Chico's FAS Inc (CHS) 2018 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Chico's FAS Inc.'s Q1 2018 Earnings Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions)

美好的一天，歡迎來到 Chico's FAS Inc. 的 2018 年第一季度收益電話會議和網絡廣播。（操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Julie Lorigan, Vice President of Investor Relations, Public Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead, ma'am.

現在我想將會議交給投資者關係、公共關係和企業傳播副總裁朱莉·洛里根 (Julie Lorigan)。請繼續，女士。

Thanks, Rocco, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Chico's FAS first quarter 2018 earnings conference call and webcast. Joining me today at our National Store Support Center in Fort Myers are Shelley Broader, our Chief Executive Officer; and Todd Vogensen, our Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝羅科，大家早上好。歡迎參加 Chico 的 FAS 2018 年第一季度收益電話會議和網絡廣播。今天與我一起來到位於邁爾斯堡的國家商店支持中心的是我們的首席執行官 Shelley Broader；以及我們的首席財務官托德·沃根森 (Todd Vogensen)。

Our earnings release issued today can be found in our website at www.chicofas.com under Investor Relations, Press Releases.

我們今天發布的收益報告可以在我們的網站 www.chicofas.com 的“投資者關係、新聞稿”下找到。

Let me caution you that today's comments will include forward-looking statements about our current expectations, assumptions, plans, estimates, judgments and projections about our business and our industry, which speak only as of today's date. You should not unduly rely on forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those projected or implied by our forward-looking statements are included in our earnings release issued this morning, in our SEC filings and in the comments that are made on this call. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise any information discussed on this call except as may be otherwise required by law.

讓我提醒您，今天的評論將包括有關我們當前對我們的業務和行業的預期、假設、計劃、估計、判斷和預測的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅截至今天。您不應過度依賴前瞻性陳述。可能導致實際結果或事件與我們的前瞻性陳述中預測或暗示的結果或事件存在重大差異的重要因素包含在我們今天上午發布的收益報告、我們向 SEC 提交的文件以及本次電話會議中發表的評論中。除非法律另有要求，否則我們不承擔更新或修改本次電話會議中討論的任何信息的義務。

And with that, I will turn it over to Shelley.

這樣，我就把它交給雪萊了。

Thank you, Julie, and good morning, everyone. Before we talk about the quarter, I want to give you a brief update on the considerable progress we are making in our development of new sales channels.

謝謝朱莉，大家早上好。在我們談論本季度之前，我想向您簡要介紹一下我們在開發新銷售渠道方面所取得的重大進展。

We recently launched ShopRunner, our first segment aired on QVC, and we are now up and running on amazon.com. These partnerships are in addition to cruise ship and airport, which we previously announced. Overall, we are pleased with the initial response to these new channels. We will talk more about that later in the call, but we have seen an improvement in customer acquisition, which is a positive indicator of our multi-channel growth strategy.

我們最近推出了 ShopRunner，這是我們在 QVC 上播出的第一個片段，現在我們已經在 amazon.com 上啟動並運行。這些合作夥伴關係是我們之前宣布的遊輪和機場之外的合作夥伴關係。總的來說，我們對這些新渠道的初步反應感到滿意。我們將在稍後的電話會議中詳細討論這一點，但我們已經看到客戶獲取方面的改善，這是我們多渠道增長戰略的積極指標。

That said, we had a challenging first quarter, which did not meet our expectations. Early in the period, we experienced a decline in customer traffic trends across the brand. The lower traffic was the result of both internal and external factors and was the primary driver of our first quarter earnings and comp sales results.

也就是說，我們的第一季度充滿挑戰，沒有達到我們的預期。在此期間初期，我們經歷了整個品牌的客戶流量趨勢下降。流量下降是內部和外部因素共同作用的結果，也是我們第一季度收益和比較銷售結果的主要驅動力。

From an internal perspective, in both Chico's and White House | Black Market, we have determined that we did not flow enough newness into our assortments to attract demand and offset planned calendar shifts. While we remain confident in our strategy to allow our new merchandise deliveries to live longer on the sales floor, we've learned that we need more robust and more frequent capsules of new merchandise to supplement the existing floor sets, which will be reflected in future quarters.

從內部角度來看，奇科和白宮都如此 |黑市方面，我們已確定我們的品種沒有足夠的新鮮度來吸引需求並抵消計劃中的日曆變化。雖然我們對讓我們的新商品交付在銷售樓層停留更長時間的策略仍然充滿信心，但我們了解到，我們需要更強大、更頻繁的新商品膠囊來補充現有的樓層設置，這將在未來得到體現宿舍。

In addition, based on an independent third-party analysis, we know that the unseasonably cold and snowy weather had an adverse impact on our overall business. We also experienced certain vendor execution issues and delivery delays at the Chico's brand that negatively impacted sales. The vendor issues have been resolved, and we do not anticipate any further disruptions to our business on that front.

此外，根據獨立第三方分析，我們知道反常的寒冷和下雪天氣對我們的整體業務產生了不利影響。我們還遇到了 Chico 品牌的某些供應商執行問題和交貨延遲，這對銷售產生了負面影響。供應商問題已經解決，我們預計這方面的業務不會受到任何進一步的干擾。

To mitigate these factors, we leveraged our strong inventory management capabilities and utilized targeted promotions to drive higher units per transaction and improve shopper conversion, which increased year-over-year across the company. As a result of these actions, we successfully moved through inventory and entered the second quarter in a clean position.

為了緩解這些因素，我們利用強大的庫存管理能力並利用有針對性的促銷活動來提高每筆交易的單位數並提高購物者轉化率，整個公司的轉化率逐年增加。由於這些行動，我們成功地清理了庫存，並以乾淨的狀態進入了第二季度。

Although our DCOM business was also impacted by soft traffic, we saw sales grow year-over-year in that channel. DCOM is a consistent and healthy growth channel for us and is accretive to our overall business.

儘管我們的 DCOM 業務也受到流量疲軟的影響，但我們看到該渠道的銷售額同比增長。DCOM 對我們來說是一個持續、健康的增長渠道，可以促進我們的整體業務。

Turning now to results by brand.

現在轉向按品牌劃分的結果。

At Chico's, while the merchandise has improved and our fully integrated brand campaign appears to be building customer consideration, these initiatives have not yet matured enough to drive increased sales. Our mitigating strategy to offset the traffic decline helped in some areas. For example, we saw a nice increase in conversion in units per transaction with dresses, tees, skirts and Travelers as key drivers. Pants, including denim and jewelry, continue to be works in progress, and we believe we have made the appropriate adjustments to the fall delivery to see improved results similar to when we reinvented our jacket business. As an extension to the brand, Chico's recently introduced a new home collection online, leveraging its beautiful artisanal prints and bold colors. With this initial test, we're offering a selection of tabletop items, along with frames, accessories and an expanded assortment of gifts. We are also rolling out this collection to select stores in time for the fall season and look forward to updating you on results next quarter.

在 Chico's，雖然商品有所改善，而且我們完全整合的品牌活動似乎正在建立客戶考慮，但這些舉措還不夠成熟，不足以推動銷售額的增長。我們為抵消流量下降而採取的緩解策略在某些地區發揮了作用。例如，我們發現每筆交易的轉化次數大幅增加，其中連衣裙、T 卹、裙子和旅行鞋是主要驅動力。褲子，包括牛仔布和珠寶，仍在進行中，我們相信我們已經對秋季交付進行了適當的調整，以看到與我們重塑夾克業務時類似的改善結果。作為該品牌的延伸，Chico's 最近在網上推出了一個新的家居系列，利用其美麗的手工印花和大膽的色彩。通過這次初步測試，我們提供了一系列精選的桌面物品，以及框架、配件和更多種類的禮品。我們還將在秋季及時向精選商店推出該系列，並期待在下個季度向您通報最新結果。

Turning to White House | Black Market. The team is making good progress in both operational and merchandise improvements as they incorporate learnings from the Chico's brand. Comparable sales trends improved despite the difficult traffic. Sourcing, leverage and inventory management resulted in significant improvement in merchandise margins in the quarter. We're starting to see green shoots where the customer is responding favorably to key items that the team has been addressing such as improved polished Wear to Work assortment and a higher penetration of black and white.

轉向白宮|黑市。該團隊吸取了 Chico 品牌的經驗教訓，在運營和商品改進方面取得了良好進展。儘管交通困難，但可比銷售趨勢有所改善。採購、槓桿和庫存管理導致本季度商品利潤率顯著改善。我們開始看到新芽，客戶對團隊一直在解決的關鍵項目做出了積極的反應，例如改進的拋光工作服系列和更高的黑白滲透率。

Categories driving improvement at White House | Black Market include polished jacket, skirts, dress pants and sweaters. The Wear to Work customers are assimilating at a much faster rate than the casual customer. This is a good sign and in line with our strategy to focus first on polished Wear to Work assortment. Our research has shown that these items serve as a gateway for other purchases.

推動白宮改善的類別|黑市包括拋光夾克、裙子、正裝褲和毛衣。工作著裝顧客的同化速度比休閒顧客快得多。這是一個好兆頭，也符合我們首先專注於拋光工作服系列的戰略。我們的研究表明，這些商品可以作為其他購買的門戶。

Opportunities are primarily in the polished casual area, where the customer is underserved and looks for more versatility than what we've offered, including items that will flex between dress up and dress down. The White House | Black Market merchandise assortment continues to evolve, and we are optimistic that our fall deliveries will be stronger and more in line with our customers' needs.

機會主要集中在精緻的休閒領域，那裡的顧客得不到充分的服務，他們尋求比我們提供的產品更多的多功能性，包括可以在正裝和便裝之間靈活切換的商品。白宮|黑市商品種類不斷發展，我們樂觀地認為我們的秋季交付將更加強勁，更符合客戶的需求。

Moving to Soma. We anticipate a challenging first quarter as we did not anniversary the launch of our updated Vanishing Back bra. As you remember, it was the most successful bra launch in Soma history. In addition, while our overall foundation business and Cool Nights sleepwear performed to expectation, our loungewear continues to be difficult. We're on track to deliver a full refresh of our loungewear in the fall and have other exciting initiatives that we believe will drive stronger sales trends for the brand. Specifically, in early June, we will launch [In Bliss], a new and innovative bra that has received excellent customer response throughout the testing phase. In Bliss offers structure but is wider and more comfortable. We'll support the launch with a fully integrated comprehensive marketing campaign.

搬到索馬。我們預計第一季度將充滿挑戰，因為我們還沒有推出更新版 Vanishing Back 文胸週年紀念日。正如您所記得的，這是 Soma 歷史上最成功的文胸發布。此外，雖然我們的整體粉底業務和 Cool Nights 睡衣業務表現符合預期，但我們的家居服業務仍然困難重重。我們有望在秋季對家居服進行全面更新，並推出其他令人興奮的舉措，我們相信這些舉措將推動該品牌更強勁的銷售趨勢。具體來說，我們將在六月初推出一款新型創新文胸【In Bliss】，在整個測試階段獲得了良好的客戶反應。In Bliss 提供結構，但更寬、更舒適。我們將通過完全整合的綜合營銷活動來支持此次發布。

Another exciting initiative for Soma is our new relationship with the multi-platform retailer, QVC. Soma successfully debuted on QVC on May 5 with the Vanishing Back bra and the Vanishing Edge panty, both of which sold out in a matter of minutes. This first event also drove increased awareness and strong customer traffic into our stores and into our website. We've already planned for additional QVC segments this year, featuring products from our Vanishing, Embraceable and Cool Nights collections. We believe that Soma's merchandise is improving. And with our exciting, new initiatives, we are on track for stronger top line growth in the back half of the year.

Soma 的另一項激動人心的舉措是我們與多平台零售商 QVC 的新關係。Soma 於 5 月 5 日在 QVC 上成功首次亮相，推出了 Vanishing Back 文胸和 Vanishing Edge 內褲，兩款產品在幾分鐘內就被搶購一空。這第一場活動還提高了我們的商店和網站的知名度和強勁的客戶流量。我們已經計劃今年推出更多 QVC 細分市場，其中包括 Vanishing、Embraceable 和 Cool Nights 系列的產品。我們相信 Soma 的商品正在改善。通過我們令人興奮的新舉措，我們有望在今年下半年實現更強勁的收入增長。

Turning to update on our other strategic initiatives across the organization.

接下來介紹我們整個組織的其他戰略舉措的最新情況。

In special sizes, petites continue to be strong and generated approximately $4 million in incremental sales for Chico's and White House | Black Market in the quarter. In addition, we saw positive results from our Chico's brand online tests of extended or plus sizes, which includes sizes 3.5, 4 and 4.5, expanding our conventional size range to the equivalent of 0 to 22.

在特殊尺寸方面，小號繼續表現強勁，為 Chico's 和 White House 帶來了約 400 萬美元的增量銷售額 |本季度的黑市。此外，我們在 Chico 品牌的加長尺碼或加大碼（包括 3.5、4 和 4.5 碼）在線測試中看到了積極的結果，將我們的常規尺碼範圍擴大到相當於 0 至 22 碼。

Given these positive results, we are pleased to announce that we are rolling our extended plus size range to approximately 150 Chico's stores.

鑑於這些積極的成果，我們很高興地宣布，我們正在將加大碼系列擴大到大約 150 家 Chico's 商店。

Next, we're continuing our journey to become a fully integrated omni platform retailer. In stores where we are fully converted to the new, enhanced Locate Tool, we're seeing a 50% increase in customer orders. Our Locate Tool enables us to ship merchandise from an in-store order directly to the customer either from our distribution center or through another store.

接下來，我們將繼續我們的旅程，成為一家完全集成的全平台零售商。在我們完全改用新的增強型定位工具的商店中，我們發現客戶訂單增加了 50%。我們的定位工具使我們能夠將店內訂單中的商品從我們的配送中心或通過其他商店直接運送給客戶。

We're on track to roll out endless aisle beginning in August. This enhancement will leverage our shared inventory and fully enable connectivity to our inventory management system for purchases online and ship from store. This improvement advances our goal to utilize our store fleet as a sales center, a return center and a distribution center for our customers.

我們有望從八月開始推出無盡通道。這一增強功能將利用我們的共享庫存，並完全支持與我們的庫存管理系統的連接，以便在線購買和從商店發貨。這一改進推進了我們的目標，即利用我們的商店作為客戶的銷售中心、退貨中心和配送中心。

Another development in omni is our recent launch of Shop The Look, which enriches the customer experience. We're leveraging our base photography, and through a one-click Shop The Look button, our customer gets a quick view of an outfit and can immediately add any or all items to the shopping cart. We're testing this functionality with over 400 outfits across all brands with mobile and desktop capability.

全方位的另一個發展是我們最近推出的 Shop The Look，它豐富了客戶體驗。我們利用我們的基礎攝影，通過一鍵“Shop The Look”按鈕，我們的客戶可以快速查看服裝，並可以立即將任何或所有商品添加到購物車中。我們正在使用所有品牌的 400 多個具有移動和桌面功能的服裝來測試此功能。

Our investments in technology are focused on creating a seamless and amazing customer experience, whether online or in our stores, with access to our merchandise wherever, however, and whenever she wants. While these initiatives are in a development and test phase, we're making solid progress, and we will keep you updated.

我們對技術的投資專注於創造無縫且令人驚嘆的客戶體驗，無論是在網上還是在我們的商店，無論何時何地，只要她想要，就可以訪問我們的商品。雖然這些舉措正處於開發和測試階段，但我們正在取得紮實的進展，我們將隨時向您通報最新情況。

Establishing new sales channels that meet our customers at their choice of venue and introduce us to new customers is another important step we're taking to drive sustainability and profitable growth in today's retail reality. I talked about Soma and QVC earlier. In addition, ShopRunner successfully launched at the end of March for all brands, and we have already exceeded our initial sales plan for the year. Since the launch, we have generated over $20 million in sales through ShopRunner. Our average order value is roughly 30% higher than non-ShopRunner orders. In airport, we've signed a definitive agreement with Stellar Partners for our brands to be represented in domestic airports. We're excited to announce that our first location will be in the Philadelphia International Airport. We anticipate this location will be up and running by January of 2019. The store will offer a mix of Chico's, White House | Black Market and Soma products in a single space.

建立新的銷售渠道，在客戶選擇的地點與他們見面並將我們介紹給新客戶，是我們為推動當今零售現實的可持續性和盈利增長而採取的另一個重要步驟。我之前談到過 Soma 和 QVC。此外，ShopRunner已於3月底在所有品牌上成功上線，我們已經超出了今年最初的銷售計劃。自推出以來，我們通過 ShopRunner 創造了超過 2000 萬美元的銷售額。我們的平均訂單價值比非 ShopRunner 訂單高出大約 30%。在機場方面，我們與 Stellar Partners 簽署了一份最終協議，讓我們的品牌在國內機場擁有代理權。我們很高興地宣布，我們的第一個地點將設在費城國際機場。我們預計該地點將於 2019 年 1 月投入運行。該商店將提供 Chico's、White House | 的混合產品黑市和 Soma 產品集中在一個空間中。

Our chicosofftherack.com business continues to perform above our expectations with healthy margins and units per transaction. This fall, we plan to open 5 new Off the Rack stores, which would bring our total to 9 stores by the end of the year.

我們的 chicosofftherack.com 業務的表現繼續高於我們的預期，利潤率和每筆交易的數量都保持在良好水平。今年秋天，我們計劃新開 5 家現成商店，到年底我們的商店總數將達到 9 家。

And finally, we've launched our Chico's brand on amazon.com. Chico's FAS is one of the very few vertically integrated apparel specialty retail partners with prime eligibility, which is a testament to the uniqueness of our merchandise and growth potential. Under the agreement with Amazon, we will maintain control over marketing, pricing and promotions, and the customer has the ability to return directly to Amazon or any one of our Chico's boutiques. Although it's too early for meaningful results, at this point we're on plan and look forward to talking more about this initiative in future calls.

最後，我們在 amazon.com 上推出了 Chico 品牌。Chico 的 FAS 是極少數具有首要資格的垂直一體化服裝專業零售合作夥伴之一，這證明了我們商品的獨特性和增長潛力。根據與亞馬遜的協議，我們將保持對營銷、定價和促銷的控制，並且客戶可以直接返回亞馬遜或我們奇科的任何一家精品店。儘管現在取得有意義的結果還為時過早，但目前我們已按計劃進行，並期待在未來的電話會議中更多地討論這一舉措。

We're thrilled with our new channels and partnerships. We believe the positive consumer response shows that our omnichannel strategy is working and should support improved sales, increase introduction to new customers and a stronger competitive position in this dynamic retail environment.

我們對新的渠道和合作夥伴關係感到非常興奮。我們相信消費者的積極反應表明我們的全渠道戰略正在發揮作用，並且應該能夠支持銷售的改善、增加新客戶的引進以及在這個充滿活力的零售環境中增強競爭地位。

In conclusion, we remain confident in the broad actions we're taking. We're learning, and we're moving quickly to adjust our strategies as needed in response to customer reaction. We're forward thinking and innovative in partnering with companies that can support our multi-channel strategy and meet our customer wherever she chooses. We want to present her with new and refreshed apparel and accessories through a variety of channels for ultimate accessibility.

總之，我們對我們正在採取的廣泛行動仍然充滿信心。我們正在學習，並且正在迅速採取行動，根據需要調整我們的策略，以響應客戶的反應。我們在與能夠支持我們的多渠道戰略並隨時隨地滿足客戶需求的公司合作方面具有前瞻性思維和創新精神。我們希望通過各種渠道向她展示全新的服裝和配飾，以實現最終的可及性。

We're confident in our future, and we continue to implement strategies that best position our business and brands for the long term.

我們對未來充滿信心，並將繼續實施能夠為我們的業務和品牌提供最佳長期定位的戰略。

Now I'll turn the call over to Todd for more details on our financial results.

現在我將把電話轉給托德，了解有關我們財務業績的更多詳細信息。

Thanks, Shelley, and good morning, everyone.

謝謝雪萊，大家早上好。

As Shelley mentioned, while we made meaningful progress on our long-term initiatives, we did have a challenging start to the year, reporting first quarter earnings of $0.23 per share. Net sales and comps were below our expectations due to a decline in customer traffic and transactions resulting from both internal and external factors. Our third-party analysis showed that the impact of adverse weather on our sales in the quarter was approximately 2 percentage points. We took action and increased promotional activity across the brands, and we did see an improvement in trends but not enough to get us back to our anticipated levels.

正如雪萊提到的，雖然我們在長期計劃上取得了有意義的進展，但今年的開局確實充滿挑戰，第一季度每股收益為 0.23 美元。由於內部和外部因素導致客戶流量和交易下降，淨銷售額和比較低於我們的預期。我們的第三方分析顯示，惡劣天氣對我們本季度銷售額的影響約為 2 個百分點。我們採取了行動並增加了跨品牌的促銷活動，我們確實看到了趨勢的改善，但不足以讓我們回到預期的水平。

We successfully cleared through our spring inventory, however, and ended the quarter with clean inventory, down 7.3% compared to last year, reflecting continued tight inventory management. We achieved a 70 basis point improvement in merchandise margin for the quarter. Overall, gross margin deleveraged 30 basis points mostly due to the implementation and launch of a new, expedited shipping program to support ShopRunner. We have completed the implementation of a new capability and service provider that will normalize our shipping costs going forward.

然而，我們成功清理了春季庫存，並在本季度末實現了庫存清理，與去年相比下降了 7.3%，反映出庫存管理持續嚴格。本季度我們的商品利潤率提高了 70 個基點。總體而言，毛利率下降了 30 個基點，主要是由於實施和啟動了新的加急運輸計劃來支持 ShopRunner。我們已經完成了新能力和服務提供商的實施，這將使我們未來的運輸成本正常化。

Moving to SG&A expenses. First quarter SG&A was in line with expectations, increasing $3.9 million or up 2.1% to last year, reflecting planned investments in both marketing and technology. As we have previously discussed, we continue to anticipate additional opportunities to grow merchandise margin this year. We are in a better position to leverage fabric positioning across the brands and to further consolidate our vendor list through our shared services model. We are making progress and saw a decline in average unit cost in the first quarter, which continues last year's favorable trend.

轉到SG&A 費用。第一季度 SG&A 符合預期，比去年增加 390 萬美元，即增長 2.1%，反映了營銷和技術方面的計劃投資。正如我們之前所討論的，我們繼續預計今年會有更多提高商品利潤的機會。我們能夠更好地利用跨品牌的面料定位，並通過我們的共享服務模式進一步鞏固我們的供應商名單。我們正在取得進展，第一季度平均單位成本有所下降，延續了去年的有利趨勢。

Our balance sheet remains strong, and we ended the quarter with $255 million in cash and short-term investments and $65 million in debt. First quarter capital expenditures totaled $10 million, mostly comprised of investments in existing stores and technology. For the year, we anticipate capital expenditures of approximately $60 million to $70 million.

我們的資產負債表依然強勁，本季度末我們擁有 2.55 億美元的現金和短期投資以及 6500 萬美元的債務。第一季度資本支出總計 1000 萬美元，主要包括對現有商店和技術的投資。我們預計今年的資本支出約為 6000 萬至 7000 萬美元。

In the first quarter, we closed 9 stores, and we're on track to close a total of approximately 40 to 50 stores this year while taking advantage of select, short-term lease extensions where possible. We continue to actively pursue opportunities to enhance our portfolio and negotiate more favorable terms.

第一季度，我們關閉了 9 家商店，今年我們有望關閉總共約 40 至 50 家商店，同時盡可能利用精選的短期租約延期。我們將繼續積極尋求機會來增強我們的產品組合併談判更優惠的條款。

Next, I'll update you on our financial outlook for the second quarter and full year. At this time, we're planning for second quarter trends to improve modestly compared to the first quarter. This is typically a clearance period where we close out the spring season and flow less new product. With this in mind, we expect second quarter net sales to be down in the mid- to high single-digit range and comparable sales to be down in the low- to mid-single digit range compared to last year. Also compared to last year, we expect solid growth in merchandise margin, offset by deleverage in fixed costs with anticipated gross margin rate to be approximately flat. We anticipate SG&A dollars to be up slightly as we continue to invest in marketing and technology.

接下來，我將向您介紹我們第二季度和全年的財務展望。目前，我們計劃第二季度的趨勢與第一季度相比略有改善。這通常是春季的清倉期，新產品的流通量會減少。考慮到這一點，我們預計與去年相比，第二季度淨銷售額將在中高個位數範圍內下降，可比銷售額將在中低個位數範圍內下降。同樣與去年相比，我們預計商品利潤率將穩健增長，但被固定成本去槓桿化所抵消，預計毛利率將大致持平。隨著我們繼續投資於營銷和技術，我們預計銷售及管理費用將略有上升。

As we laid out at the beginning of the year, we continue to expect improved second half performance as White House | Black Market and Soma deliver merchandise influenced by our new brand president and the Chico's brand refresh continues with its bold themed marketing campaign offering a great assortment of new fall products.

正如我們在今年年初所闡述的那樣，我們繼續預計下半年表現將有所改善，因為白宮| Black Market 和 Soma 提供的商品受到我們新品牌總裁的影響，而 Chico 的品牌更新則繼續其大膽的主題營銷活動，提供種類繁多的秋季新產品。

Our second half outlook is very similar to the full year outlook we provided last quarter. As such, for the full year compared to last year, we expect net sales to be down in the mid-single digit range, excluding the impact of the 53rd week, and we anticipate comparable sales to be down in the low to mid-single-digit range. We expect gross margin rate expansion to be in the range of 50 to 75 basis points, and we anticipate SG&A dollars to be approximately flat.

我們的下半年前景與我們上季度提供的全年前景非常相似。因此，與去年相比，全年淨銷售額將下降到中個位數範圍，排除第 53 週的影響，並且我們預計可比銷售額將下降到中個位數範圍。 - 數字範圍。我們預計毛利率擴張將在 50 至 75 個基點之間，並且我們預計 SG&A 美元將大致持平。

Now I'll turn the call back over to Julie for Q&A.

現在我將把電話轉回給朱莉進行問答。

Thank you, Todd. At this time, we would be happy to take your questions. (Operator Instructions) So I'll turn the call back over to Rocco to proceed.

謝謝你，托德。目前，我們很樂意回答您的問題。（操作員說明）所以我會將電話轉回給 Rocco 繼續進行。

(Operator Instructions) And today's first question comes from Susan Anderson of B. Riley FBR.

（操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自 B. Riley FBR 的 Susan Anderson。

On the gross margin front, I wanted to ask on the merch margin. Did that come in where you expected? Or was that also a bit light given you had to clear through some products? And then on the shipping costs, was this planned or did this pressure gross margin more than expected in the first quarter? And it sounds like that's pretty much transitioned, but is there going to be any impact in second quarter or is it complete?

在毛利率方面，我想問一下商品利潤率。這符合你的預期嗎？或者考慮到您必須清除某些產品，這是否也有點輕？那麼關於運輸成本，這是計劃好的還是對第一季度毛利率的壓力超過預期？聽起來這已經發生了很大的轉變，但是第二季度會產生任何影響嗎？或者已經完成了嗎？

On the gross margin within merchandise margin, we mentioned that with February results being what they were, we intentionally worked to clear through our inventory, something we always do. And as we did that, we had to be more promotional to make sure that we did get clean on our inventory. And as a result of that, yes, average unit in retail and merchandise margin was a bit lower than what we had been planning for. We did still get good savings off of our sourcing initiatives, so average unit cost was down as planned, and that's a great thing. But it did end up merchandise margin being a little bit lower than we expected and, therefore, gross margin being a little lower than what we had expected. You mentioned the shipping. And so this was related to the launch. ShopRunner, I would say, generally, we did expect pressure in the second quarter as we were just in the process of launching a new service provider and more efficient shipping on that process. And as we go into second quarter, yes, we think we've done everything to address that, and we would expect that to not be an issue for us going forward. And I should just -- the ShopRunner program has very definitely been ahead of our expectations in terms of volume. So we've been very happy with that partnership and certainly off to a good start.

關於商品利潤中的毛利率，我們提到，鑑於 2 月份的業績，我們有意努力清理庫存，這是我們一直在做的事情。當我們這樣做時，我們必須加大促銷力度，以確保我們的庫存得到清理。因此，是的，零售和商品利潤率的平均單位略低於我們的計劃。我們確實仍然從採購計劃中節省了大量成本，因此平均單位成本按計劃下降，這是一件好事。但最終商品利潤率確實略低於我們的預期，因此毛利率也略低於我們的預期。你提到了運輸。所以這與發射有關。ShopRunner，我想說，一般來說，我們確實預計第二季度會面臨壓力，因為我們剛剛推出新的服務提供商，並在該流程中提高運輸效率。當我們進入第二季度時，是的，我們認為我們已經盡一切努力來解決這個問題，並且我們希望這不會成為我們未來的問題。我應該——ShopRunner 計劃在數量方面絕對超出了我們的預期。因此，我們對這種合作關係非常滿意，並且無疑是一個良好的開端。

And today's next question comes from Lorraine Hutchinson of Bank of America.

今天的下一個問題來自美國銀行的洛林·哈欽森 (Lorraine Hutchinson)。

Todd, I was just wondering if that $30 million to $40 million of average unit cost or sourcing benefit is still in your plan. And then also, if you could just expand a bit upon the vendor issues that you had at Chico's and your confidence in those being behind us.

托德，我只是想知道 3000 萬至 4000 萬美元的平均單位成本或採購效益是否仍在您的計劃中。另外，您能否詳細闡述一下您在 Chico's 遇到的供應商問題以及您對我們背後的支持者的信心。

Sure. So first, on the average unit cost. Yes, that is still absolutely something that is baked into the plan. We are seeing great progress, which is a part of that operating efficiency-focused area that we had talked about and have been talking about for quite a while. So that $30 million to $40 million of sourcing savings was something we had identified a couple of years ago and put all those plans in place. Still trending exactly towards that benefit. In terms of the vendor issues, it really was an accumulation of a lot of different issues that came up over the course of the quarter. We do have very strong relationships with our vendors, so we have worked through it. A variety of things, probably most important being delivery timing issues that we've been able to put together plans in place with our vendors and feel much more confident about going forward. Going back to one of the things we've been talking about, we have been focusing very much on those key vendors that make a true difference to us and making sure that we are consolidating to those vendors that we can have the strong partnerships with, and we have absolutely seen that as things have come up. We do work with those vendors, and it is resulting in resolving any issues that come up.

當然。首先是平均單位成本。是的，這絕對是計劃中的一部分。我們看到了巨大的進步，這是我們已經討論過並且已經討論了很長一段時間的以運營效率為中心的領域的一部分。因此，我們幾年前就確定了可以節省 3000 萬至 4000 萬美元的採購成本，並將所有這些計劃落實到位。仍然傾向於這種好處。就供應商問題而言，這確實是本季度出現的許多不同問題的累積。我們確實與供應商有著非常牢固的關係，所以我們已經解決了這個問題。各種各樣的事情，可能最重要的是交付時間問題，我們已經能夠與供應商一起制定計劃，並對未來更有信心。回到我們一直在談論的一件事，我們一直非常關注那些對我們產生真正影響的關鍵供應商，並確保我們正在鞏固那些我們可以與之建立牢固合作夥伴關係的供應商，隨著事情的發展，我們已經看到了這一點。我們確實與這些供應商合作，從而解決了出現的任何問題。

And we just hosted a dozen or so of our top vendors here in Fort Myers for a vendor conference just about 3 weeks ago, and we continue to focus not only on AUC and AUC done the right way, meaning from the design elements and sourcing at the very beginning, not AUC done at the end of the process to dump down the garments. And very much as Todd and I have been talking about for the last few years, really working that shared services model. So where do Chico's, Soma and White House benefit from positioning fabric together, from booking factories together and from consolidating vendor partnership where we can be a very meaningful piece of their business to enhance our negotiation powers.

大約三週前，我們剛剛在邁爾斯堡舉辦了一次供應商會議，邀請了十幾家頂級供應商參加，我們不僅繼續關注 AUC，而且 AUC 是以正確的方式完成的，這意味著從設計元素和採購來看從一開始，AUC 就沒有在傾倒衣服的過程結束時完成。正如托德和我過去幾年一直在談論的那樣，真正實施共享服務模型。那麼，Chico's、Soma 和 White House 通過共同定位面料、共同預訂工廠以及鞏固供應商合作夥伴關係，可以在哪些方面受益，在這些方面，我們可以成為他們業務中非常有意義的一部分，從而增強我們的談判能力。

And our next question today comes from Pamela Quintiliano of SunTrust.

今天我們的下一個問題來自 SunTrust 的 Pamela Quintiliano。

First one I have for you is if you could just talk about what you're seeing from a traffic perspective quarter-to-date as the weather has normalized. And then you also mentioned more frequent capsules and flowing in newness more often. Can you talk to us about the timing of that? And then the last question is just regarding your full year outlook. If you'd dig a bit more into the fiscal guidance. Looking at the recent learnings from across divisions but really Chico's and White House, what's the biggest change relative to the prior expectations for you?

我要向您提出的第一個問題是，您是否可以談談隨著天氣恢復正常，您從本季度至今的交通角度所看到的情況。然後你還提到了更頻繁的膠囊和更頻繁的新鮮感。您能和我們談談具體時間嗎？最後一個問題是關於您的全年展望。如果您想進一步了解財政指導。看看各個部門（尤其是奇科和白宮）最近的經驗教訓，相對於您之前的期望，最大的變化是什麼？

Sure. You bet. Thanks, Pam. So start with traffic quarter-to-date. And I think it's fair to say that weather, among other things, it's just plain been very volatile this quarter. We do see a number of the other opportunities that we had talked about really played out through the course of the quarters. As we're going into May and forward, yes, we would expect that weather issue to abate. That's part of us looking towards the overall comp trends to improve modestly as we do go into the second quarter and then into the second half. In terms of the capsules, one of the big things for us that we've done and we've talked about a fair amount is to adjust the timing of our floor set shifts to really align with the timing of when our customer is shopping to make sure that we are allowing goods to live its full price longer on the floor. And seeing that, that absolutely was the right decision, we've had really positive results up-to-date on those shifts. This quarter, we've just had some, well, plans or flows that we normally would have built in that didn't have the same impact as it has in the past. So that's a learning as we wrap around. But I'd also say the impact of those floor set changes, we tend to get to the point of just wrapping around on them at this point. So there is just not as much direct impact, and it's more about improving any learnings we have as we go through them.

當然。你打賭。謝謝，帕姆。因此，請從季度至今的流量開始。我認為可以公平地說，除其他因素外，本季度天氣波動非常大。我們確實看到我們討論過的許多其他機會在本季度中確實發揮了作用。隨著我們進入五月及未來，是的，我們預計天氣問題將會減弱。這是我們希望在進入第二季度和下半年時整體比較趨勢略有改善的一部分。就膠囊而言，我們已經做過並且已經討論過相當多的一件大事就是調整樓層輪班的時間，以真正與客戶購物的時間保持一致。確保我們允許商品以全價在場上保存更長時間。看到這一點，這絕對是正確的決定，我們在這些轉變方面取得了非常積極的最新成果。本季度，我們剛剛制定了一些通常會建立的計劃或流程，但沒有產生與過去相同的影響。因此，當我們結束時，這就是一種學習。但我還要說的是這些地板設置變化的影響，我們傾向於在這一點上簡單地討論它們。因此，直接影響並不大，更多的是在我們經歷過程中改進我們所學到的知識。

Yes, showing the customer newness, Pam, I think the -- as Todd said, the analysis that we did on full-price garments living longer on the sales floor has proven to be very true and added tremendous amount of value. As we've now cycled through that, we see the spots in the calendar where we had previous floor sets where our appearance of newness to the customer is just not strong enough, and that's where we're starting to drop those capsules in.

是的，向顧客展示新鮮感，帕姆，我認為——正如托德所說，我們對銷售現場更長的全價服裝所做的分析已被證明是非常正確的，並且增加了巨大的價值。正如我們現在循環過的那樣，我們在日曆中看到了我們之前的樓層設置中的一些地方，但我們對客戶的新鮮感不夠強烈，這就是我們開始投放這些膠囊的地方。

And I think your last question was around the full year outlook and what does give us confidence in the improving trends. It's fair to say we had a lot of things in the course of Q1 that we could say were confined to Q1 and we could put a box around, one of which was weather, the vendor delays, the floor set, timing issues that will not be ongoing through the year. And now we also realized in second quarter that we're part of a season that very much continues through the second quarter. And that relationship between second quarter and first quarter is traditionally very strong, so we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves. But again, the -- a lot of the things that popped up in Q1 are not things that impact our second half, and the things that were positive for us do. So as we look at Locate and ShopRunner, those are things that, if anything, get stronger as we get -- go through the year. So we have a lot of confidence in those extended sizes. So we do continue to roll out petites as we look at that product positioning and customer experience and see who's responding. Also in the other side of the spectrum, especially for Chico's as we've done our testing online, that extended sizes where we are going to the size 3.5 and 4s, that she's responding to very well, and we're going to be expanding that to be about 150 stores. So that's just one more thing that does give us confidence as we go into the second half and a little bit of tailwind that might not have been there earlier in the year.

我認為你的最後一個問題是關於全年展望以及是什麼讓我們對改善趨勢充滿信心。公平地說，我們在第一季度的過程中遇到了很多事情，我們可以說這些事情僅限於第一季度，我們可以把它們放在一個盒子裡，其中之一是天氣、供應商延遲、樓層設置、時間問題，這些問題不會全年持續進行。現在，我們在第二季度也意識到，我們屬於一個將持續到第二季​​度的賽季的一部分。傳統上，第二季度和第一季度之間的關係非常牢固，因此我們不想超前。但同樣，第一季度出現的很多事情並不會影響我們下半年的事情，而那些對我們有利的事情卻會影響我們。因此，當我們看看 Locate 和 ShopRunner 時，這些東西（如果說有什麼不同的話）會隨著我們的進展而變得更加強大——經過一年的時間。所以我們對這些擴展尺寸充滿信心。因此，我們確實會繼續推出嬌小的產品，同時我們會考慮產品定位和客戶體驗，看看誰會做出回應。另一方面，特別是對於 Chico 來說，我們已經在網上進行了測試，我們將尺寸擴大到 3.5 和 4s，她對此反應非常好，我們將擴大尺寸大約有150家商店。因此，當我們進入下半年時，這確實給了我們信心，並且帶來了今年早些時候可能沒有的一點順風。

And just another more subjective piece is time in the chair for 2 of the 3 of our brand presidents, right. So both at Soma and at White House | Black Market, we've got relatively, if not very new, brand presidents. So additional time in that chair. We're already seeing just great impact from both Mary and David.

另一個更主觀的部分是我們三位品牌總裁中的兩位擔任主席的時間，對吧。所以無論是在索馬還是在白宮|在黑市，我們有相對較新的品牌總裁。所以額外的時間坐在那張椅子上。我們已經看到瑪麗和大衛的巨大影響。

And our next question today comes from Simeon Siegel of Nomura Instinet.

今天我們的下一個問題來自 Nomura Instinet 的 Simeon Siegel。

This is Julie Kim on for Simeon. Could you just give color on the performance of your full-price stores versus outlets across the different concepts, whether you've seen diversions of trends there and how you're thinking about the outlet channel going forward? And secondly, following up on your ShopRunner partnership, have you seen any overlap with your own e-comm channel? And are you seeing any customers there? Or is it just increased spend from current customers?

我是西蒙的朱莉·金。您能否詳細說明不同概念下的全價商店與直銷店的表現，您是否看到了那裡的趨勢轉移以及您如何看待未來的直銷渠道？其次，在您與 ShopRunner 的合作夥伴關係之後，您是否發現與您自己的電子商務渠道有任何重疊？您在那裡見到顧客了嗎？或者只是現有客戶的支出增加？

Thank you, Julie. So first, full price versus outlet. And I would say overall, similar trends for very different reasons. With the outlet channel, we are doing things to really spur demand. You heard about offtherack.com, which is a new offering for us and seeing good results that are above plan on that. And then we are launching Off The Rack stores. Those are stores that are in geographies that are much more value based, that don't necessarily impact our full-price stores. And I'd say they're more isolated in that regard. And so that allows us to generate that extra revenue, and that has been very positive for us. At the same time, full-price stores, you can tell from our results, have been what they've been. And so the 2 of those things tend to balance out each other and lead to fairly consistent results. In terms of ShopRunner, the one thing we've been probably particularly pleased with at ShopRunner -- and I'll take a step back first. One of the things that appealed to us about ShopRunner is we did our analysis -- third-party analysis of our file versus the ShopRunner file. It was shocking how much opportunity these was in terms of customers that did not overlap. Actually, it was a fairly low number of customers that did overlap. So not surprisingly, as we've gotten through it, we are seeing a healthy amount of new customers coming into the file. And as we said before, new customers coming into the file is a leading indicator of our sales and really critical for that brand positioning as we go forward. So we have been quite pleased about just the general new customer trend and also the way to build that new customer awareness and consideration going forward.

謝謝你，朱莉。首先，全價與折扣店。我想說的是，總體而言，出於截然不同的原因，出現了類似的趨勢。通過奧特萊斯渠道，我們正在做一些事情來真正刺激需求。您聽說過 offtherack.com，這是我們的一項新產品，並且看到了超出計劃的良好結果。然後我們將推出現成商店。這些商店位於更注重價值的地區，不一定會影響我們的全價商店。我想說他們在這方面更加孤立。這使我們能夠產生額外的收入，這對我們來說非常積極。與此同時，從我們的結果中你可以看出，全價商店一直都是這樣。因此，這兩件事往往會相互平衡並導致相當一致的結果。就 ShopRunner 而言，我們可能對 ShopRunner 特別滿意的一件事是——我先退一步。ShopRunner 吸引我們的地方之一是我們進行了分析——我們的文件與 ShopRunner 文件的第三方分析。令人震驚的是，這些機會對於不重疊的客戶來說有多少機會。事實上，重疊的客戶數量相當少。因此，毫不奇怪，隨著我們度過難關，我們看到大量新客戶加入進來。正如我們之前所說，新客戶的加入是我們銷售的領先指標，對於我們前進的品牌定位至關重要。因此，我們對新客戶的總體趨勢以及未來建立新客戶意識和考慮的方式感到非常滿意。

And as you look at our alternative channel strategy, it still is, in many ways, for Chico's FAS about that intersection of digital and physical. And we are very committed to our store fleet. And we know that our unique way of servicing customers, our Most Amazing Personal Service that's built on decades' worth of customer-specific data can provide a unique experience in-store that other retailers can't replicate. When you combine that with the opportunity of having new customers coming into that file and the kind of digital enhancements around outfitting, around Shop The Look that we're bringing, the fact that we can locate items not only from our distribution center but from all of our boutiques later in the summer, we're really focusing on that intersection of digital and physical. So partners like QVC, like ShopRunner, like Amazon give us not only great functionality but an inflow of new customers that otherwise may not be introduced to our brands.

當您查看我們的替代渠道策略時，您會發現，在很多方面，對於 Chico 的 FAS 來說，數字和物理的交叉點仍然如此。我們非常致力於我們的商店隊伍。我們知道，我們為客戶提供獨特的服務方式，我們基於數十年的客戶特定數據構建的最令人驚嘆的個人服務可以提供其他零售商無法複製的獨特店內體驗。當你將這一點與新客戶進入該文件的機會以及圍繞裝備、圍繞我們帶來的 Shop The Look 的數字增強結合起來時，我們不僅可以從我們的配送中心找到物品，而且可以從所有地方找到物品。在夏季晚些時候的精品店中，我們真正關注的是數字和實體的交叉點。因此，像 QVC、ShopRunner、亞馬遜這樣的合作夥伴不僅為我們提供了強大的功能，而且還為我們帶來了新客戶的流入，否則這些客戶可能不會被介紹給我們的品牌。

Our next question today comes from Paul Lejuez of Citi.

今天我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的保羅·勒胡埃斯。

It's Jenn on for Paul. I just had a quick question on Soma comps. Wondering if you could talk about that by class of stores. And then anything new you could share on sales transfer rate?

詹恩替補保羅。我只是有一個關於 Soma comps 的簡單問題。想知道您是否可以按商店類別來討論這個問題。關於銷售轉移率，您有什麼新的分享嗎？

Sure. For Soma, we talked about that we are wrapping around on a very big launch from last year, probably the biggest ever for Soma. So that was always going to be a tough compare. Also from a category perspective, loungewear was just not performing to where we would expect. And so what that means is those are not issues that are particular to one class of store. And so relatively, we saw a fairly consistent performance across our store base, and that really was because those issues are -- those issues were consistent across our stores. And your second question was sales transfer rate. So we talked about for a few quarters that our sales transfer rate, as we've gotten much further into our store optimization program, is really ending up being fairly bifurcated. Stores that are very remote, not surprisingly, don't have very much sales transfer. Stores that are in more suburban locations do very well off of sales transfer. And so we're getting a pretty good mix of both. And last time we had updated what the total number was, was at our last Analyst Day, and so we -- as we get further into the program, we'll look to update it. But at this point, we just want to watch and learn just a little bit more.

當然。對於 Soma，我們談到我們將從去年開始進行一次非常大的發布，這可能是 Soma 有史以來規模最大的一次。所以這總是一個艱難的比較。同樣從品類角度來看，家居服的表現也沒有達到我們的預期。這意味著這些並不是某一類商店特有的問題。因此，相對而言，我們看到整個商店的表現相當一致，這確實是因為這些問題是 - 這些問題在我們的商店中是一致的。你的第二個問題是銷售轉移率。因此，我們幾個季度都在討論我們的銷售轉移率，隨著我們對商店優化計劃的進一步深入，最終確實出現了相當大的分歧。毫不奇怪，非常偏遠的商店沒有太多的銷售轉移。位於郊區的商店通過銷售轉移做得很好。所以我們得到了兩者的完美結合。上次我們更新總數是在我們的最後一個分析師日，所以當我們進一步了解該計劃時，我們將尋求更新它。但此時此刻，我們只想多看一點、多學習一點。

And our next question today comes from Paul Trussell of Deutsche Bank.

今天我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的保羅·特魯塞爾。

This is Tiffany Kanaga on for Paul Trussell. You touched on it with the ShopRunner comments. But would you talk about what you know about the demographics of the new customers that you're acquiring across your new sales channels? And also how these shoppers compare to your base in terms of basket size, units per transaction and other key metrics?

我是蒂芙尼·卡納加 (Tiffany Kanaga) 替保羅·特魯塞爾 (Paul Trussel) 發言。您在 ShopRunner 的評論中談到了這一點。但您能談談您對通過新銷售渠道獲得的新客戶的人口統計數據了解多少嗎？這些購物者與您的基礎在購物籃大小、每筆交易的單位數和其他關鍵指標方面的比較如何？

Sure. So we are -- we targeted a certain customer, I think, as much as anything from a behavioral perspective as we did go into these new channels. And so that may play out in terms of demographics. But really, what we see as being critical is the behavioral characteristics for somebody that should be the core customer for Chico's, for White House, for Soma. And it's early, but we are seeing signs that, that is where we're getting. Our assimilation rate is something we pay a lot of attention to, which is effectively when you make that purchase, you come back for a second purchase within 90 days. We are very early in that process, so I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. But initial trends that we are seeing is these are strong programs that are bringing in the new customers that we want. And in -- go ahead.

當然。所以我們——我認為，我們針對的是特定客戶，就像我們進入這些新渠道一樣，從行為角度來看。因此，這可能會在人口統計方面發揮作用。但實際上，我們認為至關重要的是那些應該成為 Chico's、White House 和 Soma 核心客戶的人的行為特徵。雖然現在還為時過早，但我們已經看到跡象表明，這就是我們正在達到的目標。我們非常關注同化率，也就是說，當您進行購買時，您會在 90 天內再次購買。我們還處於這個過程的早期階段，所以我不想走得太遠。但我們看到的初步趨勢是，這些都是強大的計劃，可以吸引我們想要的新客戶。然後——繼續吧。

No, as I say, we were very targeted on who our partners were and looking at that customer overlap and looking at the demographic. And we've had very good early results with ShopRunner, but, again, being so early, our detailed analysis of that customer, other than knowing whether we have customer overlap and the fact that they've gotten increased spend for us, those results will be down the pike a bit.

不，正如我所說，我們非常關注我們的合作夥伴是誰，並關注客戶重疊和人口統計。我們在 ShopRunner 方面取得了非常好的早期成果，但是，同樣，我們對客戶進行了詳細的分析，除了知道我們是否有客戶重疊以及他們為我們增加了支出這一事實之外，這些結果會有點下降。

And you did ask about overall spend for those new customers. It's up. So our new spend for the customers using ShopRunner is up about 30%, actually a little more than 30%, compared to our overall transaction size. So that, again, leads to a good indicator of the overall health of those customers.

您確實詢問了這些新客戶的總體支出。它起來了。因此，與我們的整體交易規模相比，使用 ShopRunner 的客戶的新支出增加了約 30%，實際上略高於 30%。因此，這再次為這些客戶的整體健康狀況提供了一個良好的指標。

(Operator Instructions) Today's next question comes from Marni Shapiro, Retail Tracker.

（操作員說明）今天的下一個問題來自零售跟踪員 Marni Shapiro。

If you could talk a little bit just about Chico's because it sounds like, if I'm hearing this right, this is really more of a traffic issue and maybe holding on to the marketing around the Bold campaign. Did you actually like the product that was there? Did it sell through well and at least close to expectations given the traffic as a mitigating factor there? And can you dive in a little bit about the results online versus in-store, was it very different between the 2? And then finally, I'm noticing some more Soma product in Chico's stores that I used to. Is this something you're going to continue to do go forward?

如果你能談談 Chico's，因為聽起來，如果我沒聽錯的話，這實際上更多是一個流量問題，也許會繼續圍繞 Bold 活動進行營銷。您真的喜歡那裡的產品嗎？考慮到那裡的交通是一個緩解因素，它的銷售情況是否良好，至少接近預期？您能否深入了解一下網上和店內的結果，兩者之間有很大不同嗎？最後，我注意到 Chico 的商店裡有更多我以前常去的 Soma 產品。這是您今後會繼續做的事情嗎？

I'll start and let Todd come in. So the -- as we talked about last year, sort of sharpening the brand's edges and repositioning the brand and making sure we were hitting our target customer, Diane and team have done, I think, an excellent job on product. And as we've read in many of your reports that the product looks extremely good and very on brand and she has been responding, and part of that was full retail unit sales number that we can see. And she has been responding very well to the product. We think it drives continued traffic through those outlets and through the stores without a doubt.

我先讓托德進來。因此，正如我們去年談到的，磨礪品牌優勢並重新定位品牌並確保我們擊中目標客戶，我認為黛安和團隊在產品方面做得非常出色。正如我們在許多報告中讀到的那樣，該產品看起來非常好並且非常符合品牌，她一直在回應，其中一部分是我們可以看到的完整零售單位銷售數據。她對該產品的反應非常好。我們認為，毫無疑問，它會推動這些商店和商店的持續客流量。

And with that, to your point, we are continuing to be committed to that marketing campaign around the Bold theme campaign. It is doing what we want from a rebranding perspective. Yes, when she comes in, she is -- the product is resonating with her. We're seeing units per transaction up. We're seeing conversion up. And both of those are key indicators for us of the product resonating. So...

因此，就您的觀點而言，我們將繼續致力於圍繞“大膽”主題活動開展營銷活動。從品牌重塑的角度來看，它正在做我們想做的事。是的，當她進來時，她——產品正在引起她的共鳴。我們看到每筆交易的單位數有所增加。我們看到轉化率上升。這兩個都是我們產品產生共鳴的關鍵指標。所以...

And part of the role of the Bold campaign was not only to draw attention to the newness and the brightness and the vibrancy of the brand, but it was also to introduce and reintroduce the brand to new customers. And we're certainly seeing that, that aspect of Bold consideration, people thinking about the Chico's brand and considering the Chico's brand, we're very happy with that.

Bold 活動的部分作用不僅是吸引人們對品牌的新穎性、亮度和活力的關注，而且還向新客戶介紹和重新介紹該品牌。我們當然看到，大膽考慮的這一方面，人們思考 Chico 的品牌並考慮 Chico 的品牌，我們對此非常滿意。

That's great. I'm just trying to understand because it seemed that product did look really great and made quite a statement. And can you just touch on -- in the product cycle also? You've been having an issue with the bottoms with denim. Is it a fit issue? Is it that she's looking for the dressier items from you? I'm just curious, as you've come through talking about this a little bit, what's going on there really?

那太棒了。我只是想了解一下，因為看起來該產品確實看起來很棒並且做出了相當大的聲明。您能談談產品週期嗎？您一直對牛仔褲的下裝有疑問。是不是適配問題？是不是她正在向你尋找更考究的單品？我只是很好奇，既然你已經談論過這個問題了，那麼到底發生了什麼？

We had some big product introductions last year. If you remember, we really went hard on girlfriend and then on the (inaudible) pant as well. And I think really that there's a newness component to what we need to introduce on the bottoms.

去年我們推出了一些重要的產品。如果你還記得的話，我們真的對女朋友很嚴厲，然後對（聽不清）褲子也很嚴厲。我確實認為我們需要在底部引入一些新穎的成分。

So is it less that the bottoms were problematic and more that the flow of product was problematic? Like less new -- not enough newness. Not that she didn't like what was there. She maybe owned it already and there wasn't something to replace it.

那麼，是不是底部有問題，而是產品的流動有問題呢？就像不太新——不夠新鮮。並不是說她不喜歡那裡的東西。她也許已經擁有了它，而且沒有什麼東西可以替代它。

Yes.

是的。

I think that's fair. And yes, as we look at generally the rebranding campaign, traffic, you mentioned, as you do a rebranding, not surprisingly it's not like a light switch where you have that first marketing campaign go out there and, all of a sudden, throngs of people show up at your front door. There is a build that happens over time, and we're in the midst of that. So it's part of what you're seeing in the traffic numbers and also why we feel like those traffic numbers should improve over time.

我認為這是公平的。是的，當我們普遍關注品牌重塑活動和流量時，你提到，當你進行品牌重塑時，毫不奇怪，它不像一個電燈開關，你在那裡進行第一個營銷活動，突然間，成群結隊的人人們出現在你的前門。隨著時間的推移，會有一個構建過程發生，而我們正處於其中。因此，這是您在流量數據中看到的一部分，也是我們認為這些流量數據應該隨著時間的推移而改善的原因。

And we're also introducing some additional silhouettes. I mean, the ankle pant was so hot last year, and now the customer is really looking for additional pant lengths and additional silhouettes and we're bringing those in as well.

我們還推出了一些額外的輪廓。我的意思是，去年及踝褲非常熱門，現在顧客確實在尋找額外的褲子長度和額外的輪廓，我們也將這些引入進來。

And our next question comes from Edward Yruma of KeyBanc.

我們的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc 的 Edward Yruma。

Lots of stuff in the quarter, right? ShopRunner, marketing, Amazon and QVC. Do you think that something has changed with the way that your customers need to be introduced to the brand or would like to be introduced? And then again, as a follow-up, with all these initiatives under way, do you think it induced any kind of operational missteps that you could point to the quarter?

這個季度有很多東西，對嗎？ShopRunner、營銷、亞馬遜和 QVC。您認為需要向客戶介紹品牌或希望向客戶介紹品牌的方式是否發生了變化？話又說回來，作為後續行動，隨著所有這些舉措的實施，您是否認為這會導致您可以指出本季度的任何類型的運營失誤？

I'll be happy to take that second part first and then go back. I know when you look at the number of initiatives, there's a lot of new and exciting aspects to what we're doing which could seem distracting to the core business. I think one thing that we've been very proud of over the last several years is sort of our ability to think, plan and do. So, many of the things that we're doing this year, we talked about 2 years ago in that we were going to have an alternative strategy focused in my third year here, that, that first year was about identifying issues, the second year was about operationalizing those and starting to put those SG&A and cost savings initiatives into place and the third year was about sales. And so these relationships with QVC, with Amazon, with ShopRunner and others have been worked on by a core group in our business development group over the next -- over the last 3 years and planned very carefully. So although new and exciting and fraught with all kinds of exciting launches and anticipation, we've really built the machine and the strategy to execute these. So operational -- learnings, absolutely. But operational missteps or lack of focus by these initiatives was not a concern for us in Q1 and won't be moving forward.

我很樂意先學習第二部分，然後再回去。我知道，當你看一下舉措的數量時，你會發現我們正在做的事情有很多新的、令人興奮的方面，這些方面似乎會分散核心業務的注意力。我認為過去幾年我們非常自豪的一件事是我們思考、計劃和行動的能力。所以，我們今年要做的很多事情，我們在兩年前就談到過，我們將在我在這裡的第三年制定一個替代戰略，第一年是關於識別問題，第二年是關於確定問題。是關於實施這些並開始將這些 SG&A 和成本節約計劃落實到位，第三年是關於銷售。因此，我們業務開發團隊的核心團隊在接下來的三年裡一直致力於與 QVC、亞馬遜、ShopRunner 和其他公司建立這些關係，並進行了非常仔細的規劃。因此，儘管新的、令人興奮的、充滿各種令人興奮的發布和期待，我們確實已經構建了執行這些的機器和策略。如此可操作——絕對是學習。但這些舉措的運營失誤或缺乏重點並不是我們在第一季度所關心的問題，也不會繼續下去。

And the first part of the question?

問題的第一部分？

Could you repeat the first part of the question for me?

您能為我重複一下問題的第一部分嗎？

Yes, just with all of the alternative sales channels, do you think -- and also marketing, do you think something has changed in the way that the customer needs to or likes to be introduced to the brand? I would say it seems like it's a proactive move, but just trying to understand if you think consumer behavior has changed.

是的，就所有替代銷售渠道而言，您認為以及營銷方面，您認為客戶需要或喜歡了解該品牌的方式是否發生了變化？我想說這似乎是一個積極主動的舉措，但只是想了解您是否認為消費者行為發生了變化。

I think it's the customer journey work that we have done, which is, as a customer -- almost like a customer decision tree. How does a customer get introduced to your brand? I mean, that has changed dramatically over the last 5 years and I think will continue to change monthly. And I think building that kind of agility is so key. I mean, your -- 5 years ago, you were on TV with enormous ad campaigns trying to get brand awareness. You were working incredibly hard on your storefronts to try to get somebody to make a left instead of a right walking through the mall. All of these things are still important, but there are many customers to be acquired that will not walk by our storefront and haven't turned on their TVs in -- since 2015. And so we have got to find unique and alternative ways to bring customers into our brand on that customer journey wherever she is: if she's on Twitter, she's on Instagram, if she's on ShopRunner, if she's -- has the like brand that she shops that we can affiliate with if she's a prime member. So absolutely, things have changed. And what's changed is the consumer and how they travel along that journey to purchase. And just working our same system harder, we know we have to improve consistently and continuously our in-store experience and our Most Amazing Personal Service. We know we've got to make our differentiating store experience a reason for her to get off the couch. But the same is with our own proprietary chicos.com, at whitehouse.com (sic) [whitehouseblackmarket.com] soma.com, also our chicosofftherack.com. We have to make those seamless, interactive, tied to our stores. And we're now affiliating with other people where our customer -- where their journey may never intersect with our brand. A younger ShopRunner customer may never intersect with our brand, a prime customer who hasn't been in our stores in a decade may never intersect with our brand unless we find new and unique ways to either introduce or reintroduce them to her. So I think everything has changed, Ed, and I think that the key to winning is agility, taking some risks, working on your own product first. It's a -- even with all these great channels and innovative ideas, if you don't have beautiful brand right product at a compelling value, you can't convince them to come in. So we feel very good about our brands today, the sharp edges of our brands, the improvements that we've got in our products. And as we've said, this is a year about driving them through our boutiques and to our affiliates and to our websites. Not that I'm too excited about that issue or anything. I'm like leaning half way through the phone line to you.

我認為這是我們所做的客戶旅程工作，作為客戶，這幾乎就像客戶決策樹。如何向客戶介紹您的品牌？我的意思是，過去 5 年裡情況發生了巨大變化，而且我認為每個月都會繼續發生變化。我認為建立這種敏捷性非常關鍵。我的意思是，五年前，您在電視上進行大規模的廣告活動，試圖提高品牌知名度。你在店面上付出了難以置信的努力，試圖讓人們左轉而不是右轉穿過購物中心。所有這些事情仍然很重要，但自 2015 年以來，有許多待收購的客戶不會走過我們的店面，也不會打開電視。因此，我們必須找到獨特和替代的方式，讓客戶在客戶旅程中融入我們的品牌，無論她身在何處：如果她在 Twitter 上，她在 Instagram 上，如果她在 ShopRunner 上，如果她有她購買的類似品牌如果她是高級會員，我們就可以加入。所以絕對地，事情已經改變了。改變的是消費者以及他們的購買方式。只要更加努力地工作我們的同一個系統，我們知道我們必須持續不斷地改進我​​們的店內體驗和最令人驚嘆的個人服務。我們知道我們必須讓我們與眾不同的商店體驗成為她離開沙發的理由。但我們自己專有的 chicos.com 也是如此，即whitehouse.com（原文如此）[whitehouseblackmarket.com] soma.com，也是我們的 chicosofftherack.com。我們必須讓這些無縫、互動、與我們的商店聯繫在一起。我們現在正在與其他人合作，我們的客戶——他們的旅程可能永遠不會與我們的品牌相交。年輕的 ShopRunner 客戶可能永遠不會與我們的品牌產生聯繫，十年沒有來過我們商店的主要客戶可能永遠不會與我們的品牌產生聯繫，除非我們找到新的、獨特的方式向她介紹或重新介紹他們。所以我認為一切都變了，艾德，我認為獲勝的關鍵是敏捷性，承擔一些風險，首先開發自己的產品。即使擁有所有這些出色的渠道和創新的想法，如果您沒有具有令人信服的價值的漂亮品牌產品，您也無法說服他們進來。因此，我們今天對我們的品牌、我們品牌的鋒利優勢以及我們產品的改進感覺非常好。正如我們所說，今年是推動他們通過我們的精品店、我們的附屬機構和我們的網站的一年。並不是說我對這個問題或任何事情太興奮。我就像在電話線上傾身向你。

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Julie Lorigan for the closing remarks.

女士們、先生們，問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回朱莉·洛里根 (Julie Lorigan) 致閉幕詞。

Okay. Thank you, Rocco. And now I'll turn it back over to Shelley for some closing comments.

好的。謝謝你，羅科。現在我將把它轉回雪萊以徵求一些結束語。

Thanks, Julie.

謝謝，朱莉。

So in conclusion, while we did have a challenging first quarter, we believe we're taking the right steps to evolve our brands so that Chico's FAS successfully meets the challenges of this new retail environment that we just discussed and that we're well positioned to drive long-term, sustainable, profitable growth. And we are poised to win, and we plan on winning at the intersection of digital and physical. So thank you very much for joining us, and have a great day.

總而言之，雖然我們的第一季度確實充滿挑戰，但我們相信我們正在採取正確的步驟來發展我們的品牌，以便 Chico 的 FAS 成功應對我們剛剛討論過的新零售環境的挑戰，並且我們處於有利地位推動長期、可持續、盈利的增長。我們已經做好了獲勝的準備，我們計劃在數字和物理的交叉點上獲勝。非常感謝您加入我們，祝您有美好的一天。

Thank you, ma'am.

謝謝你，女士。

This concludes today's conference. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

今天的會議到此結束。我們感謝大家參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。