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Operator
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the Chewy First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Robert LaFleur, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
美好的一天,歡迎來到 Chewy 2021 年第一季度收益電話會議。 (操作員說明)請注意,正在記錄此事件。我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁 Robert LaFleur。請繼續。
Robert Andrew LaFleur - VP of IR & Capital Markets
Robert Andrew LaFleur - VP of IR & Capital Markets
Thank you for joining us on the call today to discuss our first quarter 2021 results. Joining me today on the call are Chewy's CEO, Sumit Singh; and CFO, Mario Marte.
感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議,討論我們 2021 年第一季度的業績。今天和我一起打電話的是 Chewy 的首席執行官 Sumit Singh;和首席財務官 Mario Marte。
Our earnings release and letter to shareholders, which were filed with the SEC on Form 8-K earlier today, have been posted to the Investor Relations section of our website, investor.chewy.com. A link to the webcast of today's conference call is also available on our site.
我們今天早些時候以 8-K 表格向美國證券交易委員會提交的收益發布和致股東的信函已發佈到我們網站 investor.chewy.com 的投資者關係部分。我們的網站上還提供了指向今天電話會議網絡廣播的鏈接。
On our call today, we will be making forward-looking statements, including statements concerning Chewy's future prospects, financial results, business strategies, investments, industry trends and our ability to successfully respond to business risks, including those related to the spread of COVID-19, including any adverse impacts on our supply chain, workforce, fulfillment centers, other facilities, customer service operations and future plans. Such statements are considered forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by our forward-looking statements. Reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance.
在我們今天的電話會議上,我們將做出前瞻性陳述,包括關於 Chewy 的未來前景、財務業績、業務戰略、投資、行業趨勢以及我們成功應對業務風險的能力的陳述,包括與 COVID- 19,包括對我們的供應鏈、勞動力、履行中心、其他設施、客戶服務運營和未來計劃的任何不利影響。根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》,此類陳述被視為前瞻性陳述,並受某些風險和不確定因素的影響,這可能導致實際結果與我們的前瞻性陳述中預期的結果存在重大差異。報告的結果不應被視為未來業績的指標。
Also, note that the forward-looking statements on this call are based on information available to us as of today's date. We disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. For further information, please refer to the risk factors and other information in Chewy's 10-Q and 8-K filed earlier today and in our other filings with the SEC.
另請注意,本次電話會議的前瞻性陳述是基於截至今天我們可獲得的信息。除非法律要求,否則我們不承擔任何更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。有關更多信息,請參閱今天早些時候提交的 Chewy 的 10-Q 和 8-K 以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中的風險因素和其他信息。
Also during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP items to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided on our Investor Relations website and in our earnings release and letter to shareholders, which were filed with the SEC on Form 8-K earlier today and in our 10-Q. These non-GAAP measures are not intended as a substitute for GAAP results.
同樣在本次電話會議中,我們將討論某些非 GAAP 財務措施。這些非 GAAP 項目與最直接可比的 GAAP 財務措施的對賬在我們的投資者關係網站和我們的收益發布和致股東的信中提供,這些內容在今天早些時候以表格 8-K 和我們的 10-問。這些非 GAAP 措施無意替代 GAAP 結果。
Additionally, unless otherwise noted, results discussed today refer to first quarter 2021, and all comparisons are accordingly against the first quarter of 2020. Finally, this call in its entirety is being webcast on our Investor Relations website. A replay of this call will also be available on our IR website shortly.
此外,除非另有說明,否則今天討論的結果指的是 2021 年第一季度,因此所有比較都是與 2020 年第一季度進行的。最後,我們的投資者關係網站上正在對整個電話會議進行網絡直播。我們的 IR 網站也將很快提供此次通話的重播。
I'd now like to turn the call over to Sumit.
我現在想把電話轉給 Sumit。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Thanks, Bob, and thanks to all of you for joining us on the call. 2021 is already turning out to be an exciting and busy year for us at Chewy. Our business momentum and strong customer engagement continue. And that gives us the confidence to raise our full year 2021 guidance for net sales and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion.
謝謝 Bob,也感謝大家加入我們的電話會議。 2021 年對我們 Chewy 來說已經是激動人心且忙碌的一年。我們的業務勢頭和強大的客戶參與度仍在繼續。這使我們有信心提高 2021 年全年淨銷售額和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率擴張的指導。
Along with our financial results, today, I will share with you some exciting new launches that highlight our ongoing pace of innovation and further strengthen our customer value proposition. I will also share with you some of the headwinds we are facing and update you on the actions we are taking to protect customer experience and business continuity. After that, I will turn the call over to Mario to discuss our first quarter results in greater detail and share our updated guidance.
除了我們的財務業績,今天,我將與您分享一些激動人心的新產品發布,這些產品突出了我們持續的創新步伐,並進一步加強了我們的客戶價值主張。我還將與您分享我們面臨的一些不利因素,並向您介紹我們為保護客戶體驗和業務連續性而採取的最新行動。之後,我將把電話轉給馬里奧,更詳細地討論我們第一季度的業績,並分享我們更新後的指導意見。
Let's start with our Q1 results. Q1 net sales increased 32% to $2.14 billion. Continued growth in our active customer base and strength in purchasing behavior drove our top line results. While we are pleased with our net sales in the quarter, elevated out-of-stock levels were a persistent headwind throughout the quarter and reduced our Q1 net sales by an estimated $40 million. This is clearly a supply-driven situation, which we expect to abate in the second half of this year as additional production capacity comes online. Until then, we will keep actively managing our inventory and using our recommendation engines to help customers find attractive alternatives.
讓我們從第一季度的結果開始。第一季度淨銷售額增長 32% 至 21.4 億美元。我們活躍客戶群的持續增長和購買行為的增強推動了我們的收入增長。雖然我們對本季度的淨銷售額感到滿意,但缺貨水平上升是整個季度的持續不利因素,使我們第一季度的淨銷售額減少了約 4000 萬美元。這顯然是一種供應驅動的情況,我們預計隨著更多產能上線,這種情況將在今年下半年減弱。在那之前,我們將繼續積極管理我們的庫存並使用我們的推薦引擎來幫助客戶找到有吸引力的替代品。
Efficiently adding new customers to our platform and then growing their share of wallet remains a key part of our growth strategy. Active customers increased by 4.7 million or 31.6% to end the first quarter at 19.8 million customers. New customer additions remained above pre-pandemic levels and, as anticipated, moderated against the peak pandemic levels of this past year. Further, retention rates remained steady as the 2020 cohort matures into their second year on our platform.
有效地將新客戶添加到我們的平台,然後增加他們的錢包份額仍然是我們增長戰略的關鍵部分。活躍客戶增加了 470 萬或 31.6%,第一季度末達到 1980 萬客戶。新客戶的增加仍高於大流行前的水平,並且正如預期的那樣,與去年大流行的高峰水平相比有所緩和。此外,隨著 2020 年隊列在我們平台上進入第二年,保留率保持穩定。
Taking a broader view, over the past 2 years, we have increased our active customer base by 8.4 million or 75%. The practical effect of this is that the weighted average tenure of our active customer base is just under 2 years. In other words, our average active customer is still squarely on the left side of their lifetime spending curve with us. For context, our customers historically spend over $400 with us in their second year compared to approximately $700 in their fifth year and almost $900 in their 9 year. As such, we believe that we still have significant future share of wallet gains left to realize from a substantial component of our customer base.
從更廣泛的角度來看,在過去 2 年中,我們的活躍客戶群增加了 840 萬或 75%。這樣做的實際效果是我們活躍客戶群的加權平均使用期不到 2 年。換句話說,我們的平均活躍客戶仍然恰好位於他們一生消費曲線的左側。就背景而言,我們的客戶歷來在第二年在我們這里花費超過 400 美元,而在他們的第五年大約花費 700 美元,在他們的第 9 年花費近 900 美元。因此,我們相信,我們未來仍有很大一部分錢包收益需要從我們客戶群的很大一部分中實現。
First quarter net sales per active customer, or NSPAC, increased $31 or 8.7% to reach $388, a meaningful acceleration over our 2020 growth rate. In reviewing the purchase behavior of the Q1 customer cohort, we saw the same kind of positive engagement levels and basket size trends that we saw throughout 2020, which helped drive a 13% year-over-year increase in Q1 average spend per new customer.
第一季度每個活躍客戶的淨銷售額 (NSPAC) 增長了 31 美元或 8.7%,達到 388 美元,比我們 2020 年的增長率有了顯著的加速。在回顧第一季度客戶群的購買行為時,我們看到了與整個 2020 年相同的積極參與度和購物籃大小趨勢,這有助於推動第一季度每位新客戶的平均支出同比增長 13%。
Top line momentum translated into improved margin performance. Q1 gross margin was 27.6%, reflecting a 420-basis-point increase, approximately half of which is the result of our efforts to improve customer engagement and drive structural growth in our hard goods, proprietary brands, specialty and health care verticals. The remainder came from normalizing freight costs against the COVID-related spike last year and the muted pricing and promotional environment.
頂線動力轉化為提高的利潤率表現。第一季度毛利率為 27.6%,增長了 420 個基點,其中約一半是我們努力提高客戶參與度並推動硬貨、專有品牌、專業和醫療保健垂直領域的結構性增長的結果。其餘部分來自去年與 COVID 相關的飆升以及低迷的定價和促銷環境使運費正常化。
As we executed Q1 with rigor, we faced labor shortages in our fulfillment centers, or FCs, similar to those being faced by many companies nationwide. To offset these headwinds, we did a few things concurrently. We invested in higher wages and short-term incentives, which to some degree helped overcome FC staffing constraints. We also implemented other operating cost disciplines. For example, we developed algorithms, which enabled real-time improvements in inventory receipts and order allocation, leading to increased density in pick and pack across our FC network.
當我們嚴格執行第一季度時,我們的運營中心或 FC 面臨勞動力短缺,這與全國許多公司面臨的情況類似。為了抵消這些不利因素,我們同時做了一些事情。我們投資於提高工資和短期激勵措施,這在一定程度上有助於克服 FC 人員配置限制。我們還實施了其他運營成本紀律。例如,我們開發了算法,可以實時改進庫存收貨和訂單分配,從而提高整個運營中心網絡的揀貨和包裝密度。
We introduced part-time shifts to better optimize interval-level labor forecasting and provide more flexibility options to our team members. These activities helped keep operating expenses in check. And this operating discipline, when combined with our strong gross margin performance, drove meaningful improvements and flow-through as Q1 adjusted EBITDA came in at $77.4 million and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 340 basis points to 3.6%.
我們引入了兼職輪班,以更好地優化間隔級別的勞動力預測,並為我們的團隊成員提供更多的靈活性選擇。這些活動有助於控制運營費用。這一經營紀律與我們強勁的毛利率表現相結合,推動了有意義的改善和流動,因為第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 7740 萬美元,調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率增加了 340 個基點,達到 3.6%。
In addition to these strong financial results, I am also tremendously proud of the broader transformations underway at Chewy. In 2018, we were mostly a provider of food and treats. Today, just 3 years later, we are delivering a multidimensional customer experience that spans food, treats, personalized accessories, health care and most recently services. And our pace of innovation and quality of execution has never been stronger.
除了這些強勁的財務業績外,我還為 Chewy 正在進行的更廣泛的轉型感到無比自豪。 2018 年,我們主要是提供食品和零食。今天,僅僅 3 年後,我們正在提供涵蓋食品、零食、個性化配飾、醫療保健和最新服務的多維客戶體驗。我們的創新步伐和執行質量從未如此強勁。
With that in mind, I'd now like to spend a few minutes sharing some of the many things that are going on inside Chewy today. We are excited about these, because they represent continued progress in our effort to improve experience for our pet parents and partners and drive higher engagement with them. Additionally, they position us well to capture the large and growing opportunity in front of us.
考慮到這一點,我現在想花幾分鐘時間分享一下 Chewy 今天發生的許多事情。我們對這些感到興奮,因為它們代表了我們在改善寵物父母和合作夥伴的體驗並推動與他們的更高參與度方面不斷取得的進展。此外,他們使我們能夠很好地抓住擺在我們面前的巨大且不斷增長的機會。
First, we continue to make meaningful strides in upgrading our technology stack and architecture. In Q1 2021, we relaunched the chewy.com homepage and other stops in the shopping funnel at single page application. This enhancement allows us to offer a more targeted and customized shopping experience to our customers, which we are already starting to take advantage of. Once fully implemented across our website, these features will unlock hyperlocal and enhanced personalized recommendations that will improve the shopping experience and, through their revenue-enhancing functionality, support our efforts to increase customer share of wallet.
首先,我們在升級技術堆棧和架構方面繼續取得有意義的進展。 2021 年第一季度,我們在單頁應用程序的購物漏斗中重新啟動了 chewy.com 主頁和其他站點。這一改進使我們能夠為我們的客戶提供更有針對性和定制化的購物體驗,我們已經開始利用這一點。一旦在我們的網站上全面實施,這些功能將解鎖超本地化和增強的個性化推薦,這將改善購物體驗,並通過其增加收入的功能,支持我們增加客戶錢包份額的努力。
We are also excited to announce our entry into the fresh and prepared pet food space with new selections from the segment's leading brand, Freshpet; and our premium proprietary brand, Tylee's. Our highly trained and best-in-class customer service team, coupled with our personalized search and discovery features, make Chewy the right platform to drive customer adoption in this category, given the increased level of education and awareness pet parents need when deciding among the many pet food options that are available today.
我們也很高興地宣布我們進入新鮮和預製寵物食品領域,推出該領域領先品牌 Freshpet 的新產品;以及我們的優質專有品牌 Tylee's。我們訓練有素的一流客戶服務團隊,再加上我們的個性化搜索和發現功能,使 Chewy 成為推動客戶採用這一類別的正確平台,因為寵物父母在決定是否購買時需要更高的教育水平和意識今天有許多寵物食品可供選擇。
To date, we have already developed and patented new sustainable packaging that allows us to preserve product quality throughout the customer delivery process. We are currently in beta mode and will soon launch our initial distribution in 3 geographies, covering approximately 60% of Chewy's customer base. And we intend to grow both our fresh catalog and expand geographic distribution as we scale this business.
迄今為止,我們已經開發出新的可持續包裝並獲得專利,使我們能夠在整個客戶交付過程中保持產品質量。我們目前處於測試模式,很快將在 3 個地區推出我們的初始分銷,覆蓋 Chewy 大約 60% 的客戶群。隨著我們擴展這項業務,我們打算增加我們的新目錄並擴大地理分佈。
We are enthusiastic about the fresh and prepared foods categories and the opportunity to serve new customers and expand assortment choices for our existing ones. With this launch, Fresh joins Connect with a Vet and our compounding pharmacy on the growing list of recently launched offerings that expand our TAM.
我們熱衷於新鮮食品和預製食品類別,以及為新客戶提供服務並為現有客戶擴大品種選擇的機會。通過這次發布,Fresh 加入了 Connect with a Vet 和我們的複合藥房,這些產品最近推出的產品不斷增加,擴大了我們的 TAM。
Over the past few years, we have expanded our pet health and wellness offerings to include a wide spectrum of products and services, which now include OTC medicine, vet diet, pharmacy and most recently Petscriptions, Compounding and tele-health. Collectively, we now call this still expanding effort Chewy Health, which consumers and veterinarians are starting to recognize as a brand that delivers innovative solutions designed to improve the health of every pet and empower those who care for them.
在過去的幾年裡,我們擴大了寵物健康和保健產品範圍,包括範圍廣泛的產品和服務,現在包括非處方藥、獸醫飲食、藥房以及最近的 Petscriptions、Compounding 和遠程保健。總的來說,我們現在將這項仍在不斷擴大的努力稱為 Chewy Health,消費者和獸醫開始將其視為一個提供創新解決方案的品牌,旨在改善每隻寵物的健康並增強照顧它們的人的能力。
We continue to gain traction with our recently launched innovations, Connect with a Vet, Compounding Pharmacy and Petscriptions, which is our proprietary prescription management system for veterinarians. Recently, we enabled the video chat functionality for our proprietary tele-health solution and expanded its reach. Connect with a Vet is now available via text or video chat 7 days a week until 11:00 p.m. East Coast time 365 days a year, which provides important coverage on nights, weekends and holidays when care is often difficult to find.
我們最近推出的創新產品、與獸醫聯繫、複合藥房和 Petscriptions 繼續獲得關注,這是我們專有的獸醫處方管理系統。最近,我們為專有的遠程醫療解決方案啟用了視頻聊天功能,並擴大了其覆蓋範圍。現在可以每週 7 天通過文本或視頻聊天與獸醫聯繫,直到晚上 11:00。東海岸時間一年 365 天,在夜間、週末和假期通常很難找到護理時提供重要的承保範圍。
These upgrades have significantly improved customer experience and are driving higher customer adoption of this service. Net Promoter Scores for Connect with a Vet remained strong, and over 85% of customers who rated the service in Q1 gave us perfect 10 out of 10 scores.
這些升級顯著改善了客戶體驗,並推動了更高的客戶對這項服務的採用。 Connect with a Vet 的淨推薦值仍然很高,超過 85% 的第一季度對該服務進行評分的客戶給了我們滿分 10 分(滿分 10 分)。
Our Compounding Pharmacy business continues to expand. We now publish 1,800 compounding SKUs, servicing dogs, cats and, as of April, horses. We also achieved a major milestone recently by earning our PCAB accreditation, which is the gold standard for quality and safety compliance in the compounding industry. As planned, our entrance into Compounding is improving customer access to pet health and wellness services and growing our customer base. Approximately 2/3 of our compounding customers are new to Chewy Health, including over 20% that are new to Chewy overall. As anticipated, compounding is also emerging as a strong recurring revenue driver, with over 60% of outbound shipments already going through Autoship.
我們的複合藥房業務不斷擴大。我們現在發布了 1,800 個複合 SKU,為狗、貓提供服務,截至 4 月,還為馬提供服務。我們最近還取得了一個重要的里程碑,獲得了 PCAB 認證,這是複合行業質量和安全合規性的黃金標準。按照計劃,我們進入 Compounding 正在改善客戶獲得寵物健康和保健服務的機會,並擴大我們的客戶群。我們大約 2/3 的複合客戶是 Chewy Health 的新客戶,其中超過 20% 的客戶是 Chewy 整體的新客戶。正如預期的那樣,複合也正在成為一個強大的經常性收入驅動因素,超過 60% 的出貨量已經通過 Autoship。
And on Petscriptions, I am pleased to share that close to 7,000 clinics and veterinarian partners are now utilizing this product to simplify and automate all prescription management tasks with an intuitive, easy-to-use digital solution. This helps to reduce friction, improve veterinarian efficiency, reduce in-clinic costs and enhance customer experience for both the veterinarian and the patient. We will share more about our ongoing work in this space in our Q2 call in September.
在 Petscriptions 上,我很高興地分享近 7,000 家診所和獸醫合作夥伴現在正在利用該產品通過直觀、易於使用的數字解決方案來簡化和自動化所有處方管理任務。這有助於減少摩擦、提高獸醫效率、降低門診成本並增強獸醫和患者的客戶體驗。我們將在 9 月份的第二季度電話會議上分享更多關於我們在這一領域正在進行的工作的信息。
Chewy Health is the only brand that blends technology and consumer innovation in pioneering modern pet health solutions for everyone. Our mission within Chewy Health is to make pet health care more affordable and accessible by developing value-added services and products that keep pet parents and veterinarians at the center of the equation. We are just getting started, and we'll keep you updated on our progress.
Chewy Health 是唯一一個將技術與消費者創新相結合,為每個人開創現代寵物健康解決方案的品牌。我們在 Chewy Health 的使命是通過開發增值服務和產品,讓寵物父母和獸醫處於等式的中心,讓寵物保健變得更實惠、更容易獲得。我們才剛剛開始,我們會讓您了解我們的最新進展。
The same spirit that animates our quest to make pet health care more affordable and accessible also drives our charitable efforts through a program we call Chewy Gives Back. Chewy Gives Back operates under a mission to make the world a better place for pets and the communities that serve them. To this end, last year, we made approximately $35 million of in-kind donations to shelter and rescues, providing them with the critical suppliers they needed to perform their important work on the front lines.
激勵我們追求讓寵物保健更實惠、更容易獲得的精神,也通過我們稱為 Chewy Gives Back 的計劃推動了我們的慈善工作。 Chewy Gives Back 的使命是讓世界成為寵物和為寵物服務的社區更美好的地方。為此,去年,我們為庇護所和救援提供了大約 3500 萬美元的實物捐贈,為他們提供了在前線開展重要工作所需的關鍵供應商。
Additionally, I am excited to share with you that last week, we launched our nationwide Pet Adoption Services that enables millions of Chewy customers and not-yet Chewy customers to discover and adopt a pet directly through Chewy's website. As with everything we do, we believe that customers will find this new service to be an engaging and bar-raising experience. Over 6,000 shelters and rescues have already signed up and the list continues to grow rapidly. The launch is supported with full Wish List integration, which enables shelter and rescues to list their needed supplies on chewy.com for our customers to conveniently discover, donate and have them shipped directly to the shelter.
此外,我很高興與大家分享,上週我們推出了全國性的寵物領養服務,使數百萬 Chewy 客戶和尚未使用 Chewy 的客戶能夠直接通過 Chewy 的網站發現和領養寵物。與我們所做的一切一樣,我們相信客戶會發現這項新服務是一種引人入勝的體驗。超過 6,000 個庇護所和救援機構已經簽約,而且這個名單還在繼續快速增長。此次發布得到了完整的願望清單集成的支持,這使得庇護所和救援人員能夠在 chewy.com 上列出他們需要的用品,以便我們的客戶方便地發現、捐贈並將它們直接運送到庇護所。
Our launch of the Pet Adoption Service and features such as Wish List, again, shows how our innovation with customers continues to extend to our partners and service community and is in complete harmony with our mission of being the most trusted and convenient destination for pet parents and partners everywhere.
我們推出寵物收養服務和願望清單等功能,再次表明我們與客戶的創新如何繼續擴展到我們的合作夥伴和服務社區,並且與我們成為寵物父母最值得信賴和方便的目的地的使命完全一致和各地的合作夥伴。
Now before I wrap up, let's quickly visit growth across our fulfillment center networks. As our top line momentum continues, we are investing in our distribution network to stay ahead of the growth curve and enhance customer experience. At the end of Q1, we opened our 12th fulfillment center located in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania. This facility primarily specializes in carrying our bulky assortment items like cat trees and dog crates and/or items that ship in their original containers.
在我結束之前,讓我們快速了解一下我們運營中心網絡的增長情況。隨著我們的收入增長勢頭持續,我們正在投資於我們的分銷網絡,以保持領先於增長曲線並提升客戶體驗。第一季度末,我們在賓夕法尼亞州路易斯伯里開設了第 12 個運營中心。該設施主要專門運送我們的大件商品,例如貓樹和狗籠和/或用原始容器運輸的物品。
I'm also pleased to share the news that we are expanding the capacity of our Phoenix, Arizona fulfillment center this summer and also that we will open our third automated FC and 13th FC overall in Reno, Nevada next year. This new facility, along with the Phoenix expansion, will further reduce ship times, improve customer experience and help reduce costs.
我也很高興與大家分享我們將在今年夏天擴大亞利桑那州鳳凰城運營中心容量的消息,而且我們將於明年在內華達州里諾開設我們的第三個自動化 FC 和第 13 個 FC。這個新設施連同 Phoenix 的擴張將進一步縮短運輸時間、改善客戶體驗並幫助降低成本。
I will end my comments by reiterating my optimistic outlook for the balance of 2021. We continue to execute against our growth road map by expanding our customer base, increasing share of wallet, growing our TAM-expanding verticals and launching new ones.
最後,我將重申我對 2021 年剩餘時間的樂觀展望。我們將繼續執行我們的增長路線圖,擴大我們的客戶群,增加錢包份額,發展我們的 TAM 擴展垂直市場並推出新的垂直市場。
While supply chain and labor market conditions remain challenging, we are successfully managing through these headwinds and still driving significant year-over-year improvements in gross margin, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. I am incredibly proud of the determination and focus of our teams and their ability to accelerate our pace of innovation while consistently delivering strong top line and bottom line results for our shareholders.
儘管供應鍊和勞動力市場狀況仍然充滿挑戰,但我們成功地克服了這些不利因素,並仍在推動毛利率、調整後的 EBITDA 和自由現金流量同比顯著提高。我為我們團隊的決心和專注以及他們加快創新步伐同時始終如一地為我們的股東帶來強勁的頂線和底線結果的能力感到無比自豪。
With that, I will turn the call over to Mario.
有了這個,我會把電話轉給馬里奧。
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Thank you, Sumit. We continue to execute on our long-term strategy, and momentum remains healthy. First quarter net sales were $2.14 billion, representing 31.7% growth. First quarter Autoship customer sales increased 34.4% to $1.48 billion. And Autoship sales as a percentage of net sales increased 140 basis points to 69.3%, which approaches the high watermark we reached in the fourth quarter of 2019.
謝謝你,蘇米特。我們繼續執行我們的長期戰略,勢頭依然健康。第一季度淨銷售額為 21.4 億美元,增長 31.7%。第一季度 Autoship 客戶銷售額增長 34.4% 至 14.8 億美元。 Autoship 銷售額占淨銷售額的百分比增長了 140 個基點,達到 69.3%,接近我們在 2019 年第四季度達到的高水位線。
These results reflect the maturation of the 2020 customer cohort and the growing appeal of the Autoship program's benefits, which include complementary access to our first-in-the-industry tele-health offering, Connect with a Vet. Autoship is a powerful tool for reinforcing the customer value proposition and strengthening loyalty bonds with pet parents.
這些結果反映了 2020 年客戶群的成熟以及 Autoship 計劃優勢的吸引力越來越大,其中包括對我們行業首創的遠程醫療產品 Connect with a Vet 的補充訪問。 Autoship 是強化客戶價值主張和加強與寵物父母的忠誠度紐帶的強大工具。
Net sales per active customer, or NSPAC, increased $31 or 8.7% to reach $388 in the first quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, NSPAC increased $16 sequentially and and marks the largest absolute single quarter NSPAC increase in the company's history. Improved describability and merchandising, growth in our newest verticals and more spending from the 2020 customer cohort are the primary drivers behind the acceleration in NSPAC growth.
第一季度每位活躍客戶的淨銷售額 (NSPAC) 增長 31 美元或 8.7%,達到 388 美元。與 2020 年第四季度相比,NSPAC 環比增長 16 美元,標誌著公司歷史上 NSPAC 絕對單季度最大增幅。改進的可描述性和商品化、我們最新垂直領域的增長以及 2020 年客戶群體的更多支出是 NSPAC 增長加速背後的主要驅動力。
Moving down the income statement. First quarter gross margin was 27.6%, an increase of 420 basis points. As Sumit mentioned, approximately half of the increase came from structural business improvements, and the remainder reflects normalized freight and logistics costs compared to the elevated investments we made during the peak of the pandemic last year to protect customer experience and the muted price competition and promotional activity that we saw in the first quarter this year.
向下移動損益表。第一季度毛利率為27.6%,增長420個基點。正如 Sumit 提到的,大約一半的增長來自結構性業務改進,其餘部分反映了正常化的貨運和物流成本,而我們在去年大流行高峰期間為保護客戶體驗而進行的高額投資以及低價格競爭和促銷活動我們在今年第一季度看到的活動。
First quarter operating expenses, which include SG&A and advertising and marketing, were $550.7 million or 25.8% of net sales, scaling 50 basis points. SG&A, which includes all fulfillment and customer service costs, credit card processing fees, corporate overhead and share-based compensation, totaled $406.2 million in the first quarter or 19% of net sales, scaling 70 basis points. SG&A, excluding share-based compensation, totaled $381.4 million in the first quarter of 2021 or 17.9% of net sales, an increase of 80 basis points. This reflects the additional investments we made in wages and benefits for our fulfillment and customer service teams that we outlined on our last earnings call as well as the impact of the higher recruiting and hiring incentives that have been necessary to address persistent labor shortages. Absent the incremental wage benefit and recruiting costs related to the current disruptions in the labor market, our SG&A expense, excluding share-based compensation, would have been flat year-over-year as a percentage of net sales.
包括 SG&A 以及廣告和營銷在內的第一季度運營費用為 5.507 億美元,占淨銷售額的 25.8%,增長 50 個基點。 SG&A 包括所有履行和客戶服務成本、信用卡手續費、公司管理費用和基於股份的薪酬,第一季度總計 4.062 億美元,占淨銷售額的 19%,擴大了 70 個基點。 2021 年第一季度,SG&A(不包括基於股份的薪酬)總計 3.814 億美元,占淨銷售額的 17.9%,增長 80 個基點。這反映了我們在上次財報電話會議上概述的我們為履行和客戶服務團隊的工資和福利所做的額外投資,以及解決持續勞動力短缺所必需的更高招聘和僱用激勵措施的影響。如果沒有與當前勞動力市場中斷相關的增量工資福利和招聘成本,我們的 SG&A 費用(不包括基於股份的補償)占淨銷售額的百分比將同比持平。
Launching 4 new FCs in 12 months while keeping SG&A flat as a percentage of net sales, aside from incremental expenses related to current labor markets, demonstrates our ability to fund incremental investments in capacity by efficiently leveraging operating expenses across the network.
除了與當前勞動力市場相關的增量支出外,在 12 個月內推出 4 個新 FC,同時保持 SG&A 占淨銷售額的百分比持平,這表明我們有能力通過有效利用整個網絡的運營支出來為產能增量投資提供資金。
First quarter advertising and marketing was $144.4 million or 6.8% of net sales, a 30 basis point increase versus first quarter 2020. We expected this line to increase year-over-year on a percentage of net sales basis as input costs recovered from the artificial lows we saw early in the pandemic.
第一季度廣告和營銷為 1.444 億美元,占淨銷售額的 6.8%,比 2020 年第一季度增加 30 個基點。我們預計,隨著投入成本從人工成本中恢復,這條線占淨銷售額的百分比將同比增長我們在大流行早期看到的低點。
Adjusted EBITDA reached a new high this quarter, totaling $77.4 million, improving $73.9 million versus the first quarter of 2020 for a net sales to adjusted EBITDA flow-through of 10.5% excluding the estimated $20 million negative impact that COVID-19 had on freight costs in the first quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 340 basis points to 3.6%.
本季度調整後的 EBITDA 創下新高,總計 7,740 萬美元,與 2020 年第一季度相比增加了 7,390 萬美元,調整後 EBITDA 淨銷售額為 10.5%,不包括 COVID-19 對運費造成的估計 2,000 萬美元的負面影響2020 年第一季度。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 340 個基點,達到 3.6%。
In Q1, we also delivered our second quarter of positive net income, reaching $38.7 million, improving $86.6 million versus the first quarter of 2020. Our net margin was 1.8%, a 480 basis point improvement. As we have shared in the past, we expect our expanding and profitable repeat business, coupled with the benefits of scale, to drive increasing profitability over the long term.
在第一季度,我們還實現了第二季度的正淨收入,達到 3870 萬美元,比 2020 年第一季度增加了 8660 萬美元。我們的淨利潤率為 1.8%,提高了 480 個基點。正如我們過去所分享的那樣,我們預計我們不斷擴大和盈利的重複業務,加上規模效益,將推動長期盈利能力的提高。
Moving on to free cash flow. First quarter free cash flow was $59.5 million, reflecting $98.4 million in positive cash flow from operating activities and $38.9 million of capital expenditures. The positive operating cash in Q1 was primarily a function of Q1 profitability and favorable working capital, which mostly reflects a temporary reduction in inventory levels due to the ongoing supply chain situation. Capital investments include ongoing additions to our fulfillment network, including cash outlays for our recently opened limited catalog facility in Pennsylvania and our second automated fulfillment center in Kansas City. We finished the quarter with $638 million of cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet, which is our highest ever level of cash on hand.
繼續自由現金流。第一季度的自由現金流為 5950 萬美元,反映了來自經營活動的 9840 萬美元正現金流和 3890 萬美元的資本支出。第一季度的正經營現金主要是第一季度盈利能力和有利的營運資金的函數,這主要反映了由於持續的供應鏈狀況導致庫存水平暫時下降。資本投資包括對我們履行網絡的持續補充,包括我們最近在賓夕法尼亞州開設的有限目錄設施和我們在堪薩斯城的第二個自動化履行中心的現金支出。本季度結束時,我們的資產負債表上有 6.38 億美元的現金和現金等價物,這是我們手頭現金的最高水平。
That concludes my first quarter recap. So now let's discuss our second quarter and full year guidance. We are raising our full year top line and profitability outlook, but before I discuss the details, I'd like to spend a few moments on how we formulated this guidance.
我的第一季度回顧到此結束。所以現在讓我們討論我們的第二季度和全年指導。我們正在上調全年營收和盈利前景,但在討論細節之前,我想花點時間談談我們是如何制定這份指南的。
As Sumit mentioned at the beginning of the call, 2021 continues to be a busy and exciting year for us. Our strategy remains intact, demand remains strong, and we remain bullish about our future and our ability to maintain pace of execution. At the same time, as we prepare and ramp our network to handle the current and future momentum in our business, we are not immune to the labor shortages currently being faced across the country.
正如 Sumit 在電話會議開始時提到的,2021 年對我們來說仍然是忙碌而激動人心的一年。我們的戰略保持不變,需求依然強勁,我們仍然看好我們的未來和我們保持執行速度的能力。與此同時,在我們準備和擴大我們的網絡以應對我們業務當前和未來的發展勢頭時,我們也不能倖免於目前全國面臨的勞動力短缺問題。
Even with the $60 million of enhanced wages and benefits that we committed to last quarter, labor markets remain constrained, and it remains difficult to attract workers. In an attempt to fill job vacancies, companies across the U.S. continue to invest in higher wages and benefits. As these conditions persist, we may choose to commit an additional $30 million to recruiting and hiring incentives over the next 2 quarters. Although we expect these types of expenses to be temporary in nature, that ultimately depends on how labor markets respond to the end of extended unemployment benefits in September.
即使我們在上個季度承諾增加 6000 萬美元的工資和福利,勞動力市場仍然受到限制,並且仍然難以吸引工人。為了填補職位空缺,美國各地的公司繼續投資提高工資和福利。由於這些情況持續存在,我們可能會選擇在接下來的兩個季度中額外投入 3000 萬美元用於招聘和僱用激勵措施。儘管我們預計這些類型的支出本質上是暫時的,但這最終取決於勞動力市場對 9 月份延長失業救濟金結束的反應。
While these higher costs may put near-term pressure on our ability to scale SG&A, we are increasingly confident that these investments in our workforce and automation will increase engagement, retention and productivity over the long run. When we net these headwinds and tailwinds, we are more positive in our outlook than we were just 9 weeks ago when we issued our initial 2021 guidance.
雖然這些更高的成本可能會給我們擴大 SG&A 的能力帶來短期壓力,但我們越來越相信,從長遠來看,這些對我們的勞動力和自動化的投資將提高敬業度、保留率和生產力。當我們消除這些逆風和順風時,我們對前景的看法比 9 週前我們發布 2021 年初步指引時更加樂觀。
So with that in mind, we expect second quarter net sales to be between $2.15 billion and $2.17 billion, representing 26% to 28% year-over-year growth. We are raising our full year 2021 net sales guidance to between $8.9 billion and $9.0 billion, representing 25% to 26% year-over-year growth. And finally, we are raising our full year 2021 guidance for year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin expansion to between 80 and 120 basis points.
因此,考慮到這一點,我們預計第二季度淨銷售額將在 21.5 億美元至 21.7 億美元之間,同比增長 26% 至 28%。我們將 2021 年全年淨銷售額目標提高至 89 億美元至 90 億美元,同比增長 25% 至 26%。最後,我們將 2021 年全年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率同比增長指引提高至 80 至 120 個基點。
As you update your models for 2021, please keep the following in mind. First, elevated out-of-stock levels are a stronger headwind this year than they were in 2020, and we have not yet seen signs of this abating. While macro conditions are clearly improving on the pandemic front as vaccination levels increase, predicting how exactly consumers will behave post-pandemic is not yet fully clear. What is clear to us is that our compelling value proposition and the predictable and recurring nature of nearly 70% of our business provides us real and tangible advantages in today's marketplace.
在為 2021 年更新模型時,請牢記以下幾點。首先,今年缺貨水平上升是比 2020 年更大的逆風,而且我們尚未看到這種減弱的跡象。雖然隨著疫苗接種水平的提高,大流行病方面的宏觀狀況明顯改善,但預測消費者在大流行病後的行為方式尚不完全清楚。我們清楚的是,我們引人注目的價值主張以及我們近 70% 的業務的可預測和經常性性質為我們在當今市場上提供了真正和有形的優勢。
Second, as you saw in the first quarter, our advertising and marketing spend remains disciplined as we adjust in real-time to rapid changes in the advertising landscape. As always, we remain vigilant and ready to make additional investments to achieve long-term benefits, even if they come at the expense of short-term results.
其次,正如您在第一季度看到的那樣,隨著我們實時調整以適應廣告格局的快速變化,我們的廣告和營銷支出仍然受到約束。一如既往,我們保持警惕並準備進行額外投資以實現長期利益,即使它們是以短期結果為代價的。
And third, as we have shared before, net customer assets here should look more like they did in 2019, prior to the epidemic, which reflect the normal retention patterns we expect to see from the 2020 cohort as it moves from its first to its second year. NSPAC is expected to accelerate in 2021 as we annualize the 2020 cohort and as the many initiatives that we have launched over the past 2 years continue to expand customer share of wallet.
第三,正如我們之前分享的那樣,這裡的客戶淨資產應該看起來更像 2019 年疫情爆發之前的情況,這反映了我們預計 2020 年隊列從第一位移動到第二位時的正常保留模式年。 NSPAC 預計將在 2021 年加速,因為我們對 2020 年隊列進行年度化,並且我們在過去 2 年中推出的許多舉措將繼續擴大錢包的客戶份額。
2021 is off to a great start. We grew first quarter net sales by 32%, and our growing scale and operating discipline drove 420 basis points of gross margin expansion. We also delivered our highest quarterly adjusted EBITDA ever. By increasing our net sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance, we are reiterating our bullish view on Chewy's market position and how we see the balance of 2021 playing out.
2021 年是一個良好的開端。我們第一季度的淨銷售額增長了 32%,我們不斷擴大的規模和經營紀律推動了 420 個基點的毛利率增長。我們還實現了有史以來最高的季度調整後 EBITDA。通過增加我們的淨銷售額和調整後的 EBITDA 指引,我們重申了我們對 Chewy 市場地位的看好觀點,以及我們如何看待 2021 年的平衡。
And with that, I'll turn the call over to the operator. Operator?
有了這個,我會把電話轉給接線員。操作員?
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Mark Mahaney with Evercore.
(操作員說明)我們的第一個問題將來自 Evercore 的 Mark Mahaney。
Mark Stephen F. Mahaney - Senior MD & Head of Internet Research
Mark Stephen F. Mahaney - Senior MD & Head of Internet Research
Two questions, please. The out-of-stock issue, it sounds like, Mario, that, that's continuing. Can you just talk about your level of confidence that, that will abate in the back half of this year? And what you can do to help that abate? I don't know if that's completely out of your hands or not.
請教兩個問題。缺貨的問題,聽起來像,馬里奧,那,那還在繼續。你能談談你對今年下半年會減弱的信心嗎?你能做些什麼來幫助減少這種情況?我不知道這是否完全不在您的掌控之中。
And then I want to ask about the statement about new customer acquisitions remain above pre-pandemic levels. The net adds in this April quarter were actually below the net adds you had in the first quarter of '19. Does that mean that you've got elevated churn just related to all the new customers you brought on during the COVID year or am I misinterpreting it? I just want to -- I want to get back to this issue of whether your net customer adds can this year be like they were in 2019.
然後我想問一下有關新客戶獲取仍高於大流行前水平的聲明。這個 4 月季度的淨增加實際上低於 19 年第一季度的淨增加。這是否意味著您的流失率上升與您在 COVID 年帶來的所有新客戶有關,還是我誤解了它?我只是想 - 我想回到這個問題上,你今年的淨客戶增加是否可以像 2019 年一樣。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
This is Sumit. I will take the first question. Mario will take the second one. On out-of-stocks, we believe, as we've indicated in the Q4 earnings call, vet canned food capacity constraints or production capacity constraints was where this started and primarily remains there. Any other out-of-stocks that we're facing, we're actually able to fairly mitigate, given our extensive size of the catalog and given the substitutability within discretionary categories such as hard goods or supplies. The -- primarily the area that out-of-stock issues are being felt on industry-wide, this is not a Chewy thing, this is an industry-wide issue, is consumables. So health care is also not as deeply impacted with this.
這是蘇米特。我先回答第一個問題。馬里奧會拿第二個。關於缺貨,我們認為,正如我們在第四季度財報電話會議中指出的那樣,審查罐頭食品產能限製或生產能力限制是這種情況開始的地方,並且主要仍然存在。我們面臨的任何其他缺貨,我們實際上能夠相當減輕,因為我們的目錄規模很大,並且考慮到硬貨或用品等可自由支配類別的可替代性。 - 主要是整個行業都感受到缺貨問題的領域,這不是耐嚼的事情,這是一個行業範圍的問題,是消耗品。因此,醫療保健也沒有受到如此深的影響。
And while we don't have perfect visibility, obviously, there's no perfect data coming in, what we have heard and why we have confidence from our strategic suppliers and vendors and partners is that incremental investment is going in and incremental capacity is being unlocked and should be available in the back half of this year. The rate of improvement is the one that is a little bit unclear right now, and which is why, we've consistently, starting from Q4, said that this is a headwind that we will continue to monitor. But yes, we do expect it to abate back half of this year.
雖然我們沒有完美的可見性,但顯然,沒有完美的數據進來,我們從我們的戰略供應商和供應商和合作夥伴那裡聽到的以及為什麼我們有信心是增量投資正在進行並且增量容量正在被釋放並且應該會在今年下半年上市。改善的速度現在有點不清楚,這就是為什麼我們從第四季度開始一直說這是一個我們將繼續監測的逆風。但是,是的,我們確實預計它會在今年下半年減少。
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
And I'll answer the second part of your question. And first, you're right, we added 600,000 net active customers in the first quarter, ended at 19.8 million active customers in Q1. And that was right in line with our expectations for the quarter and what we've mentioned over the last couple of earnings calls. So I'll break it down into retention and then gross customer adds. I know you know the dynamics of this for everybody else to paint the full picture.
我會回答你問題的第二部分。首先,你是對的,我們在第一季度增加了 600,000 名淨活躍客戶,在第一季度結束時達到 1980 萬活躍客戶。這符合我們對本季度的預期以及我們在過去幾次財報電話會議上提到的內容。所以我將把它分解為保留率,然後是總客戶數。我知道你知道其他人描繪全貌的動態。
First, we said before that retention rates for us, our retention rates are multiples higher than traditional e-commerce platform. And then any attrition that we see happens year 1 into year 2. And that customers that stay with us after 2 years remain with us for a very long time. So then let's talk about the Q1 '20 cohort, because that's really what's going to drive some of the year-over-year impact here.
第一,之前我們說留存率,我們的留存率是傳統電商平台的數倍。然後我們看到的任何流失都發生在第 1 年到第 2 年。並且 2 年後留在我們身邊的客戶會留在我們身邊很長時間。那麼讓我們來談談 20 年第一季度的人群,因為這確實會在這裡推動一些同比影響。
First, retention rate for that cohort is higher than the average retention rate over the last couple of years. But even with a higher retention, that cohort was so large that the normal attrition we saw created a headwind to net customer adds this quarter. Then if we look at the customer -- new customer adds this past quarter and first quarter '21, that was not only higher than pre-pandemic, but it was also higher than what we expected for this year just 18 months ago. So dial it back 18 months, what we projected this far out into first quarter '21, our pace of new adds was higher than then and higher than pre-pandemic. So we're still acquiring customers at a very fast clip.
首先,該隊列的保留率高於過去幾年的平均保留率。但即使有更高的保留率,這個群體也非常大,以至於我們看到的正常流失對本季度的淨客戶增加造成了不利影響。然後,如果我們看看客戶——上個季度和 21 年第一季度增加的新客戶,這不僅高於大流行前,而且也高於我們 18 個月前對今年的預期。因此,將其撥回 18 個月,這是我們對 21 年第一季度的預測,我們的新增速度高於當時,也高於大流行前。因此,我們仍在以非常快的速度獲取客戶。
So you think of it another way, we don't believe that any of the demand we saw in 2020 was a pull-forward from future years, still adding a lot of gross new customers. And then finally, take it from a revenue perspective, we expect the 2020 cohort to generate more revenues this year than they did last year. And in fact, when we look at all the mature cohorts, so 2011 through 2018, let's say, they produced more revenue in 2020 than they did in their first full year on our platform. So we would expect the same thing for our 2020 cohort coming into 2021.
所以你換個角度想,我們認為我們在 2020 年看到的任何需求都不是未來幾年的拉動,仍然增加了大量新客戶。最後,從收入的角度來看,我們預計 2020 年的人群今年將產生比去年更多的收入。事實上,當我們查看所有成熟群體時,從 2011 年到 2018 年,比方說,他們在 2020 年創造的收入比他們在我們平台上的第一個全年收入還要多。因此,我們希望我們的 2020 年隊列進入 2021 年也是如此。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Nat Schindler with Bank of America.
我們的下一個問題將來自美國銀行的 Nat Schindler。
Nathaniel Holmes Schindler - Director
Nathaniel Holmes Schindler - Director
I'm actually wondering about some more of your longer-term plans on your growth and international expansion and what conditions and what areas would you look to go to and how you would enter new markets, particularly Europe, where similar size to the U.S.
我實際上想知道您關於增長和國際擴張的更多長期計劃,以及您希望進入哪些條件和區域以及您將如何進入新市場,特別是歐洲,其規模與美國相似。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
This is Sumit. I will take that question. Our plans, first of all, are squarely centered on achieving our mission statement to be the most trusted, convenient destination for pet parents everywhere. And obviously, we've gone back and now added the word partners there, because we believe we are effectively servicing and should service communities in pet that have not been serviced in a high-quality manner, in our opinion, in the past.
這是蘇米特。我會回答這個問題。首先,我們的計劃完全以實現我們的使命宣言為中心,即成為世界各地寵物父母最值得信賴、最方便的目的地。顯然,我們已經回過頭來,現在在那裡添加了合作夥伴這個詞,因為我們相信我們正在有效地服務並且應該為寵物社區提供服務,我們認為過去沒有以高質量的方式提供服務。
So given that, we have focused on the United States, and we believe there is a ton of online growth that is being driven and will continue to be driven in the United States. And we fully plan to capitalize on that growth, given our investments across the multidimensional experience that we talked about in the earnings script, food, treats, personalized accessories, health care and services.
因此,鑑於此,我們專注於美國,我們相信美國正在推動並將繼續推動大量在線增長。考慮到我們在收益腳本、食品、零食、個性化配件、醫療保健和服務中談到的多維體驗方面的投資,我們完全計劃利用這一增長。
International, the last word of our mission statement is to be present everywhere. We believe pet parents are more the same than different. We also believe that our brand and our capability is extensible outside the United States. That being said, focus has been important to us. We've been focused on the U.S. And we've said international plans are roughly between 1 and 5 years, and that step at the point of IPO, we had said that, and that's still -- that statement remains true.
國際化,我們使命宣言的最後一句話是無處不在。我們相信寵物父母的相同點多於不同點。我們還相信,我們的品牌和能力可以擴展到美國以外的地區。話雖如此,專注對我們來說很重要。我們一直專注於美國,我們說過國際計劃大約在 1 到 5 年之間,在 IPO 的那一步,我們說過,現在仍然如此——這種說法仍然是正確的。
When we do explore international, we would explore it -- keep our options open and explore every possibility. And in terms of what specific country we would enter and how we would do it is a matter of working through how customers behave, how markets are, how do you do marketing, supply chain, infrastructure, availability, customer behavior, all of that. And we'll work backward from that to be able to figure out what markets we enter. But rest assured, we're going to be thoughtful, we're going to be diligent, and we're going to be disciplined about the investments and our approach internationally.
當我們確實探索國際時,我們會探索它——保持我們的選擇開放並探索每一種可能性。就我們將進入哪個特定國家/地區以及我們將如何做而言,這取決於客戶的行為方式、市場狀況、營銷方式、供應鏈、基礎設施、可用性、客戶行為等所有方面。我們將從中回過頭來找出我們進入的市場。但請放心,我們會深思熟慮,我們會勤奮工作,我們會在國際投資和我們的方法上遵守紀律。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Erin Wright with Crédit Suisse.
我們的下一個問題將來自 Crédit Suisse 的 Erin Wright。
Erin Elizabeth Wilson Wright - Director & Senior Equity Research Analyst
Erin Elizabeth Wilson Wright - Director & Senior Equity Research Analyst
Can you speak to the traction you're seeing across the pharmacy business? Is it -- is the stickiness across that business playing out according to plan as we lap some of the COVID dynamics from last year, some of that going back to the vet clinic? And you mentioned you're working with 7,000 vet clinics now. What sort of share do you have in terms of the percent of scripts that you're -- that -- at those clinics that are getting filled through Chewy?
您能談談您在整個藥房業務中看到的牽引力嗎?是嗎——當我們分析去年的一些 COVID 動態時,整個業務的粘性是否按計劃發揮作用,其中一些又回到了獸醫診所?你提到你現在正在與 7,000 家獸醫診所合作。在那些通過 Chewy 填補的診所中,您在腳本的百分比方面有什麼樣的份額?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sure. We believe a couple of things to be true. First of all, our data indicates that retention into our pharmacy and other health care verticals remains strong. Autoship subscription rates into these verticals remain stronger than the core business, which is a net positive. And our work with veterinarians and connecting customers into veterinarians continues to earn us trust and credibility in this space. A recently conducted independent research, driven by Mark, suggested that 86% of the veterinarian community would be open and favorable to working with Chewy. These are encouraging data points to us.
當然。我們相信有幾件事是真實的。首先,我們的數據表明,我們的藥房和其他醫療保健垂直行業的留存率仍然很高。這些垂直行業的自動訂貨率仍然強於核心業務,這是一個淨利好。我們與獸醫的合作以及將客戶與獸醫聯繫起來的工作繼續為我們在這個領域贏得信任和信譽。最近由 Mark 推動的一項獨立研究表明,86% 的獸醫社區對與 Chewy 合作持開放態度並樂於接受。這些數據對我們來說是鼓舞人心的。
And the Petscriptions, as I mentioned, is present in 7,000 clinics. I'll refrain from the number of scripts that you asked, but what I will mention is 7,000 is roughly equivalent to 30% of the veterinarian clinic penetration in the U.S. at this point, which is something that we're tremendously proud of.
正如我所提到的,Petscriptions 存在於 7,000 家診所中。我不會說你問的腳本數量,但我要提到的是 7,000 大約相當於美國此時獸醫診所滲透率的 30%,這是我們引以為豪的事情。
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
And, Erin, let me add one more thing. So to point you back to our 10-Q, because you'll see that the other segment of our revenue, which includes all proprietary brands, pharmacy, other and specialty, notice the speed of growth for that part of the revenue. It's growing twice as fast as the overall business. So that should give you an indication of how we think about these newest verticals.
而且,艾琳,讓我再補充一件事。所以讓你回到我們的 10-Q,因為你會看到我們收入的其他部分,包括所有專有品牌、藥房、其他和專業,注意到這部分收入的增長速度。它的增長速度是整體業務的兩倍。因此,這應該讓您了解我們如何看待這些最新的垂直領域。
Erin Elizabeth Wilson Wright - Director & Senior Equity Research Analyst
Erin Elizabeth Wilson Wright - Director & Senior Equity Research Analyst
Okay. Great. And one just quick follow-up just on the incremental spending associated with higher union incentives, the $30 million. So that's not -- or is that embedded in your guidance at this point? Or is that an incremental expense?
好的。偉大的。還有一個只是快速跟進與更高的工會激勵相關的增量支出,即 3000 萬美元。所以這不是——或者這是否嵌入在您的指導中?或者這是一項增量費用?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
It is fully embedded in our guidance.
它完全嵌入了我們的指南中。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Brian Fitzgerald with Wells Fargo.
我們的下一個問題將來自富國銀行的 Brian Fitzgerald。
Brian Nicholas Fitzgerald - Senior Analyst
Brian Nicholas Fitzgerald - Senior Analyst
We want to ask about the entry into the fresh market. Could you maybe provide us with some context around the opportunity, the current size of Freshpet food market? And maybe what happens with consumable spend as you move from traditional to fresh, what the margin uplift is there?
我們想問一下進入生鮮市場的情況。您能否為我們提供一些有關機會的背景信息,以及 Freshpet 食品市場的當前規模?也許當您從傳統轉向新鮮時,消耗品支出會發生什麼變化,利潤率會提高多少?
And then maybe really quickly on the adoption service. It sounds like you stood that up pretty rapidly. You've already done a really nice job there, integrating with shelters. We know it's early on, but what's the opportunity to build awareness there? And then are you investing behind that? And any early learnings with kind of the attach rates and what those cohorts look like and maybe how the adoption cohorts maybe differ from traditional cohorts?
然後可能真的很快就採用服務。聽起來你很快就站起來了。你已經在那裡做得非常好,與避難所相結合。我們知道現在還很早,但是有什麼機會在那裡建立意識?然後你在背後投資嗎?以及任何早期學習的依附率,這些群體是什麼樣的,以及收養群體與傳統群體有何不同?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Okay. Nice to hear from you. There's a lot in there, so let's try to unpack them to at least 2 distinct areas, fresh and packaged foods and then shelter adoptions. Fresh and packaged foods, we believe -- we've always understood and believe that humanization and premiumization of pet is very real and our customers -- as customers become more aware, given our ability to educate them and given their natural ability to engage with their pets, categories such as fresh and prepared foods is an attractive opportunity for us to get into and service customers in a high-quality manner.
好的。很高興聽到你的消息。裡面有很多東西,所以讓我們嘗試將它們拆包到至少 2 個不同的區域,新鮮和包裝食品,然後收養收容所。新鮮和包裝食品,我們相信 - 我們一直理解並相信寵物的人性化和優質化是非常真實的,我們的客戶 - 隨著客戶越來越意識到,我們有能力教育他們並賦予他們與他們互動的自然能力他們的寵物、新鮮食品和預製食品等類別對我們來說是一個有吸引力的機會,可以以高質量的方式進入客戶並為客戶提供服務。
Another motivation for us is the fact that this is a category that requires education, and there are barriers to adoption if the customer isn't engaged or educated. And we believe that with the high customer care model that we bring to the pet industry as well as our focus on personalized care and experience building, we believe we can effectively educate customers and therefore drive customer adoption in the category.
我們的另一個動機是,這是一個需要教育的類別,如果客戶不參與或未受過教育,就會存在採用障礙。我們相信,憑藉我們為寵物行業帶來的高度客戶關懷模式以及我們對個性化護理和體驗建設的關注,我們相信我們可以有效地教育客戶,從而推動客戶在該類別中的採用。
In terms of the size, there's not perfect data available. The market right now is likely between $600 million to $1 billion in size. Growth rates also are hard to predict, because again, it's not an easy category to drive adoption into. And we believe that we can do an effective job in connecting customers with high-quality products to be able to drive that adoption. And you'll see us focus on that.
就規模而言,沒有完美的數據可用。目前的市場規模可能在 6 億到 10 億美元之間。增長率也很難預測,因為這也不是一個容易推動採用的類別。我們相信,我們可以有效地將客戶與高質量產品聯繫起來,從而推動這種採用。你會看到我們專注於此。
Of course, any business -- new business that we launch requires investment. The investment -- on the CapEx side, all of the investments is already baked in into our guidance as well as the 1.5% to 2% CapEx spend that we modeled in our P&L. And then we would expect the business to be -- to scale as we drive scale into the business. And right now, the impact of margins or any dilution is really immaterial and negligible. So that's on fresh and packaged foods.
當然,任何業務——我們推出的新業務都需要投資。投資——在資本支出方面,所有投資都已經納入我們的指導以及我們在損益表中模擬的 1.5% 至 2% 的資本支出支出。然後我們希望業務能夠——隨著我們將規模擴展到業務中來擴展。而現在,利潤率或任何稀釋的影響實際上是無關緊要的,可以忽略不計。這就是新鮮和包裝食品。
On Pet Adoption Services, again, yes, very proud to work across the shelter community to bring this to life. It is our way of giving back to the community and connecting pet parents, who are likely Chewy customers and those who are not yet Chewy customers, to bring Chewy top-of-mind consideration where their journey begins. Over 55% to 60% of the pets in the U.S. are adopted via shelters and rescues. And this is our way of connecting the 2 communities to be able to serve a greater purpose and to build brand awareness and consideration towards Chewy, which then drives, again, future loyalty and engenders repeat visits to our platform. So we'll continue to enhance our work in this space and come back and share more as the program grows.
在寵物收養服務方面,再次,是的,非常自豪能夠在收容所社區工作,將其變為現實。這是我們回饋社區並聯繫可能是 Chewy 客戶和尚未成為 Chewy 客戶的寵物父母的方式,以便在他們的旅程開始時將 Chewy 放在首位。在美國,超過 55% 到 60% 的寵物是通過收容所和救援機構收養的。這是我們連接這兩個社區的方式,以便能夠服務於更大的目標,並建立品牌知名度和對 Chewy 的考慮,然後再次推動未來的忠誠度並產生對我們平台的重複訪問。因此,我們將繼續加強我們在這一領域的工作,並隨著項目的發展回來分享更多內容。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Steph Wissink with Jefferies.
我們的下一個問題將來自 Jefferies 的 Steph Wissink。
Stephanie Marie Schiller Wissink - Equity Analyst and MD
Stephanie Marie Schiller Wissink - Equity Analyst and MD
Mario, these might be best suited for you, but, Sumit, please jump in. I want to talk a little bit about gross margin advancement, because it is running several hundred basis points ahead of where we would have expected the model at this stage. So I'm curious if you can talk a little bit about what opportunities still exist to further enhance the margin, whether that's through mix or leverage.
Mario,這些可能最適合你,但是,Sumit,請加入。我想談談毛利率的提高,因為它比我們現階段預期的模型高出數百個基點.所以我很好奇你是否可以談談仍然存在哪些機會來進一步提高利潤率,無論是通過混合還是槓桿。
And then, Mario, a question for you on cash. I mean the cash flow in the quarter was outstanding. I know that some of that was a benefit of working capital. But how should we think about cash flow for the year? And how should we also think about your cash priorities, therefore, as the cash continues to build on the balance sheet?
然後,馬里奧,有一個關於現金的問題。我的意思是本季度的現金流非常出色。我知道其中一些是營運資金的好處。但是我們應該如何考慮當年的現金流呢?因此,隨著現金繼續在資產負債表上積累,我們還應該如何考慮您的現金優先級?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
All great questions. I will take the first one on gross margins. Mario will take the second one on cash. Gross margins, I would like to point you back to the road map that I have often shared on these calls, 3 buckets of gross margin improvement: acquiring customers and growing share of wallet, bucket one; growing -- investing in improved discoverability, merchandising and growing our sub-penetrated newer verticals, proprietary health care, et cetera, bucket 2; and then connecting the destination with services.
所有偉大的問題。我會拿第一個毛利率。馬里奧將用現金購買第二個。毛利率,我想向您指出我經常在這些電話會議上分享的路線圖,提高毛利率的 3 個方面:獲取客戶和增加錢包份額,第一個;成長——投資於提高可發現性、商品化和發展我們的次級滲透的新垂直行業、專有醫療保健等,第 2 桶;然後將目的地與服務連接起來。
Yes, we believe we are making incremental and encouraging progress in our gross margin. We are now net of the pricing muted environments. We believe we are sitting at right about 26%, which is slightly above the low end of the long-range guide. And we believe there's a ton of headroom in front of us to be able to go achieve the long-term guide of 28% margin and perhaps even surpass that as we continue to build behind gross margin.
是的,我們相信我們正在毛利率方面取得漸進和令人鼓舞的進展。我們現在已經擺脫了定價低迷的環境。我們相信我們坐在正確的位置,約為 26%,略高於長期指南的低端。而且我們相信,我們面前有很大的空間可以實現 28% 利潤率的長期指導,甚至可能在我們繼續建立毛利率後超過這一目標。
We still have -- less than 1/3 of Chewy customers today are exposed to proprietary brands. Less than 1/5 of our customers today are exposed to health care. And so there's a lot of opportunity and headroom as we develop that customer base to become full funnel shoppers with us and increase their basket sizes. At the same time, you've seen us expand our addressable market by launching newer categories such as fresh and packaged foods that we're describing today. And at the same time, we're starting to uptake our focus on services with Compounding and tele-health, which have great potential for us in the future.
我們仍然有——今天只有不到 1/3 的 Chewy 客戶接觸到專有品牌。今天,我們只有不到 1/5 的客戶接受過醫療保健。因此,隨著我們開發該客戶群以成為我們的全漏斗購物者並增加他們的購物籃大小,我們有很多機會和空間。與此同時,您已經看到我們通過推出更新的類別(例如我們今天描述的新鮮食品和包裝食品)來擴大我們的潛在市場。與此同時,我們開始將重點放在復合和遠程醫療服務上,這在未來對我們來說具有巨大的潛力。
So net-net, I want to give you the confidence that there's a lot of innovation that is going on inside the company. We're very disciplined. And we're focused on rapidly improving customer engagement so that we can achieve the high end of our gross margin targets as we've laid out. And then when we're ready to discuss any updates in the future, we will talk about that on future calls.
所以 net-net,我想讓你相信公司內部正在進行很多創新。我們非常有紀律。我們專注於快速提高客戶參與度,以便我們能夠實現我們已經制定的毛利率目標的高端。然後,當我們準備好討論未來的任何更新時,我們將在以後的電話會議上討論。
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
This is Mario. So I'll answer the second part of the question in terms of cash. So you have seen us over the year be able to grow very rapidly without consuming any cash. And this year, if you look at the guidance we provided for net sales and for adjusted EBITDA margin, you would see, at the high end, we would produce over $200 million of adjusted EBITDA. So I'll let you draw a conclusion on what that means for free cash flow, since we don't explicitly guide to that. But obviously, those are 2 good components to how we -- what we expect for cash generation this year.
這是馬里奧。所以我會用現金來回答問題的第二部分。所以你已經看到我們在過去一年中能夠在不消耗任何現金的情況下快速增長。今年,如果您查看我們為淨銷售額和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率提供的指導,您會發現,在高端,我們將產生超過 2 億美元的調整後 EBITDA。所以我會讓你就自由現金流的意義得出結論,因為我們沒有明確地指導這一點。但顯然,這些是我們如何 - 我們對今年現金產生的期望的兩個很好的組成部分。
I would say 2 other things about cash. One is, you're right, we benefited to a degree from working capital, the fact that we drew down some of the inventory in the first quarter. Certainly, that's not -- that would otherwise not have been our intention, given that, that was more of a result of high out-of-stock and disruptions in the supply chain. So you would expect us to build the inventory back up throughout the year to make sure that we can serve our customers.
關於現金,我還要說兩件事。一個是,你是對的,我們在一定程度上受益於營運資金,事實上我們在第一季度減少了一些庫存。當然,那不是——否則這不是我們的意圖,因為那更多是由於高缺貨和供應鏈中斷造成的。所以你會期望我們在全年建立庫存備份,以確保我們能夠為我們的客戶提供服務。
Then you look at the cash that we have available to us. And you're right, we ended the quarter with the highest cash level we've had in our history. We also ended the quarter with a facility of $300 million that's untapped. So roughly $1 billion of dry powder. That gives us both strength in the balance sheet and also flexibility going forward for things like incremental investments in technology, automation, potentially M&A and growing new verticals and expanding our TAM. So it's good to have the flexibility, and I think we're in the right place in terms of cash.
然後你看看我們可用的現金。你是對的,我們以歷史上最高的現金水平結束了本季度。我們在本季度末還擁有 3 億美元的未動用資金。所以大約有 10 億美元的干火藥。這讓我們既有資產負債表實力,也有靈活性,可以在技術、自動化、潛在併購、發展新垂直領域和擴大我們的 TAM 等方面進行增量投資。所以有靈活性是件好事,我認為我們在現金方面處於正確的位置。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.
我們的下一個問題將來自摩根大通的 Doug Anmuth。
Douglas Till Anmuth - MD
Douglas Till Anmuth - MD
First, just on profitability. I know you raised the margin expansion, obviously, for the full year outlook. Just thinking about the $60 million potentially in the back half, is that essentially the reason for not seeing more flow-through on a full year basis? Or is there something else or additional that we should be thinking about just on the EBITDA for '21?
首先,就盈利能力而言。我知道你顯然提高了全年展望的利潤率擴張。僅考慮下半年可能產生的 6000 萬美元,這是否就是全年沒有看到更多流量的根本原因?還是我們應該僅在 21 年的 EBITDA 上考慮其他事情或其他事情?
And then secondly, just on private label, I think you said about 1/3 of customers are exposed there. Just curious if you can help frame that in terms of where you are as perhaps a percentage of net sales and, I think, in relation to perhaps your ambitions that you've maybe mentioned in the past toward a 15% to 30% over time?
其次,就自有品牌而言,我想你說過大約有 1/3 的客戶在那裡接觸過。只是好奇您是否可以根據您在淨銷售額中所佔的百分比以及我認為與您過去可能提到的隨著時間的推移達到 15% 到 30% 的雄心相關?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sure. This is Sumit. I'll take the second one. Mario will take the first one. So starting with private brands. What I mean by that is, of the nearly 20 million customers that we now have on Chewy, 1/3 of them have acquired or bought private label from us or our proprietary brands from us. So 2/3 of them haven't yet shopped proprietary brands. And our efforts in improvement in search and discoverability and newer launches or assortment will continue to provide us that exposure.
當然。這是蘇米特。我要第二個。馬里奧將拿下第一個。所以從自有品牌開始。我的意思是,在我們現在在 Chewy 上擁有的近 2000 萬客戶中,有 1/3 已經從我們這裡獲得或購買了自有品牌或我們的專有品牌。因此,其中 2/3 的人尚未購買專有品牌。我們在改進搜索和可發現性以及更新發布或分類方面所做的努力將繼續為我們提供這種曝光率。
We're actually -- we're pleased with the progress that we are making. As you might recall from a previously shared fact, we've improved -- we've doubled the overall number of assortment on the platform, roughly 35,000 new SKUs added over the last 2.5 years. And about 1/4 of them have gone squarely towards building out proprietary and, more so, hard goods. And in hard goods, we gained 500 basis points share on a year-over-year basis, reaching 18% penetration, therefore bringing us closer to that goal of 15% to 30% that we're talking about.
我們實際上 - 我們對我們正在取得的進展感到滿意。您可能還記得之前共享的一個事實,我們已經改進了——我們將平台上的總分類數量翻了一番,在過去 2.5 年中增加了大約 35,000 個新 SKU。其中約有 1/4 直接用於構建專有產品,更重要的是,硬產品。在耐用品方面,我們的份額同比增長 500 個基點,達到 18% 的滲透率,因此使我們更接近我們正在談論的 15% 到 30% 的目標。
We believe, in hard goods, we should be able to reach 40%, 45% penetration of net sales in proprietary and the balance coming from consumables. That makes up the 15% -- between 15% and 30% ranges that we've talked about. Gross margin for proprietary is favorable to the core business, which is reflected in the overall gross margin improvement that we're reflecting in our P&L or in the results. And you should continue to expect us to build assortment and expose more customers to buy more proprietary.
我們相信,在耐用品方面,我們應該能夠達到 40%,45% 的淨銷售額滲透到專有產品中,其餘部分來自消耗品。這構成了 15%——我們談到的 15% 到 30% 之間的範圍。專有毛利率有利於核心業務,這反映在我們在損益表或結果中反映的整體毛利率改善中。你應該繼續期待我們建立分類並讓更多客戶購買更多專有產品。
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
And I'll take the first part of the question. So let me first start off with Q1 to sort of level set us. But in the first quarter, we added $0.5 billion year-over-year. We increased gross margin, and we had discipline in the expense line. And so we reported, as you saw, a record adjusted EBITDA of $77 million. And if you think about what that means versus full year 2020, our EBITDA in the first quarter was higher than all of last year, if you adjust out the onetime tax benefit in fourth quarter 2020.
我將回答問題的第一部分。因此,讓我首先從 Q1 開始,對我們進行排序。但在第一季度,我們同比增加了 5 億美元。我們提高了毛利率,並且在費用方面有紀律。因此,正如您所見,我們報告的調整後 EBITDA 達到創紀錄的 7700 萬美元。如果你想想這與 2020 年全年相比意味著什麼,如果你調整 2020 年第四季度的一次性稅收優惠,我們第一季度的 EBITDA 高於去年全年。
Now for the full year, we -- you saw us guide to an adjusted EBITDA margin increase of 80 to 100 basis points, which if you combine that with the sales projection that we provided would mean tripling the EBITDA in the full year. And if you take that and you adjust the -- for the wages and benefits that we've called out explicitly in our fourth quarter and in our first quarter call, you get to about a 9% to 11% flow-through for the full year, very much in line with what we saw in the first quarter. So think about it in those terms, Doug, and I think you'll get to about the same conclusion.
現在對於全年,我們 - 你看到我們指導調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率增加 80 到 100 個基點,如果你將其與我們提供的銷售預測結合起來,這意味著全年 EBITDA 將增加兩倍。如果你接受它並調整我們在第四季度和第一季度電話會議中明確提出的工資和福利,你將獲得大約 9% 到 11% 的流動資金年,與我們在第一季度看到的非常一致。所以從這些方面考慮,道格,我想你會得出大致相同的結論。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities.
我們的下一個問題將來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Seth Basham。
Seth Mckain Basham - MD Of Equity Research
Seth Mckain Basham - MD Of Equity Research
My question is around advertising. How do we think about advertising as a percentage of sales this year? And I think you were commenting previously around 7% to 8%. You did better than that in the first quarter. Do you expect to move to that range and have the opportunity to grow your gross adds even more aggressively?
我的問題是關於廣告的。我們如何看待今年廣告佔銷售額的百分比?我認為你之前評論過大約 7% 到 8%。你比第一季度做得更好。您是否希望進入該範圍並有機會更積極地增加總收入?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Yes. This is Sumit. We believe advertising and marketing will likely be in line with levels that we saw in 2020, right about the 7% range, plus and minus. And the plus and minus, driven by efficiencies, if we pick up like we did 20 basis points in Q1. So we came in at 6.8%. And the plus is driven by if we see more opportunity in the marketplace to pick up new customers or if input costs become further degraded. In terms of overall Q1 levels, we're actually quite pleased, it's in line with our expectations. We've been continuing to scale marketing from 11% levels in 2018 to 7.2% coming out of 2020, albeit given some advantage due to the pandemic organic demand.
是的。這是蘇米特。我們認為廣告和營銷可能會與我們在 2020 年看到的水平保持一致,大約在 7% 的範圍內,上下浮動。在效率的驅動下,如果我們像第一季度那樣回升 20 個基點,那麼正負。所以我們的得分是 6.8%。如果我們在市場上看到更多吸引新客戶的機會,或者如果投入成本進一步下降,就會推動加分。就第一季度的總體水平而言,我們實際上非常滿意,這符合我們的預期。我們一直在繼續將營銷規模從 2018 年的 11% 水平擴大到 2020 年的 7.2%,儘管由於大流行的有機需求而獲得了一些優勢。
And on a net basis, on a year-over-year basis, we still incrementally spend $35 million higher on the $500 million of net sales that we added. So overall, I believe we're spending appropriate levels on an absolute basis to be able to efficiently acquire customers, and we remain open to opportunities to ensure that we're not leaving customers on the table.
在淨銷售額的基礎上,與去年同期相比,我們仍然在增加的 5 億美元淨銷售額上增加了 3500 萬美元的支出。因此,總的來說,我相信我們在絕對基礎上花費了適當的水平,以便能夠有效地獲得客戶,並且我們仍然對機會持開放態度,以確保我們不會將客戶留在桌面上。
Seth Mckain Basham - MD Of Equity Research
Seth Mckain Basham - MD Of Equity Research
Relative to 2019, are you expecting customer acquisition costs in 2021 to be higher?
相對於2019年,您預計2021年的獲客成本會更高嗎?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
It's a very good question. If you recall the Q4 discussion that we had, it is hard to yet predict where marketing might end up this year. We've had a lot of platform changes that have come through across several advertisers. We've also -- it is yet unclear to really predict how customers might behave as the country opens up. So we're still in a bit of an evolving situation, but our guidance takes that into account. And therefore, I'm guiding -- or I'm providing my perspective that we should be flattish to 2020 levels on net spend.
這是一個很好的問題。如果您還記得我們進行的第 4 季度討論,那麼很難預測今年營銷可能會在哪裡結束。我們已經通過多個廣告商進行了許多平台更改。我們還——目前尚不清楚真正預測客戶在國家開放時的行為方式。所以我們仍然處於一個不斷變化的情況,但我們的指導考慮到了這一點。因此,我正在指導 - 或者我正在提供我的觀點,即我們應該將淨支出持平到 2020 年的水平。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Peter Keith with Piper Sandler.
我們的下一個問題將來自 Peter Keith 和 Piper Sandler。
Peter Jacob Keith - Director & Senior Research Analyst
Peter Jacob Keith - Director & Senior Research Analyst
I was hoping you could just discuss a little bit more around the new homepage launch around some of the customization and localization features that you have. Maybe just provide some specific examples on how you think that can improve the customer experience.
我希望您能圍繞您擁有的一些自定義和本地化功能圍繞新主頁發布進行更多討論。也許只是提供一些具體示例,說明您認為如何改善客戶體驗。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sure, Peter. So meta points, it improves our ability to target. It improves our ability to personalize the experience by showing you content that is relevant and dynamic and inspiring that speaks directly to the needs of a pet parent and their emotive state or their journey in their life cycle with their specific pet. And so from that standpoint, we already offer a personalized high-touch model. And this actually provides that on a virtual digital basis, which allows -- that targeting allows us efficiency of conversion and a development and -- efficiency in customer development, which allows us to then obviously grow basket sizes and share of wallet with customers.
當然,彼得。所以元點,它提高了我們的目標能力。它通過向您展示相關的、動態的和鼓舞人心的內容來提高我們個性化體驗的能力,這些內容直接反映寵物父母的需求以及他們的情緒狀態或他們與特定寵物的生命週期旅程。因此,從這個角度來看,我們已經提供了個性化的高接觸模型。這實際上是在虛擬數字基礎上提供的,這允許——這種定位使我們能夠提高轉換效率和發展效率——提高客戶開發效率,這使我們能夠明顯地增加購物籃的規模和與客戶的錢包份額。
So that's how we're approaching it. If you go to the homepage today, we have the ability to obviously target knowing if you have a dog, what type of dog now and what other dog parents might be buying, where specifically we're tying it back into knowing what could we recommend to you, et cetera, et cetera. So think of it as a data-driven and behavior-driven experience rather than an unauthenticated experience that we might have offered in the past.
這就是我們處理它的方式。如果你今天去主頁,我們有能力明確地知道你是否有狗,現在是什麼類型的狗,以及其他狗父母可能會購買什麼,具體來說,我們會把它聯繫起來,了解我們可以推薦什麼給你,等等,等等。因此,請將其視為一種數據驅動和行為驅動的體驗,而不是我們過去可能提供的未經驗證的體驗。
Peter Jacob Keith - Director & Senior Research Analyst
Peter Jacob Keith - Director & Senior Research Analyst
Okay. That's very interesting. The follow-up and unrelated question I had was just around the net customer adds. I know this was asked earlier in the call. But referencing back to the 2019 levels, and you did come in below that for Q1. I would think that the net customer adds moderate as the year progresses just from maybe gross add slowing or 2020 cohort churn picking up in just sheer magnitude. Is my thinking incorrect, or is 560,000 kind of a good level to think about on a run rate basis?
好的。這很有趣。我遇到的後續和無關問題只是圍繞淨客戶添加。我知道這是在早些時候的電話會議中被問到的。但回顧 2019 年的水平,你確實低於第一季度的水平。我認為,隨著時間的推移,淨客戶的增長可能會從總增長放緩或 2020 年隊列流失的大幅回升開始。是我的想法不正確,還是 560,000 是一個考慮運行率的好水平?
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Yes, Peter, I'll answer that. So look, it's -- I think the dynamics of net active adds is exactly what I had mentioned before. We do have the headwind of a very, very large customer cohort we acquired last year. So even at the retention levels that we're seeing, which are still high, we still would have a net headwind.
是的,彼得,我會回答這個問題。所以看,它是——我認為淨活躍添加的動態正是我之前提到的。我們確實遇到了去年收購的非常非常大的客戶群體的不利因素。因此,即使在我們看到的保留水平仍然很高,我們仍然會有淨逆風。
The key to net active adds is you have to think about it over a period of time, over a longer period of time than just year-over-year, so you can see the trend of additions. The very large cohort last year is going to have a headwind impact in this year. But the other side of that is how many more new customers we add, gross adds that is, how many of them we reactivate this year. There's -- it's -- I think to take just the one piece, which is customer retention, is going to lead us to the wrong conclusion.
淨活躍增加的關鍵是你必須在一段時間內考慮它,在更長的時間段內而不是僅僅年復一年,所以你可以看到增加的趨勢。去年非常龐大的人群將在今年產生逆風影響。但另一方面是我們增加了多少新客戶,即今年我們重新激活了多少新客戶。有 - 它 - 我認為只考慮客戶保留這一塊會導致我們得出錯誤的結論。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Lauren Schenk with Morgan Stanley.
我們的下一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的 Lauren Schenk。
Lauren Elizabeth Cassel Schenk - Equity Analyst
Lauren Elizabeth Cassel Schenk - Equity Analyst
I just wanted to ask about what you're seeing from sort of a COVID cohort spending perspective. If here, in sort of year one, they were already spending sort of over that $400 that you typically see in a second-year customer, and if that is the case, what kind of gives you the confidence that the COVID cohort will continue to expand spend at the same rate as previous cohorts?
我只是想問一下您從某種 COVID 群組支出的角度來看是什麼。如果在這裡,在某種程度上,在第一年,他們已經花費了你通常在第二年客戶身上看到的超過 400 美元,如果是這種情況,什麼樣的讓你相信 COVID 隊列將繼續以與以前同類群組相同的速度擴大支出?
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Lauren, as we -- this is Sumit. I'll take it. As we've mentioned in the script, we continue to see positive and engaged behavior from the cohort. Their frequency of purchase. Their subscribe rates into Autoship, their basket size, attach rates, all indicate positive momentum. And we believe that the uptick is driven by, as I've mentioned, improved discoverability, merchandising, growth in our new verticals and our work in connecting these all together.
勞倫,我們——這是蘇米特。我要買它。正如我們在腳本中提到的那樣,我們繼續看到該隊列的積極和參與行為。他們的購買頻率。他們對 Autoship 的訂閱率、籃子大小、附加率都顯示出積極的勢頭。正如我所提到的,我們相信這種增長是由提高的可發現性、商品化、我們新垂直領域的增長以及我們將所有這些聯繫在一起的工作所推動的。
So we're still not planning on deploying marketing spend to retain customers, which is an important indication if we believe that we're going to lose them. We don't believe so. Nor are we spending time on other initiatives that might drive customer development in an unnatural manner right now. If I'm not answering your question or if you have follow-ups, please ask.
所以我們仍然沒有計劃部署營銷支出來留住客戶,如果我們認為我們會失去他們,這是一個重要的跡象。我們不這麼認為。我們現在也不會花時間在可能以不自然的方式推動客戶發展的其他舉措上。如果我沒有回答您的問題,或者您有後續行動,請詢問。
Lauren Elizabeth Cassel Schenk - Equity Analyst
Lauren Elizabeth Cassel Schenk - Equity Analyst
Yes. I guess, if you look at sort of the COVID cohort of customers, is their spending because of just sort of the phenomenon that was COVID? Is that already above where a year -- a normal year 2 cohort would be spending? Or is there -- do you still think that the year-over-year growth opportunity in their spending is similar to previous cohorts?
是的。我想,如果你看一下 COVID 的客戶群體,他們的支出是否只是因為 COVID 的某種現象?這是否已經超過一年的水平——一個正常的二年級學生的支出水平?或者,您是否仍然認為他們支出的同比增長機會與之前的群體相似?
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Yes. I think if I'm understanding your question right, Lauren, I would expect it to be -- to follow the same pattern as historical cohorts, where first year is X, second year is greater than X. So we're seeing that already. And in fact, even if you just look at the first quarter cohort that we acquired this year, their spend is 13% above last year's first quarter cohort. And last year, remember, there was a bit of pantry loading, and I would call it some panic buying really. In last year's first quarter cohort, spending was higher than the previous year. So we're seeing those curves and the overall lift in sales even in the first quarter of a new customer cohort. So positive indicators on that end. Hopefully, we're answering your question.
是的。我想如果我對你的問題的理解是正確的,Lauren,我希望它是——遵循與歷史隊列相同的模式,第一年是 X,第二年大於 X。所以我們已經看到了.事實上,即使你只看我們今年第一季度獲得的人群,他們的支出也比去年第一季度的人群高出 13%。記住,去年有一些食品儲藏室裝貨,我會稱之為恐慌性搶購。在去年第一季度的隊列中,支出高於前一年。因此,即使在新客戶群的第一季度,我們也看到了這些曲線和銷售額的整體提升。在這方面如此積極的指標。希望我們能回答您的問題。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Lauren, the -- we believe the LTV potential of our customer is stronger, given the newer launches, the expansion and assortment and all the work that we're doing to develop our customer base. And at the same time, we believe that we're capturing their share of wallet faster or sooner than we were with older mature cohorts.
勞倫,我們相信我們客戶的 LTV 潛力更大,因為新的發布、擴展和分類以及我們為發展客戶群所做的所有工作。與此同時,我們相信我們正在比年長的成熟群體更快或更早地奪取他們的錢包份額。
Operator
Operator
Our next question will come from Nick Bacchus with Raymond James.
我們的下一個問題將來自 Nick Bacchus 和 Raymond James。
Nicholas P. Bacchus - Senior Research Associate
Nicholas P. Bacchus - Senior Research Associate
So you talked a lot about new customer acquisition continued to be strong, but at a moderating pace, some of the headwinds from year 1 retention, but NSPAC continues to accelerate. How do you think about these drivers longer term? So kind of in the 5-year-plus plan, how much of your top line growth is going to come from each of those drivers? How do you think about that?
所以你談了很多關於新客戶的獲取繼續強勁,但速度放緩,第一年保留的一些逆風,但 NSPAC 繼續加速。從長遠來看,您如何看待這些驅動因素?那麼在 5 年以上的計劃中,您的收入增長中有多少將來自這些驅動因素?你怎麼看?
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Mario J. Marte - CFO
Yes. Let me try to answer the question, and then Sumit can add anything if I miss anything. But first, I want to not break it down into active customers or NSPAC, because that won't give you the -- even if we get it wrong, that's not going to give you the right answer, right, the right sort of for your models. Think about it more in the sense of the average customer today has a tenure with us that's less than 2 years. And we've shown over time that the longer the customers stay with us, the more they spend.
是的。讓我試著回答這個問題,如果我遺漏了什麼,Sumit 可以添加任何內容。但首先,我不想將其分解為活躍客戶或 NSPAC,因為這不會給你——即使我們弄錯了,也不會給你正確的答案,對的,正確的你的模型。從當今普通客戶在我們這裡的任期不到 2 年的意義上來考慮更多。隨著時間的推移,我們已經證明客戶與我們在一起的時間越長,他們花費的錢就越多。
So not only do we expect our customers as a base to mature over time and spend more and more -- and in fact, we've seen some customer cohort spending $800, $900 today, the older cohorts that is. We also would expect us to continue to attract more customers to the platform over time. So you find the 2 tailwinds working at once: overall, the base growing and maturing over time, spending more; us capturing more share of wallet and attracting more customers to the platform.
因此,我們不僅希望我們的客戶作為基礎隨著時間的推移而成熟並花費越來越多 - 事實上,我們已經看到一些客戶群體今天花費 800 美元,900 美元,即較老的群體。我們還希望我們能夠隨著時間的推移繼續吸引更多客戶使用該平台。所以你會發現兩個順風同時起作用:總體而言,隨著時間的推移,基礎不斷增長和成熟,支出更多;我們獲得更多的錢包份額並吸引更多客戶使用該平台。
Add to that the fact that we continue to innovate and launch new verticals. 2 years ago, we had just launched, at this point actually 3 years, we had just launched Pharmacy. 4 years ago, we had just launched proprietary brands. In the last couple of years, you've seen us grow our catalog, especially in the hard goods and specialty categories. So we continued to add more and more products and more categories for our customers to shift more of the share of wallet to us and shift it faster.
除此之外,我們還在不斷創新並推出新的垂直領域。 2 年前,我們剛剛推出,此時實際上是 3 年,我們剛剛推出 Pharmacy。 4 年前,我們剛剛推出自有品牌。在過去的幾年裡,您看到我們的產品目錄不斷增加,尤其是耐用品和專業品類。所以我們繼續為我們的客戶添加越來越多的產品和更多的類別,以將更多的錢包份額轉移給我們並更快地轉移。
So you have a combination of tailwinds, and I would say, sort of normal maturation of customers over time and shifting their spend with things that we're actively doing, which is attracting customers to the site and also adding more categories and more to our catalog. So hopefully, that gives you an idea of how we think about it.
所以你有順風的組合,我想說的是,隨著時間的推移,客戶的正常成熟以及將他們的支出轉移到我們正在積極做的事情上,這正在吸引客戶訪問該網站,並為我們的網站添加更多類別和更多內容目錄。所以希望這能讓你了解我們是如何看待它的。
Nicholas P. Bacchus - Senior Research Associate
Nicholas P. Bacchus - Senior Research Associate
That's very helpful. And then just quickly on gross margin. You talked about, obviously, a very strong quarter. Half the improvement was driven by efforts to increase customer engagement, proprietary brands, et cetera, and the remainder from the normalization of some of the kind of more onetime or -- onetime effects from last year, promotional environment, et cetera. So from a comparative perspective, as you move through the year, how do the compares line up where that half that's coming...
這很有幫助。然後快速提高毛利率。顯然,你談到了一個非常強勁的季度。一半的改進是由增加客戶參與度、專有品牌等方面的努力推動的,其餘部分是由一些更多的一次性或——去年的一次性影響、促銷環境等的正常化推動的。因此,從比較的角度來看,當你度過這一年時,比較如何排列即將到來的那一半......
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Yes. Nick, hopefully, we didn't lose you. Are you still there? Nick, you cut out for the last bit, but I think you were getting at, how does the gross margin sort of develop over time if we look at first quarter? Did I paraphrase it right?
是的。尼克,希望我們沒有失去你。你還在嗎?尼克,你說的最後一點,但我想你已經明白了,如果我們看第一季度,毛利率是如何隨著時間的推移而發展的?我解釋對了嗎?
Nicholas P. Bacchus - Senior Research Associate
Nicholas P. Bacchus - Senior Research Associate
Yes. Yes. And as you look to the balance of the year and kind of the comparisons from prior year.
是的。是的。當您查看當年的餘額以及與上一年的比較時。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Yes. If you remember, one of the things we called out, you're right, is that about half of the year-over-year improvement came from muted competitive environment, which is fairly new. We started seeing that in the fourth quarter of 2020 and part of it is the fact that we did not have the same higher freight costs that we did in the first quarter last year. If you recall, the first quarter '20, we experienced a significant backlog, a surge in demand, an imbalance in inventory. And therefore, we had higher freight costs. So that did not repeat, because our inventory is more balanced today, more aligned with our customer demand.
是的。如果您還記得的話,我們提出的其中一件事,您是對的,那就是大約一半的同比改進來自競爭激烈的環境,這是相當新的。我們從 2020 年第四季度開始看到這種情況,部分原因是我們的運費沒有去年第一季度那樣高。如果您還記得,20 世紀第一季度,我們經歷了大量積壓、需求激增和庫存失衡。因此,我們的運費更高。所以沒有重複,因為我們今天的庫存更加平衡,更符合我們客戶的需求。
So that benefit, I would not expect it to continue. It was a onetime, right? It was a onetime event in 2020 that did not recur, and we don't expect that to be a driver going forward. Then it comes to promotional environment and pricing, and that will depend. We've said that we expect the out-of-stock situation, the capacity to come back online more or less in the second half of the year. Timing is TBD. But we don't -- just as that out-of-stock continues to -- would move into a more normalized state, we potentially could see promotions and pricing to also move into a more normalized state. So think about it that way. That might be temporary.
所以這種好處,我不希望它繼續下去。這是一次性的,對吧?這是 2020 年的一次事件,沒有再發生,我們預計這不會成為未來的推動力。然後是促銷環境和定價,這將取決於。我們已經說過,我們預計會出現缺貨情況,產能或多或少會在下半年恢復上線。時間待定。但我們不會——就像缺貨繼續一樣——會進入更正常的狀態,我們可能會看到促銷和定價也進入更正常的狀態。所以這樣想吧。那可能是暫時的。
Operator
Operator
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Sumit Singh for any closing remarks.
我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給 Sumit Singh 作閉幕詞。
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Sumit Singh - CEO & Director
Thanks. The Chewy team remains busy and excited about 2021 to execute with rigor and take care of our customers. Have a great evening. It was great having you. Thank you.
謝謝。 Chewy 團隊對 2021 年仍然忙碌和興奮,以嚴格執行並照顧我們的客戶。祝你有個愉快的夜晚。有你真好。謝謝你。
Operator
Operator
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。