We did that moving forward. We want to continue to be the best of breed in the e-commerce space for all things made, not mined. So we’ll want to have the best in place as far as our web properties and that cost money. So we’ll continue to make those investments. We have some incredible things coming up that we believe that are really critical to this direct to consumer business model that we’re creating rather than, as I said in my, opening comments, a single threaded moissanite and I distribution company. So, we like to believe that, we made those announcements. We know the triggers that we need to, kind of press that are going to kind of exponentially move us to another level, but we did level set that we’re going to make those investments.
So again, times are changing, it’s a different environment what I’m saying? So, we’ll certainly look at every opportunity that comes to, increase the value of our shareholders’ positions certainly I’m a stakeholder in this company too as well, and I have a significant portion of shares and investment in this company myself. So, it’s within my best interest to be able to drive growth and drive value within the stock, and that’s what I do every day, and that’s what we all do here. So, we’ll, we’ll do the, we’ll do what we believe is the right thing for the company.
UnidentifiedAnalyst: Okay, fair enough. And on the direct to consumer business what do you think that we can model in, in terms of gross margins going forward?
Don O’Connell: Again we’ve had some margin pressure given two things. So number one, pricing related specifically as I spoke before about the initial investment in the diamond goods or lab grown diamond goods, the original cost for those goods. And then now the, kind of the reduced cost and the pressure there to be competitive and sell off those goods. The other thing that will happen is as the race to the bottom goes on lab grown diamonds, we basically have to kind of see where that goes, and we want to still make sure that we’re competitive. We still want to make sure that we’re in the conversation and our goal is to be one of the top destinations. In order to do that, we need to be competitive. We need to build a story of why that consumer should buy from us a compelling story with the design and the aesthetic of what we’re bringing to market.
But certainly there may be some pressure there. So the answer specifically, I’ve said this a million times, that 40% margins a very, very strong business in the jewelry space. That’s just my personal opinion, and I believe that’s strong. We always strive to be north of 50%. So I would say somewhere between the 40 to 50% would be a model that I could absolutely, get behind. So, again, it really depends on some key factors that may come. And those key factors are, do we want to spend money and deploy capital in additional marketing areas that we haven’t done in the past? Whereas if the paid and social spend is not bearing the results that we want, then maybe we try some other type of avenues that may definitely increase the expense, but not get the return.
So, we’re in a complex scenario that if we lean in too much, it basically affects the bottom line and it affects the margin almost immediately. So we’re trying to build a company and we’re trying to grow at the same time, but it’s kind of a catch ’22. So, to answer your question, I believe somewhere around a 45% to 47% would be the ultimate area, but there is the possibility of some pricing pressure between the lab grown diamond, which is representing a larger portion of our online direct-to-consumer business in Charles & Colvard right now.
