There is no assurance that customers will continue to purchase goods from us in the future. Customers may purchase fewer or lower-priced products if their discretionary income decreases. During periods of economic uncertainty, we may need to reduce prices in response to competitive pressures or otherwise to maintain sales, which could adversely affect relationships with our brand partners and consequently our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Any current or future health epidemic or other adverse public health development, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors influencing consumer sentiment, could result in business disruption, supply chain disruption, sustained economic downturn, inflation, margin pressures and have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Our business could be adversely affected by infectious disease outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in adverse economic conditions and business disruptions. For example, travel bans, forced business closures, and stay-at-home orders previously resulted in supply shortages and other business disruptions in many regions, in particular China, but with knock-on effect in other countries as well, which could also adversely affect demand. A substantial majority of our brand partners, offices and employees are located in Europe, and we currently ship most of our products from our distribution center in Heimstetten, outside Munich, Germany. As a result, as shown in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, any adverse public health development could disrupt somewhat our supply chain and distribution and fulfillment capabilities, including the delivery of merchandise from our brand partners and shipments of our merchandise to impacted regions or from our distribution center in Heimstetten and our new distribution center in Leipzig, Germany. Furthermore, many of our brand partners may close their retail stores, warehouses and/or distribution centers in response to a health epidemic, which could further interrupt our supply chain in the future.
Restrictions on travel, quarantines and other measures imposed in response to an outbreak, as well as ongoing concern regarding its potential impact, would reasonably be likely to have a negative effect on the economies, financial markets and business activities of global market, resulting in inflationary pressure and worker shortages. Global financial markets may experience significant losses and volatility as a result of these conditions. An extended economic downturn and increased inflation that may result from these measures could negatively impact customer demand and spending in the impacted regions, and cause an oversupply of inventory that could lead to markdowns or promotional sales to dispose of excess inventory, which could force us to follow suit and have an adverse effect on our gross margins and results of operations.
The luxury fashion industry can be volatile and difficult to predict.
In the luxury fashion industry, customer demand can quickly change depending on many factors, including the behavior of both online and brick and mortar competitors, promotional activities of competitors, rapidly changing tastes and preferences, frequent introductions of new products and services, advances in technology and the internet and macroeconomic factors, many of which are beyond our control. With this constantly changing environment, our future business strategies, practices and results may not meet expectations or respond quickly enough to customer demand, and we may face operational difficulties in adjusting to any changes. Any of these developments could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our continued success is substantially dependent on positive perceptions of our brand which, if eroded, could adversely affect our customer, employee and brand partner relationships.
Customer complaints or negative publicity about our sites, products, third-party vendors, product delivery times, logistics providers, such as DHL, FedEx and UPS, social media providers, customer support, customer data handling or security practices, especially on blogs and social media platforms, could rapidly and severely diminish use of our sites and current and potential customers’ and brand partners’ confidence in us, which could result in harm to our brand and our business. We believe that some of the growth in our customer base to date has originated from social media, influencer marketing and affiliate marketing. If we are not able to develop and maintain positive relationships with our influencer and affiliate marketing partners, or if we or such partners are targets of negative publicity, including in connection with reactions to social or political events, such as the war in Ukraine, the Black Lives Matter movement or protests against the use of fur, on social media, our ability to promote and maintain awareness of our sites and brands and leverage social media platforms to drive customers to our sites may be adversely affected, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.