How Social Selling Company Bomb Party Uses NetSuite to Navigate Tariffs

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In this episode of the NetSuite Podcast, cohost Megan O’Brien sits down with Jonny Holmes, director of finance at Bomb Party, a direct-to-consumer jewelry company that offers surprise jewelry reveals through live online parties. Megan and Jonny start by discussing Bomb Party, its growth and how Jonny ended up the company [1:43]. They then cover the impact of tariffs on Bomb Party and how the company is using NetSuite Planning and Budgeting to help navigate them [4:08]. Jonny concludes the podcast episode by giving some advice to business leaders trying to navigate global trade variability [17:29].

 

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Episode Transcript:

How Social Selling Company Bomb Party Uses NetSuite to Navigate Tariffs 

 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:36:20 

Unknown 

Hello, NetSuite listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in to the NetSuite Podcast. I'm Megan O'Brien, co-host of the podcast. We have an extra special episode in store for you all today. We know tariffs are top of mind for many businesses right now, and companies are figuring out the best way to handle them. So we invited Jonny Holmes, director of finance at Bomb Party, which is a direct-to-consumer jewelry company that offers surprise jewelry reveals through live online parties. 

 

00:00:36:22 - 00:01:10:04 

Unknown 

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking them out. Customers purchase mystery items such as rings, necklaces or earrings, which are unveiled during these events, adding an element of excitement to the shopping experience. We discuss how Bomb Party has been using that sweet specifically, and that's what planning and budgeting and that sweet analytics warehouse to address tariffs, plan for addressing possible future trade policy changes, and the advice he has for business leaders trying to navigate global trade variability. 

 

00:01:10:05 - 00:01:43:12 

Unknown 

So stay tuned. You're not going to want to miss this episode. You're listening to the NetSuite Podcast where we discuss what's happening within NetSuite, why we're doing it, and where we're heading in the future. We'lldive into the details about the software and the people at NetSuite who are behind all the moving parts. We'llalso feature customer growth stories discussing the ups and downs of running a company, and how one integrated system can help your business continue to scale. 

 

00:01:43:14 - 00:02:09:19 

Unknown 

Let's just jump right in. So to kick us off, could you tell our audience a bit about Bomb Party and what you do at the company? Yeah. Bomb Party is a network marketing company. We started about eight years ago. I've been here for the last two years. So what we do is we the company, it really thrives on this surprise and delight type of marketing. 

 

00:02:09:21 - 00:02:36:15 

Unknown 

And so what that means is it is kind of like, well, you're just ordering products or jewelry in our case, and you don't really know what you're getting. So it could be one of maybe 30 different rings or earrings or necklaces or something, whichever one you order. And so that is like the driving force around. Everything that we sell, and especially from our owners, is that they want to surprise and delight customers. 

 

00:02:36:15 - 00:03:00:08 

Unknown 

And so everything that we sell drives that. So we sell rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, all sorts of things. And they all are sold in that type of thing where we sell to our wholesale reps that buy in bulk from us, and then they turn around and sell it to the end consumer. Most of it, they do it online. 

 

00:03:00:10 - 00:03:20:14 

Unknown 

A lot of it's through TikTok, you know, so maybe use other social media platforms. But for the most part, they'reusing TikTok and they sell these pieces of jewelry, on what we call a party. And it's just a live party. So they get on and customers join their party on TikTok. They place an order for whatever it is and then, live on TikTok, 

 

00:03:20:14 - 00:03:43:19 

Unknown 

The rep reveals what they have. And so it could be one of many different styles that we have for that collection. And then there is a chance that you could win, like a genuine diamond. So it's just it could you could get anything. And so that really is like that business model of surprise and delight has really driven the growthin my opinion. 

 

00:03:43:20 - 00:04:14:19 

Unknown 

I mean, there's other factors too, but I think that that business model has really driven bond party to, to grow significantly over the past few years. I mean, we're seeing lots and lots of growth, which is awesome. And then, you know, I've been here, like I said, for two years, and I lead the finance group. So I came on to help implement NetSuite ERP, a topic that is top of mind for many of our listeners right now is tariffs as of right now. 

 

00:04:14:19 - 00:04:38:02 

Unknown 

What's the impact of tariffs on Bomb Party. Oh man. It's crazy because we source literally everything we source from China. And so in the tariff world, as many of you probably know, if you don't I don't know where you hit then. But, I mean, China has been hit the hardest, and we have no idea where that's going to lead. 

 

00:04:38:04 - 00:04:59:15 

Unknown 

You know, like it was a few weeks ago when they announced all the tariffs, and then they escalated. And then the next week they escalated again. And, you know, we are, we had a few, maybe panicked, leadership type meetings at our company about what to do. And can the company withstand some of this and what are all our options. 

 

00:04:59:15 - 00:05:20:14 

Unknown 

And, you know, so, like, I don't think I can understand the impact of how it's going to, you know, we don't know exactly how it's going to change or impact the business. But I can't overstate how much it will be part of what we do moving forward. You know, it's something that we just didn't consider at all six months ago. 

 

00:05:20:14 - 00:05:48:12 

Unknown 

And now it's something that's at the forefront of almost all of our sourcing decisions and all of that sort of thing. One thing that's really interesting that I wanted to touch on is your use of NetSuite. So how have you used NetSuite Planning and Budgeting to model the impact of tariff changes? Yeah I mean that tool honestly it'sbeen instrumental in in all of the analysis that we're doing from a from a financial perspective on tariffs. 

 

00:05:48:13 - 00:06:17:00 

Unknown 

You know, it just allows you to build forecasts in a relatively short amount of time. So like if you go through and if you do all the legwork to set up your items and your systems and your sales forecasts and your everything, you know, if you put all the data in and if you go through a little bit of pain of doing the work to get the info into NSPB like it allows you to really quickly throw together a forecast. 

 

00:06:17:00 - 00:06:40:22 

Unknown 

And so, you know, we really recently just finished our go live with NSPB. And so there was when the tariffs hit us, right when we were like going through our user training and that sort of thing. And so a lot of my job was I had to get the system up and going. So there was a lot of, you know, prep work and groundwork of getting all of the inputs correct. 

 

00:06:40:22 - 00:06:59:00 

Unknown 

But then as soon as all those tariffs started to hit, it was so easy for us to just plug in different scenarios. You know, on the tariff side, it mostly just impacts your product costs. And so we could input all of the different product costs for each of our collections that we're planning on selling throughout the year. 

 

00:06:59:02 - 00:07:22:10 

Unknown 

We can change what we think is going to happen to the demand. So the number of units that we sell, and it'sjust so high because such a high-powered system that you can plug in those numbers, refresh, and in a matter of minutes, you have, like, different versions of a forecast. You know, it's something that I think, like as a finance professional, I'm very Excel heavy a lot of times. 

 

00:07:22:12 - 00:07:45:13 

Unknown 

And it's something that I could totally build in Excel, but it would have taken me so long and so many, different Excel crashes. And because it's just it's a lot of data and it's just crushing through and trying to crunch everything and Excel just can't handle it. And NSPB just takes an amazing format that you could build in Excel, and it just makes it seamless. 

 

00:07:45:13 - 00:08:06:13 

Unknown 

Why it was so fast and easy honestly, like it's been it's been a game changer for me. Like if I ever go to if I were to ever go to another company to implement NetSuite, like I would probably just bring in NSPB to start. Like to me it's, it's that it's been that great for me. I mean, it's just saved me so much time in so many different areas. 

 

00:08:06:14 - 00:08:32:10 

Unknown 

And not just on the forecasting side, like on the report building side. I mean, I love NetSuite. It's the best system that I've used by far. And in NSPB, you can set it up where honestly all you do is you just refresh, in your Excel smart view, and it populates all of your reports that you have that you put in whatever your, you know, like your, board decks and all that sort of thing. 

 

00:08:32:12 - 00:08:53:12 

Unknown 

And it's taken my prep time for those sorts of things and just cut it in half, if not more, you know, like it's just been a huge time saver for me. And really, like I would say, even for the company, it's probably allowed us to keep running lean. I don't think we'll I think it will prevent us from having to hire more people too quickly. 

 

00:08:53:14 - 00:09:25:04 

Unknown 

You know, like we have we do have a small team and we are all working hard and just having the right tools in my mind is way better than over hiring to have people just do manual processes, you know? So it's to me, it'sjust been a great investment and way cheaper than hiring more people. And it allows me as like the person who knows what's going on financially in every aspect of the business, like it just allows me to pivot really quickly and provide reporting and data that people need and want. 

 

00:09:25:06 - 00:09:50:01 

Unknown 

That's a great testimonial. Well, my job is done here. It's actually, I mean, yeah, I'm not good at these kinds of things, honestly. But it was it is true. Like, I just, it's been awesome for me. So I could be, I'm definitely, an advocate, I guess you could say, of NSPB. NetSuite by Oracle. 

 

00:09:50:01 - 00:10:16:06 

Unknown 

The number one cloud financial system is everything you need to grow all in one place. Financials, inventory, HR, and more. Make better decisions faster so you can do more and spend less. See how atNetSuite.com/pod. Well what are Bomb Party's plans for navigating potential future changes in trade policies? And how are you using NetSuite to prepare for those scenarios? 

 

00:10:16:08 - 00:10:40:04 

Unknown 

Yeah, I mean, it's all moving. We don't know exactly. We're looking at everything that we can. And you know, our teams that are over that sort of thing. Like they're working really hard and talking with as many people as they can to try to figure out the best solution. There are a lot of options on the table, but it just depends. 

 

00:10:40:05 - 00:11:01:22 

Unknown 

You know some things that are out of our control. If tariffs were to go away we would probably just keep all ofour production in China and then try to slowly diversify in case of, you know, further tariffs or anything like that. But there are things on the table like we're that we're exploring should we manufacture in the US, should we move countries in Southeast Asia? 

 

00:11:01:22 - 00:11:24:18 

Unknown 

Should we or should we try to source some raw materials in the United States, ship them to China and then have them ship us the finished goods like there's, you know, there's so many options that we're trying to work through and with, with industry experts, customs industry experts, I should say that that are advising us and we're just trying to work through those things. 

 

00:11:24:18 - 00:11:46:10 

Unknown 

But from a financial standpoint and putting our forecast together of how that impacts the company, impactsthem financially and like, can we handle it? Do we have enough cash? Do we can we do all of these things? I mean, NetSuite is core to that and specifically NSPB, I mean, like I said, we have there is the data. 

 

00:11:46:12 - 00:12:16:00 

Unknown 

The data lives in NeSuite ERP, of course. But to do what NSPB does, it would take so much longer to do it manually like in Excel and that sort of thing. So I mean, it is definitely core to our discussions and in any sort of forecasting. Well, you kind of touched on this but have NetSuite’s reporting capabilities provided insights that maybe will help influence decisions like possible supplier selection or product pricing? 

 

00:12:16:00 - 00:12:37:11 

Unknown 

How are you using those reports to kind of inform that view, if you will? Yeah, I would say, I like on the supplier selection, not so much. That, you know, it's kind of specialized industry and jewelry and that sort of thing. Solike, I don't know if any reporting is ever going to tell us what supplier to use. 

 

00:12:37:13 - 00:13:04:23 

Unknown 

But as far as pricing decisions and forecasting decisions, it's been great. You know, our product development people have a target margin that they've been trying to shoot for, for the entire life of the company. And they really have never had any data to back it up on if that was, if they were actually hitting that target and, you know, you just if you don't have the data, you can't see. 

 

00:13:04:23 - 00:13:36:20 

Unknown 

And so when we first implemented NetSuite back at the beginning of 2024, that was one of our first initiatives,was to see if we're actually profitable and if are we hitting these target margins. And so the reporting in NetSuite that allows us to see what our margins are, both as like a product category or group, you know, we'reusing classes to categorize those or on a single item level, like we can see the margins and it's made. 

 

00:13:36:22 - 00:14:02:11 

Unknown 

Just having that view has helped the company make several different decisions around pricing. Yeah. So it'sbeen I mean, I can't overstate it. It's been instrumental in all of that. What do you think is a key benefit of having a tool like NetSuite Planning and Budgeting in a rapidly changing trade landscape for people out there that might be looking for something to help them handle it? 

 

00:14:02:13 - 00:14:33:15 

Unknown 

Yeah, I would say it's the speed. You know, for a finance professional most people know how to look at it, you know, but it just takes them a long time. It's hard to, to crunch data and to format it in Excel and to get it when you're dealing with large volumes of data. It's hard. And the fact that NSPB has all of that and it can calculateand it can run all of those scenarios for you, you know, you could run however many different scenarios you want and then compare them against each other. 

 

00:14:33:15 - 00:14:54:08 

Unknown 

I mean, it's just it really is the speed and the reliability of it. You don't have to worry about broken Excel formulas. You don't have to worry. You know, it's all just in a platform that you can trust works, and it doesn'treally break down or stop working. And it can just crunch a massive amount of data in a short amount of time. 

 

00:14:54:08 - 00:15:19:03 

Unknown 

And so that's what that would be my major selling point honestly, is that you can do it just allows you to be more nimble and quick with analyses and forecasting. Now, what about people who like working and broken down Excel, but do it now? I'm just kidding. But you're never going to get to those people. You know their stuff well. 

 

00:15:19:05 - 00:15:44:15 

Unknown 

Do you anticipate? It's hard to tell right now as we have. So we talked about because things are changing. Do you anticipate future changes around Bomb Party’s sourcing, manufacturing, or decisions to expand into new markets because of tariffs? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I touched on a little bit earlier, but that's exactly what our product development group is doing right now. 

 

00:15:44:15 - 00:16:06:10 

Unknown 

We have a dedicated person that is working to try to find the best solution. So is it going to change for us? Yeah, it's absolutely going to change. And having the data to be able to see that is going to help drive those decisions on what we think will be best for Bomb Party and, you know, for our future success and growth and that sort of thing. 

 

00:16:06:12 - 00:16:31:07 

Unknown 

But yeah, I mean, something will change. No, no question. Getting a little more granular. What data or reporting do you rely on in NetSuite to understand global trade-related costs and risks? Yeah, for us it's, you know, maybe we're taking maybe it's too simplified. But for us, at least right now, we're really just looking at the cost side. 

 

00:16:31:09 - 00:16:51:09 

Unknown 

So in NetSuite ERP, like we are, we're constantly looking at COGS and the reporting that there is around that to look at margins and that sort of thing. But then, you know, we do use the landed cost function to make sure that we're actually including all of our costs. So, you know, everything is a landed loaded cost. 

 

00:16:51:09 - 00:17:13:08 

Unknown 

Instead of trying to piece everything together outside the system in Excel or something like that. And so we rely really heavily on that. You know, I would also say that NSPB is probably a better place to analyze and see what those margins are. Now, I would also put a plug in for is probably a good place to see that, but that'swhere most of our analysis is coming in. 

 

00:17:13:08 - 00:17:34:09 

Unknown 

And that's the data that we're looking at around tariffs is it's all right now. It's all on the COGS side. And duties of course which are the tariffs and then freight you know. So all of those landed costs were allocating or they're all considered in this. What advice would you give to other business leaders that are trying to navigate global trade variability? 

 

00:17:34:11 - 00:17:57:14 

Unknown 

It's a great question. And I don't know if I have the best answer, but I would say you know like through this process and I'm not the one that's as involved in it at our company. But from what I've heard and what we'vetalked about, there are professionals out there that know this stuff, that our customs professionals that are customs law, experts. 

 

00:17:57:16 - 00:18:36:18 

Unknown 

I would say that our best progress that we've made on the tariff front, outside of like, financial forecasting and that sort of thing has been when we've engaged with experts in the in the subject areas that we're looking at, you know, we engaged with a customs lawyer out in New York. I don't know his name. But I know we did, and he's been he's been great, you know, like, he's given us the best different, like, plans that we can work through and try to plan for, like, the largest list of options of things that we can consider while still being compliant with customs. 

 

00:18:36:18 - 00:18:57:17 

Unknown 

And, you know, we're not looking to break any rules by any stretch, but it's like, okay, what options are out there, which then allows us to run and try to figure out what is going to work best for one party. I mean, this is their time to shine. Yeah, they've been on the sidelines for so long, they're all warmed up, ready to go now it'stime. 

 

00:18:57:18 - 00:19:19:21 

Unknown 

That's right. Are there any NetSuite features or tools that Bomb Party is looking forward to implementing to enhance global trade management? You know, for global trade management, I don't know if there's any tools outside of the ones that we have already specific to like global trade and tariffs. I don't know if there's any systems that can really help us more. 

 

00:19:19:23 - 00:19:48:01 

Unknown 

I would say the ones that we have are awesome, like NSPB. I mean, I've explained and given my sales pitch for it, but we also use NSAW and it's a great, powerful tool. It just gives us so many insights into what is happening in our in our business. And so my recommendation to anyone considering it would be like, as aNetSuite user of the past ten years or so, those two tools are awesome and worth it. 

 

00:19:48:03 - 00:20:12:10 

Unknown 

Yeah, I love that you guys are using NetSuite Analytics Warehouse as well because, you know, I think every company, regardless of tariffs or trade policies, they're looking to get a little more data driven. And that's one of the offerings that we have to do that now. It's been it's been great. We've been really happy with both of those additions to our suite. 

 

00:20:12:12 - 00:20:35:03 

Unknown 

Are there any final thoughts or takeaways to leave our listeners with? Oh man. I don't know. I would just say like my advice to listeners is engage with experts to navigate this whole thing, and data is going to be key. And if you can get the tools like for finance professionals, if you can get the tools to help you do it faster, it's worth it. 

 

00:20:35:03 - 00:20:57:01 

Unknown 

I mean, I said it before, but I'll say it again like I have. Just say it's allowed me to spend far less time working things out in Excel and actually get to the meat of the conversations that we need to have as a company. And so, like, you know, I think it's something that finance people, we talk about all the time of having the right tools and the right data can help you guide your business. 

 

00:20:57:03 - 00:21:15:02 

Unknown 

And, you know, and I'm guilty of it as well as we get comfortable in our in our little Excel Frankenstein Excel sheets that we all make. And it just is a time suck. And so if you can get a tool that actually you trust and you know how it works and you can use it, it's just the best. 

 

00:21:15:04 - 00:21:46:04 

Unknown 

So that's that would be my final takeaway or advice to any listeners. Well I think that's a perfect note to end on. Thank you so much for joining us. This was really helpful. Thanks, Megan. Yeah, it's been great. Thanks. That brings us to the end of another great episode. Right now, there's a lot of debate on how to best proceed with global trade, so it's refreshing to hear from a company that is taking action and using NetSuite to do so, which is an extra added perk. 

 

00:21:46:06 - 00:22:05:01 

Unknown 

A huge thanks to Johnny for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with us. And as always, a big thanks to our wonderful editing team over at Oracle and to all of you for tuning in. If you want more episodes just like this one, make sure you subscribe to our channel and give us a rating and review. 

 

00:22:05:02 - 00:22:23:13 

Unknown 

Until next time. You just listen to the NetSuite Podcast. Be sure to tune in every week with more NetSuite developments, stories and insights into the benefits of one integrated system to help you run your business.