Fourth-quarter sales at Pura Vida, the online seller of handmade bracelets, declined 4.2 percent to $30.9 million, according to the quarterly report of its parent, Vera Bradley.

The decline was primarily related to lower wholesale sales, partially offset by new store openings.

Pura Vida’s fourth-quarter operating loss was $49.8 million, compared to an operating income of $2.0 million a year ago with the latest quarter including write-offs. On a non-GAAP basis, Pura Vida’s fourth-quarter operating income was $400,000 compared to $2.8 million in the prior year.

Subsequent to the end of Fiscal 2023, in January 2023, we acquired the remaining 25 percent interest in Pura Vida from founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman for $10 million. Vera Bradley acquired a majority stake in Pura Vida in 2019.

Jacqueline Ardrey, Vera Bradley’s CEO, said on an analyst call, ” At Pura Vida, e-commerce trends improved over previous quarters due to strategic promotions; however, overall challenges continued to persist in our social and digital media effectiveness coupled with rising digital media costs. And, we experienced a year-over-year sales decline in our wholesale channel. On the plus side, Pura Vida Full-Line retail stores continued to perform ahead of our expectations, and they drove improved e-commerce traffic and revenues in their markets.

She added, “We also took the opportunity in the fourth quarter to reset and appropriately position the Pura Vida business for the future, by recording goodwill and trade name impairments and necessary inventory write-offs.”

Ardrey noted that Pura Vida during the year entered into several high-profile product collaborations, with brands such as Hello Kitty, Disney, and Harry Potter, and expanded its product offerings by launching a demi-fine collection and expanding assortments in engravable jewelry.

“We focused on building a more diverse, innovative, effective, and performance-based marketing program to drive Pura Vida e-commerce sales,” said Ardrey. “We began the process of implementing a comprehensive customer data platform to build a single, coherent, complete view of each Pura Vida customer so that we can better target and personalize marketing and become less reliant on third-party marketing.”

The project is scheduled for completion this spring. Pura Vida also continued to engage our micro-influencers, significantly expanded our TikTok presence, launched impactful ads on connected TV, optimized SMS, and aggressively explored other methods to effectively reach our customers.

Pura Vida also opened three new Pura Vida full-line stores during the year, bringing its full-line store count to four, which collectively are exceeding expectations. Said Ardrey, “These four stores are playing a role in driving new customer acquisition as we continue to diversify our marketing platforms, and they demonstrate the power a retail presence can have in driving digital sales, omnichannel loyalty, and spending.”