In Q3 2023, we finalized 2024 plans to make additional packaging updates across select SKUs to ensure they are made of some of the most sustainable materials available while developing a robust innovation pipeline for the new year. We look forward to launching these products in the coming quarters. Lastly, we’ll turn to profitability. This is job #1 in my eyes. It has been and needs to remain a core focus. We can’t chase a sustainable mission without a sustainable business. We will continue to make decisions that prioritize the bottom line by, one, expanding gross margin; two, focusing on customer experience to drive retention; three, increasing assortment to grow lifetime value; four, improving advertising efficiency; five, increasing our SG&A leverage through more efficient spend and fix seeking efficiencies across our fulfillment ecosystem.
In the long term, we see ourselves as a scalable platform for high-performing sustainable products. On that theme, we continue to explore M&A as a potential strategy to provide step-change opportunities. The bar for action is high, and we are deliberate with how we invest time and resources. To close out our key business updates, we turned to the cornerstone of our sustainability innovation, plastic intensity or pounds of plastic per $100 of net revenue. We are proud to publish the industry’s first plastic intensity metric. Our hope is that other brands and retailers will follow suit as we work to reduce plastic in our industry. This quarter, we adopted an expanded definition of plastic that includes polyvinyl alcohol, PVA and PVOH, silicone and plastic liners and resins with aluminum packaging to ensure even more transparency in our plastic intensity.
Some in the industry might debate the definition of plastic, but we are using a more inclusive definition to continue to raise the bar for ourselves and others. We have updated the following metrics in our quarterly comparisons to account for these changes. Across the Grove.co site and through retail partners, plastic intensity was 1 .11 pounds of plastic per $100 in revenue in the third quarter of 2023, down slightly from 1.14% in the third quarter of 2022. Specifically, across all Grove Brands products, plastic intensity was 1.14 pounds a profit per $100 in net revenue in the third quarter of 2023, in line with 1.13 pounds in the second quarter of 2023, but up from 1.04 pounds in the third quarter of 2022. Our Grove’s Branded 100% recycled plastic trash bags are the primary driver of year-over-year plastic intensity increases for Grove Brands.
Excluding this product category, Grove brands plastic intensity was $0.63 in the third quarter of 2023, in line with previous quarters. Overall, we are encouraged by the growing trend of more customers opting for recycled plastic garbage bag instead of [virgin] plastic. We are continuing to explore ways to reduce plastic in this category while providing customers with an effective product experience. I will now turn the call over to Sergio to review our results in more detail. Sergio? Please go ahead.
Sergio Cervantes: Thank you, Jeff. Similar to previous calls, we will provide quarter-over-quarter comparisons in addition to the year-over-year changes as we believe the sequential comparisons reflect the trends in the business and the steps we have taken to position ourselves for long-term sustainable and profitable growth. Net revenue in the third quarter was $61.8 million, down 6.6% from the second quarter of 2023 and 20.6% year-over-year. Both comparisons continue to be impacted by the strategic decision to reduce advertising spend as the company focuses on profitability. Due to our reduced advertising spend, total orders were down 5.9% quarter-over-quarter and 26.2% year-over-year to $0.9 million, and active customers were down 10.1% quarter-over-quarter and 30.2% year-over-year to $1 million on a trailing 12-month basis.
DTC net revenue per order was up 0.7% quarter-over-quarter and 7.6% year-over-year to $65.2, a new record high level surpassing our previous record of $64.8 from last quarter. The year-over-year improvement continues to be benefited by our net revenue management initiatives, including a shift in mix towards existing customer orders, which have a higher DTC net revenue per order as well as introduction of strategic price increases on growth brands and third-party products taken in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023. Gross margin was up 190 basis points quarter-over-quarter and 470 basis points year-over-year to 53.8%, another record high for the company. The year-over-year improvement is due to reductions in inventory reserves from the sell-through of inventory and price increases taken on growth brands and third-party products in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023.
Similarly, the quarter-over-quarter improvement was mainly due to a reduction in the inventory reserves. Gross products as a percentage of net revenue was down 20 basis points quarter-over-quarter and 210 basis points year-over-year to 44.8%. The year-over-year decline is due to a decrease in growth brand products in existing customer orders as we continue to expand our third-party product offering, especially our product selection in the health and wellness category. Advertising expenses decreased 12.8% quarter-over-quarter and 53.1% year-over-year to $4.1 million. The year-over-year decline continues to reflect our strategic pullback in advertising spend and focus on improving marketing investment efficiency. Wherever the sequential change was due to a reduction in retail specific advertising as we balance growth and profitability in the channel.
