梅西百貨 (M) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Macy's, Inc. Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call. This conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike McGuire, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

早上好，歡迎來到梅西百貨公司 2022 年第一季度收益電話會議。正在錄製本次會議。我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係主管 Mike McGuire。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to discuss our first quarter 2022 results. As always, with me on the call today are Jeff Gennette, our Chairman and CEO; and Adrian Mitchell, our CFO. Jeff and Adrian have prepared remarks that they'll share. After which, we'll provide time for your questions. (Operator Instructions) Along with our press release from earlier this morning, the slide presentation has been posted on the Investors section of our website, macysinc.com. In addition to information from our prepared remarks, the presentation includes supplementary facts and figures to assist you in your analysis of Macy's.

謝謝你，接線員。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們討論我們 2022 年第一季度的業績。與往常一樣，今天與我通話的是我們的董事長兼首席執行官 Jeff Gennette；和我們的首席財務官 Adrian Mitchell。傑夫和阿德里安準備了他們將分享的評論。之後，我們將為您的問題提供時間。 （操作員說明）連同我們今天上午早些時候發布的新聞稿，幻燈片演示已發佈在我們網站 macysinc.com 的投資者部分。除了我們準備好的評論中的信息外，演示文稿還包括補充事實和數據，以幫助您分析梅西百貨。

Also note that unless otherwise noted, the comparisons that we'll speak to this morning will be versus 2021. Comparisons to 2019 are provided where appropriate to best benchmark our performance given the impact of the pandemic in 2020.

另請注意，除非另有說明，否則我們今天上午將進行的比較將是與 2021 年的比較。鑑於 2020 年大流行的影響，在適當的情況下提供了與 2019 年的比較，以最好地衡量我們的表現。

I do have one housekeeping item to share with you this morning. We noted in our earlier press release that on Tuesday, June 7, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Jeff and Adrian will be participating in a fireside chat at the Evercore ISI Consumer and Retail Conference. This event will be webcast live on our Investor Relations website. So please circle the date on your calendars and plan to tune in.

今天早上我確實有一件家務用品要和你分享。我們在之前的新聞稿中指出，在東部夏令時間 6 月 7 日星期二上午 8 點，Jeff 和 Adrian 將參加 Evercore ISI 消費者和零售會議的爐邊談話。本次活動將在我們的投資者關係網站上進行網絡直播。因此，請在您的日曆上圈出日期併計劃收聽。

Now for the good stuff. Keep in mind that all forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions mentioned today. A detailed discussion of these factors and uncertainties is contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In discussing the results of our operations, we will be providing certain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find additional information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures as well as others used in our earnings release and our presentation on the Investors section.

現在來看看好東西。請記住，所有前瞻性陳述均受 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款的約束。這些前瞻性陳述存在可能導致實際結果與預期和假設存在重大差異的風險和不確定性今天提到的。我們向證券交易委員會提交的文件中包含對這些因素和不確定性的詳細討論。在討論我們的運營結果時，我們將提供某些非公認會計原則的財務措施。您可以找到有關這些非 GAAP 財務指標以及我們的收益發布和我們在“投資者”部分的演示文稿中使用的其他指標的更多信息。

Finally, as a reminder, today's call is being webcast on our website. A replay will be available approximately 2 hours after the conclusion of this call, and it will be archived on our website for one year. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff.

最後，提醒一下，今天的電話會議正在我們的網站上進行網絡直播。本次通話結束後大約 2 小時將提供重播，並將在我們的網站上存檔一年。有了這個，我會把電話轉給傑夫。

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. The first quarter presented a unique combination of challenges across a highly dynamic and uncertain operating environment, with mounting inflation, rising interest rates, a volatile stock market, COVID-19 lockdowns in Asia and the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, I'm pleased to say that Macy's, Inc. delivered solid results, thanks in large part to the efficiencies we built into our business through the Polaris strategy.

謝謝，邁克，大家早上好。感謝您加入我們。第一季度在高度動態和不確定的經營環境中呈現出獨特的挑戰組合，包括通貨膨脹加劇、利率上升、股市動盪、亞洲 COVID-19 封鎖和烏克蘭戰爭。儘管如此，我很高興地說，梅西百貨公司取得了可觀的業績，這在很大程度上要歸功於我們通過 Polaris 戰略為我們的業務帶來的效率。

Throughout the quarter, our team stayed focused on the customer and we executed on our plan for long-term growth. We leveraged our transformation muscle and quickly pivoted to satisfy customers with what and where they wanted to shop. As a result, quarterly net sales were in line with our expectations at $5.3 billion, a 13.6% increase compared to the prior year. Comparable owned plus licensed sales increased 12.4% and average unit retail was up approximately 8%.

在整個季度中，我們的團隊始終專注於客戶，並執行了我們的長期增長計劃。我們利用我們的轉型力量，迅速轉向滿足客戶的需求和他們想要的購物地點。因此，季度淨銷售額為 53 億美元，符合我們的預期，比去年同期增長 13.6%。可比自有加特許銷售增長 12.4%，平均單位零售增長約 8%。

We beat our earnings expectations. We generated $211 million more in adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter than in the same period in 2021. And our adjusted diluted EPS was $1.08 for the quarter, almost 3x higher than the prior year's $0.39.

我們超出了我們的盈利預期。我們在第一季度的調整後 EBITDA 比 2021 年同期增加了 2.11 億美元。我們在本季度調整後的攤薄後每股收益為 1.08 美元，幾乎是去年同期的 0.39 美元的 3 倍。

Looking at each of our nameplates. Comparable sales for the Macy's brand increased 10.1% on an owned plus licensed basis. We saw a notable shift in consumer shopping behavior between channels, with better-than-expected sales in stores and lower-than-expected digital sales. This dynamic underscores the resilience of our omnichannel strategy, which I'll talk about in a couple of minutes.

查看我們的每個銘牌。梅西百貨品牌的可比銷售額在自有加許可的基礎上增長了 10.1%。我們看到消費者在渠道之間的購物行為發生了顯著轉變，商店銷售額好於預期，而數字銷售額則低於預期。這種動態突顯了我們全渠道戰略的彈性，我將在幾分鐘內談到這一點。

Macy's sales were also affected by an accelerated category shift, away from the popular pandemic categories, such as casual and activewear as well as soft home, and into more occasion-based apparel, like dresses, women's shoes, men's clothing and furnishings. This shift accelerated faster than we expected. It contributed to an increase in store foot traffic as consumers are more likely to shop in person for occasion-based apparel. We were pleased to see that our balanced assortment allowed us to meet the shift and capture sales.

梅西百貨的銷售也受到品類加速轉變的影響，從流行的流行品類，如休閒和運動服以及軟裝家居，轉向更多基於場合的服裝，如連衣裙、女鞋、男裝和家具。這種轉變的加速比我們預期的要快。由於消費者更有可能親自購買基於場合的服裝，因此這有助於增加商店的客流量。我們很高興看到我們平衡的分類使我們能夠滿足轉變並獲得銷售。

Our Macy's customer base remained healthy during the quarter. On a trailing 12-month basis, we now have 44.4 million active customers. That's a 14% increase over where we were in the first quarter of 2021 and the highest active customer level in 4 years. We are also encouraged to see strong engagement by our most loyal customers. On a trailing 12-month basis, our 29.1 million Star Rewards program members made up 69% of Macy's brand owned plus licensed sales. That's up nearly 6 percentage points from the prior year.

我們梅西百貨的客戶群在本季度保持健康。在過去 12 個月的基礎上，我們現在擁有 4440 萬活躍客戶。這比我們在 2021 年第一季度的水平增長了 14%，也是 4 年來最高的活躍客戶水平。我們也很高興看到我們最忠實的客戶積極參與。在過去 12 個月的基礎上，我們的 2,910 萬 Star Rewards 計劃會員佔梅西百貨自有品牌和特許銷售的 69%。這比去年增加了近6個百分點。

Our Bloomingdale's brand performed strongly, exceeding expectations both in stores and online as luxury consumer spending remained robust. Comp sales on an owned plus licensed basis was up 26.9%. This was driven by strong sales of dresses, men's tailored, men's and women's contemporary and luggage. About 4 million people shopped the Bloomingdale's brand for the trailing 12 months ending Q1. That's a 21% increase compared to where we were as of the first quarter of 2021. Overall, this robust broad-based performance is a testament to how the Bloomingdale's team has evolved the product assortment to be relevant for new younger generations that is investing in both their wardrobes and their homes.

由於奢侈品消費者支出保持強勁，我們的 Bloomingdale 品牌表現強勁，在實體店和線上均超出預期。在自有加許可基礎上的 Comp 銷售額增長了 26.9%。這是由連衣裙、男士定制、男士和女士現代裝和行李箱的強勁銷售推動的。在截至第一季度的過去 12 個月中，約有 400 萬人購買了 Bloomingdale 的品牌。與我們截至 2021 年第一季度的水平相比，增長了 21%。總體而言，這種強大的基礎廣泛的表現證明了 Bloomingdale 的團隊如何發展產品種類以與正在投資的年輕一代相關他們的衣櫃和他們的家。

At Bluemercury, the team continued to build on its momentum and posted another improved quarter. Comparable sales on an owned plus licensed basis were up 25.2%. This was driven by an increase in store traffic coupled with better-than-expected growth in private brands. During the quarter, as mask restrictions lifted, Bluemercury saw the return of color, particularly in lip, face and eye categories.

在 Bluemercury，團隊繼續發展勢頭，並發布了另一個改進的季度。自有加許可的可比銷售額增長了 25.2%。這是由於商店客流量的增加以及自有品牌的增長好於預期。在本季度，隨著口罩限制的解除，Bluemercury 看到了顏色的回歸，特別是在唇部、面部和眼部類別中。

Now let me circle back to the importance of our omnichannel strategy. Across our nameplates, it's clear that our customers were changing how they shopped during the quarter, and we were ready. As COVID-19 restrictions loosened in the U.S., people grew more comfortable returning to normal activities. They went back to the office at least a few days a week. They attended group events and celebrations and resumed in-store shopping. Our strong performance underscores the strength of our omnichannel ecosystem and our success in building a seamless shopping experience that accommodates changes in customer behavior. Notably, more than 88% of our omnichannel markets grew sales.

現在讓我回到我們全渠道戰略的重要性。在我們的銘牌上，很明顯我們的客戶正在改變他們在本季度的購物方式，我們已經做好了準備。隨著美國對 COVID-19 的限制放鬆，人們變得更願意恢復正常活動。他們每周至少有幾天回到辦公室。他們參加了集體活動和慶祝活動，並恢復了店內購物。我們的強勁表現突顯了我們全渠道生態系統的實力以及我們在構建無縫購物體驗以適應客戶行為變化方面的成功。值得注意的是，我們超過 88% 的全渠道市場實現了銷售額增長。

Breaking this down further between channels. Growth in our digital channel slowed from last quarter, but sales remained elevated over '21 and '19 levels. Digital sales were up 2% versus 2021 and up 34% versus 2019. For Macy's, which represents the lion's share of digital sales, traffic was up 1% from the quarter of 2021.

在渠道之間進一步細分。我們數字渠道的增長較上一季度有所放緩，但銷售額仍高於 21 和 19 年的水平。數字銷售額與 2021 年相比增長了 2%，與 2019 年相比增長了 34%。對於佔數字銷售額最大份額的梅西百貨來說，流量比 2021 年第四季度增長了 1%。

As consumer shopping behavior shifted from digital to in-person, we took steps during the quarter to increase traffic, including paid search and personalization, which helped to attract more visitors. At the same time, Macy's saw conversion declined by 5%, driven by consumers online shifting back to in-store purchases, which was partially due to the return of occasion-based apparel. We know that the consumer shopping journey often begins online even when the ultimate purchase happens in the store. We're continuing to drive traffic to our digital platforms with that in mind and further underscoring the benefit of our omnichannel ecosystem.

隨著消費者購物行為從線上轉向線下，我們在本季度採取措施增加流量，包括付費搜索和個性化，這有助於吸引更多訪客。與此同時，梅西百貨的轉化率下降了 5%，這是由於消費者在線轉向店內購買，部分原因是基於場合的服裝回歸。我們知道，即使最終購買發生在商店中，消費者的購物旅程也經常從網上開始。考慮到這一點，我們將繼續為我們的數字平台增加流量，並進一步強調我們全渠道生態系統的好處。

We're focused on personalization as an important growth engine. And we continue to ramp up our capabilities to increase engagement, particularly with our highly engaged omnichannel shoppers, our best segments. Today, we're starting to see the results of this personalization work, with revenue driven by personalized product recommendations up 13% during the quarter. While we're still in the early innings of these initiatives, we're pleased with these results. And we continue to test and iterate to find the best communication channels, frequency, messages and offers.

我們專注於將個性化作為重要的增長引擎。我們繼續提高我們的能力以增加參與度，特別是與我們高度參與的全渠道購物者，我們最好的細分市場。今天，我們開始看到這項個性化工作的成果，個性化產品推薦帶來的收入在本季度增長了 13%。雖然我們仍處於這些舉措的早期階段，但我們對這些結果感到滿意。我們繼續測試和迭代以找到最佳的溝通渠道、頻率、消息和優惠。

Our app's performance continued to be a standout, with active customers increasing 14% to 7.4 million in the quarter. And we continue to make progress in preparing for our new Macy's Marketplace, which we'll launch during the third quarter, and we expect to scale it over the course of the second half. We'll share more on this as we get closer to launch.

我們的應用程序的表現繼續出色，本季度活躍客戶增加 14% 至 740 萬。我們將繼續在準備新的梅西百貨市場方面取得進展，我們將在第三季度推出，我們預計將在下半年擴大規模。隨著我們接近發布，我們將分享更多關於此的信息。

As I mentioned, sales in stores grew as consumer comfort levels rose along with their desire to return to in-store shopping. But these gains were also a result of the investments we made to make our stores a style destination through our new brand platform, Own Your Style. There are also benefits of our focus on trend merchandising, which enables our customers to shop for full looks rather than just items. We're also investing in our customer service experience by enhancing At Your Service centers in every store.

正如我所提到的，隨著消費者舒適度的提高以及他們重返店內購物的願望，商店的銷售額也在增長。但這些收益也是我們通過我們的新品牌平台 Own Your Style 使我們的商店成為時尚目的地的投資的結果。我們專注於趨勢營銷也有好處，這使我們的客戶能夠購買完整的外觀而不僅僅是商品。我們還通過增強每家商店的 At Your Service 中心來投資我們的客戶服務體驗。

Additionally, we continue to make progress scaling our smaller optimal store formats like Market by Macy's. These will be integral in supporting our digitally-led omnichannel ecosystem. During the quarter, we also benefited from international tourist traffic, particularly from Central and South America as well as Europe, aiding stores like our flagships at Herald Square in New York and Union Square in San Francisco, along with many of our downtown locations. While our downtown locations continue to lag in performance versus 2019, we saw a year-over-year improvement in their sales trend, with these locations outperforming the balance of the stores.

此外，我們繼續在擴展我們較小的最佳商店格式（如梅西百貨公司）方面取得進展。這些將是支持我們以數字為主導的全渠道生態系統不可或缺的一部分。在本季度，我們還受益於國際遊客流量，特別是來自中美洲和南美洲以及歐洲的遊客，為我們在紐約先驅廣場和舊金山聯合廣場的旗艦店以及我們的許多市中心地點提供援助。儘管與 2019 年相比，我們的市中心地點的表現繼續落後，但我們看到他們的銷售趨勢同比有所改善，這些地點的表現優於其他商店。

We're also continuing to see strong performance from our Backstage store-within-store locations. These locations, open more than a year, posted a high single-digit comp increase versus last year, driven by continued strong performance in kids apparel, men's, dresses, missy sportswear and luggage as well as higher AURs.

我們還繼續看到我們的後台店中店位置的強勁表現。由於童裝、男裝、連衣裙、小姐運動裝和行李箱的持續強勁表現以及更高的 AUR 推動，這些營業時間超過一年的地點與去年相比實現了高個位數的增長。

We're also expanding this off-price presence in strategic spots that advance the Macy's value spectrum strategy. During the quarter, we announced that we will open 37 new Backstage store-within-store locations nationwide. In the month of May, we opened our 300th Backstage location as well as our largest store-within-store location in our Herald Square flagship, both of which are significant achievements for our off-price portfolio.

我們還在推進梅西百貨價值範圍戰略的戰略地點擴大這種低價業務。本季度，我們宣布將在全國開設 37 家新的 Backstage 店中店。 5 月份，我們在 Herald Square 旗艦店開設了第 300 家 Backstage 店以及我們最大的店中店，這兩項都是我們折扣產品組合的重大成就。

So in summary, we're pleased with our results this quarter, particularly our ability to navigate the difficult macro and economic environment. Now I'd like to provide more details on how we're dealing with the economic headwinds. First, I'd like to share some color on supply chain and inventory productivity. As I mentioned earlier, we saw a rise in consumer demand in occasion-based merchandise categories, while at the same time, we experienced a deceleration in casual active and soft home categories, both at a faster pace than we anticipated. Simultaneously, supply chain constraints relaxed, resulting in a higher percentage of receipts than we expected. The combination of these factors created an imbalance in our overall inventory levels as well as by channel. The good news is that we were able to navigate these demand and supply trends, thanks to our underlying work to improve pricing science and our disciplined purchasing behavior, coupled with leaner inventories entering the year. As a result, we delivered strong improvement in both inventory turn and gross margin compared to both 2021 and 2019 levels.

因此，總而言之，我們對本季度的業績感到滿意，尤其是我們應對艱難的宏觀和經濟環境的能力。現在我想提供更多關於我們如何應對經濟逆風的細節。首先，我想分享一些關於供應鍊和庫存生產力的看法。正如我之前提到的，我們看到消費者對基於場合的商品類別的需求有所上升，而與此同時，我們在休閒活躍和柔軟的家居類別中經歷了減速，速度都比我們預期的要快。同時，供應鏈限制放鬆，導致收貨比例高於我們的預期。這些因素的結合造成了我們整體庫存水平以及渠道的不平衡。好消息是，我們能夠駕馭這些供需趨勢，這要歸功於我們改進定價科學的基礎工作和我們有紀律的採購行為，以及進入今年的庫存減少。因此，與 2021 年和 2019 年的水平相比，我們在庫存周轉率和毛利率方面都取得了顯著改善。

At quarter end, our work resulted in inventories rising 17% from 2021 levels on a 13.6% increase in net sales. And this shift in consumer demand for more occasion-based categories like dresses and tailored clothing is a good thing for Macy's. It is where we shine. With our broad assortment base, we are pivoting to those categories and building replenishment stock in our bestsellers.

在季度末，我們的工作導致庫存比 2021 年的水平增加了 17%，淨銷售額增長了 13.6%。消費者對連衣裙和定制服裝等更多基於場合的類別的需求轉變對梅西百貨來說是一件好事。這是我們閃耀的地方。憑藉我們廣泛的分類基礎，我們正在轉向這些類別並在我們的暢銷書中建立補充庫存。

We are continuing to closely watch supply chain dynamics. While constraints loosened up in the first quarter, there is still a significant amount of uncertainty with the lockdowns in China and the ongoing labor negotiations in the L.A. port. Factors like these drive us to continue taking a prudent and disciplined approach with our lead times and forecasting. We're making adjustments as needed, with ongoing communications with our partners to ensure that we can adapt to changing consumer demand and have the right inventory available at the right levels and at the right time.

我們將繼續密切關注供應鏈動態。儘管第一季度限制有所放鬆，但中國的封鎖和洛杉磯港口正在進行的勞資談判仍存在很大的不確定性。諸如此類的因素促使我們繼續對交貨時間和預測採取謹慎和有紀律的方法。我們正在根據需要進行調整，並與我們的合作夥伴進行持續溝通，以確保我們能夠適應不斷變化的消費者需求，並在正確的時間以正確的水平提供正確的庫存。

We're also closely monitoring evolving shopping behaviors relating to the ebbing of the COVID pandemic combined with mounting inflation and macroeconomic volatility. During the first quarter, all income tiers continue to engage with us, led by the higher income and middle income consumers. Luxury sales remained a standout for our business as shopping behavior among high-income consumers has so far remained less affected by inflation. These trends show the benefit of our balanced portfolio across nameplates. We operate across the value spectrum, from off-price to luxury. This, coupled with our wide assortment of categories, products and brands, gives us the ability to flex with consumer demand.

我們還密切關注與 COVID 大流行消退、通貨膨脹和宏觀經濟波動加劇相關的不斷變化的購物行為。在第一季度，在高收入和中等收入消費者的帶領下，所有收入階層都繼續與我們合作。奢侈品銷售仍然是我們業務的佼佼者，因為到目前為止，高收入消費者的購物行為受通貨膨脹的影響較小。這些趨勢顯示了我們平衡的銘牌產品組合的好處。我們在價值範圍內開展業務，從低價到奢侈品。再加上我們種類繁多的品類、產品和品牌，我們能夠靈活應對消費者的需求。

Now I'll pivot to our merchandising strategy for the Macy's brand. We're putting a lot of focus here as we look to engage more customers and grow our market share. We are in the early stages of reimagining our private brand portfolio and realigning our private brand team under new leadership in partnership with our broader merchandising and sourcing teams.

現在，我將重點介紹我們的梅西百貨品牌營銷策略。隨著我們希望吸引更多客戶並擴大我們的市場份額，我們將重點放在了這裡。我們正處於重新構想我們的自有品牌組合併在新領導下與我們更廣泛的營銷和採購團隊合作重新調整我們的自有品牌團隊的早期階段。

Our goal is to have a private brand portfolio that is differentiated, defendable and durable. The team is developing original designs and distinctive brand identities, values and principles that foster brand love, with a modernized size and fit approach so that all our customers are empowered to own their personal style. This work is underscored by customer data and analytics to ensure that we have the right value equation and competitive pricing architecture. And while specifics at its composition we're not yet ready to share, we're considering all avenues, including the launch of new brands as well as a rethink and refresh of current brands, all centered around giving the customer what they want. I'm looking forward to sharing additional details on this work in the future.

我們的目標是擁有一個差異化、可防禦和耐用的自有品牌組合。該團隊正在開發原創設計和獨特的品牌標識、價值觀和原則，以培養品牌的熱愛，採用現代化的尺寸和合身方法，讓我們所有的客戶都有權擁有自己的個人風格。客戶數據和分析強調了這項工作，以確保我們擁有正確的價值方程式和有競爭力的定價架構。雖然我們還沒有準備好分享其組成的細節，但我們正在考慮所有途徑，包括推出新品牌以及重新思考和更新現有品牌，所有這些都圍繞著為客戶提供他們想要的東西。我期待著在未來分享有關這項工作的更多細節。

Before I pass it over to Adrian, I want to thank our colleagues for their continued hard work and dedication. They are demonstrating tenacity and executing our strategy and building a seamless shopping experience, all while keeping our customers at the heart of every decision. Their spirit and ingenuity drive us forward as we continue to navigate this dynamic environment. And I want to acknowledge and thank them for that.

在我把它交給阿德里安之前，我要感謝我們的同事們一直以來的辛勤工作和奉獻精神。他們展示了堅韌不拔的精神，執行了我們的戰略，打造了無縫的購物體驗，同時讓我們的客戶成為每一個決定的核心。在我們繼續在這個充滿活力的環境中航行時，他們的精神和獨創性推動我們前進。我要承認並感謝他們。

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Adrian for additional color on our first quarter results and the outlook for the rest of the year.

有了這個，我將把它交給阿德里安，為我們的第一季度業績和今年剩餘時間的前景增添色彩。

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. Driving shareholder value remains our top priority. And we're doing this by combining effective operational execution with the strategic deployment of capital. Our disciplined actions have improved the financial health of our business and have allowed us to successfully navigate today's volatile and uncertain operating environment. As Jeff said, we delivered first quarter sales as anticipated while our bottom line exceeded expectations. I'll highlight our successes as I walk through our results, focusing on our 5 value creation metrics: omnichannel sales, gross margin, inventory productivity, expense management and capital allocation.

謝謝你，傑夫，大家早上好。推動股東價值仍然是我們的首要任務。我們通過將有效的運營執行與資本的戰略部署相結合來做到這一點。我們紀律嚴明的行動改善了我們業務的財務狀況，並使我們能夠成功地駕馭當今動盪和不確定的經營環境。正如傑夫所說，我們在第一季度實現了預期的銷售額，而我們的底線超出了預期。在回顧我們的結果時，我將重點介紹我們的成功，重點關注我們的 5 個價值創造指標：全渠道銷售、毛利率、庫存生產力、費用管理和資本分配。

First, omnichannel sales. We generated $5.3 billion in net sales during the quarter, up $642 million or 13.6% versus last year. Comparable sales on an owned plus licensed basis increased by 12.4%. As you may recall, our first quarter last year did not fully benefit from the accelerated economic recovery and stimulus payments that were just beginning to drive macro trends in the market. These had a larger impact later in the year. Nevertheless, we are pleased with our performance, particularly in light of the channel and category dynamics that we're navigating through.

一是全渠道銷售。我們在本季度創造了 53 億美元的淨銷售額，比去年增加了 6.42 億美元或 13.6%。自有加許可的可比銷售額增長了 12.4%。您可能還記得，我們去年的第一季度並沒有完全受益於剛剛開始推動市場宏觀趨勢的經濟加速復蘇和刺激支付。這些在今年晚些時候產生了更大的影響。儘管如此，我們對我們的表現感到滿意，特別是考慮到我們正在瀏覽的渠道和類別動態。

Now on to gross margin, where we saw another strong quarter of expansion that contributed to our outperformance. For the quarter, gross margin was 39.6%, up 100 basis points from the prior year period and above our expectations. Merchandise margin increased 50 basis points, benefiting from higher AURs. Our AUR performance was driven by 3 big factors: first, lower promotions, particularly on regular priced goods. This was driven by our POS pricing optimization work. Second, higher ticket prices. The big contributors here were fragrances, mattresses, textiles and fine jewelry. And third, category mix, driven largely by furniture and fragrances in addition to the increased penetration of in occasion-based apparel categories.

現在談談毛利率，我們看到了另一個強勁的季度擴張，這促成了我們的出色表現。本季度毛利率為 39.6%，比去年同期上升 100 個基點，高於我們的預期。得益於較高的 AUR，商品利潤率增加了 50 個基點。我們的 AUR 業績受到三大因素的推動：首先，較低的促銷活動，尤其是正價商品。這是由我們的 POS 定價優化工作推動的。二是票價較高。這裡的主要貢獻者是香水、床墊、紡織品和高級珠寶。第三，品類組合，主要由家具和香水推動，以及基於場合的服裝品類的滲透率增加。

Full price sales fees were down slightly in the quarter, impacted by the shift away from pandemic categories like activewear and soft home that Jeff discussed. However, full-price AUR increased 10% for the Macy's brand.

本季度全價銷售費用略有下降，受到傑夫討論的從運動服和軟裝等流行類別轉移的影響。然而，Macy's 品牌的全價 AUR 增加了 10%。

Within gross margin, delivery expense accounted for 4.3% of net sales. That's 50 basis points lower than last year, reflecting the 4 percentage point decline in digital penetration. If we step back for a minute, we know that our ability to maintain margin depends on our understanding of customer demand within and across categories. To improve this understanding and better forecast demand in a highly uncertain environment, we're leveraging predictive analytics and data science.

在毛利率中，配送費用占淨銷售額的 4.3%。這比去年低 50 個基點，反映出數字滲透率下降了 4 個百分點。如果我們退後一步，我們知道我們維持利潤的能力取決於我們對類別內和跨類別客戶需求的理解。為了在高度不確定的環境中提高這種理解並更好地預測需求，我們正在利用預測分析和數據科學。

They also allow us to apply a few key tactics. First, we are shifting our promotional profile to be more personalized. Important here are the personalization efforts that Jeff spoke about earlier. Second, as we improve our ability to predict demand, we expect to improve the accuracy of our upfront buys and how we allocate inventory within and across markets. This should help us drive better sell-throughs and higher inventory productivity. Third is our use of pricing science. We utilize dynamic pricing to change the timing, cadence and size of markdowns based on factors such as inventory availability, sell-throughs and demand patterns.

它們還允許我們應用一些關鍵策略。首先，我們正在改變我們的宣傳資料，使其更加個性化。這裡重要的是 Jeff 之前談到的個性化工作。其次，隨著我們提高預測需求的能力，我們希望提高預購的準確性以及我們如何在市場內和跨市場分配庫存。這應該有助於我們推動更好的銷售和更高的庫存生產力。第三是我們對定價科學的使用。我們利用動態定價根據庫存可用性、銷售量和需求模式等因素來改變降價的時間、節奏和規模。

This leads me to inventory productivity. As Jeff discussed, we acknowledge that the dynamics around inventory are challenging, including those within the supply chain. The faster-than-expected shift away from pandemic categories resulted in higher inventories, largely within decelerating categories. At the same time, the loosening of the supply chain resulted in a higher percentage of receipts landing at our DCs earlier than we expected. Despite this, we managed inventory as effectively as we could during the quarter and continued to deliver productivity gains. Our efforts resulted in an 18% improvement in turnover versus 2019 and even a 9% improvement compared to 2021, which had abnormally low inventory levels at the beginning of the year.

這使我提高了庫存生產力。正如 Jeff 所討論的，我們承認圍繞庫存的動態具有挑戰性，包括供應鏈中的動態。從大流行類別轉移的速度快於預期導致庫存增加，主要是在減速類別中。同時，供應鏈的鬆動導致比我們預期的更早到達我們配送中心的收據比例更高。儘管如此，我們在本季度盡可能有效地管理庫存，並繼續提高生產力。我們的努力使營業額與 2019 年相比提高了 18%，與年初庫存水平異常低的 2021 年相比，甚至提高了 9%。

Effective inventory management remains a strategic priority for us. We are working actively to get inventory metrics better aligned to actual sales trends by driving faster sell-through of our slow-moving merchandise and adjusting our buys to reflect the changing environment. The data science we have built into the business is key to the success of this work and helping to ensure we maintain strong margins.

有效的庫存管理仍然是我們的戰略重點。我們正在積極努力，通過推動我們滯銷商品的更快銷售並調整我們的購買以反映不斷變化的環境，從而使庫存指標更好地與實際銷售趨勢保持一致。我們在業務中建立的數據科學是這項工作成功的關鍵，有助於確保我們保持強勁的利潤率。

Next, expense management. In the quarter, SG&A expenses increased by $131 million or 7.5% to $1.9 billion. SG&A as a percent of net sales improved by 200 basis points to 35.1%. This was primarily driven by disciplined expense management in the face of sales growth. And we achieved this strong performance even with material wage inflation across the organization. Recall that we exited 2021's first quarter with a significant number of open positions due to the tightening labor market. Since then, we have made major progress on either filling or eliminating open positions. Today, our remaining open positions generally reflect the normal course of business or new positions we need for expanding operations such as those for marketplace and personalization teams. Additionally, as of May 1, all our colleagues in stores and distribution centers are now at a minimum wage base of $15 or above, depending on the legal minimum wage within the municipality.

其次，費用管理。本季度，SG&A 費用增加 1.31 億美元或 7.5% 至 19 億美元。 SG&A 占淨銷售額的百分比提高了 200 個基點，達到 35.1%。這主要是由於面對銷售增長而進行的嚴格的費用管理。即使在整個組織的工資大幅上漲的情況下，我們也取得瞭如此強勁的業績。回想一下，由於勞動力市場趨緊，我們在 2021 年第一季度結束時持有大量未平倉頭寸。從那時起，我們在填補或取消空缺職位方面取得了重大進展。今天，我們剩餘的空缺職位通常反映了正常的業務過程或我們擴展業務所需的新職位，例如市場和個性化團隊的職位。此外，截至 5 月 1 日，我們在商店和配送中心的所有同事現在的最低工資基數為 15 美元或以上，具體取決於市政當局的法定最低工資。

During the quarter, we also benefited from the growth of Macy's Media Network, which saw net revenue nearly doubled to $26 million in the quarter. Credit card revenues were $191 million, up $32 million from the first quarter of 2021. As a percent of net sales, credit card revenues were up 20 basis points to 3.6%. Our outperformance here benefited from 3 primary factors: one, continued low bad debt levels; two, higher credit sales and three, greater co-brand credit card spending. Our better-than-expected bad debt levels continued to benefit credit card revenues as the consumer remains healthy. Our strong sales performance over the last couple of quarters also helped to drive higher balances within the portfolio. And lastly, we saw higher spending on the co-branded credit card where we benefit from usage outside of our own channels.

在本季度，我們還受益於梅西百貨的增長，該季度的淨收入幾乎翻了一番，達到 2600 萬美元。信用卡收入為 1.91 億美元，比 2021 年第一季度增加 3200 萬美元。作為淨銷售額的百分比，信用卡收入增長 20 個基點至 3.6%。我們在這方面的出色表現得益於三個主要因素：一、持續的低壞賬水平；二、更高的信用銷售額和三、更大的聯名信用卡消費。由於消費者保持健康，我們好於預期的壞賬水平繼續有利於信用卡收入。我們在過去幾個季度的強勁銷售業績也有助於推動投資組合中的更高餘額。最後，我們看到聯名信用卡的支出增加，我們從自己渠道之外的使用中受益。

While credit card revenues exceeded our expectations for the quarter, we continued to expect inflation to outpace wage growth and weigh on consumer health. We expect this to contribute to an increase in bad debt. Partially offsetting this will be the continued higher balances in the portfolio and higher spending on the co-brand credit card, both benefiting from the shift in consumer spend away from debit cards. This will be a reversal from the last year when consumers were flushed with stimulus cash. As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we expect credit card revenues to rise more than we expected 3 months ago. I'll give more detail on that in a moment.

雖然信用卡收入超出了我們對本季度的預期，但我們繼續預計通脹將超過工資增長並影響消費者健康。我們預計這將導致壞賬增加。部分抵消這一點將是投資組合中的持續較高餘額和聯合品牌信用卡上的更高支出，這兩者都受益於消費者支出從借記卡轉移。這將與去年消費者被刺激性現金充斥的情況相反。展望今年餘下的時間，我們預計信用卡收入的增長將超過我們 3 個月前的預期。我稍後會詳細介紹。

Now for bottom line profitability. Adjusted EBITDA margin came in higher than expected at 12.8% or 270 basis points higher than 2021. This includes asset sale gains of $42 million, which were $36 million higher than the last year. This outperformance was driven by the better-than-expected results for gross margin and credit card revenues that I spoke of earlier. After accounting for interest, taxes and the share repurchase, which I'll address in a moment, these results generated adjusted diluted EPS of $1.08, up from $0.39 in 2021, which leads me to our final value creation metric: capital allocation.

現在是為了盈利。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率高於預期，比 2021 年高出 12.8% 或 270 個基點。這包括 4200 萬美元的資產出售收益，比去年高出 3600 萬美元。這種優異表現是由於我之前提到的毛利率和信用卡收入好於預期的結果。在考慮了利息、稅收和股票回購（我稍後會談到）之後，這些結果產生了 1.08 美元的調整後稀釋每股收益，高於 2021 年的 0.39 美元，這使我得出了我們的最終價值創造指標：資本分配。

The strategic deployment of our cash over the past year has been one of the most critical drivers of our transformation journey. And through our solid execution of our capital allocation priorities, we are now able to invest in the business and return capital to shareholders.

過去一年我們現金的戰略部署一直是我們轉型之旅的最關鍵驅動力之一。通過我們穩健地執行我們的資本配置優先事項，我們現在能夠投資於業務並將資本返還給股東。

Let me take you through this quarter's highlights. We generated $248 million of operating cash flow. This was driven by higher adjusted EBITDA and merchandise payables, and partially offset by an increase in merchandise inventories and a decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses. Capital expenditures were $261 million and free cash flow was $60 million. Our continued capital investments remain critical, with a large portion geared towards growth investments and focused on omnichannel investments, including the digital marketplace, automation and data science capabilities.

讓我帶您了解本季度的亮點。我們產生了 2.48 億美元的經營現金流。這是由較高的調整後 EBITDA 和商品應付賬款推動的，部分被商品庫存的增加以及應付賬款和應計費用的減少所抵消。資本支出為 2.61 億美元，自由現金流為 6000 萬美元。我們持續的資本投資仍然至關重要，其中很大一部分面向增長投資，並專注於全渠道投資，包括數字市場、自動化和數據科學能力。

During the quarter, we also took significant actions to increase our financial flexibility. First, with the upgrade of our credit ratings in February, we were able to remove the collateral from our bonds so that now all our long-term debt is unsecured.

在本季度，我們還採取了重大行動來提高我們的財務靈活性。首先，隨著我們在 2 月份信用評級的提升，我們能夠從債券中移除抵押品，因此現在我們所有的長期債務都是無抵押的。

Another action we took was amending and extending the term of our $3 billion asset-based credit facility by 3 years to March of 2027, further strengthening our financial flexibility and liquidity. As we've said before, we expect to use the credit facility periodically based on the needs of the business.

我們採取的另一項行動是將我們 30 億美元的基於資產的信貸安排的期限修改和延長 3 年至 2027 年 3 月，進一步加強我們的財務靈活性和流動性。正如我們之前所說，我們希望根據業務需求定期使用信貸工具。

The third move we took to increase financial flexibility was using cash on hand along with the proceeds from the issuance of $850 million in new longer-term maturity unsecured notes due in 2030 and 2032 to redeem approximately $1.1 billion of debt that was maturing in 2023 and 2024. As a result, we have no material debt maturities for the next 5 years, giving us significant financial flexibility to invest further in our Polaris transformation. And the debt maturities between 2027 of $71 million and 2028 of $206 million are very manageable.

我們為提高財務靈活性而採取的第三項舉措是利用手頭現金以及發行 8.5 億美元新的長期到期無擔保票據的收益，這些票據將於 2030 年和 2032 年到期，以贖回約 11 億美元將於 2023 年到期的債務，以及2024. 因此，我們在未來 5 年沒有重大債務到期，這為我們提供了極大的財務靈活性，可以進一步投資於 Polaris 轉型。 2027 年 7100 萬美元和 2028 年 2.06 億美元之間的債務到期是非常可控的。

Lastly, we continue to return capital to shareholders. In addition to our dividend payment of $0.1575 per share or $45 million, we repurchased approximately 24 million shares for a total spend of $600 million during the quarter, leaving $1.4 billion of our $2 billion share repurchase authorization available. This represents 8.2% of our shares outstanding. Recall that our guidance did not include buybacks, and they contribute $0.03 to our outperformance in EPS.

最後，我們繼續向股東返還資本。除了我們支付每股 0.1575 美元或 4500 萬美元的股息外，我們在本季度回購了大約 2400 萬股股票，總支出為 6 億美元，在我們 20 億美元的股票回購授權中留下了 14 億美元。這占我們流通股的 8.2%。回想一下，我們的指導不包括回購，它們為我們的每股收益表現貢獻了 0.03 美元。

Turning to our full year outlook. We are reaffirming our sales guidance and raising our earnings guidance based on the strength of our credit portfolio and share repurchases. We acknowledge that the level of macroeconomic uncertainty is continuing to intensify. And we believe that this updated guidance appropriately reflects the associated risks we see. To highlight the changes, within our net sales guidance of flat to up 1% versus 2021, we now expect digital sales as a percent of net sales to be approximately 35%, in line with 2021, down from our prior estimate of 37%. This reduction in digital penetration and associated increase in stores penetration is the result of 2 primary expectations.

轉向我們的全年展望。我們正在重申我們的銷售指導並根據我們的信貸組合和股票回購的實力提高我們的盈利指導。我們承認宏觀經濟的不確定性程度正在繼續加劇。我們認為，這份更新後的指南恰當地反映了我們看到的相關風險。為了突出這些變化，在我們的淨銷售額與 2021 年持平至 1% 的指導下，我們現在預計數字銷售額占淨銷售額的百分比約為 35%，與 2021 年一致，低於我們之前估計的 37%。數字化滲透率的下降和商店滲透率的相關增加是兩個主要預期的結果。

First, the continuation of the shift in consumer behavior from online to in-store that we experienced this past quarter. And second, the accelerated shift to occasion-based apparel, which we know have a higher return rate than pandemic categories, such as home and beauty. During the quarter, we saw a higher-than-expected increase in returns on macys.com within the accelerating categories and have adjusted our outlook accordingly. Overall, we haven't changed our net sales expectations. We've only changed the contribution of each channel.

首先，我們在上個季度經歷的消費者行為從在線向實體店的轉變仍在繼續。其次，加速轉向基於場合的服裝，我們知道這些服裝的退貨率高於家居和美容等流行類別。在本季度，我們看到 macys.com 在加速類別中的回報增長高於預期，並相應調整了我們的展望。總體而言，我們沒有改變我們的淨銷售額預期。我們只改變了每個渠道的貢獻。

Additionally, we now expect credit card revenues of approximately 3.1% of net sales, up from 2.9%. This is driven largely by the improvement in bad debt we were seeing compared to our original expectations as well as balances within the portfolio trending higher than expected. As a result of this, adjusted EBITDA as a percent of sales is now expected to be between 11.2% and 11.7%. Our adjusted EPS for the year is now expected to be $4.53 to $4.95, which not only reflects the change in EBITDA, but also reflects the impact of buybacks completed in the first quarter. Note that this excludes any consideration for future buybacks.

此外，我們現在預計信用卡收入約占淨銷售額的 3.1%，高於 2.9%。這主要是由於與我們最初的預期相比，我們看到的壞賬有所改善，以及投資組合中的餘額趨於高於預期。因此，調整後的 EBITDA 佔銷售額的百分比現在預計在 11.2% 至 11.7% 之間。我們今年調整後的每股收益現在預計為 4.53 美元至 4.95 美元，這不僅反映了 EBITDA 的變化，還反映了第一季度完成的回購的影響。請注意，這不包括對未來回購的任何考慮。

In the second quarter, we expect net sales to be between $5.5 billion and $5.6 billion. We expect the gross margin rate for the second quarter to be no lower than the second quarter of 2019. This reflects our anticipation of higher fuel costs within our supply chain network, from markdowns needed to correct inventory levels within overstock categories and the possibility of an elevated promotional environment given the high inventory levels we see in the industry. For adjusted earnings per share, we expect between $0.84 and $0.94 for the quarter compared to $1.29 in 2021.

第二季度，我們預計淨銷售額將在 55 億美元至 56 億美元之間。我們預計第二季度的毛利率將不低於 2019 年第二季度。這反映了我們對供應鍊網絡內燃料成本上升的預期，從糾正積壓類別中的庫存水平所需的降價以及可能鑑於我們在行業中看到的高庫存水平，促銷環境有所提升。對於調整後的每股收益，我們預計本季度為 0.84 美元至 0.94 美元，而 2021 年為 1.29 美元。

While we are pleased with our first quarter performance, we recognize that our work is certainly not complete. The world is changing rapidly. But our financial health provides us the capacity and flexibility to make the necessary investments and operational changes to keep up with the pace of change.

雖然我們對第一季度的表現感到滿意，但我們認識到我們的工作肯定還沒有完成。世界正在迅速變化。但我們的財務狀況為我們提供了進行必要投資和運營變革以跟上變革步伐的能力和靈活性。

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Jeff for some closing remarks.

有了這個，我將把電話轉回給 Jeff 做一些結束語。

Thanks, Adrian. In summary, we delivered a solid first quarter despite the unprecedented macroeconomic environment, demonstrating our improved operational agility, driven by our Polaris strategy. As we move forward, we recognize this coming year presents unique challenges for both our business and our customers. Our strength is in our omnichannel ecosystem. We operate across the value spectrum, from off-price to luxury, and have a balanced portfolio that can shift and flex with consumer demand. Our Polaris strategy has proved durable. And we have confidence that it enables us to weather any storm we may face in 2022 and in the future. And with that, let's begin the Q&A.

謝謝，阿德里安。總而言之，儘管宏觀經濟環境前所未有，但我們在第一季度的表現依然穩健，這表明我們在 Polaris 戰略的推動下提高了運營敏捷性。隨著我們向前邁進，我們認識到來年對我們的業務和客戶都提出了獨特的挑戰。我們的優勢在於我們的全渠道生態系統。我們在價值範圍內開展業務，從低價到奢侈品，並擁有一個平衡的投資組合，可以隨著消費者需求的變化而變化。我們的北極星戰略已被證明是持久的。我們有信心，它使我們能夠度過 2022 年和未來可能面臨的任何風暴。有了這個，讓我們開始問答吧。

(Operator Instructions) We will take the first question from Chuck Grom from Gordon Haskett.

（操作員說明）我們將回答 Gordon Haskett 的 Chuck Grom 的第一個問題。

And great results to the team. Jeff, I'd be curious on your comp performance during the quarter and into the month of May, but also by income cohort. You touched on a little bit in terms of the low versus the high. But given the wide range of customer you serve, can you perhaps share any color on that front?

並為團隊帶來了很好的結果。傑夫，我很好奇你在本季度和 5 月份的業績表現，還有收入群體。你談到了低點和高點。但鑑於您服務的客戶範圍廣泛，您能否在這方面分享任何顏色？

And then on Adrian, for the gross margins, how should we think about the puts and takes here in 2Q? I think you said no lower than the 38.8% you posted in '19. But just trying to contextualize how we should think about the balance of the year for gross margins.

然後關於阿德里安，對於毛利率，我們應該如何考慮第二季度的看跌期權？我認為您說的不低於您在 19 年發布的 38.8%。但只是試圖將我們應該如何考慮今年毛利率的平衡。

Chuck, on the -- let's talk first about the -- when we talk about the customers and who were affected by whatever might be happening in the macro environment, I think what we -- one of the headlines is that we saw the customer count and the customer spend across all of our kind of income buckets go up in the quarter. And when you look at the customer that's under $75,000 of annual income, they were the most affected. But they still -- the spend was up, the count was up. And their shift is into those categories that when you've got a brand like a Backstage that's helping them. When I look at kind of the mid-tier customer as well as the luxury customer, above $150,000, very healthy, and spend levels were quite strong. .

查克，關於 - 讓我們首先談談 - 當我們談論客戶以及受到宏觀環境中可能發生的任何事情影響的人時，我認為我們 - 頭條新聞之一是我們看到了客戶數量並且客戶在我們所有收入類別中的支出在本季度都有所增加。當您查看年收入低於 75,000 美元的客戶時，他們受到的影響最大。但他們仍然——支出增加了，計數增加了。當你擁有像 Backstage 這樣的品牌來幫助他們時，他們就會轉向那些類別。當我查看中端客戶和奢侈品客戶時，超過 150,000 美元，非常健康，並且消費水平相當強勁。 .

I think the -- when you think about just kind of aggregate comment about category, what we saw about the spend levels were definitely a downshift in the casual, active and soft home categories from the trends that we saw in 2021 and definite upshift in the categories versus fourth quarter and first quarter when you look at the dress-up categories, special occasion, travel categories.

我認為 - 當您考慮關於類別的匯總評論時，我們看到的支出水平絕對是休閒、活躍和柔軟的家居類別與我們在 2021 年看到的趨勢相比有所下降，並且在當您查看裝扮類別、特殊場合、旅行類別時，類別與第四季度和第一季度相比。

I think when we look at the month of May, the month of May started out quite strong. And so we look at the kind of quarter-to-date. The performance really related to kind of 3 things. The first one was Mother's Day gifting was very strong. And it gives us some confidence as we think about our gifting strategy for the back half of the year and what we learned in Mother's Day.

我認為，當我們回顧 5 月份時，5 月份開始時表現強勁。所以我們看一下季度至今的那種。性能確實與三件事有關。第一個是母親節禮物非常強烈。當我們思考下半年的送禮策略以及我們在母親節學到的東西時，它給了我們一些信心。

The second was the kind of high octane events like 1-day sales were very strong. And so we had one of those in the month of May thus far. And good performance.

第二個是那種高強度的活動，比如 1 天的銷售非常強勁。因此，到目前為止，我們在 5 月份擁有了其中一個。並且表現不錯。

And the last one and importantly is really what we're seeing going on in the apparel areas, particularly as kind of serving our Own Your Style platform that we launched. So when you look at men's, women's and kids, those apparel businesses and the amount of linkage products we're getting. So we're selling full outfits versus just particular items, that, that is working for us.

最後一個也是重要的，是我們在服裝領域所看到的，特別是作為我們推出的 Own Your Style 平台的一種服務。因此，當您查看男裝、女裝和童裝時，這些服裝業務以及我們獲得的聯動產品數量。所以我們銷售的是全套服裝，而不是特定的商品，這對我們有用。

So our customers are responding to great brands and great values from off-price to luxury. We're a gifting and special occasion destination. And we expect that demand to continue. But as we've said, at the top, lots of uncertainty, and we're being prudent in our outlook.

因此，我們的客戶正在響應從低價到奢侈品的偉大品牌和偉大價值。我們是送禮和特殊場合的目的地。我們預計這種需求將持續下去。但正如我們所說，在頂部，有很多不確定性，我們對前景持謹慎態度。

Chuck, just to speak to gross margin. Kind of the big headline on gross margin is that we're managing gross margin pretty tightly. One of the things that we signaled in on this call is the decrease in digital penetration, which would typically imply that you'll see some favorability in gross margin. But as we think about kind of what we're working through in the second quarter, it really reflects the markdowns that we need to clear some of the excess inventory on those decelerating categories that Jeff spoke to, in addition to the rising fuel costs that we do incur as part of our delivery expense.

查克，只是談談毛利率。毛利率的大標題是我們對毛利率的管理非常嚴格。我們在這次電話會議上表示的一件事是數字滲透率的下降，這通常意味著您會看到毛利率有所改善。但是，當我們考慮到我們在第二季度正在解決的問題時，它確實反映了我們需要清除 Jeff 談到的那些減速類別的一些過剩庫存的降價，此外還有不斷上漲的燃料成本我們確實承擔了我們的交付費用的一部分。

But we spoke about in the previous earnings call some of the work that we're doing around our delivery expense initiative. And we're beginning to see some of those gains. And so we're just really balancing the benefits and the headwinds. We are seeing reduced splits or reduced packages per order. We are making good progress on placing larger fulfillment operations across (inaudible) stores before holiday, and that's progressing well.

但是我們在之前的財報電話會議中談到了我們圍繞交付費用計劃所做的一些工作。我們開始看到其中的一些收益。因此，我們只是在真正平衡利益和不利因素。我們看到每個訂單的拆分減少或包裹減少。我們在假期前在（聽不清）商店中開展更大的履行業務方面取得了良好進展，而且進展順利。

And we're also seeing that we are fulfilling more orders from stores, up about 3.5 points versus the first quarter of last year, which is a good thing in terms of the distance that packages have to travel to get to the customer. But again, this is really offset by higher fuel costs. As we progress through the balance of the year, we typically have holiday surcharges as well as the fuel costs continuing to rise is something that we've contemplated in our guidance for the balance of the year.

而且我們還看到我們正在履行更多來自商店的訂單，與去年第一季度相比增加了約 3.5 個百分點，這對於包裹到達客戶的距離而言是一件好事。但同樣，這實際上被更高的燃料成本所抵消。隨著我們在今年餘下時間的推進，我們通常會收取假期附加費，並且燃料成本會繼續上漲，這是我們在今年餘下時間的指導中所考慮的。

The next question comes from Matthew Boss from JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Matthew Boss。

Congrats on the nice print. So Jeff, maybe to elaborate on the shopping trends that you're seeing by category. How are you thinking about the duration of occasion spending for apparel? And then what's your comfort with current inventory on hand? And just how quickly can you pivot the assortments if trends shift across both apparel and hard goods as we think about maybe the back half of the year and into early '23?

恭喜印刷精美。所以傑夫，也許要詳細說明您按類別看到的購物趨勢。你如何看待服裝場合消費的持續時間？那麼，您對現有庫存感到滿意嗎？如果我們考慮到今年下半年和 23 年初的趨勢，那麼如果趨勢在服裝和硬商品上發生轉變，你能以多快的速度調整分類？

Yes. So Matt, I think we are definitely pivoting and have pivoted. So I would -- let me just characterize, give you a little more detail on what we're seeing. So the first thing is really, if we want to talk about kind of the downshift in the pandemic category, so casual, active, soft home. We had about a 20-point down shift from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, and we didn't anticipate it to be that extreme. So those categories have -- or the inventory levels have certainly built up there. And this is where all the work that we've done in our pricing, science tools is really helping us. And we -- as Adrian talked about in his comments, we've incorporated that, particularly in our second quarter margin guidance. So I think we're -- we've adjusted all of our go-forward orders. We don't think that's going to get better. Particularly when you look at our inventory levels and that of the competition's, that is building, and customers have clearly signaled a down shift there.

是的。所以，馬特，我認為我們肯定正在轉向並且已經轉向。所以我會 - 讓我只是描述一下，給你更多關於我們所看到的細節。所以第一件事真的是，如果我們想談論流行病類別中的那種下降，那麼隨意、活躍、柔軟的家。從第四季度到第一季度，我們有大約 20 個百分點的下降，我們沒想到會那麼極端。所以這些類別已經 - 或者庫存水平肯定已經建立在那裡。這就是我們在定價方面所做的所有工作，科學工具真正幫助我們的地方。而且我們 - 正如阿德里安在他的評論中所說，我們已經將其納入其中，特別是在我們的第二季度利潤率指導中。所以我認為我們 - 我們已經調整了我們所有的前進訂單。我們認為情況不會好轉。特別是當您查看我們的庫存水平和競爭對手的庫存水平時，即正在建設中，並且客戶已經清楚地表明那裡有下降的信號。

Conversely, to the other part of your question, on big acceleration and dress-up categories, and those have gone up 10 full points when you look at where the trend was in the fourth quarter, in first quarter. And that's getting even better in the second quarter. So we've been very aggressive with additional receipts. We've got very strong vendor partnerships. We're working very closely with them on all the right brands. And as Adrian -- as I mentioned, this is really where we shine.

相反，對於您問題的另一部分，關於大加速和裝扮類別，當您查看第一季度第四季度的趨勢時，這些已經上升了 10 個百分點。第二季度情況會變得更好。所以我們一直非常積極地提供額外的收據。我們有非常強大的供應商合作夥伴關係。我們正在與他們密切合作，開發所有合適的品牌。正如阿德里安——正如我所提到的，這確實是我們發光的地方。

As we think about kind of the trends that we're looking at for the back half of the year, I kind of would bucket it into like 5 things. The first one is just this, the pullback on the pandemic categories, the acceleration of the dress-up, the things I talked about. The second is really the gifting strategy. And just based on where we did -- what we did in the Mother's Day, Father's Day, what we're planning in Father's Day, the holiday. We're planning gifting off-price to luxury, great price points. We feel very good about that.

當我們考慮我們正在尋找的下半年趨勢時，我會將其分為 5 件事。第一個就是這個，流行病類別的回調，裝扮的加速，我談到的事情。第二個是真正的送禮策略。僅僅基於我們在哪裡做了——我們在母親節、父親節做了什麼，我們在父親節、假期計劃了什麼。我們正計劃以優惠的價格贈送豪華的、物美價廉的商品。我們對此感覺很好。

We're very focused on the new categories. So when you think about Toys"R"Us, you talk about Marketplace and just what we're doing with premium brands, brands like Ralph Lauren or Pandora or prestige fragrances, lots of growth initiatives coming there.

我們非常關注新類別。因此，當您想到 Toys"R"Us 時，您會談到 Marketplace 以及我們正在與高端品牌、Ralph Lauren 或 Pandora 等品牌或高級香水所做的事情，以及許多增長計劃。

The fourth thing I'd mention would just be personalization and just developing prowess there. We are in the early innings. But really following the customer with relevant communications and relevant content is a big opportunity for us that we're starting to get some traction, some green shoots there. That's just going to build in the back half of the year.

我要提到的第四件事就是個性化並在那裡發展實力。我們處於早期階段。但真正通過相關的溝通和相關內容來關注客戶對我們來說是一個很大的機會，我們開始獲得一些牽引力，那裡的一些綠芽。這將在今年下半年建立。

And then the last thing I'd talk about is the stores bounce back. And it really depends on what area of the country you're in or what type of store it is. But what I'd say is that the downtown flagships are definitely a marked improvement, not as much about international tourism, which is a piece of it, but a lot because of the return to work and the return to special occasion and then being really big destinations for that.

然後我要談論的最後一件事是商店反彈。這實際上取決於您所在國家/地區的哪個地區或它是哪種類型的商店。但我想說的是，市中心的旗艦店絕對是一個顯著的進步，與其說是國際旅遊，那是其中的一部分，但很多是因為複工和特殊場合的回歸，然後真的大目的地。

Backstage is becoming an increasingly important piece in our fleet. The 300 stores we've opened gives us a good breadth up there and then the Own Your Style initiative I talked about earlier. The other thing I talked about in terms of the back half of the year on the Bloomingdale's brand, that one is quite hot right now, and we're really banging on all cylinders. And we're super excited about the 150th anniversary of the Bloomingdale's brand and all the initiatives that the team is creating to be ready for the customer on that.

後台正在成為我們車隊中越來越重要的一部分。我們開設的 300 家商店為我們提供了廣闊的發展空間，然後是我之前談到的 Own Your Style 計劃。我在 Bloomingdale 品牌的下半年談到的另一件事，那個現在很熱，我們真的在全力以赴。我們對 Bloomingdale 品牌成立 150 週年以及團隊為為客戶做好準備而製定的所有舉措感到非常興奮。

And then also, we had a really good print on Bluemercury and just where that is going as kind of a premium beauty brand. And when you look at -- as the masks are coming off and you look at customers and their need for eye and lip and cheek needs, Bluemercury is a great destination for that. So a new leadership there and making great traction with Bluemercury brands.

然後，我們在 Bluemercury 上印出了非常好的印刷品，這正是它作為一種優質美容品牌的發展方向。當你看到 - 當面具脫落並且你看到客戶以及他們對眼睛和嘴唇和臉頰的需求時，Bluemercury 是一個很好的目的地。因此，那裡的新領導層對 Bluemercury 品牌產生了巨大的吸引力。

We will now take the next question from Bob Drbul from Guggenheim.

我們現在將回答來自古根海姆的 Bob Drbul 的下一個問題。

I guess if you could -- I think you talked about the Marketplace initiative. Is there any more information you can give us either time line or expectations or just the development in terms of where it is today? And then the second question I have is, can you just talk a little bit about big ticket items and really what you're seeing in those areas of the business?

我想如果你能——我想你談到了市場倡議。您是否可以向我們提供更多信息，無論是時間表或期望，還是僅就今天的發展情況而言？然後我的第二個問題是，你能談談大件物品以及你在這些業務領域看到的真正情況嗎？

Bob, I'll take both of those. So I think the headline here is that we're going to provide more details on the Marketplace later this year. We are very excited about this one. We're launching in third quarter, with the expectation to scale it over the second half. And we're going to be test and learn from day 1.

鮑勃，我要兩個。所以我認為這裡的標題是我們將在今年晚些時候提供有關市場的更多詳細信息。我們對此感到非常興奮。我們將在第三季度推出，預計將在下半年擴大規模。我們將從第一天開始測試和學習。

What I can tell you about it is that our initial focus is going to be in categories that we have meaningful market share opportunities, categories that we don't have developed businesses in either VDF or an owned inventory. So categories like pets, electronics, which would include portable and home, home improvement, gardening, video games, those should be categories that you would expect us to launch with. So stay tuned. I do hope to have an update -- well, we will have an update for everybody when we next speak. So that would be -- that's on Marketplace.

我可以告訴你的是，我們最初的重點是我們擁有有意義的市場份額機會的類別，我們沒有在 VDF 或自有庫存中開發業務的類別。因此，寵物、電子產品等類別（包括便攜式和家庭、家居裝修、園藝、視頻遊戲）應該是您希望我們推出的類別。所以請繼續關注。我確實希望有更新——好吧，我們下次發言時會為每個人提供更新。所以那將是 - 在 Marketplace 上。

Big ticket?

大票？

Big ticket is -- what we're seeing in there is similar to what we talked about on the last call. That the supply chain is starting to loosen up a bit. They're definitely -- when you look at the -- what's going on in the costs in those businesses, what we talked about before was you can pass some of those costs on to the consumer the bigger the item is or the more of a brand name it is. But when you were in a price point in business like a $499 couch or a $599 couch or an opening price mattress, we're very careful about what we're doing with pricing there. So we're catching up with all the demand that is now delivering from the previous orders. And we're watching the environment carefully about how the customer is voting by category, by price point. And we're making those adjustments.

大票是 - 我們在那裡看到的與我們在上次通話中談到的類似。供應鏈開始有所鬆動。它們絕對是——當你看到——這些企業的成本發生了什麼，我們之前談到的是，你可以將其中一些成本轉嫁給消費者，商品越大或越多它是品牌名稱。但是，當您處於 499 美元的沙發或 599 美元的沙發或開盤價床墊的價格點時，我們對那裡的定價非常謹慎。因此，我們正在趕上之前訂單的所有需求。我們正在仔細觀察客戶如何按類別、按價格點投票的環境。我們正在做這些調整。

The next question comes from Dana Telsey from Telsey Group.

下一個問題來自 Telsey Group 的 Dana Telsey。

Congratulations on the nice progress. Can you expand on the relaxed supply chain and what you're seeing there and how you see it moving to the balance of the year? And then just to touch on the AUR increase of 8%. How are you thinking about that for the rest of the year?

祝賀取得了不錯的進展。您能否擴展寬鬆的供應鏈以及您在那裡看到的情況以及您如何看待它進入今年的平衡？然後只是觸及 8% 的 AUR 增長。在今年餘下的時間裡，你是怎麼想的？

Dana, let me take those. So what I'd say is that what happened in supply chain, we didn't anticipate the loosening of order replenishment on this. So generally, what we were getting on each of our orders was a fallout of about 30% that we kind of built into our estimates. And that was what we were getting in the back half of '21. So -- and that fallout has become more like 20% when you look at the first quarter. So -- and that really is kind of across the board. We've been getting -- I mean there's certainly exceptions, but the vendors have been shipping better. .

達娜，讓我拿走那些。所以我想說的是，供應鏈發生的事情，我們沒有預料到訂單補貨的鬆動。所以一般來說，我們從每個訂單中得到的結果是我們在估計中內置了大約 30% 的餘量。這就是我們在 21 年下半年得到的結果。所以 - 當你看第一季度時，這種影響已經變得更像 20%。所以 - 這確實是全面的。我們得到了——我的意思是肯定有例外，但供應商的發貨情況更好。 .

That doesn't mean that the supply chain is loosening. What we're seeing is that there's definitely some headwinds coming, particularly as you start to see about the Shanghai port, that's how that's going to affect. We have like 30 tankers right now that are in the L.A. port, down from about 120. We do expect that to build as some of that freight moves from the Far East.

這並不意味著供應鏈正在鬆動。我們所看到的是，肯定會有一些不利因素，特別是當你開始看到上海港時，這將是如何影響的。我們現在在洛杉磯港口有大約 30 艘油輪，低於大約 120 艘。我們確實希望隨著其中一些貨物從遠東轉移而建造。

And so the way we're approaching it, we've got to protect back-to-school. We've got to protect the fourth quarter. So we're going to ensure that. Some of the lead times that we did during the pandemic and certainly during '21 were actually we're moving that -- those kind of those same lead times in terms of our orders. So it might be lumpy how we receive goods in the second and the third quarter. It's all built into kind of our forecast that we shared with you earlier. But we will be ready for the customer based on what we anticipate to be issues.

因此，按照我們處理它的方式，我們必須保護返校。我們必須保護第四節。所以我們要確保這一點。我們在大流行期間，當然在 21 年期間所做的一些交貨時間實際上是我們正在改變的——就我們的訂單而言，那些相同的交貨時間。因此，我們在第二季度和第三季度的收貨方式可能會很不穩定。這一切都包含在我們之前與您分享的預測中。但我們將根據我們預期的問題為客戶做好準備。

When you think about kind of the domestic supply chain, I think we're in pretty good shape. Obviously, when you look at our science in terms of forecasting receipts and the allocation of those receipts, we're in much better shape than we've been in the past. We've got a great focus when I look at UPS and what we're going to be doing for the last mile, so I feel good about that.

當您考慮國內供應鏈時，我認為我們的狀況非常好。顯然，當您從預測收據和這些收據的分配方面來看待我們的科學時，我們的狀況比過去要好得多。當我查看 UPS 以及我們將在最後一英里做些什麼時，我們非常關注，所以我對此感覺很好。

When you look at AUR and your question about, as you saw our posts, that we were up 8% in the first quarter. You heard us when we talked about AUR and our expectation for the year on the previous call. We thought it would be in the 5% range. I'm still thinking about -- yes, I'm still forecasting about that amount. We do think that we're going to continue to see great AUR improvement, particularly in those trending categories. So the dress up, special occasion, the travel categories, those are going to continue to go up. But I do expect them to be more constrained and more flattish in those categories, those pandemic categories, where we have built up in inventories, and importantly, our competitors have built up in inventories.

當您查看 AUR 和您的問題時，正如您看到我們的帖子一樣，我們在第一季度增長了 8%。當我們在上次電話會議上談論 AUR 和我們對這一年的期望時，您聽到了我們的聲音。我們認為它會在 5% 的範圍內。我還在考慮——是的，我還在預測這個數字。我們確實認為我們將繼續看到 AUR 的巨大改進，特別是在那些趨勢類別中。所以裝扮、特殊場合、旅遊類別，這些都將繼續上升。但我確實希望它們在那些類別中受到更多限制和更平坦，那些流行病類別，我們已經建立了庫存，重要的是，我們的競爭對手已經建立了庫存。

So I think that supply is out of whack with the demand. And we're using all of our pricing science to deal with it. Our gross margin expectations are all incorporating where we expect that to go. And I think when you look at the blend of all of that, you're looking at a mid-single-digit improvement for the year.

所以我認為供應與需求不符。我們正在使用我們所有的定價科學來處理它。我們的毛利率預期都包含了我們預期的結果。而且我認為，當您查看所有這些的混合時，您會看到今年的中位數改善。

The next question comes from Omar Saad from Evercore.

下一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Omar Saad。

I wanted to follow-up on a couple of things. In terms of the pandemic categories versus the post-pandemic categories, maybe you -- could you dive in a little bit deeper on active, casual, home? Which -- are there segments within these categories that are holding up better and others that are pulling back -- you're seeing the spend pull back faster? Or is it just very broad across all things, athletic, casual and home?

我想跟進幾件事。就大流行類別與大流行後類別而言，也許你——你能更深入地了解一下活躍、休閒、家庭嗎？哪些 - 這些類別中的細分市場表現更好，而其他細分市場正在回落 - 您看到支出回落得更快？或者它只是在所有方面都非常廣泛，運動、休閒和家庭？

And also, any other signs of some price sensitivity? You mentioned opening price point mattresses and couches. Any other areas of your business where you're seeing the customer balk at higher prices?

還有，還有其他價格敏感的跡象嗎？你提到了開價點床墊和沙發。您看到客戶對更高價格猶豫不決的任何其他業務領域？

Yes. So Omar, on the -- your questions are related. It's really kind of the same answer. In the casual active and soft home categories, we're definitely seeing some balk at some of the prices. And we're going to -- we've made adjustments there. I would expect us to continue with those adjustments. With our pricing science, we have the opportunity to do that at a store level. And that obviously gives us more margin versus what it would be if we didn't have that tool. But I do expect those are going to be the ones that are most under duress.

是的。所以奧馬爾，關於 - 你的問題是相關的。這真的是一樣的答案。在休閒活躍和柔軟的家居類別中，我們肯定會看到一些價格有些猶豫。我們將——我們已經在那裡進行了調整。我希望我們繼續進行這些調整。憑藉我們的定價科學，我們有機會在商店層面做到這一點。與沒有該工具的情況相比，這顯然給了我們更多的利潤。但我確實希望那些將成為最受脅迫的人。

I think that when I look at the opportunities in the other categories, and let me give you some more color on that. When you look at soft home, the ones that are most affected would be categories like textiles, top of the table, housewares, typically where we would have a soft category, like luggage is off the hook. That really goes into our travel trend. So we are very, very high double-digit increases there. But those categories which we had really good run for the last 2 years, textile, top of table housewares, they're most affected, so we're pulling down our expectations there. We are looking at realistic AURs. We're going to be -- we're going to play where it's really important for the customer, and those categories are important. We'll be there with great values. But they are going to be less than the penetration of our business than what they were in '20 and '21.

我認為當我看到其他類別的機會時，讓我再給你一些顏色。當您查看柔軟的家居時，受影響最大的將是紡織品、桌面、家居用品等類別，通常我們會有柔軟的類別，例如行李箱已脫手。這確實符合我們的旅行趨勢。所以我們在那裡有非常非常高的兩位數增長。但我們在過去 2 年中表現非常出色的那些類別，紡織品，餐桌上的家庭用品，它們受到的影響最大，所以我們降低了我們的期望。我們正在研究現實的 AUR。我們將成為 - 我們將在對客戶真正重要的地方進行比賽，而這些類別很重要。我們將帶著巨大的價值在那裡。但它們的滲透率將低於我們在 20 和 21 年的滲透率。

So that's -- when I look at -- so that was how I'd look at it. When you look at the trending categories, we're getting AUR improvement across all of our value bands. So we have over 50 categories. There's a different story for each of them. Some brands carry real premium, and you were getting massive increases in AUR there. I look at Ralph Lauren where we're enjoying big AUR increases, but that's more of a premier brand. They've reduced their distribution. We've really ramped up our efforts to make sure that we're giving a fulsome lifestyle presentation of that content, both online and our stores. We're building. When I look at our fragrance business, you're seeing more of our business go into like jumbos and building. The higher AUR gift baskets building value into things that we can uniquely create that drive higher AURs that might be different from our competitors. So each FOB has a different story.

所以——當我看的時候——我就是這麼看的。當您查看趨勢類別時，我們在所有價值範圍內都獲得了 AUR 改進。所以我們有50多個類別。他們每個人都有不同的故事。一些品牌帶來了真正的溢價，而那裡的 AUR 大幅增加。我看看 Ralph Lauren，我們正在享受 AUR 的大幅增長，但這更像是一個頂級品牌。他們減少了分佈。我們確實加大了努力，以確保我們在在線和我們的商店中提供該內容的豐富生活方式展示。我們正在建設。當我查看我們的香水業務時，您會看到我們更多的業務進入了大型和建築領域。更高的 AUR 禮品籃為我們可以獨特創造的東西創造價值，從而推動更高的 AUR，這可能與我們的競爭對手不同。所以每個 FOB 都有不同的故事。

We will take the next question from Jay Sole from UBS.

我們將回答來自瑞銀的 Jay Sole 的下一個問題。

Jeff, obviously, it was a strong quarter. And you're raising guidance in an environment where some of your off-price competition is doing the opposite. Weaker quarters, lowering guidance for the year. Do you think this difference is really just about the income demographics and maybe some of your off-price competitors are serving and maybe a little bit better execution on your part than their part of the quarter? Or taking a step back, do you see the company really closing the gap in terms of your competitive position versus those retailers where you feel like that your ability to take share back from them is improving or at least maintain shares improving?

傑夫，顯然，這是一個強勁的季度。而且，在您的一些低價競爭反其道而行之的環境中，您正在提高指導。季度疲軟，降低了今年的指導。您是否認為這種差異真的只是關於收入人口統計數據，也許您的一些低價競爭對手正在服務，並且您的執行可能比他們本季度的部分更好？或者退後一步，您是否認為該公司在您的競爭地位方面與那些您認為您從他們那里奪回份額的能力正在提高或至少保持份額提高的零售商之間確實縮小了差距？

Yes, Jay. I think it's -- I do think the Polaris strategy is working, which incorporates all the kind of the contours of your question. I do think that as a department store and having 50 categories that we can really shift where the customer goes, and you got some of our competitors that may not have had great posts, that may be more -- their business may be more focused and their penetrations may be higher in those categories where the customer is not signaling as much interest, it gives us the opportunity to really shift it into those categories that are.

是的，傑。我認為是——我確實認為 Polaris 策略正在發揮作用，它包含了您問題的所有類型。我確實認為，作為一家擁有 50 個類別的百貨公司，我們可以真正改變客戶的去向，而我們的一些競爭對手可能沒有很好的帖子，這可能更多——他們的業務可能更加專注和他們的滲透率可能在客戶沒有表現出太大興趣的那些類別中更高，這讓我們有機會真正將其轉移到那些有興趣的類別中。

And I do think that when you look at the affluent customer, we're not seeing a slowdown there. And so that touches some of the Macy's businesses. But it's a real testament to the strategies that are working right now at Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury. And when I look at that middle income customer, again, count up, spend up. And we've got a real breadth of offering to be able to ensure that they stay with us.

而且我確實認為，當您查看富裕的客戶時，我們並沒有看到那裡的放緩。這涉及到梅西百貨的一些業務。但這確實證明了 Bloomingdale's 和 Bluemercury 目前正在實施的策略。當我再次看到那個中等收入的客戶時，數數，消費。而且我們提供了真正廣泛的產品，能夠確保他們留在我們身邊。

So I would tell you that the strategy -- the Polaris strategy is working. It definitely helped us with the headwinds increasing from the fourth quarter into the first quarter. And I think we're having a good quarter right now and obviously have a lot of confidence as I look at the back half of the year based on the muscle that we've developed through kind of the pandemic transformation that we went through. So I think Polaris is working. I couldn't be prouder of the team and how they're responding. Always following the customer, with a lot of tools to be able to do so.

所以我會告訴你這個策略——北極星策略是有效的。從第四季度到第一季度，這無疑幫助我們克服了逆風。而且我認為我們現在有一個很好的季度，並且顯然有很大的信心，因為我根據我們經歷的那種大流行轉變所發展的肌肉來看待今年的後半段。所以我認為北極星正在發揮作用。我為團隊以及他們的反應感到無比自豪。始終跟隨客戶，有很多工具可以做到這一點。

The next question comes from William Reuter from Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 William Reuter。

I just have one. In terms of the share repurchases in the quarter which accelerated, can you talk about, given the large authorization that still remains, how you're thinking about that? And if you currently have a leverage target.

我只有一個。關於本季度加速的股票回購，您能否談談，鑑於仍然存在大量授權，您對此有何看法？如果您目前有一個槓桿目標。

Terrific. So thanks very much for your question. As we think about share repurchases, in this dynamic environment, we're very much focused on flexibility. Flexibility is really our key priority. And that flexibility at this point in time is defining our ability to lean into those consumer demand trends that Jeff spoke about earlier, while at the same time, making sure that we maintain our commitment to a disciplined and healthy balance sheet as well as continued investments in the Polaris transformation, which Jeff spoke about that's really working for us.

了不起。所以非常感謝你的問題。當我們考慮股票回購時，在這個動態的環境中，我們非常關注靈活性。靈活性確實是我們的首要任務。在這個時間點上，這種靈活性決定了我們了解 Jeff 之前談到的消費者需求趨勢的能力，同時確保我們保持對有紀律和健康的資產負債表以及持續投資的承諾在北極星轉型中，傑夫談到這對我們確實有效。

The third commitment we've made is to return capital to shareholders. And as you pointed out, we did receive the $2 billion of authorization earlier this year. But it's been open-ended, which gives us the ability to be flexible in how we allocate our cash. And so we're just going to be very balanced in this pretty dynamic environment and continue to make sure that we are returning value to shareholders, but at the same time, making sure that we're making investments in the growth of the business.

我們做出的第三個承諾是向股東返還資本。正如你所指出的，我們確實在今年早些時候獲得了 20 億美元的授權。但它是開放式的，這使我們能夠靈活地分配現金。因此，我們將在這個充滿活力的環境中保持非常平衡，並繼續確保我們向股東回報價值，但同時確保我們對業務增長進行投資。

As we think about our leverage ratio, we really entered the year with a lot of strength. Our leverage ratio target last year was 2.5x or below. We ended the year at 1.8x. And we continued to pay down debt in the first quarter. We paid down an additional $300 million of debt. So very disciplined as it comes to the leverage ratio, very disciplined on the balance sheet. And we'll continue to be very thoughtful about how we allocate our capital.

當我們考慮我們的槓桿率時，我們確實以很大的實力進入了這一年。我們去年的槓桿率目標是 2.5 倍或更低。我們以 1.8 倍結束了這一年。我們在第一季度繼續償還債務。我們額外償還了 3 億美元的債務。在槓桿率方面非常自律，在資產負債表上非常自律。我們將繼續非常考慮我們如何分配我們的資本。

The next question comes from Stephanie Wissink from Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Stephanie Wissink。

It's Blake on for Steph. You've given a lot of good details so far. We just were curious on Macy's Media Network and how that's performing versus your expectations and maybe how the conversations are going in this environment of increased uncertainty. It sounds like their growth is still pretty strong, but curious if there's any change in the conversation tone. And then maybe also, you talked about the category shifts. Wondering if that's maybe playing more into your strength in the conversations.

這是斯蒂芬的布萊克。到目前為止，你已經提供了很多很好的細節。我們只是對梅西百貨的媒體網絡感到好奇，它的表現與您的期望相比如何，以及在這種不確定性增加的環境中對話的進展情況。聽起來他們的成長仍然很強勁，但很好奇談話的語氣是否有任何變化。然後也許你也談到了品類的轉變。想知道這是否可能在對話中發揮更大的作用。

So Macy's Media Network, it continues to grow, and it's above expectations. So continuous growth in the number of advertisers, and frankly, the volume of the campaigns that we're doing. So as you heard in our post, the first quarter net revenue was $26 million. That was nearly double the previous year. A little more color, across Macy's and Bloomingdale's, we had more than 320 vendors that have participated in the program to date, with just lots of pent-up interest for this. We do expect that the vendor and the campaign count is going to continue to grow as the company -- as Macy's and Bloomingdale's, as we expand our vendor base, and as well as with the upcoming launch of the Macy's Marketplace, which is going to be in the third quarter. So we're quite bullish on this.

所以梅西百貨的媒體網絡，它繼續增長，而且超出預期。因此，廣告客戶的數量不斷增長，坦率地說，我們正在開展的活動的數量也在不斷增長。正如您在我們的帖子中所聽到的，第一季度的淨收入為 2600 萬美元。這幾乎是前一年的兩倍。在梅西百貨和布魯明代爾百貨，我們有超過 320 家供應商參與了該計劃，對此我們有很多被壓抑的興趣。我們確實預計供應商和活動數量將隨著公司的增長——作為梅西百貨和布魯明代爾百貨，隨著我們擴大供應商基礎，以及即將推出的梅西百貨市場，將繼續增長。在第三季度。所以我們非常看好這一點。

As it relates to category shifts, yes, I do think that when you have categories that are trending where Macy's shine, that is certainly helping us. And when you think about there's big benefits of us having the omnichannel engine that we have, so if you have a customer that's shifting more to stores, we've got a great store base for them. They're still starting most of their journey online. They're doing lots of research, lots of price checking, looking at what influencers are saying. They may be looking online, but then purchasing in-store. So the channel shift that we talked about are going from 37% and then down to 35% in where we're now expecting it is still on a very healthy digital business.

因為它與類別轉變有關，是的，我確實認為，當您擁有梅西百貨大放異彩的趨勢類別時，這肯定對我們有所幫助。當你想到我們擁有我們擁有的全渠道引擎有很大的好處時，所以如果你有一個客戶更多地轉向商店，我們就有了一個很好的商店基礎。他們的大部分旅程仍在網上開始。他們正在做大量的研究，大量的價格檢查，看看有影響力的人在說什麼。他們可能在網上尋找，然後在店內購買。因此，我們談到的渠道轉變將從 37% 下降到 35%，我們現在預計它仍然是一個非常健康的數字業務。

But the categories themselves, as I mentioned in the answer to 2 other questions, I think, is part of our success. And also having -- when we're dealing with those that are down trending of having all of the analytics and the pricing engines to basically respond accordingly. So we have -- I think we've responded quite well with that. And that's going to maintain exactly where we need to be in our margins and ensuring that we have all the receipts and the firepower to put against that which is trending. So we follow the customers, and we've got a very flexible model to do so.

但是，正如我在其他兩個問題的答案中提到的那樣，我認為類別本身是我們成功的一部分。還有——當我們處理那些有所有分析和定價引擎基本上做出相應響應的趨勢時。所以我們有 - 我認為我們對此做出了很好的回應。這將準確地保持我們需要的利潤，並確保我們擁有所有的收入和火力來對抗趨勢。所以我們跟隨客戶，我們有一個非常靈活的模式來做到這一點。

We will take the next question from Oliver Chen from Cowen.

我們將接受 Cowen 的 Oliver Chen 的下一個問題。

Jeff and Adrian, in your remarks, you mentioned intensification of uncertainty. Just would love for you to elaborate on those factors that you're paying attention to from the consumer and what indications may be leading. And then as you think about promotions, it sounds like you're prepared for promotions. How will you execute those in a customer right manner just to preserve brand equity and your relationships with customers to ensure that you're executing them against the competitive environment, yet balancing what's right for the business?

Jeff 和 Adrian，在你的發言中，你提到了不確定性的加劇。只是希望您詳細說明您正在關註消費者的那些因素以及可能導致哪些跡象。然後當您考慮促銷時，聽起來您已經為促銷做好了準備。您將如何以客戶正確的方式執行這些操作，以維護品牌資產和您與客戶的關係，以確保您在競爭環境中執行這些操作，同時平衡適合業務的方法？

Oliver, so your first question about kind of economic indicators. We have a little chart that's like, hey, what are the tailwinds? What's neutral? What are the headwinds? And obviously, when you look at the tailwinds, the label market, tourism is a -- we're starting to see good seeds of that. And as we have talked about, 3% to 4% of Macy's, Inc. business historically has been in international tourism. That's starting to come back, which is good news. .

奧利弗，你的第一個問題是關於經濟指標的種類。我們有一個小圖表，就像，嘿，什麼是順風？什麼是中性？有哪些不利因素？顯然，當你看到順風，標籤市場，旅遊業是 - 我們開始看到它的好種子。正如我們所談到的，梅西百貨公司 3% 到 4% 的業務歷來從事國際旅遊業。這開始回來了，這是個好消息。 .

This return to office has been quite interesting. And when you look at a lot of companies now, based on their kind of hybrid work environments, there are wardrobes that need to be refreshed. We're clearly seeing that. If you look at the blazer, if you look at the dress, if you look at all the dress-up categories as well as accessories that go with them, that is a great tailwind. What's neutral is when you think about the personal disposable income and what the savings rate looked like a year ago and what it is now, it's still good, but it's not as good as it was a year ago. So I call that a neutral.

這次重返辦公室非常有趣。當你看到現在很多公司時，根據他們混合的工作環境，有些衣櫃需要更新。我們清楚地看到了這一點。如果你看看西裝外套，如果你看看裙子，如果你看看所有的裝扮類別以及與之配套的配飾，那是一個很好的順風。中性的是，當您考慮個人可支配收入以及一年前的儲蓄率以及現在的情況時，它仍然不錯，但不如一年前。所以我稱之為中立。

Consumer credit is still good. They're open to spend, it's still good. But we're watching consumer sentiment very carefully to see how they want to spend it. And then promotions, I would say, neutral because we're not adding promotions. We're just being more surgical on the ones that we do. When I look at the headwinds, clearly, inflation. When you look at what's going on with housing or gas prices, what might go on with the interest rates, geopolitical, those are all things that we're watching carefully. But again, all factored into our estimates.

消費信貸還是不錯的。他們開放消費，它仍然很好。但我們正在非常仔細地觀察消費者的情緒，看看他們想如何消費。然後促銷，我會說，中立的，因為我們沒有添加促銷。我們只是對我們所做的事情進行了更多的手術。當我看到逆風時，很明顯，通貨膨脹。當您查看房價或汽油價格的走勢時，利率、地緣政治可能會發生什麼，這些都是我們正在仔細觀察的事情。但同樣，所有這些都計入了我們的估計。

To your question about how are we going to talk about these great values, the team is -- it's a different story depending on FOB. But I would tell you is that a clear price point always works well for us. And when you start to think about those categories that are down trending, those casual categories and active categories, those lend themselves well. They're generally key items. There's good depth behind them. They have good fixture fill, having a price point that's really clear to the customer that they understand that's not too complicated is the way we're going to approach it. So we want to make sure that with all of our online scrapes, we know where our competitors are going to be on an hourly basis. We're making adjustments. We will get through that inventory. And we've made adjustments on future inventory in response to that.

對於您關於我們將如何談論這些偉大價值觀的問題，團隊是 - 根據 FOB，這是一個不同的故事。但我要告訴你的是，明確的價格點對我們總是很有效。當你開始考慮那些趨勢下降的品類、休閒品類和活躍品類時，它們會很適合自己。它們通常是關鍵項目。他們背後有很好的深度。他們有很好的夾具填充，價格點對客戶來說非常清楚，他們明白這不是太複雜是我們將要處理的方式。因此，我們希望確保通過我們所有的在線抓取，我們每小時都知道我們的競爭對手將在哪裡。我們正在做出調整。我們將通過該庫存。為此，我們對未來的庫存進行了調整。

As there are no further questions, I would like to hand the call back over to your host for any additional or closing remarks.

由於沒有其他問題，我想將電話轉回給您的主持人，以獲取任何補充或結束語。

Thanks, everybody. Appreciate the listening, and everybody, have a great day.

謝謝大家。欣賞聆聽，每個人都有美好的一天。

Thank you. That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.

謝謝你。這將結束今天的電話會議。感謝您的參與。女士們，先生們，你們現在可以斷開連接了。