speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for Light in the Box's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Jenny Cai. Please go ahead, Jenny.

speaker
Jenny Cai
Investor Relations Host

Thank you, Operator. Hello everyone and welcome to Lighting the Box first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. The company's earnings results were released via Newswell Services earlier today and are available on the company's IR website at ir.lightingthebox.com. On the call from Lighting the Box today are Mr. Jian He, Chairman and CEO, Ms. Yuan Junye, Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Wenyu Liu, Chief Growth Officer. Mr. He will provide an overview of the company's strategies and recent developments, followed by Ms. Ye, who will go over its financial results. Following their prepared remarks, we'll open the call to questions. Before we proceed, please note that today's discussion may contain certain forward-looking made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the company's current expectations. To understand the factors that could cause results to materially differ from those in forward-looking statements, Please refer to the company's firm 20F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forelooking statements except as required under applicable law. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Lighting the Box Chairman and CEO, Mr. He. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jian He
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. The strong growth momentum that we produced in 2022 continued in the first quarter of 2023. Despite our complex global macroeconomic environments and the seasonality that our business typically experiences during the first couple of months of a year, against that backdrop, we had a record first quarter in terms of total revenues and revenues from apparel. Revenues grew 58% year over year to approximately 148 million, exceeding the high end of our guidance range. Apparel sales also continued to be strong, delivering a 77% increase year over year in the first quarter. With apparel sales making up a large portion of our product mix, our gross margin increased to 55.8%. From a macro standpoint, far-reaching economic uncertainties that drive more crucial spending patterns have made our value proposition especially resonant with our growing customer base. Accordingly, our outstanding financial performance reflects the attractiveness of our growing business operations, which are built on a foundation of robust value-for-money offering, quality customer cohorts, and innovative technologies. All these strengths come together to deliver affordable and convenient online shopping service to other target markets and effectively address increasing consumer demands for value-for-money items. Entering 2023, our strategy for the apparel category was focused on attracting buyers with affordable, comfortable, aesthetically-colleging items while elevating our shop experience on our online platforms and deepening customer engagement. Our affordable, value-oriented, fast fashion platform has been well received across our main markets, and we continue to build on this momentum. Going forward, we will advance our core capabilities and accelerate our top-line growth. At the same time, we are steadily laying a strong foundation to unlock additional growth opportunities and future profitability by leveraging our advanced technology capabilities in big data and AI algorithms. These modern technologies empower our ability in targeting, tracking, analyzing, and forecasting customers' shopping needs and preferences, while significantly improving our operational efficiency across our supply chain, merchandising, marketing, logistics, and customer service management, all of which underpin our core competitiveness in the global e-commerce market. We remain committed to our mission of providing our customers with convenient and modern ways to shop for a wide selection of products at attractive prices through our well-established online platform and mobile apps. With a sharp focus on improving user experience, we continue to create deeper and more meaningful engagement with our customers. We are confident in our strategy. outlook and revenue growth momentum as we walk to deliver long-term value to our shareholders in 2023 and beyond. With that, I will now hand the call over to Yuanjun to go through our financial results.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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