There’s an App for Pandora

The Pandora jewelry company, known for its charm bracelets and its $2 billion initial public offering, has launched iphone and Facebook applications designed to create an interactive shopping experience.

The Copenhagen-based jewelry company’s first iPhone app allows consumers to share Pandora fine jewelry pieces via Facebook, e-mail or by adding it to their personalized Pandora “Wish List” page online. Consumers will have instant access to all of Pandora’s collections, including customizable charm bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces and watches.

Pandora’s “Bracelet Designer” is a bracelet building Facebook app. Its 150,000 Facebook fans can select charms from the company’s “Moments” collection to create a personalized charm bracelet and share their unique bracelet designs with others. This app actually launched in October. Consumers can select from seven different sterling silver or 14K gold bracelet options and more than 800 charms.

The Facebook app tracks the cost of each charm selected along with the total cost of the bracelet. When done designing their personal bracelet, consumers can find the nearest Pandora store locations and print or download a picture of the bracelet with the list of selected charms to take to the store or share with others as a gift idea. They also can post their newly created Pandora bracelet to their Facebook status and Twitter page. Once a bracelet is designed, consumers can share comments and "like" designs of other fans as well as view international and local top ten charts listing the bracelet designs that have received the most "likes" and bracelets with the most comments.

Pandora Q3 Sales Double, Profits Triple

The new darling of the jewelry industry and the investment world, Pandora, said Thursday that sales in the third quarter more than doubled and profit nearly tripled, year-over-year, driven by growth across all regions and jewelry categories, according to media reports.

Total revenues for the Copenhagen-based jewelry company grew by 117 percent year on year to 1.79 billion Danish crowns ($329,100), with 48 percent of total sales from Europe and 41 percent from the U.S. Much of that growth was due to early Christmas orders, the company reportedly said.

Sales of its top product, charms and charms bracelets (which accounted for 79 percent of total sales) increased 94 percent. Despite the high cost of precious metal, sales of silver and gold charms were up 84 percent.

Pandora’s other jewelry sectors, such as its high-end Love Pods collection, has a 345 percent sales increase. The non-charm jewelry lines accounted for 20 percent of revenues in the quarter, up from 10 percent in the same quarter in 2009.

Sales in the U.S. market rose 93 percent, representing 41 percent of total sales. The Asia-Pacific region (which accounts for 11 percent of total sales) grew by 30 percent for the period.

Net profit at Pandora rose 280 percent to 581 million Danish crowns ($106.8 million) in the third quarter. Gross margin at the group in the quarter was 73 percent, up from 66 percent in the third quarter of 2009 when the gross margin was impacted by an unrealized gain on raw materials and a negative one‐off effect from taking over the company’s Australian distributor.

“Our strong performance in the third quarter of 2010 is a result of our continued success in upgrading our existing customers, thereby increasing the share of branded sales as well as roll‐out of new stores around the world—particularly in Italy,” Mikkel Vendelin Olesen, Pandora chief executive, reportedly said. “We have seen continued strong momentum in the revenue development from our charms and silver and gold charm bracelets as well as excellent performance from our other jewelry collections. However, it is important to notice that our Q3 also is positively impacted by early Christmas orders from retailers.”

Pandora had a spectacular debut on the Copenhagen bourse on Oct. 5 with a $2 billion IPO. The company manufactures and distributes mass market jewelry, priced between $50 and $1,500, designed at its Copenhagen headquarters and made in Thailand.