorities continue to enforce economic and trade regulations and anti‑corruption laws across industries. U.S. trade sanctions relate to transactions with designated foreign countries and territories as well as specially targeted individuals and entities that are identified on U.S. and other government blacklists, and those owned by them or those acting on their behalf. Notwithstanding our efforts to conduct our operations in material compliance with these regulations, our international vendors could be determined to be our “representatives” under the FCPA, which could expose us to potential liability for the actions of these vendors under the FCPA. If we or our vendors were determined to have violated OFAC regulations, the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, or any of the anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in the countries and territories where we and our vendors do business, we could suffer severe fines and penalties, profit disgorgement, injunctions on future conduct, securities litigation, bans on transacting certain business, and other consequences that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the costs we may incur in defending against any anti-corruption investigations stemming from our or our vendors’ actions could be significant. Moreover, any actual or alleged corruption in our supply chain could carry significant reputational harms, including negative publicity, loss of good will, and decline in share price. Expansion of our operations internationally will require management attention and resources, involves additional risks and may be unsuccessful. We have limited experience with operating in regions outside of the United States and do not have physical operations outside of the United States. If we choose to expand further internationally we would need to adapt to different local cultures, standards and policies. The business model we employ and the merchandise we currently offer may not have the same appeal to consumers outside of the United States. Furthermore, to succeed with customers in international locations, it likely will be necessary to locate fulfillment centers in foreign markets and hire local employees in those international centers and we may have to invest in these facilities before proving we can 39 successfully run foreign operations. We may not be successful in expanding into international markets or in generating revenue from foreign operations for a variety of reasons, including: • localization of our merchandise offerings, including translation into foreign languages and adaptation for local practices; • navigating shipping and returns in a more fragmented geography, particularly following the UK’s departure from the EU and if the EU were to lose other members or change its policies regarding the flow of goods across country borders; • different consumer demand dynamics, which may make our model and the merchandise we offer less successful compared to the United States; • competition from local incumbents that understand the local market and may operate more effectively; • regulatory requirements, taxes, trade laws, trade sanctions and economic embargoes, tariffs, export quotas, custom duties or other trade restrictions or any unexpected changes thereto; • laws and regulations regarding anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance; • differing labor regulations where labor laws may be more advantageous to employees as compared to the United States and increased labor costs; • more stringent regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and data security and access to, or use of, commercial and personal information, particularly in Europe; • changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions; and • risks resulting from changes in currency exchange rates. If we invest substantial time and resources to establish and expand our operations internationally and are unable to do so successfully and in a timely manner, our operating results would suffer. Tariffs imposed by the U.S. government or a global trade war could increase the cost of our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The U.S. government has in the past made, and may in the future make, significant changes in U.S. trade policy and has taken certain actions that could negatively impact U.S. trade, including imposing tariffs on certain goods imported into the United States. In retaliation, China has in the past implemented, and may in the future implement, tariffs on a wide range of American products. There is also a concern that the imposition of tariffs by the United States could result in the adoption of tariffs by other countries as well, leading to a global trade war. More specifically, the U.S. government has from time to time imposed significant tariffs on certain product categories imported from China, including apparel, footwear, accessories and beauty. Such tariffs could have a significant impact on our business, particularly the REVOLVE segment and our owned brands, of which a large portion are manufactured in China. While we attempt to renegotiate prices with suppliers or diversify our supply chain in response to tariffs, such efforts may not yield immediate results or may be ineffective. We might also consider increasing prices to the end consumer; however, this could reduce the competitiveness of our products and adversely affect net sales. If we fail to manage these dynamics successfully, gross margins and profitability could be adversely affected. As of the date of this report, tariffs have not had a material impact on our business, but increased tariffs or trade restrictions implemented by the United States or other countries could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot predict what actions may ultimately be taken with respect to tariffs or trade relations between the United States and China or other countries, what products may be subject to such actions or what actions may be taken 40 by the other countries in retaliation. Any further deterioration in the relations between the United States and China could exacerbate these actions and other governmental intervention. For example, the implementation of China’s national-security law in Hong Kong has created additional U.S.-China tensions and could potentially increase the risks associated with the business and operations of U.S.-based technology companies in China. The U.S. or foreign governments may take additional administrative, legislative, or regulatory action that could materially interfere with our ability to sell products in certain countries. Sustained uncertainty about, or worsening of, current global economic conditions and further escalation of trade tensions between the United States and its trading partners, especially China, could result in a global economic slowdown and long-term changes to global trade, including retaliatory trade restrictions that restrict our ability to operate in China. Any alterations to our business strategy or operations made in order to adapt to or comply with any such changes would be time-consuming and expensive and certain of our competitors may be better suited to withstand or react to these changes. Risks Related to Privacy and Our Technology If sensitive information, including such information about our customers, is disclosed or accessed without authorization, or if we or our third-party providers are subject to real or perceived cyberattacks or other security breaches or incidents, our customers may curtail use of our platform, we may be exposed to liability and our reputation would suffer. We collect, transmit and store personal and financial information provided by our customers, such as names, email addresses, the details of transactions and credit card and other financial information. Some of our third-party service providers, such as identity verification and payment processing providers, also regularly have access to customer data. Additionally, we maintain other confidential, proprietary, or otherwise sensitive information relating to our business and from third parties. In an effort to protect sensitive information, we rely on a variety of security measures, including encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties. However, advances in computer capabilities, increasingly sophisticated tools and methods used by hackers and cyber terrorists, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other developments may result in our failure or inability to adequately protect sensitive information. Our servers are located in close proximity to one another in Southern California and are vulnerable to power outages, telecommunications failures and catastrophic events. Like other online services, they are also vulnerable to computer viruses, unauthorized access, phishing or social engineering attacks, ransomware attacks, denial-of-service attacks and other real or perceived cyberattacks. Any of these incidents could lead to interruptions or shutdowns of our platform, loss, unavailability or corruption of data, or unauthorized access to or alteration, use, acquisition or disclosure of personal data or other sensitive information. Cyberattacks could also result in the theft of our intellectual property. We have been subject to attempted cyber, phishing or social engineering attacks in the past and may continue to be subject to such attacks in the future. If we gain greater visibility, we may face a higher risk of being targeted by cyberattacks. Advances in computer capabilities, new technological discoveries or other developments may result in cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated and more difficult to detect. We and our third-party service providers may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent all such cyberattacks, and we or they may face difficulties or delays in identifying and responding to cyberattacks and data security breaches and incidents. In particular, our vendors and service providers may also be the targets of cyberattacks, malicious software, phishing schemes, and fraud, and our third-party vendors’ and service providers’ systems and networks may be, or may have been, breached or contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our or their systems and networks. Our ability to monitor our vendors and service providers’ data security is limited, and, in any event, third parties may be able to circumvent those security measures, resulting in the unauthorized access to, misuse, acquisition, disclosure, loss, alteration, or destruction of our and our customers’ data, including confidential, sensitive, and other information about individuals. Moreover, techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to systems change frequently and may not be known until launched against us or our third-party service providers. Security breaches and incidents can also occur as a result of non-technical issues, including phishing attacks, social engineering, and other intentional or inadvertent actions by our employees, our third-party service providers, or their personnel. Our third-party service providers also face these risks. Additionally, with many of our employees now working remotely in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, we face increased privacy, data protection and data security risks. We are taking steps to monitor and enhance the security of our systems, information technology infrastructure, networks, and data, including with respect to remote access to systems and data. The unprecedented scale of remote work may, 41 however, require additional personnel and resources, which nevertheless cannot be guaranteed to fully safeguard all systems, information technology infrastructure, networks and data upon which we rely. We incur significant costs in an effort to detect and prevent security breaches and other security-related incidents and we expect our costs will increase as we make improvements to our systems and processes to prevent further breaches and incidents. In the event of a future breach or incident, we could be required to expend additional significant capital and other resources in an effort to prevent further breaches or incidents, which may require us to divert substantial resources. Moreover, we could be required or otherwise find it appropriate to expend significant capital and other resources to respond to, notify third parties of, and otherwise address the incident or breach and its root cause. Each of these could require us to divert substantial resources. We and our third-party service providers regularly experience cyberattacks aimed at disrupting our and their services. If we or our third-party service providers experience, or are believed to have experienced, security breaches or incidents that result in marketplace performance or availability problems or the loss or corruption of, or unauthorized access to or disclosure of, personal data or confidential information, people may become unwilling to provide us the information necessary to make purchases on our sites and our reputation and market position could be harmed. Existing customers may also decrease their purchases or close their accounts altogether. We could also face potential claims, investigations, regulatory proceedings, liability and litigation, and bear other substantial costs in connection with remediating and otherwise responding to any data security breach or incident, all of which may not be adequately covered by insurance, and which may result in an increase in our costs for insurance or insurance not being available to us on economically feasible terms or at all. Insurers may also deny us coverage as to any future claim. Any of these results could harm our growth prospects, financial condition, business and reputation. System interruptions that impair customer access to our sites or other performance failures in our technology infrastructure could damage our business, reputation and brand and substantially harm our business and results of operations. The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our sites, transaction-processing systems and technology infrastructure are critical to our reputation and our ability to acquire and retain customers, as well as maintain adequate customer service levels. We currently use two redundant third-party data center hosting facilities in Los Angeles County, California. If the facilities where the computer and communications hardware are located fail, or if we suffer an interruption or degradation of services at our main facility, we could lose customer data and miss order fulfillment deadlines, which could harm our business. Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, data loss, acts of war, break-ins, earthquake and similar events. For example, in September 2018, a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack caused our sites to be down for several hours, and we could be the subject of similar attacks in the future. In the event of a failure of our main facility, the failover to our back-up facility could take substantial time, during which time our sites could be completely shut down. Our back-up facility is designed to support transaction volume at a level slightly above our average daily sales, but is not adequate to support spikes in demand. The back-up facility may not process effectively during times of higher traffic to our sites and may process transactions more slowly and may not support all of our sites’ functionality. We use complex custom-built proprietary software in our technology infrastructure, which we seek to continually update and improve. We may not always be successful in executing these upgrades and improvements, and the operation of our systems may be subject to failure. In particular, we have in the past and may in the future experience slowdowns or interruptions in some or all of our sites when we are updating them, and new technologies or infrastructures may not be fully integrated with existing systems on a timely basis or at all. Additionally, if we expand our use of third-party services, including cloud-based services, our technology infrastructure may be subject to increased risk of slowdown or interruption as a result of integration with such services and/or failures by such third parties, which are out of our control. Our net sales depend on the number of visitors who shop on our sites and the volume of orders we can handle. Unavailability of our sites or reduced order fulfillment performance would reduce the volume of goods sold and could also materially adversely affect consumer perception of our brand. We may experience periodic system interruptions from time to time. In addition, continued growth in our transaction volume, as well as surges in online traffic and orders associated with promotional activities or seasonal trends in our business, 42 place additional demands on our technology platform and could cause or exacerbate slowdowns or interruptions. If there is a substantial increase in the volume of traffic on our sites or the number of orders placed by customers, we will be required to further expand, scale and upgrade our technology, transaction processing systems and network infrastructure. There can be no assurance that we will be able to accurately project the rate or timing of increases, if any, in the use of our sites or expand, scale and upgrade our technology, systems and infrastructure to accommodate such increases on a timely basis. In order to remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our sites, which is particularly challenging given the rapid rate at which new technologies, customer preferences and expectations and industry standards and practices are evolving in the eCommerce industry. Accordingly, we redesign and enhance various functions on our sites on a regular basis and we may experience instability and performance issues as a result of these changes. Any slowdown or failure of our sites and the underlying technology infrastructure could harm our business, reputation and our ability to acquire, retain and serve our customers, which could materially adversely affect our results of operations and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur. We are increasingly dependent on information technology, and if we are unable to protect against service interruptions, data corruption, cyber-based attacks or network security breaches, our operations could be disrupted. We rely on information technology networks and systems to market and sell our products, to process, transmit and store electronic and financial information, to manage a variety of business processes and activities and to comply with regulatory, legal and tax requirements. We are increasingly dependent on a variety of information systems to effectively process customer orders. We depend on our information technology infrastructure for digital marketing activities and for electronic communications among our personnel, customers, manufacturers and suppliers around the world. These information technology systems, some of which are managed by third parties, may be susceptible to damage, disruptions or shutdowns due to failures during the process of upgrading or replacing software, databases or components, power outages, hardware failures, computer viruses, attacks by computer hackers, other security breaches and incidents, telecommunication failures, user errors or catastrophic events. Any material disruption of our systems or the systems of our third-party service providers could disrupt our ability to track, record and analyze the products that we sell and could negatively impact our operations, shipment of goods, ability to process financial information and transactions, and our ability to receive and process retail customers’ orders and eCommerce orders or engage in normal business activities. If our information technology systems suffer damage, disruption or shutdown and we do not effectively resolve the issues in a timely manner, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected and we could experience delays in reporting our financial results. Our eCommerce operations are important to our business. Our website serves as an effective extension of our marketing strategies by exposing potential new consumers to our brand, product offerings and enhanced content. Due to the importance of our website and eCommerce operations, we are vulnerable to website downtime and other technical failures. Our failure to successfully respond to these risks could reduce eCommerce sales and damage our brand’s reputation. Additionally, the information technology networks and systems used in our business and operations, some of which are managed by third parties, may suffer cyberattacks and otherwise be subject to security breaches and incidents. Any such security breaches and incidents may result in, in addition to network and system disruptions, damage, and shutdowns, consequences such as loss or corruption of, or unauthorized access to or acquisition of, data stored or processed on those networks and systems. The risks described here are heightened due to the increase in remote working in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. See also “—If sensitive information, including such information about our customers, is disclosed or accessed without authorization, or if we or our third-party providers are subject to real or perceived cyberattacks or other security breaches or incidents, our customers may curtail use of our platform, we may be exposed to liability and our reputation would suffer.” We must successfully maintain, scale and upgrade our information technology systems and our failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We have identified the need to significantly expand, scale and improve our information technology systems and personnel to support recent and expected future growth. As such, we are in process of implementing, and will continue to invest in and implement, significant modifications and upgrades to our information technology systems and procedures, including replacing legacy systems with successor systems, making changes to legacy systems or 43 acquiring new systems with new functionality, hiring employees with information technology expertise and building new policies, procedures, training programs and monitoring tools. These types of activities subject us to inherent costs and risks associated with replacing and changing these systems, including impairment of our ability to leverage our eCommerce channels, fulfill customer orders, potential disruption of our internal control structure, substantial capital expenditures, additional administration and operating expenses, acquisition and retention of sufficiently skilled personnel to implement and operate the new systems, demands on management time, the introduction of errors or vulnerabilities and other risks and costs of delays or difficulties in transitioning to or integrating new systems into our current systems. These implementations, modifications and upgrades may not result in productivity improvements at a level that outweighs the costs of implementation or at all. Additionally, difficulties with implementing new technology systems, delays in our timeline for planned improvements, significant system failures, or our inability to successfully modify our information systems to respond to changes in our business needs may cause disruptions in our business operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Some of our software and systems contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary applications. We use open source software in the applications we have developed to operate our business and will use open source software in the future. We may face claims from third parties demanding the release or license of the open source software or derivative works that we develop from such software (which could include our proprietary source code) or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to purchase a costly license, publicly release the affected portions of our source code, or cease offering the implicated solutions unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. In addition, our use of open source software may present additional security risks because the source code for open source software is publicly available, which may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to breach our website and systems that rely on open source software. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage and, if not addressed, could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results. Our software is highly complex and may contain undetected errors. The software underlying our sites is highly complex and may contain undetected errors or vulnerabilities, some of which may only be discovered after the code has been released. We rely heavily on a software engineering practice known as “continuous deployment,” meaning that we typically release software code multiple times per day. This practice may result in the more frequent introduction of errors or vulnerabilities into the software underlying our platform. Any errors or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after release could result in damage to our reputation, loss of customers, disruption to our eCommerce channels, loss of revenue or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our growth prospects and our business. Our business may be adversely affected if we are unable to provide our customers a cost-effective shopping platform that is able to respond and adapt to rapid changes in technology. The number of people who access the Internet through devices other than personal computers, including mobile phones, smartphones, handheld computers such as notebooks and tablets, video game consoles, and television set-top devices, has increased dramatically in the past few years. The smaller screen size, functionality, and memory associated with some alternative devices may make the use of our sites and purchasing our products more difficult. The versions of our sites developed for these devices may not be compelling to consumers. In addition, it is time consuming and costly to keep pace with rapidly changing and continuously evolving technology. We launched our mobile applications for REVOLVE and FWRD in 2013, and all of our North American sites and a majority of our international sites are mobile-optimized. In 2020 and 2021, a majority of orders were placed from a mobile device. However, we cannot be certain that our mobile applications or our mobile-optimized sites will be successful in the future. As existing mobile devices and platforms evolve and new mobile devices and platforms are released, it is difficult to predict the problems we may encounter in adjusting and developing applications for changed and alternative devices and platforms, and we may need to devote significant resources to the creation, support and maintenance of such applications. If we are unable to attract consumers to our websites through these devices or are 44 slow to develop a version of our websites that is more compatible with alternative devices or a mobile application, we may fail to capture a significant share of consumers in the fashion retail market, which could materially and adversely affect our business. Further, we continually upgrade existing technologies and business applications, and we may be required to implement new technologies or business applications in the future. The implementation of upgrades and changes requires significant investments. Our results of operations may be affected by the timing, effectiveness and costs associated with the successful implementation of any upgrades or changes to our systems and infrastructure. In the event that it is more difficult for our customers to buy products from us on their mobile devices, or if our customers choose not to buy products from us on their mobile devices or to use mobile products that do not offer access to our websites, our customer growth could be harmed and our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property If we cannot successfully protect our intellectual property, our business would suffer. We rely on trademark, copyright, trade secrets, confidentiality agreements and other practices to protect our brands, designs, proprietary information, technologies and processes. Our principal trademark assets include the registered trademarks “REVOLVE,” “FWRD” and multiple other brand names and our logos. Our trademarks are valuable assets that support our brand and consumers’ perception of our services and merchandise. We also hold the rights to the “revolve.com” and “fwrd.com” Internet domain names and various other related domain names, which are subject to Internet regulatory bodies and trademark and other related laws of each applicable jurisdiction. We have copyrights and other proprietary rights associated with our owned brands’ apparel and other products. If we are unable to protect our trademarks or domain names in the United States or in other jurisdictions in which we may ultimately operate, our brand recognition and reputation would suffer, we would incur significant expense establishing new brands and our operating results would be adversely impacted. We expend substantial resources in the development of new high-quality products but are susceptible to counterfeiting, which may harm our reputation for producing such products and force us to incur expenses in enforcing our intellectual property rights. Counterfeiting of our products may be difficult or costly to detect and any related claims or lawsuits to enforce our rights can be expensive to resolve, require management time and resources, and may not provide a satisfactory or timely result. Despite our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights, counterfeiters may continue to violate our intellectual property rights by using our trademarks or imitating or copying our products, which could harm our brand, reputation and financial condition. Since our products are sold internationally, we are also dependent on the laws of a range of countries and territories to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights. We currently have no registered copyrights, applications for copyright registrations, patents issued or applications pending in the United States or internationally. Any registered copyrights or patents that may be issued in the future may not provide us with any competitive advantages or may be challenged by third parties, and future registered copyrights or patent applications may never be granted. Even if issued, there can be no assurance that these registered copyrights or patents will adequately protect our intellectual property or survive a legal challenge, as the legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of registered copyright, patent and other intellectual property rights are uncertain. Our limited registered copyright and patent protection may restrict our ability to protect our technologies and processes from competition. We primarily rely on unregistered copyrights to protect our designs and products and on trade secret laws to protect our technologies and processes, including the algorithms we use throughout our business. Others may independently develop the same or similar designs, products, technologies and processes, or may improperly acquire and use information about our technologies and processes, which may allow them to provide products or services similar to ours, which could harm our competitive position. We may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights, and the efforts we take to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient. The inability to acquire, use or maintain our marks and domain names for our sites could substantially harm our business, financial condition and operating results. 45 We currently are the registrant of marks for our brands in numerous jurisdictions and are the registrant of the Internet domain name for the websites of revolve.com and fwrd.com and our other sites, as well as various related domain names. However, we have not registered our marks or domain names in all major international jurisdictions. Domain names generally are regulated by Internet regulatory bodies. As our business grows we may incur material costs in connection with the registration, maintenance and protection of our marks. If we do not have, or cannot obtain on reasonable terms, the ability to use our marks in a particular country, or to use or register our domain name, we could be forced either to incur significant additional expenses to market our products within that country, including the development of a new brand and the creation of new promotional materials and packaging, or to elect not to sell products in that country. Either result could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Furthermore, the regulations governing domain names and laws protecting marks and similar proprietary rights could change in ways that block or interfere with our ability to use relevant domains or our current brand. Also, we might not be able to prevent third parties from registering, using or retaining domain names that interfere with our consumer communications or infringe or otherwise decrease the value of our marks, domain names and other proprietary rights. Regulatory bodies also may establish additional generic or country-code top-level domains or may allow modifications of the requirements for registering, holding or using domain names. As a result, we might not be able to register, use or maintain the domain names that use the name REVOLVE, FWRD or the names of our other brands in all of the countries and territories in which we currently or intend to conduct business. We may be accused of infringing intellectual property or other proprietary rights of third parties. We are also at risk of claims by others that we have infringed their copyrights, trademarks or patents, or improperly used or disclosed their trade secrets, or otherwise infringed or violated their proprietary rights, such as the right of publicity. Our large network of social media influencer partners and our portfolio of owned brands increases these risks for us. The costs of supporting any litigation or disputes related to these claims can be considerable, and we cannot assure you that we will achieve a favorable outcome of any such claim. If any such claim is valid, we may be compelled to cease our use of such intellectual property or other proprietary rights and pay damages, which could adversely affect our business. Even if such claims were not valid, defending them could be expensive and distracting, adversely affecting our operating results. Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock The market price of our Class A common stock may be volatile or may decline steeply or suddenly regardless of our operating performance, and we may not be able to meet investor or analyst expectations. The market price of our Class A common stock has, and may continue to, fluctuate or decline significantly in response to numerous factors, including those described in this “Risk Factors” section, many of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our Class A common stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our Class A common stock include the following: • the impact of, including but not limited to the market volatility and economic disruption caused by, the COVID-19 pandemic; • actual or anticipated fluctuations in our customer base, the level of customer engagement, net sales or other operating results; • variations between our actual operating results and the expectations of securities analysts, investors and the financial community; • any forward-looking financial or operating information we may provide to the public or securities analysts, any changes in this information or our failure to meet expectations based on this information; 46 • actions of securities analysts who initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors; • whether investors or securities analysts view our stock structure unfavorably, particularly our dual-class structure and the significant voting control of our executive officers, directors and their affiliates; • additional shares of our Class A common stock being sold into the market by us or our existing stockholders, or the anticipation of such sales; • announcements by us or our competitors of significant products or features, technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments; • changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of companies in our industry, including our vendors and competitors; • price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole; • lawsuits threatened or filed against us; • developments in new legislation and pending lawsuits or regulatory actions, including interim or final rulings by judicial or regulatory bodies; • imposition of fines or other remedial measures as a result of the underpayment of customs duties; and • other events or factors, including those resulting from war, including the current conflict in Ukraine, or incidents of terrorism, or responses to these events. In addition, extreme price and volume fluctuations in the stock markets have affected and continue to affect many eCommerce and other technology companies’ stock prices. Often, their stock prices have fluctuated in ways unrelated or disproportionate to the companies’ operating performance. In the past, stockholders have filed securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business and seriously harm our business. Moreover, because of these fluctuations, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any forecasts we may provide to the market, or if the forecasts we provide to the market are below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated revenue or earnings forecasts that we may provide. In addition, the price of our Class A c ommon stock could decline if our results fail to meet investor expectations driven by certain investors and analysts having access to third-party credit card data used to estimate our net sales. Future sales of shares could cause our stock price to decline. Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock into the public market, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders, or the perception that such sales might occur, could cause our stock price to decline. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. All shares of common stock sold are freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the Securities Act, unless held by our “affiliates,” as that term is defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. The holders of all of 47 our Class B common stock have rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements for the public resale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of their shares of Class B common stock, or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file. If we register the offer and sale of shares for the holders of registration rights, those shares can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance. In addition, the shares subject to outstanding options and restricted stock units, or RSUs, and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans will become available for sale immediately upon the exercise of such options. We register the offer and sale of all shares of common stock that we may issue under our equity incentive plans and, as a result, the sale of shares to be issued under our equity incentive plans can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to the restrictions of Rule 144 under the Securities Act in the case of our affiliates. The dual class structure of our common stock concentrates voting control with our executive officers, directors and their affiliates, and it may depress the trading price of our Class A common stock. Our Class A common stock has one vote per share and our Class B common stock has ten votes per share. As of December 31, 2021, our co-chief executive officers and MMMK Development, Inc., an entity controlled by our co-chief executive officers, collectively beneficially owned approximately 45% of the outstanding shares of common stock and collectively controlled approximately 89% of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. Our co-chief executive officers therefore are able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or our assets, even though their stockholdings represent less than 50% of the number of outstanding shares of our capital stock. Our co-chief executive officers may have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests. This concentration of ownership will limit the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and may cause us to make strategic decisions that could involve risks to you or that may not be aligned with your interests. In addition, our dual class structure may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock as certain index providers have implemented restrictions with respect to the inclusion of companies with multiple-class share structures in certain of their indices. For example, S&P Dow Jones does not admit companies with multiple-class share structures to certain of its indices. Affected indices include the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600, which together make up the S&P Composite 1500. The dual class structure of our common stock makes us ineligible for inclusion in these indices and we cannot assure you that other stock indices will not take similar actions. It is unclear what effect, if any, these policies have on the valuations of publicly traded companies excluded from such indices, but it is possible that they may depress valuations, as compared to similar companies that are included. Further, given the sustained flow of investment funds into passive strategies that seek to track certain indices, exclusion from certain stock indices will likely preclude investment by many of these funds and could make our Class A common stock less attractive to other investors. As a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected. If securities or industry analysts either do not publish research about us or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business or our market, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our Class A common stock, the trading price or trading volume of our Class A common stock could decline. The trading market for our Class A common stock will be influenced in part by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. With a limited history operating as a public company, the impact of analyst research and reports on the trading market for our Class A common stock may be greater than on that of other companies in our sector. If one or more of the analysts initiate research with an unfavorable rating or downgrade our Class A common stock, provide a more favorable recommendation about our competitors or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our Class A common stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the trading price or trading volume of our Class A common stock to decline. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in preparing adequate disclosures when we are no longer able to use certain modified disclosure requirements permitted for emerging growth companies. 48 We ceased to be an emerging growth company in 2021. As an emerging growth company, we were able to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies including, but not limited to, not being required to have our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal controls over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation. As a public company without emerging growth company status, we are required to increase our disclosures in periodic reports, proxy statements and other SEC filings compared to our historical filings. These increased disclosure requirements may place a burden on our financial and management resources. If our additional disclosures in future SEC filings are perceived as insufficient or inadequate by investors or regulatory authorities, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to actions by stockholders or regulatory authorities. We have elected to take advantage of the “controlled company” exemption to the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listed companies, which could make our Class A common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price. Because we qualify as a “controlled company” under the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. In light of our status as a controlled company, in the future we could elect not to have a majority of our board of directors be independent or not to have a compensation committee or nominating and corporate governance committee. Accordingly, should the interests of our management and MMMK Development, Inc., an entity controlled by our co-chief executive officers, differ from those of other stockholders, the other stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listed companies. Our status as a controlled company could make our Class A common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price. Future securities issuances could result in significant dilution to our stockholders and impair the market price of our Class A common stock. Future issuances of shares of our Class A common stock or the conversion of a substantial number of shares of our Class B common stock, or the perception that these sales or conversions may occur, could depress the market price of our Class A common stock and result in dilution to existing holders of our Class A common stock. Also, to the extent outstanding options to purchase our shares of our Class A or Class B common stock are exercised or RSUs or other equity-based awards become vested, there will be further dilution. The amount of dilution could be substantial depending upon the size of the issuances or exercises. Furthermore, we may issue additional equity securities that could have rights senior to those of our Class A common stock. All of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the conversion of shares of Class B common stock subject to outstanding options have been registered for public resale under the Securities Act. Accordingly, these shares are able to be freely sold in the public market upon issuance as permitted by any applicable vesting requirements and subject to compliance with applicable securities laws. In addition, the holders of all of our Class B common stock have rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements for the public resale of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of their shares of Class B common stock or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file. Delaware law and provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our Class A common stock. Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our Class A common stock by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions include the following: • permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly created directorships; 49 • require super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws; • authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan; • eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders; • prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders; • provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our bylaws; • restrict the forum for certain litigation against us to Delaware; • reflect the dual class structure of our common stock; and • establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings. Any provision of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock. Our bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) is the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees. Our bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) is the exclusive forum for: • any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; • any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; • any action asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; and • any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine. These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find the exclusive-forum provision in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could seriously harm our business. Item 1B. UNRESOLV ED STAFF COMMENTS None. 50 Item 2. PR OPERTIES The following table sets forth information with respect to our facilities, all of which are used by both our REVOLVE and FWRD segments: Location Type Square Footage (approximate) Lease Expiration Cerritos, California Corporate headquarters and fulfillment center 281,100 2023 Cerritos, California Office space 38,700 2023 Cerritos, California Office and studio space 37,000 2032 Cerritos, California Office space 23,700 2023 Los Angeles, California Office space 42,200 2027 For the leases that are scheduled to expire in 2023, we may negotiate new lease agreements, renew existing lease agreements or use alternate facilities. We believe that our facilities are adequate for our needs and believe that we should be able to renew any of the above leases or secure similar property without an adverse impact on our operations. Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS For a description of our material pending legal proceedings, please see Note 7, Commitments and Contingencies , to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report. Item 4. MINE SAF ETY DISCLOSURES Not applicable. 51 PAR T II