ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, when we refer to “we,” “our,” “us,” or “BARK” in this annual report on Form 10-K, we mean BARK, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
Overview
Our mission is to make all dogs happy
We believe that dogs and humans are better together and we aspire to be the world’s favorite dog brand. We are a team of dog-obsessed people committed to delivering personalization at scale by satisfying each dog’s distinct personality, preferences, and needs with the best products and services. Since our founding in 2011, we have happily served millions of dogs and their people.
We are an omnichannel brand that designs and develops proprietary products for dogs across two key categories: toys & accessories and consumables. All of our products are designed and developed in-house, and
BARK branded. We leverage an ever-growing collection of first-party data, customer insights, and machine learning to deliver personalized products and experiences tailored to the needs of each and every dog we serve. Our products are sold Direct-to-Consumer (“DTC”) and through our network of retail partners, which currently spans over 50,000 doors nationwide and online marketplaces including Amazon and Chewy.
We began our journey with BarkBox – a monthly-themed subscription of toys and treats, tailored to the needs of each customer based on their dog’s size, play style, allergies, and more. By viewing each dog as an individual, and by creating magical experiences for our customers, we have been able to build lasting relationships with millions of dogs and their parents. Our customer service (“Happy Team”) proactively engages around 200,000 customers each month. We use the valuable data from these customer interactions to inform the design and development of future products, and we leverage it along with machine learning technology to recommend additional products to our customers through cross-selling and Add-to-Box (“ATB”).
In addition to being one of the largest dog toy brands in the U.S. by revenue, we also play in exciting, and much larger categories in the consumables space, which include kibble, treats, toppers, supplements, and dental products. These categories have significantly increased our total addressable market and the number of customers we can serve. We believe that our growing first-party dataset, strong brand, and loyal customer base afford us a meaningful advantage and opportunity to win market share in these newer categories.
Our Industry
Large, growing, and resilient market for pet products:
According to the American Pet Products Association (“APPA”), annual spend on pets in the U.S. was approximately $152 billion in 2024, an increase of $3 billion, or approximately 3%, compared to 2023.
Dogs are the most popular pet in the U.S.:
According to the APPA, dogs are the most popular pet in the U.S., with approximately 68 million households having a dog as a member of their family. We believe we have an opportunity to significantly expand our customer base, both in the U.S. and globally.
Our Segments and Products
We operate two business segments: DTC and commerce. Our DTC business drives the majority of our revenues today, representing 85.9% of total revenue in fiscal 2025. While toys & accessories have driven the majority of revenues in this segment, we are increasingly focused on expanding our presence in consumables and services due to their larger addressable markets, less discretionary nature, and resilience to external pressures such as tariffs.
Our commerce business, which reflects the sale of BARK products in retail stores and other e-tailers, significantly broadens our customer reach and raises awareness for the BARK brand. Today, BARK products are sold in over 50,000 retail doors, including Target, Walmart, Kroger, Petco, and PetSmart. Additionally, we sell our products on other online platforms including Amazon and Chewy. This segment represented 14.1% of our total revenue in fiscal 2025, and we see a significant opportunity to grow our presence in retail. Today, the majority of our commerce revenue consists of selling our toys in retail. Last year, the Company began selling its new treat offering in over 2,400 Target and PetSmart doors nationwide. Since then, the Company has been expanding its treat offering in retail and anticipates further expansion of its treat and consumables presence in retail in the future.
Our Key Products:
Toys & Accessories (“toys”)—The majority of our revenue in the toys category is derived from BarkBox and Super Chewer, which are subscription products that feature monthly themed boxes of premium-quality BARK toys and treats that are delivered directly to a dog’s home. Customers have the option to subscribe to these products on a one month, three month, six month, or twelve month basis. During the life of their subscription, we offer our customers incremental products via ATB, which allows us to cross-sell customers across our full portfolio of products including kibble, treats, toppers, dental, and more.
We also sell toys through our network of retail partners. Today, the commerce segment accounts for 14% of total revenue. This distribution channel allows us to reach new customers and introduce them to the BARK brand.
Our toys & accessories category also includes revenue derived from the sale of other products such as beds, leashes, apparel, and other accessories.
This category generated approximately $262.3 million of revenue in fiscal 2025, down 8% compared to fiscal 2024. While toys & accessories remain a core component of our offering and brand identity in fiscal 2026, we are actively reallocating resources toward our consumables and services categories as we expect toys to face headwinds due to macroeconomic factors, shifting consumer behavior, and newly imposed tariffs on imports from China, where the majority of our toys are currently sourced. The allocation between Toys & Accessories and Consumables includes estimates and was determined utilizing data on stand-alone selling prices that the Company charges for similar offerings, and also reflects historical pricing practices.
Consumables—The majority of our consumables revenue today is derived from the treats and chews that are included in our BarkBox and Super Chewer boxes. Over the past several years, the Company has expanded into new and larger consumables markets such as kibble, toppers, supplements and dental products. The Company sells its consumables products both DTC (through Bark.co) and through its retail footprint.
Treats— Includes treats and chews included in our BarkBox and Super Chewer boxes, as well as the sale of treats on our Bark.co. Many of our treats feature monthly themes, similar to our toys. Today, BARK is one of the largest treat brands in the U.S. by revenue. The Company also began selling its treats in over 2,400 doors nationwide in Spring of 2024. The Company has been expanding its treat offering among other partners, including Amazon, Chewy, and Meijer and anticipates further expansion in the year ahead.
Toppers—Includes meal-enhancing sprinkles, broths, and bites that are added to a dog’s meal to enhance the flavor of their food. These toppers are often single ingredient proteins that can be easily added to a dog’s existing meal plan. Toppers are particularly beneficial for picky eaters.
Supplements—Includes a variety of dog supplements such as hip and joint support, and skin and coat support. These products are often targeted at specific breeds that are prone to certain ailments.
Kibble—We sell a variety of kibble, priced to compete with the premium category. Our kibble can be purchased on an individual or autoship basis
Dental—Also known as BARK Bright, this category includes a variety of chews and toothpastes aimed at improving your dog’s dental health. BARK Bright eliminates the arduous task of brushing a dog’s teeth while still effectively fighting germs and bad breath. Our BARK Bright dental kit provides an innovative regimen for dog dental care.
Overall, we see significant runway in our consumables category in both our Direct to Consumer and commerce segments, long-term. As of fiscal 2025, consumables represent approximately one-third of total revenue and are sourced almost entirely from domestic partners, providing greater insulation from geopolitical risks and tariff impacts.
BARK Air—Announced in April 2024, BARK Air is a first-of-its kind air travel experience tailored to dogs. The Company is partnered with several charter companies offering premium flights for customers and their dogs. Interested parties can book flights at dogsflyfirst.com. Our charter partners are responsible for all aircraft, pilots, maintenance, and insurance, allowing BARK to focus on creating a great travel experience for dogs and their people worldwide. We believe this initiative exemplifies the Company’s dog-first approach to curating the best products and services. In its first fiscal year, BARK Air generated $5.8 million of revenue with strong utilization rates and customer demand. As our flagship entry into the services category, BARK Air is part of a broader strategy to expand into premium, differentiated dog services. With new routes, expanded partnerships, and high early engagement, we believe BARK Air and future services represent a meaningful long-term growth opportunity. This category is currently included in our Direct to Consumer segment.
Overall, we see significant runway in our consumables category long-term, and anticipate the majority of our future to be driven by these product categories along with services, like BARK Air.
Our Competitive Strengths
Ever-Growing Data Drives Personalization at Scale:
We know the names, age, breed, birthdays, play style, allergies, and more for millions of dogs. We believe that this is a key competitive advantage as it enables us to deliver highly personalized products and experiences for each and every dog that we serve. We are able to tailor our products to each customer by collecting proprietary product and customer data with each interaction. We also leverage our machine learning technology and first-party data set to compare dogs’ attributes against our available inventory when recommending products for purchase via cross-selling or ATB. In addition, we believe that personalization requires more than curation. We apply our data-driven customization approach to our product design and development as well, so that our products themselves, and not just our recommendations, are tailored to meet particular dog attributes that have been expressed to us.
Deep Customer Relations Drive Retention and Lifetime Value:
Our strong customer relationships are at the heart of what we do. Our Happy Team proactively engages hundreds of thousands of customers each month. We get to know their dog’s preferences based on breed, size, age, play style, allergies, and more. This allows us to personalize our products and experiences for each customer, which we believe drives stronger retention and lifetime value.
In-House Product Design and Development:
All of our products are designed and developed in-house, and branded BARK, which helps drive our strong gross margins versus companies primarily selling third-party products. We believe that our data and insights have enabled us to design and make superior products for dogs as well as to create new products that dogs and their dog parents love. By employing an in-house team of world-class designers to design our products and having them made exclusively for us, rather than selling third-party products, we have created a collection of high-quality, unique, and cleverly-themed products, with strong brand association and higher potential for profitability. By designing our own products, we have the opportunity to achieve higher price points, therefore expanding our gross margins.
Omnichannel:
While the majority of our revenues are driven by our DTC business, we derived $68 million, or 14.1% of our revenue from the sale of BARK products in retail stores and other e-tailers in fiscal 2025. The Company currently sells products in over 50,000 retail doors nationwide, including Target, Walmart, Kroger, Petco, and PetSmart. We also sell our products on other online platforms including Amazon and Chewy. We believe that these partnerships significantly broaden our customer reach and raise awareness for the BARK brand. The Company also generates a similar contribution margin across its DTC and commerce segments. Additionally, in fiscal 2025, the Company migrated to Shopify, consolidating five previously siloed properties—BarkBox, Super Chewer, BARK Bright, BarkFood, and BarkShop—under one domain: Bark.co. This transition provides modern tools like Shop Pay and Apple Pay, simplifies cross-selling, and improves visibility into our full product suite. We believe this platform will be an important enabler of future growth in our DTC segment.
Growth Opportunities
We strive to be a dog parent’s partner from those first days with a puppy throughout their dog’s entire adult life. BARK seeks to be there every step of the way serving dogs with the best products and services. Our ambition is to grow BARK to be the world’s favorite dog brand. We are focused on several key areas that we believe will be significant drivers to our business, long-term.
Growth across our consumables products:
While we are one of the largest treat companies in the U.S. by revenue today, we have only just begun to tap into the broader consumables opportunity. With the introduction of innovative new products across kibble, toppers,
supplements, and dental products, we have significantly increased our addressable market and the number of customers we can serve. In the near-term, one of our biggest opportunities is to grow our consumables presence in retail. We currently sell our treats across 2,400 Target and PetSmart doors, and aim to expand our consumables presence across our retail footprint. While these product lines are relatively small for BARK today, we see significant opportunity to grow these products, long-term.
Expansion in our Commerce Segment
In fiscal 2025, revenue from the sale of BARK products through our retail and e-commerce partners totaled $68 million, or 14.1% of our total revenue. This reflects a 27.2% increase compared to fiscal 2024. We expect this channel to contribute an increasingly significant portion of our revenue moving forward, driven by continued expansion of our product assortment and retail presence with existing partners, as well as the addition of new partners both domestically and internationally.
Unified Customer Experience Expected to Enhance Cross-Selling and Awareness:
Historically, BARK operated five siloed businesses and customer experiences – BarkBox, SuperChewer, Bark Bright, BarkFood, and BarkShop. Each of these businesses had distinct websites, dashboards, and logins. We recently unified our brand under the Bark.co domain, which is run on Shopify. Now, all of our products are available under one roof, and on a modern technology solution. This will improve the customer experience, raise awareness of our full suite of products, and enhance our cross-selling capabilities. The new platform also enables us to offer important features like Shop Pay and Apple Pay.
Business Strategy
The Company’s is focused on enhancing profitability, strengthening its operating model, and positioning the business for long-term growth and value creation. In fiscal 2025, the Company achieved its first full year of positive Adjusted EBITDA, driven by improvements in operational efficiency, gross margin, and cost structure. As part of a strategic shift, the Company is reducing its reliance on promotion-driven direct-to-consumer subscription models and reallocating resources toward categories and channels that offer scalability, consumer reach, and resilience—particularly consumables, services, and retail commerce.
The Company is accelerating growth in its consumables business, which is primarily sourced in the United States and less exposed to global trade volatility, and is expanding its retail distribution footprint through partnerships with leading retailers. In addition, the Company is investing in new service offerings, such as BARK Air, and maintaining a lean operating model to support disciplined capital allocation. These strategic initiatives are intended to preserve profitability and position the business to deliver sustained long-term value.
Our People and Culture
The Team
As dog people, BARK employees join the company because they are aligned with our mission to make all dogs happy. The work we are doing is inherently joyful, optimistic, and humorous because our primary customers, dogs, possess those same characteristics. To that end, our company culture is centered around service, creativity, and a high level of ambition to serve all dogs and their humans.
At the end of fiscal 2025, BARK employed approximately 691 full-time and part-time employees, with 300 employees based in the U.S. and 377 employees based in the Philippines. Our employee population includes approximately 426 BARK Happy Ambassadors and their leadership, 40 engineers, data scientists, information security, and technology staff, 59 operations employees, and 166 marketing, creative, general, and administrative employees. As of March 31, 2025, 69% of our employees, 30% of our management team, and 43% of our Board of Directors identified as female or nonbinary.
Employee Engagement
Team communication is frequent and direct, allowing for a high level of transparency and feedback. We engage with employees through periodic surveys to measure employee engagement, receive feedback, and respond to employee concerns effectively. We leverage these data points to continuously evolve our policies and practices to meet employee needs and align with BARK team values. Though most of the team has worked remotely since March 2020, we currently use our offices in New York, New York and Columbus, Ohio for regular team collaboration, all hands meetings, workshops and more.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
At BARK, we recognize that people, like dogs, should be celebrated for their differences and the diverse life experiences they bring to work each day. We advocate for and celebrate a culture of inclusiveness for all people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, family status, religion, ethnicity, national origin, physical ability, veteran status, age, or love of cats as we work toward one common goal: to make every single dog as happy as they make us. We do this by focusing on four key areas:
•Diversity Sourcing & Recruitment: Promote an inclusive approach to hiring diverse talent through our recruiting processes and sourcing pools.
•Continuous Learning & Communication: Make diversity and inclusion everyone’s responsibility by providing training and educational opportunities.
•Employee Resource Groups: Provide employees with opportunities and resources to build a shared, supportive community while also advancing the team’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion mission.
•Accountability: Ensure accountability while committing to focus on retention, advancement, and equity.
BARK is committed to paying employees fairly for their work. Our Total Rewards team determines and regularly reviews all compensation based on a leveling and benchmarking system guided by market insights from third-party experts and tools. On a regular basis, we review all grants of equity for parity across gender and race to ensure that we are taking a consistent approach to compensation for all team members based on market data, role, and level.
Manufacturing
BARK purchases substantially all of its merchandise directly from third-party manufacturers. Some of these suppliers operate their own manufacturing facilities and others subcontract the manufacturing to other parties. BARK’s manufacturers generally agree to terms that are substantially similar to its standard manufacturer terms, which govern its business relationships. BARK has long-standing relationships with a base of vendors that BARK believes to be mutually satisfactory.
All of our exclusive products are required to be produced according to BARK’s specifications, and our manufacturers warrant that such products will perform in accordance with BARK’s specifications. Our manufacturing and supplier contracts are generally on multi-year terms and provide BARK with the additional right to terminate the agreement for uncured material breaches. We require that all of our manufacturers comply with applicable laws and BARK generally has the right to audit the suppliers’ facilities.
Distribution and Inventory Management
BARK currently utilizes global third-party logistics providers to warehouse and distribute finished products from their distribution facilities to support BARK’s domestic operations. These logistics providers manage various distribution activities including product receipt, warehousing, assembly, certain limited product inspection activities, and coordinating outbound shipping.
BARK manages its inventory levels by analyzing product sell-through, forecasting demand, analyzing product ratings, and placing orders with our manufacturers before BARK receives firm orders from customers to ensure sufficient availability.
Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property
We believe that our rights to our intellectual property, including trademarks and domain names, as well as contractual provisions and restrictions on access to our proprietary technology, are important to our marketing efforts to develop brand recognition and differentiate our brand from competitors. BARK owns a number of trademarks that have been registered, or for which registration applications are pending, in the United States as well as in certain foreign jurisdictions. These registered or pending trademarks, standardized and stylized, include, among others, “BARK,” “BARKBOX,” “BARK BRIGHT,” “BARKEATS,” “BARK SUPER CHEWER,” “SUPER CHEWER,” and “BARKPOST.” The current registrations of these trademarks are effective for varying periods of time and may be renewed periodically, provided that we, as the registered owner, or our licensees where applicable, comply with all applicable renewal requirements including, where necessary, the continued use of the trademarks in connection with similar goods. We expect to pursue additional trademark registrations to the extent we believe such registrations would be beneficial and cost-effective.
In addition to trademark protection, we own numerous domain names, including www.bark.co, www.air.bark.co www.barkbox.com, www.barkshop.com, and www.dogsflyfirst.com. We also enter into, and rely on, confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with our employees, consultants, contractors and business partners to protect our trade secrets, proprietary technology and other confidential information. We further control the use of our proprietary technology and intellectual property through provisions in both customer terms of use on our websites and in agreements with our vendors.
We believe that our intellectual property has substantial value and has significantly contributed to BARK’s success to date. We continually engage with manufacturers to develop and market better quality dog products under our brand names to better serve our customers at a lower price.
Competition
The dog products industry is highly competitive, fragmented, and spread across four primary segments:
•supermarkets, warehouse clubs, and mass merchants;
•specialty pet store chains;
•traditional or neighborhood pet stores; and
•subscription service businesses and e-retailers.
We believe that the principal competitive factors in BARK’s market are product selection and quality, customer service, price, brand awareness and loyalty, reliability and trust, convenience, and speed at which orders are delivered to our customers. We believe that BARK differentiates itself from our competitors by the strength of our brand, customer relationships and engagement, proprietary branded products, data-driven design and marketing, and achieving a high level of performance with regard to these competitive factors.
Government Regulation
Our business is subject to foreign and domestic laws and regulations applicable to companies conducting business on the Internet. Jurisdictions vary as to how, or whether, existing laws governing areas such as personal privacy and data security, consumer protection or sales, and other taxes, among other areas, apply to the Internet and e-commerce, and these laws are continually evolving. Related laws may govern the manner in which we store or transfer sensitive information, or impose obligations on us in the event of a security breach or an inadvertent disclosure of such information. International jurisdictions impose different, and sometimes more stringent, consumer and privacy protections. Additionally, tax regulations in jurisdictions where we do not currently collect state or local taxes may subject us to the obligation to collect and remit such taxes, or to additional taxes, or to requirements intended to assist jurisdictions with their tax collection efforts. New legislation or regulations, the application of laws from jurisdictions whose laws do not currently apply to our business, or the application of existing laws and regulations to the Internet and e-commerce generally could result in significant additional taxes on our business. Further, we could be subject to fines or other payments for any past failures to comply with these requirements. The
continued growth of and demand for e-commerce is likely to result in more laws and regulations that impose additional compliance burdens on e-commerce companies.
In addition, we are subject to a broad range of federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations intended to protect public health, natural resources and the environment. Our operations, including our manufacturing outsourcing partners, are subject to regulation by OSHA, the FDA, the USDA, and by various other federal, state, local, and foreign authorities regarding the processing, packaging, storage, distribution, advertising, labeling and import of its products, including food safety standards.
Public Filings
Copies of the our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports are made available free of charge at https://investors.bark.co/financials/sec-filings/default.aspx as soon as reasonably practicable after being filed electronically with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Our reports are also available free of charge on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. Information on our website is not incorporated into this Form 10-K.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this annual report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Our business, prospects, financial condition, or operating results could be harmed by any of these risks, as well as other risks not known to us or that we consider immaterial as of the date of this annual report on form 10-K. The trading price of our securities could decline due to any of these risks, and, as a result, you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. This annual report on Form 10-K 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 a number of factors, including the risks described below. See also "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
Risks Related to Our Strategy
Our ability to execute our strategy depends on successfully navigating numerous challenges and uncertainties.
Our past operating performance may not be indicative of our future operating performance, which depends on our ability to execute our strategy while successfully navigating numerous challenges and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the following:
•our migration of current and future customers to our unified platform;
•costs or other issues with acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers;
•adverse impacts on shipping and fulfillment services and costs, including related to the imposition of current tariffs and the uncertainty relating to such tariff rates in the future, and shipping lane constraints and/or labor disputes;
•changes in consumer trends and preferences and/or discretionary spending, which would negatively impact our revenue;
•interruptions in our business due to technology failures, cybersecurity breaches or labor shortages;
•our ability to retain existing suppliers and attract new suppliers and scale our supply chain;
•our ability to develop a unified, scalable, high-performance technology and fulfillment infrastructure;
•our ability to hire and retain talented, experienced people at all levels of our organization; and
•the imposition of new or increased tariffs that disrupt our supply chain, or negatively impact our revenue and profitability; and
•deterioration of the macro-economic environment resulting in disruptions in global trade (in particular due to the imposition of tariffs and uncertainty relating to such tariffs), inflation, increasing interest rates, instability in the banking system or financial markets, changes in the labor markets, and political, economic and social instability, such as wars, armed conflicts or pandemics, in particular as such changes impact our
revenue through reduced consumer discretionary spending, our cost structure or our supply chain.
If we fail to meet the challenges or navigate the uncertainties described above, as well as those described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be materially adversely affected.
We may fail to acquire and retain customers in a cost-effective manner.
In order to acquire and/or retain our customers, we have made, and expect to continue to make, significant investments to acquire and retain our customers. We must appropriately, effectively and efficiently allocate our marketing spend for multiple products and services, including: selecting the right marketplace, media and specific media vehicle in which to advertise; identifying the most effective and efficient level of spending in each marketplace, media and specific media vehicle; determining the appropriate creative message and media mix for advertising, marketing and promotional expenditures; managing marketing costs, including creative and media expenses, in order to maintain acceptable customer acquisition costs. If the costs of acquiring or retaining our customers exceeds our expectations, we may not be able to acquire or retain the necessary number of customers to purchase products or services in volumes sufficient to grow our business and generate the scale necessary to achieve operational efficiency and/or our margins could decrease, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We depend on various digital channels to reach and engage current and potential customers.
As digital technology has become a dominant method for marketing, we use various online channels and third party platforms (social media, web, search engines, e-commerce) to engage current and potential customers. Search engines and social media platforms frequently evolve their algorithms, policies and procedures, which could lower our effectiveness in reaching and engaging the right audience for our products and services. Furthermore, the digital landscape is crowded with many companies and brands vying for consumer attention. Technology is also continually evolving, with new digital tools finding fast adoption by consumers, in particular with the emergence and adoption of new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. If we cannot effectively adapt to, or compete with, these new technologies, our ability to reach and engage current and potential customers will be limited, impacting our brand awareness and potentially forcing us to increase our marketing investment to acquire and retain our customers. The resulting increase in our marketing costs or decrease in our revenue could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be unable to sustain a high level of customer engagement, which could damage our brand and reputation.
Our strong customer relationships create a positive brand reputation which increases our average order volume, customer acquisition and retention and overall revenue growth. Continual elevation of the customer experience, quick responses to requests for support and proactive communications with our customers provide high customer satisfaction ratings and engagement. Disruptions in our supply chain, shipping delays, changes to the product or service experience, inadequate staffing or failure of our customer relationship management could harm our brand and reputation. Failure to maintain our high level of engagement and protect our brand and reputation with our customers would cause our revenue to decrease and/or our costs to increase, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may not be able to accurately predict consumer trends, successfully introduce new products and services, improve existing products and services, or expand into new offerings.
Our business growth partly depends on our ability to successfully introduce new products and services to our existing categories, and to improve and reposition our existing products to continue to meet the requirements of our customers. To be successful, we must accurately predict and respond to evolving consumer trends, demands and preferences, including predicting successful monthly themes for BarkBox and Super Chewer subscriptions that will resonate with our customers. The development and introduction of new products and expansion into new offerings and services also involves considerable costs. Our product development activities also could be impacted by competition from products with new features or new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), that might render our existing products less competitive or obsolete. We may not respond effectively to the technological requirements of the changing market. In addition, new products, offerings or services may not generate sufficient customer interest to become profitable or cover the costs of development and promotion, which could result in a decrease in customer retention, a reduction in purchases, and/or negatively affect our brand and reputation. If we are unable to anticipate, identify, develop or market products, or create new offerings or services that respond to
changes in customer requirements and preferences, or if our product introductions, repositions, or new offerings or services fail to gain consumer acceptance, we may be unable to grow our business as anticipated. Our revenue, margins and profitability may decline or not improve, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends on our ability to recruit and retain senior leaders and key employees.
We depend on the contributions of our senior leaders and key employees to achieve our strategy. Such individuals are in high demand and we may incur significant costs to recruit and retain them. All of our employees, including our senior leaders, are at-will employees who could terminate their employment relationship with us at any time. Their knowledge of, and contributions to, our business could be extremely difficult to replace. If we fail to retain talented senior leaders and other key employees, or if we cannot recruit such individuals, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
We face challenges due to our reliance on third party sales channels to sell and distribute our products.
We sell some of our products through a network of retailers and e-retailers (in addition to our direct sales channel). Our products are available through Amazon.com as well as in retail locations including Target, Petco, PetSmart, Costco, Walmart, Kroger and CVS, and many others. We depend on these indirect sales channel partners to distribute and sell our products to dog parents, which subjects us to a number of challenges, including:
•the sales and business practices, reputation or failure to comply with laws and regulations, of or by our sales channel partners, of which we may or may not be aware, may affect our business and reputation;
•adverse changes in our relationships with our sales channel partners could impact sales of our products;
•economic conditions, labor issues, natural disasters, severe weather events, regional or global pandemics, evolving consumer preferences, and purchasing patterns of our distribution partners, or competition between our sales channels, which result in sales channel disruptions;
•our sales channel partners, who also sell products offered by our competitors, and in the case of retailer house brands, may also be our competitors, which sales may compete with sales of our own products;
•certain of our sales channel partners could decide to de-emphasize the product categories that we offer, change their algorithmic logic, policies or procedures making our products harder for customers to find, or remove them from sales channels altogether; and
•building relationships with new channel partners or adapting to new distribution and marketing models in order to expand into new product categories and markets may require significant management attention and operational resources, and affect our accounting, including revenue recognition, gross margins, and the ability to make comparisons from period to period.
If we fail to effectively meet the challenges described above our business and future operating results will be materially adversely affected.
Risks Related to the Macro-Economic Environment
We rely on consumer discretionary spending, which may be adversely affected by economic downturns and other macroeconomic conditions, events, or trends.
Our business depends on consumer discretionary spending. Some of the factors that may negatively influence consumer spending include economic recession, inflation or stagflation, high levels of unemployment; increases in consumer debt levels; reductions in net worth, declines in asset values, and related market uncertainties; home foreclosures and reductions in home values; fluctuating interest rates and credit availability; bank failures; global disruptions, fluctuating fuel and other energy costs; fluctuating commodity prices; and general uncertainty regarding the overall current and future political and economic environment. Furthermore, any increases in consumer discretionary spending during times of crisis may be temporary, such as those related to government stimulus programs or tax cuts, and consumer spending may decrease when those programs or circumstances end. In addition, economic conditions in certain regions may be affected by natural disasters or severe weather events, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, earthquakes, and wildfires; public health crises; tariff and trade wars, and other major unforeseen events. Consumer purchases of discretionary items, including the merchandise that we offer, generally decline during recessionary periods or periods of economic uncertainty, when disposable income is reduced or when there is a reduction in consumer confidence. Any decline in consumer discretionary spending could negatively
impact our revenue, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be impacted by global disruptions or disasters.
The extent to which global disruptions or disasters or severe weather events, may impact our business will depend on nature, scope and geographic impact of the disruption or disaster. A significant portion of our workforce, and the workforce of our partners, continue to work remotely. Natural disasters, power outages, connectivity issues, or other events that impact our employees’ or our partners’ ability to work remotely, could disrupt business for a substantial period of time. Global disruptions or disasters or severe weather events, have had, and could have, unprecedented and unexpected effects on the global economy, civil society, labor markets, and certain industries. As a result, it is difficult to predict the magnitude or scope of the adverse impacts that these effects may have directly, or indirectly, on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Changes in trade policy or the imposition of tariffs could affect our revenue and profitability.
Recent and potential future changes to U.S. and international trade policy, including the imposition of new or increased tariffs, duties, or other trade restrictions, could increase our cost of goods sold and adversely affect our supply chain, particularly for products sourced internationally, such as those manufactured in China. The macroeconomic impacts of such tariffs could also reduce consumer discretionary spending, which would impact our revenue. While we have taken steps to mitigate potential cost increases and impacts to our revenue—such as negotiating with suppliers and diversifying sourcing and taking steps to avoid increasing the price of our products and services—these efforts may not fully offset the impact of such policies. Continued or expanded tariffs, retaliatory trade measures, or supply chain disruptions resulting from trade tensions could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Risks Related to our Manufacturing, Inventory and Supply Chain
Our business critically relies on a limited number of suppliers, manufacturers, and logistics partners.
We rely on a limited number of contract manufacturers, suppliers and logistics providers to manufacture and transport our products. We do not currently have alternative or replacement providers and we do not generally maintain long-term supply contracts with any of these providers. We face a number of risks relating to these providers, including:
•our suppliers, manufacturers or logistics partners could be impacted by a natural disaster or severe weather events, an epidemic or pandemic, or other interruptions at a particular location;
•our manufacturers and suppliers for our toys are primarily located in Asia, which introduces risks related to changes in trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs, geopolitical developments and differences in regulatory standards and legal systems;
•our existing supply channels may not be able to satisfy a significant increase in demand for our products, or we may need to replace an existing manufacturer or supplier. It could take a significant amount of time to identify a manufacturer or supplier that has the capability and resources to manufacture our products to our specifications in sufficient volume, and with acceptable quality control, technical capabilities, responsiveness and service, financial stability, regulatory compliance, and labor and other ethical practices;
•our current product purchases are centralized among a few manufacturers and suppliers to realize substantial cost savings, which exposes us to credit and other risks, including insolvency, financial difficulties, supply chain delays or other factors which may result in our manufacturers or suppliers not being able to fulfill the terms of their agreements with us; and
•we have signed a number of contracts whose performance depends upon third party suppliers delivering products on schedule to meet our contractual commitments. Concentration in the number of our manufacturers and suppliers could lead to delays in the delivery of products or components, and possible resultant breaches of contracts that we have entered into with our customers; increases in the prices we must pay for products; problems with product quality; and other concerns.
Any of the above risks could delay delivery of our products to customers in a timely and cost-effective manner, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may face supply chain disruptions.
We have limited control over our suppliers, contract manufacturers, and logistics partners, which subjects our supply chain to potential disruptions such as those that materialized during the COVID-19 pandemic and could similarly result from changes in trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs or uncertainties related to such tariffs. Such disruptions could result in failure to satisfy demand for our products; reduced control over delivery timing, product reliability, the manufacturing process and components used in our products; limited ability to develop comprehensive manufacturing specifications that take into account any materials shortages or substitutions; variance in the manufacturing capability of our third-party manufacturers; price increases; failure of a significant supplier, manufacturer, or logistics partner to perform its obligations for technical, market, or other reasons; misappropriation of our intellectual property; changes in local economic conditions in the jurisdictions where our suppliers, manufacturers, and logistics partners are located; the imposition of new laws and regulations, including those relating to labor conditions, quality and safety standards, imports, duties, tariffs, taxes, and other charges on imports, as well as trade restrictions and restrictions on currency exchange or the transfer of funds; and insufficient warranties and indemnities on components supplied to our manufacturers or performance by our partners. The results of the supply chain disruptions described above, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Shipping, which is subject to numerous risks, is a critical part of our business.
We currently rely on third-party national, regional and local logistics providers to deliver our products. We may not be able to negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with these providers, or these providers may experience performance problems or other difficulties in processing our orders or delivering our products to customers. In addition, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship merchandise to customers may be negatively affected by factors beyond our and these providers’ control, including severe weather events, natural disasters, fire, flood, power loss, earthquakes, pandemics, acts of war or terrorism, potential trade wars, including current or potential future tariffs, or other events specifically impacting our or other shipping partners, such as labor disputes, financial difficulties, system failures and other disruptions to the operations of the shipping companies on which we rely. We are also subject to risks of damage or loss during delivery by our shipping vendors. If the products ordered by our customers are not delivered in a timely fashion or are damaged or lost during the delivery process, our customers could become dissatisfied and cease buying our products. Further, there may be disruptions and delays in national, regional and local shipping, which may negatively impact our customers’ experience. Changes to the terms of our shipping arrangements and delays or failures in delivery of our products may have a material adverse effect on our margins and profitability, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be unable to manage the complexities created by our omnichannel operations.
Our omnichannel operations, such as offering our products through our websites, on third party websites and in traditional brick and mortar stores, create additional complexities in our ability to manage inventory levels, as well as certain operational issues, including timely shipping and refunds. Accordingly, our success depends to a large degree on continually evolving the processes and technology that enable us to plan and manage inventory levels and fulfill orders, address any related operational issues and further align channels to optimize our omnichannel operations. If we are unable to successfully manage these complexities, it may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
If we are unable to implement appropriate systems, procedures and controls, we may not be able to successfully offer our products, grow our business and account for transactions in an appropriate and timely manner.
Our ability to successfully offer our products, grow our business and account for transactions in an appropriate and timely manner requires an effective planning and management process and certain other automated management and accounting systems. We currently do not have a fully integrated enterprise resource planning system and certain other automated management and accounting systems. We periodically update our operations and financial systems, procedures and controls; however, our current procedures may not scale proportionately with our business growth or with becoming a public company. Our systems will continue to require automation, modifications and improvements to respond to current and future changes in our business. Failure to implement in a timely manner appropriate internal systems, procedures and controls could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may not be able to successfully optimize, operate and manage our fulfillment centers and shipping services.
If we do not optimize and operate our fulfillment centers and shipping services successfully and efficiently, it could result in excess or insufficient fulfillment capacity, an increase in costs and/or inventory shrinkage or impairment charges or harm to our business in other ways. In addition, if we do not have sufficient fulfillment or shipping capacity or experience a problem fulfilling or shipping 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 also anticipate the need to add fulfillment center and shipping capacity as our business continues to grow or as we respond to the current tariffs and/or uncertainties related to potential future tariffs. We may not be able to locate suitable facilities or services on commercially acceptable terms in accordance with our expansion plans, or recruit qualified managerial and operational supply personnel to support our expansion plans. If we are unable to secure new facilities for the expansion of our fulfillment and shipping operations, recruit qualified personnel to support any such facilities, or effectively control expansion-related expenses, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Industry
Our estimate of the size of our addressable market may prove to be inaccurate.
Data for retail sales of dog products is collected for most, but not all channels. As a result, it is difficult to accurately estimate the size of the market, and predict with certainty the rate at which the market for our products will grow (if at all). While our market size estimate is made in good faith and is based on assumptions and estimates we believe to be reasonable, this estimate may not be accurate. If our estimates of the size of our addressable market are not accurate, our potential for future growth may be less than we currently anticipate, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may not be able to compete effectively in the dog products and services industry.
The dog products and services industry, in particular online, is highly competitive and we expect this competition to increase. We compete with pet product retail stores, supermarkets, warehouse clubs and other mass and general retail and online merchandisers. We also compete with a number of specialty dog supply stores and independent dog stores, catalog retailers and other specialty e-retailers. As we expand our offerings and services (such as consumables and BARK Air), we will face additional competition. For example, in the consumables category, there are numerous brands and products that compete for shelf space and sales, with competition based primarily upon brand recognition and loyalty, product packaging, quality and innovation, taste, nutrition, breadth of product line, price and convenience. Many of these current competitors have, and potential competitors may have, longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger fulfillment infrastructures, greater technical capabilities, significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources and larger customer bases than we do, allowing our competitors to derive greater net sales and profits from their existing customer base, acquire customers at lower costs or respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in consumer preferences or habits. Our competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns and adopt more aggressive pricing policies (including but not limited to predatory pricing policies and the provision of substantial discounts), allowing them to build larger customer bases or generate gross profit from their customer bases more effectively than we do. Current and future competitors may also utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in ways that we cannot replicate, make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with others. If we fail to compete effectively, are required to offer promotions and other incentives or adopt more aggressive pricing strategies, our operating margins could decrease, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Information Technology and Cybersecurity
We are subject to risks related to online payment methods.
We currently accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit card, debit card, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Shop Pay and gift cards. As we offer new payment options to customers, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements, fraud and other risks. For certain payment methods, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower profitability. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. Furthermore, as our business changes, we may be subject to different rules under existing standards, which may require new assessments that involve costs above what we currently pay for compliance. In the future, as we offer new payment options to customers, including by way of integrating emerging
mobile and other payment methods, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements and fraud, if our customers re-use their login and password information across multiple websites, exposing us to breaches on other sites. If we fail to comply with the rules or requirements of any provider of a payment method we accept, if the volume of fraud in our transactions limits or terminates our rights to use payment methods we currently accept, or if a data breach occurs relating to our payment systems, we may, among other things, be subject to fines or higher transaction fees and may lose, or face restrictions placed upon, our ability to accept credit card payments from customers or facilitate other types of online payments. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition, and results of operations, could be materially adversely affected.
We rely on software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) technologies from third parties.
We rely on SaaS technologies from third parties in order to operate critical functions of our business, including site management, financial management services, credit card processing, customer relationship management services, supply chain services and data storage services. If these services become unavailable due to extended outages or interruptions or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms or prices, or for any other reason, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage our finances could be interrupted, our processes for managing sales of our offerings and supporting our customers could be impaired, our ability to communicate with our suppliers could be weakened and our ability to access or save data stored to the cloud may be impaired until equivalent services, if available, are identified, obtained and implemented. We are also subject to certain standard terms and conditions with these providers, who have broad discretion to change their terms of service and other policies with respect to us, which may be unfavorable. Any failure to maintain successful partnerships with our SaaS providers could impact our success and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Limitations on our use of “cookies” may impact our ability to cost-effectively acquire new customers.
The use of third-party “cookies” is the subject of litigation, regulatory scrutiny and industry self-regulatory
activities. Federal and state governmental authorities continue to evaluate and enact legislation regarding the privacy implications inherent in the use of third-party “cookies” and other methods of online tracking for behavioral advertising and other purposes. The U.S. government has enacted, or has considered or is 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 if widely adopted could result in making cookies and other methods of online tracking significantly less effective. This regulation of the use of cookies and other current online tracking and advertising practices, and litigation related to the same, or the loss of our ability to make effective use of services that employ such technologies could limit our ability to acquire new customers on cost-effective terms, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may be unable to maintain and scale our technology.
Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain and serve our customers depends on the reliable performance of our websites and mobile application and our cloud-based solutions. The operation of these systems, and the consolidation of our websites and related migration of our current and future customers to our unified platform, is complex and could result in operational failures. Interruptions or delays in these systems, or in the consolidation of our websites, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, undetected errors, design faults or other unexpected events or causes, could affect the security or availability of our websites and mobile application and prevent our customers from accessing our websites and mobile application. If sustained or repeated, these performance issues could reduce the attractiveness of our products and services. In addition, the costs and complexities involved in consolidating our websites or expanding and upgrading our systems may prevent us from doing so in a timely manner and may prevent us from adequately meeting the demand placed on our systems. Any web or mobile platform interruption or inadequacy that causes performance issues or interruptions in the availability of our websites or mobile application could reduce consumer satisfaction and result in a reduction in the number of customers using our products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our disaster recovery arrangements may be insufficient.
The occurrence of a natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, data loss, computer virus, an act of terrorism, cyberattack, vandalism or sabotage, act of war or any similar event, or a decision to close the third-party data centers on which we normally operate or the facilities of any other third-party provider without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our websites and mobile application. Cloud computing, in particular, is dependent upon having access to an Internet connection in order to retrieve data. If a natural disaster or severe weather events, global pandemic, blackout or other unforeseen event were to occur that disrupted our ability to obtain an Internet connection, we may experience a slowdown or delay in our operations. While we have some limited disaster recovery arrangements in place, our preparations may not be adequate to account for disasters or similar events that may occur in the future and may not effectively permit us to continue operating in the event of any problems with respect to our systems or those of our third-party data centers or any other third-party facilities. Our disaster recovery and data redundancy plans may be inadequate, and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur. If any such event were to occur to our business, our operations could be impaired, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The security of our and our partners’ computer networks and databases containing personal information may be compromised.
In the ordinary course of business, we and our vendors collect, process, and store certain personal information and other data relating to individuals, such as our customers and employees, including customer payment card information. We rely substantially on commercially available systems, software, tools, and monitoring to provide security for our processing, transmission, and storage of personal information and other confidential information. We, or our vendors, may suffer a data compromise from hackers or other unauthorized parties who gain access to personal information or other data, including payment card data or confidential business information, which may not be discovered in a timely fashion. In addition, cyber-attacks such as ransomware attacks could lock us out of our information systems and disrupt our operations, or the operations of the vendors or manufacturers on which we rely. The techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target, and we, and our vendors, may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Advances in computer capabilities, including as a result of artificial intelligence (AI), supercomputing, new technological discoveries, or other developments may result in the breach or compromise of the technology used or maintained by us to protect transactions or other sensitive data. We may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent rapidly evolving types of cyber-attacks. If our business partners work remotely, they may be more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. In addition, our vendors, or other third parties with whom we do business may attempt to circumvent security measures in order to misappropriate personal information, confidential information, or other data, or may inadvertently release or compromise such data. Compromise of our data security by third parties with whom we do business, failure to prevent or mitigate the loss of personal or business information, and delays in detecting or providing prompt notice of any such compromise or loss may disrupt our operations, damage our reputation, and subject us to litigation, government action, or other additional costs and liabilities that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
We may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights.
We rely on trademark, copyright and patent law, trade secret protection, agreements and other methods with our employees and others to protect our proprietary rights. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country and the protection of our intellectual property rights may require significant financial, managerial and operational expenditures. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies also present novel risks to the protection of our intellectual property rights. In addition, our efforts may not prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property rights and any of our intellectual property rights could be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative processes or litigation. Our patent and trademark applications may never be granted and the process of obtaining patent protection is expensive and time-consuming. We may be unable to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. Even if issued, these patents may not adequately protect our intellectual property, as the legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of patent protection are uncertain. In addition, others may independently develop or otherwise acquire equivalent or superior technology. Our confidentiality agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our proprietary information, technologies and processes and may not provide an adequate remedy in
the event of unauthorized disclosure of such information. We might be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights and we may be unable to discover or determine the extent of any infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights. Failure to protect our intellectual property rights or costs associated with such protection could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations.
Third parties have from time to time claimed, and may claim in the future, that we have infringed their intellectual property rights, including through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. These claims, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in considerable litigation costs, injunctions against us or the payment of damages or royalties by us, require significant amounts of management time or divert significant operational resources or cause expensive changes to our business model. In addition, we may be unable to obtain or utilize on terms that are favorable to us, or at all, licenses or other rights with respect to intellectual property we do not own. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims. Any payments we are required to make and any injunctions against us could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Government Regulation and Legal Proceedings
We are subject to federal and state and foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, advertising and consumer protection.
We rely on a variety of marketing techniques, including email and social media marketing and postal mailings, which are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations. A variety of federal and state laws and regulations also govern our collection, use, retention, sharing and security of consumer data, particularly in the context of the online advertising that we rely on to attract new customers. These laws and regulations are constantly evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations, in particular from one jurisdiction to another, and may conflict with other laws and regulations. In addition, various federal and state 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, consumer protection, and advertising. For example, the State of California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), which requires companies that process information on California residents make new disclosures to customers about the collection of their data, use and sharing practices, and allow customers to opt out of certain data sharing with third parties and provides a new cause of action for data breaches. Further, the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”) significantly amends the CCPA and imposes additional data protection obligations on companies doing business in California, including additional consumer rights processes and opt outs for certain uses of sensitive data. It also creates a new California Privacy Protection Agency specifically tasked to enforce the law, which could result in increased regulatory scrutiny of businesses in the areas of data protection and security. Similar laws have been proposed in other states and at the federal level, and if passed, such laws may have potentially conflicting requirements that could make compliance challenging. We are also subject to consumer protection laws that may affect our sales and marketing efforts, including laws related to subscriptions, billing, and auto-renewal. These laws, as well as any changes in these laws, could adversely affect our business model and make it more difficult for us to retain and attract new customers. Our practices and procedures to comply with these laws and regulations may not always be effective, particularly as the legal landscape continues to evolve. In addition, some of our internal processes are manual, which could result in employee error and internal compliance failures. Any failure, or perceived failure, to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any federal or state privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection could adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, liabilities, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, customers, suppliers or others, or may require us to change our operations and/or cease using certain data. Any such claims, proceedings or actions could further harm our reputation and brand, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of such proceedings or actions, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, result in a loss of customers and suppliers and 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 our 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. Any harm to our reputation or brand, being subject to regulatory action and incurring related fees, distraction of our management and
loss of customers or suppliers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to product safety, labor, or other laws.
The products we sell to our customers are subject to regulation by the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and similar state and international regulatory authorities. As such, our products could be subject to recalls and other remedial actions. Product safety, labeling, and licensing concerns may result in our voluntarily removing selected products from our inventory. Recalls or voluntary removal of products can result in, among other things, lost sales, diverted resources, potential harm to our reputation, increased customer service costs and legal expenses. In addition, some of the merchandise we sell may expose us to product liability claims, litigation or regulatory actions. Although we maintain liability insurance, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms or at all. In addition, some of our agreements with our vendors may not indemnify us from product liability for a particular vendor’s merchandise or our vendors may not have sufficient resources or insurance to satisfy their indemnity and defense obligations. In addition, 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. Furthermore, the failure of any vendors to provide safe and humane factory conditions at their facilities could damage our reputation with our customers and result in legal claims against us. Our international relationships also require us to overcome logistical and other challenges based on differing languages, cultures, legal and regulatory schemes and time zones. Foreign labor laws, standards and customs may vary greatly from those in the U.S. The U.S. or foreign countries could enact legislation or impose regulations, including unfavorable labor regulations, tax policies or economic sanctions that could have an adverse impact on our ability to conduct our business in the countries in which we have relationships. The difficulties inherent in complying with labor, safety and other laws, or consequences resulting from any failure to comply with those laws could result in increased costs, disruptions in our relationships with our vendors, and harm to our brand and reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to extensive governmental regulation.
We are subject to a broad range of federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations intended to protect public and worker health and safety, natural resources and the environment. Our operations, including our manufacturing partners, are subject to regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture and by various other federal, state, local and foreign authorities regarding the processing, packaging, storage, distribution, advertising, labeling and export of our products, including food safety standards. In addition, we and our manufacturing partners are subject to additional regulatory requirements, including environmental, health and safety laws and regulations administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state, local and foreign environmental, health and safety legislative and regulatory authorities and the National Labor Relations Board, covering such areas as discharges and emissions to air and water, the use, management, disposal and remediation of, and human exposure to, hazardous materials and wastes, and public and worker health and safety. Violations of, or liability under, any of these laws and regulations may result in administrative, civil or criminal fines, penalties or sanctions against us, revocation or modification of applicable permits, licenses or authorizations, environmental, health and safety investigations or remedial activities, voluntary or involuntary product recalls, warning or untitled letters or cease and desist orders against operations that are not in compliance, among other things. Such laws and regulations generally have become more stringent over time and may become more so in the future, and we may incur (directly, or indirectly through our manufacturing partners) material costs to comply with current or future laws and regulations or in any required product recalls. Complying with the current laws and regulations, and potential future changes to these laws and regulations, or failing to comply with these laws and regulations, could impose significant limitations and/or require changes to our business, which may involve substantial expenses, make our business more costly and less efficient to conduct, and compromise our growth strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be adversely affected by changes in tax laws, rules or regulations.
Existing tax laws, rules or regulations are subject to interpretation by tax authorities or amendment, repeal, or new enactments. For example, the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. required us
to collect sales tax in many jurisdictions despite our lack of a physical presence in such jurisdictions. Also, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may limit our ability to use our substantial net operating losses to offset potential future taxable income. We are further dependent on the ability to generate taxable income before the expiration dates of the net operating losses, and we cannot predict with certainty when, or whether, we will generate sufficient taxable income to use all of our net operating losses. We are currently monitoring changes in the tax landscape, however, it is difficult to predict whether such changes could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operation
Current and future litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Lawsuits and other administrative, regulatory, or legal proceedings that may arise in the course of our operations can involve substantial costs, including the costs associated with investigation, litigation and possible settlement, judgment, penalty or fine. In addition, the stock market has experienced price and volume fluctuations and companies have experienced fluctuations in their stock prices that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to their operating results. Under these circumstances, stockholders may sometimes institute securities class action litigation against such companies. Any litigation or other administrative, regulatory, or legal proceedings against us could result in substantial costs, and divert management’s attention and resources. Although we generally maintain insurance to mitigate certain costs, there can be no assurance that costs associated with lawsuits or other legal proceedings will not exceed the limits of our insurance policies. Moreover, we may be unable to continue to maintain our existing insurance at a reasonable cost, if at all, or to secure additional coverage, which may result in costs associated with lawsuits and other legal proceedings being uninsured. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected if fees associated with lawsuits or other legal proceedings or a judgment, penalty or fine is not fully or is only partially covered by insurance.
General Risks Related to Our Business
Our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies could prove to be incorrect.
We prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, which requires our management to make estimates, judgments, and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity as of the date of the financial statements, and the amount of revenue and expenses, during the periods presented, that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our condensed consolidated financial statements include those related to determination of fair value of the Company’s allowance for uncollectible accounts receivable, excess and obsolete inventory, stock-based compensation, stand-alone selling price of Direct to Consumer offerings, and the fair value of right-of-use assets. If our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, our operating results could fall below the expectations of industry or financial analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our common stock.
We may be unable to accurately forecast our revenue and appropriately plan for our expenses in the future.
Revenue is difficult to forecast with certainty because it depends on a number of factors, some of which are outside of our control, including the volume, timing, and type of orders we receive and increased third party costs or transportation and freight costs. Many of these factors are uncertain and are likely to fluctuate significantly from period to period. We base our expense levels and investment plans on our estimates of revenues and gross margins, and many of our expenses, such as office leases, manufacturing costs and personnel costs, will be relatively fixed in the short term and will increase as we continue to make investments in our business and hire additional personnel. If our revenue forecasts do not cover our planned operating expenses, our business and future operating results will be materially adversely affected.
We have in the past and may in the future identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.
In order to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we must perform system and process evaluations, document our controls and perform testing of our key controls over financial reporting to allow for management and our independent public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over
financial reporting. In the past, we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting which we have remedied. If we, or our independent registered public accounting firm, identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future that are deemed to be material weaknesses, our investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, we may be required to restate those financial statements, the market price of our stock may decline and we could be subject to lawsuits, sanctions or investigations by regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources and otherwise could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Certain of our key performance indicators are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies.
We track certain key performance indicators, including metrics such as total orders and average order value, with internal systems and tools. Estimates or similar metrics published by third parties may differ from our reported key performance indications, due to differences in sources, methodologies, or assumptions. For example, we rely on third-party marketing analytics systems to identify marketing spend by channel, which we then reconcile across a number of systems. In addition, we rely on third-party warehouse and fulfillment providers to communicate the receiving and shipping information that drives active customer count and related data. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our key performance indicators, including the metrics or estimates that we publicly disclose. While these metrics or estimates are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring our key performance indicators. Some of these challenges include manual reconciliation of information provided by different input systems, resulting in undetected errors. If our key performance indicators are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive our key performance indicators to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these numbers, our reputation may be significantly harmed, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have a history of losses and we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.
We expect our operating expenses to increase over the next several years as we increase our advertising, expand into new markets, expand our offerings, hire additional personnel, incur additional expenses related to being a public company and continue to develop features on our websites and mobile applications. In particular, we intend to continue to invest substantial resources to grow and diversify our product offerings and in marketing to acquire new customers. Our operating expenses may also be adversely impacted by increased costs and delays in launching in new markets and expanding fulfillment center capacity. Our future growth and operating performance must eventually offset our operating losses or we may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability.
We may fail to manage or integrate acquisitions of, or investments in, new or complementary businesses, facilities, technologies or products, or through strategic alliances.
From time to time, we may consider opportunities to acquire or make investments in complementary businesses, facilities, technologies, offerings, or products, or enter into strategic alliances, in order to enhance our capabilities, expand our outsourcing and supplier network, complement our current products or expand the breadth of our offerings. Acquisitions, investments and other strategic alliances involve numerous risks, including: problems integrating the acquired business, facilities, technologies, customers, partners or products, issues maintaining uniform standards, procedures, controls and policies; unanticipated costs; diversion of management’s attention from our existing business; adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers, manufacturing partners, and retail partners; challenges with entering new markets in which we may have limited or no experience; potential loss of key employees of acquired businesses; and increased legal, accounting and compliance costs. Failure to integrate acquired businesses, facilities, technologies and products effectively could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our operating flexibility may be limited by our credit facilities and debt instruments.
Our revolving credit facility and the indenture governing our 2025 Convertible Notes both limit our ability to, among other things: incur or guarantee additional debt; make certain investments and acquisitions; incur certain liens or permit them to exist; enter into certain types of transactions with affiliates; merge or consolidate with another company; and transfer, sell or otherwise dispose of assets, including our cash. In addition, if our stock price does not meet the conversion price of the 2025 Convertible Notes, then we will have to repay the principal of the
2025 Convertible Notes in cash, which we may not have available. Our revolving credit facility also contains covenants requiring us to satisfy certain financial covenants. These limitations, requirements and costs may affect our ability to obtain future financing, pursue attractive business opportunities, maintain flexibility in planning for, and reacting to, changes in business conditions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may not be able to raise the capital we need to grow our business.
In the future, we could be required to raise capital through public or private financing or other debt arrangements. Such capital may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. We may sell common stock, convertible securities and other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, investors in our common stock may be materially diluted. New investors in such subsequent transactions could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. Debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could reduce our operational flexibility or profitability. We may be forced to raise capital on undesirable terms or be unable to grow our business or respond to competitive pressures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Relating to Ownership of Our Common Stock
Our stock price may be volatile or decline regardless of our operating performance.
The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly or decline in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including: actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and results of operations; financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections; failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of BARK, changes in financial estimates or ratings by any securities analysts who follow BARK or our failure to meet the estimates or the expectations of investors; announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments; changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other retail or technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular; price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole; trading volume of our common stock; the inclusion, exclusion or removal of our common stock from any indices; changes in members of our Board of Directors or management; transactions in our common stock by directors, officers, affiliates and other major investors; lawsuits threatened or filed against us; changes in laws or regulations applicable to our business; changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of debt or equity securities; short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions involving our capital stock; general economic conditions in the U.S. or global markets; other events or factors, such as a global pandemic, wars or other armed conflicts, inflation, bank failures, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events; and the other events or factors described in this “Risk Factors” section.
Sales of shares by existing stockholders may cause our stock price to decline.
If our existing stockholders sell or indicate an intention to sell substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline. In addition, shares underlying any outstanding options and restricted stock units will become eligible for sale if exercised or settled, as applicable, and to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting agreements and Rule 144 of the Securities Act. All the shares of common stock subject to stock options outstanding and reserved for issuance under our equity incentive plans have been registered on Form S-8 under the Securities Act and such shares are eligible for sale in the public markets, subject to Rule 144 limitations applicable to affiliates. If these additional shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
Securities or industry analysts may not publish accurate or favorable research about BARK.
The trading market for our common stock is influenced in part by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. If one or more of the analysts initiate research with an unfavorable rating or downgrade our common stock, provide a more favorable recommendation about our competitors, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our common stock could decline.
Delaware law, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may impede a merger, tender offer, or proxy contest.
Our certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our common stock by impeding a change in control of BARK or changes in our management that our stockholders may deem advantageous. These provisions include: a classified board; removal of directors only for cause or a super majority vote; super majority vote required to amend of certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and any provisions of our bylaws; issuance of “blank check” preferred stock authorized; stockholders may not call special stockholder meetings; stockholder action by written consent prohibited; indemnification of our director and officers; Board of Directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our bylaws; and 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.
Substantially all disputes between BARK and our stockholders are subject to exclusive forum provisions.
Our certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State 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 pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of its choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. This choice of forum provision does not preclude or contract the scope of exclusive federal or concurrent jurisdiction for any actions brought under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. Accordingly, our exclusive forum provision will not relieve us of our duties to comply with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder, and our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with these laws, rules and regulations.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the terms of our revolving credit facility may restrict our ability to pay dividends, and any additional debt we may incur in the future may include similar restrictions. As a result, stockholders must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
Ownership of our stock is concentrated among our current officers, directors and their respective affiliates.
Our existing executive officers, directors and their respective affiliates, together as a group, beneficially own a significant amount of the outstanding shares of our common stock. This group, if it acts together, could have the ability to influence matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, amendment of our certificate of incorporation and approval of significant corporate transactions. As a result, this group could, for example, delay or prevent a change in control of BARK and the approval of certain transactions.
We may issue additional shares of common stock or other equity securities, which would dilute your ownership interests and could depress the market price of our common stock.
We currently have options, RSUs and warrants outstanding that are convertible into shares of our common stock. In addition, our 2025 Convertible Notes are convertible based on outstanding principal balance and accrued interest. We also have the ability to issue equity awards that are convertible into shares of our common stock under our 2021 Equity Incentive Plan and under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, see Note 6 — Debt, and Note 8 — Stock-Based Compensation Plans, to our consolidated financial statements set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We may issue additional shares of common stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future in connection with, among other things, future acquisitions or repayment of outstanding indebtedness, without stockholder approval, in a number of circumstances. Our issuance of additional shares of common stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank would dilute our existing shareholders and may cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Risks Related to the 2025 Convertible Notes
Our obligation to redeem the 2025 Convertible Notes may not protect holders of those notes.
Our obligation to offer to redeem the 2025 Convertible Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change will be triggered only by certain specified transactions. The term “fundamental change” is limited to certain specified transactions and may not include other events that might adversely affect our financial condition or the market value of the 2025 Convertible Notes or our common stock. Our obligation to offer to redeem the new notes upon a fundamental change would not necessarily afford holders of the 2025 Convertible Notes protection in the event of a highly leveraged transaction, reorganization, merger or similar transaction involving us.
There is no existing public trading market for the 2025 Convertible Notes.
No market for the 2025 Convertible Notes exists and may not develop. Even if a market develops, it may not persist. We do not intend to apply for listing of the 2025 Convertible Notes on any securities exchange or other market. The liquidity of any trading market and the trading price of the 2025 Convertible Notes may be adversely affected by changes in our financial performance or prospects and by changes in the financial performance of or prospects for companies in our industry generally.