Williams-Sonoma Inc (WSM) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Williams-Sonoma Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

歡迎來到 Williams-Sonoma 2022 年第三季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Jeremy Brooks, Chief Accounting Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在想把電話轉給首席會計官兼投資者關係主管傑里米布魯克斯。請繼續。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call. I'd like to remind you that during the call, we will make forward-looking statements with respect to future events and financial performance, including guidance for fiscal '22.

下午好，感謝您參加我們的第三季度財報電話會議。我想提醒您，在電話會議期間，我們將就未來事件和財務業績做出前瞻性陳述，包括對 22 財年的指導。

We believe these statements reflect our best estimates. However, we cannot make any assurances that these statements will materialize, and actual results may differ significantly from our expectations. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after today's call.

我們相信這些陳述反映了我們的最佳估計。然而，我們無法保證這些陳述會成為現實，實際結果可能與我們的預期大不相同。公司沒有義務公開更新或修改任何這些聲明以反映今天電話會議後可能出現的事件或情況。

Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures should not be considered replacements for and should be read together with our GAAP results. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure appears on exhibit one to the press release we issued earlier today. The call should also be considered in conjunction with our filings with the SEC.

此外，我們將參考某些非 GAAP 財務指標。這些措施不應被視為替代，應與我們的 GAAP 結果一起閱讀。非 GAAP 指標與最直接可比的 GAAP 指標的對賬顯示在我們今天早些時候發布的新聞稿的附件一中。該電話會議還應與我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件一起考慮。

Finally, a replay will be available on our Investor Relations website.

最後，重播將在我們的投資者關係網站上提供。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Laura Alber, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

現在我想把電話轉給我們的總裁兼首席執行官勞拉·阿爾伯。

Thank you, Jeremy, and good afternoon, everyone. We are proud of another strong quarter, generating an 8.1% comp or 25% on a 2-year basis and 50% comp growth on a 3-year basis, with record EPS growth of 12% over last year to $3.72 per share. These results reflect the continuation of backlog order fulfillment, strong product margins and disciplined cost control.

謝謝你，傑里米，大家下午好。我們為另一個強勁的季度感到自豪，在 2 年的基礎上產生 8.1% 的補償或 25%，在 3 年的基礎上產生 50% 的補償增長，每股收益比去年增長 12%，達到創紀錄的每股 3.72 美元。這些結果反映了積壓訂單的持續履行、強勁的產品利潤和嚴格的成本控制。

Demand comps for the quarter were slightly negative. This continued outperformance reflects the unique strength of our multi-brand portfolio, our growth initiatives and ongoing execution of our talented team. Since we last spoke, the macro backdrop has become more uncertain. However, what has not changed is the large and fragmented space in which we operate, where no one player owns significant market share.

本季度的需求比較略有負數。這種持續的優異表現反映了我們多品牌組合的獨特優勢、我們的增長計劃以及我們才華橫溢的團隊的持續執行力。自從我們上次講話以來，宏觀背景變得更加不確定。然而，沒有改變的是我們經營的廣闊而分散的空間，沒有一個參與者擁有重要的市場份額。

We believe we have an ability to capture more of this market in any environment. We have and will continue to deliver results, leveraging our key differentiators, our in-house design, our digital first but not digital-only capabilities and our value. These competitive advantages in combination with our growth strategies give us many opportunities for the future. As we talked about before, one of our largest is B2B, which had another excellent quarter, driving over $30 million in demand, a 17% increase to last year.

我們相信我們有能力在任何環境下佔領更多的市場。我們已經並將繼續交付成果，利用我們的關鍵差異化因素、我們的內部設計、我們的數字優先但不僅僅是數字的能力和我們的價值。這些競爭優勢與我們的增長戰略相結合，為我們的未來提供了許多機會。正如我們之前談到的，我們最大的業務之一是 B2B，它有另一個出色的季度，推動了超過 3000 萬美元的需求，比去年增長了 17%。

We continue to believe our B2B business presents a sizable growth driver for us as it disrupts an underserved estimated $80 billion total addressable market. B2B is building velocity with large and repeat projects from commercial and hospitality partners like Marriott and Hilton. We are also focused on diversifying into new industry verticals, including the healthcare space through multiproperty partnerships with national accounts. In September, we successfully launched our improved corporate gifting and custom merchandise services, and we are encouraged by the early success leading into the holiday season.

我們仍然相信我們的 B2B 業務為我們提供了一個相當大的增長動力，因為它擾亂了一個服務不足的估計總價值 800 億美元的潛在市場。 B2B 正在通過萬豪和希爾頓等商業和酒店合作夥伴的大型重複項目加快速度。我們還專注於通過與國民賬戶的多財產合作夥伴關係，多元化進入新的垂直行業，包括醫療保健領域。 9 月，我們成功推出了改進後的企業禮品和定製商品服務，我們為節日季的早期成功感到鼓舞。

A key B2B customer of ours for over 3 years now in Starbucks. We are thrilled to publicly announce that our team was able to assist Starbucks with the build-out of the gorgeous 3-story flagship reserve store in the Empire State Building. In addition to incorporating furniture from Brooklyn-based West Elm, our B2B team had the opportunity to work with Starbucks to create custom furniture solutions to meet their unique needs. We look forward to growing our existing relationship with Starbucks.

我們 3 年多的主要 B2B 客戶現在在星巴克。我們很高興地公開宣布，我們的團隊能夠協助星巴克在帝國大廈建造華麗的 3 層旗艦儲備店。除了採用布魯克林 West Elm 的家具外，我們的 B2B 團隊還有機會與星巴克合作，打造定製家具解決方案以滿足他們的獨特需求。我們期待著發展與星巴克的現有關係。

And now I'd like to talk about our global business where we continue to expand in key markets and grow our multichannel presence. In Q3, we saw strength in both franchise and company-owned. In the franchise business, we believe that one of our biggest opportunities is in India. And after launching our website earlier this year, we opened our first Pottery Barn store in New Delhi, joining our West Elm stores in New Delhi and Mumbai. We plan to continue to focus on in India and in early 2023, will be adding stores across our brands and continuing to improve our online experience with our great partner, the Reliance Group. In our company-owned business, I want to highlight Canada where we successfully relaunched our website this year across all the brands, driving order fulfillment and improved omni experience. Another important initiative is sustainability for which we continue to be recognized for our impact initiatives and ESG leadership across the home furnishing industry. In Q3, we were named a top score on sustainable furnishings counsel wood furniture scorecard for the fifth consecutive year, and West Elm received the Ford Stewardship Council Leadership Award for its use of FSC certified wood.

現在我想談談我們的全球業務，我們將繼續在關鍵市場擴張並擴大我們的多渠道業務。在第三季度，我們看到了特許經營和公司所有的實力。在特許經營業務中，我們認為我們最大的機會之一是在印度。在今年早些時候推出我們的網站後，我們在新德里開設了第一家 Pottery Barn 商店，加入我們在新德里和孟買的 West Elm 商店。我們計劃繼續專注於印度，並在 2023 年初在我們的品牌中增加商店，並繼續與我們的偉大合作夥伴 Reliance Group 一起改善我們的在線體驗。在我們公司擁有的業務中，我想強調一下加拿大，我們今年在加拿大成功地重新啟動了所有品牌的網站，推動了訂單履行並改善了全方位體驗。另一項重要舉措是可持續發展，為此我們在家居行業的影響力舉措和 ESG 領導地位繼續受到認可。在第 3 季度，我們連續第五年在可持續家具顧問木材家具計分卡中獲得最高分，West Elm 因使用 FSC 認證木材而獲得福特管理委員會領導獎。

We recognize there is much more work to do in this space, and we are committed to continuing to be a leader in planet, people and purpose. One of our sustainability initiatives is our goal to plant 6 million trees across our family of brands in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. We are excited to report that we have planted over 2 million trees to date.

我們認識到在這個領域還有很多工作要做，我們致力於繼續成為地球、人類和目標方面的領導者。我們的可持續發展計劃之一是與植樹節基金會合作，在我們的品牌系列中種植 600 萬棵樹。我們很高興地報告說，迄今為止我們已經種植了超過 200 萬棵樹。

Now let's turn to the performance of our brands. Pottery Barn delivered yet another very strong quarter with a 19.6% comp or 35.5% on a 2-year stack and almost 60% on a 3-year stack. Pottery Barn continues to perform, offering exclusive high-quality inspirational products and strategic growth areas like apartment, marketplace and bath reno are driving results.

現在讓我們談談我們品牌的表現。 Pottery Barn 又交付了一個非常強勁的季度，2 年堆棧的補償率為 19.6% 或 35.5%，3 年堆棧的補償率為近 60%。 Pottery Barn 繼續表現出色，提供獨特的高品質勵志產品，而公寓、市場和浴室里諾等戰略增長領域正在推動成果。

We're particularly proud of our accessible home collection, which launched in late July and has quickly scaled. West Elm delivered a 4.2% comp in the third quarter or 26.6% on a 2-year stack and 48.4% on a 3-year basis. During the quarter, we improved our in-stock inventory position, and we expect to continue to make improvements in our service levels into Q4 and next year. We are also very focused on improving our e-commerce experience and customer-facing conversion-driving initiatives.

我們對我們的無障礙家居系列感到特別自豪，該系列於 7 月下旬推出並迅速擴大規模。 West Elm 在第三季度交付了 4.2% 的補償，即 2 年堆棧的 26.6% 和 3 年的 48.4%。在本季度，我們改善了庫存狀況，我們希望在第四季度和明年繼續提高我們的服務水平。我們還非常專注於改善我們的電子商務體驗和麵向客戶的轉化驅動計劃。

I've had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with West Elm this quarter, and I am very impressed with the talented and passionate team running the brand. Our greatest opportunity at West Elm is doubling down on what has made this brand great, our commitment to design innovation and value price points.

本季度我有機會在 West Elm 度過了很多時光，我對運營該品牌的才華橫溢且充滿激情的團隊印象深刻。我們在 West Elm 最大的機會是加倍努力使這個品牌變得偉大，我們對設計創新和價值價格點的承諾。

Now I'd like to update you on the Pottery Barn children's home furnishings business, which ran a negative 4.8% comp in Q3 but a positive 12.1% on a 2-year basis and a positive 35.9% on a 3-year basis. We continue to see ongoing recovery in our in-stocks. And looking to the future, we have a strong pipeline of products at compelling values. The Williams-Sonoma brand ran a negative 1.5% comp in Q3, but a positive 6.1% on a 2-year and a positive 36.5% on a 3-year basis.

現在，我想向您介紹 Pottery Barn 兒童家居裝飾業務的最新情況，該業務在第三季度的複合增長率為負 4.8%，但在 2 年基礎上為正 12.1%，在 3 年基礎上為正 35.9%。我們繼續看到我們的庫存持續復甦。展望未來，我們擁有強大的產品線，具有令人信服的價值。 Williams-Sonoma 品牌在第三季度的複合增長率為負 1.5%，但兩年期增長率為 6.1%，三年期增長率為 36.5%。

We continue to see that people are hosting and entertaining at home. And as such, we saw strength in entertaining areas. In Q3, we successfully kicked off the holiday season with our exclusive collaboration with celebrity chefs and author, Ina Garten. As part of this collaboration, Ina shared Thanksgiving tips for cooking and hosting the ultimate Thanksgiving dinner party. We also announced the exciting launch of a collaboration with renowned British heritage textile brand, William Morrison Company. Williams-Sonoma Home delivered another double-digit comp in Q3. We continue to see this business as an opportunity to deliver outsized growth by picking up market share from the limited luxury high-end home market. We're excited to launch an expanded furnishing line for the kitchen in Q4. As we look to the holiday season, we are prepared to meet the needs of our gift giving customers with compelling product offerings.

我們繼續看到人們在家裡接待和娛樂。因此，我們看到了娛樂領域的實力。在第三季度，我們與名廚兼作家伊娜·加滕 (Ina Garten) 的獨家合作成功拉開了假日季的序幕。作為這次合作的一部分，Ina 分享了烹飪和舉辦終極感恩節晚宴的感恩節技巧。我們還宣布與著名的英國傳統紡織品牌 William Morrison Company 展開激動人心的合作。 Williams-Sonoma Home 在第三季度又交付了兩位數的收入。我們繼續將這項業務視為通過從有限的豪華高端住宅市場奪取市場份額來實現超額增長的機會。我們很高興在第四季度推出擴展的廚房家具系列。展望假期，我們已準備好通過極具吸引力的產品滿足送禮客戶的需求。

Our stores are a competitive advantage, and they are stocked and our associates are ready to serve our customers. And finally, our emerging brands, including Rejuv and Mark and Graham, together, they ran a 7.8% comp this quarter. At Rejuvenation, we saw success in remodel categories related to kitchen and bathroom, including vanities, cabinet hardware and wall widening. And at Mark and Graham, wins were from the travel category, including luggage and travel accessories. We are proud of our third quarter results. but we are also aware that economic uncertainty is on the minds of consumers and investors alike.

我們的商店是一個競爭優勢，它們庫存充足，我們的員工隨時準備為我們的客戶服務。最後，我們的新興品牌，包括 Rejuv 和 Mark and Graham，本季度的總收入為 7.8%。在 Rejuvenation，我們看到了與廚房和浴室相關的改造類別的成功，包括梳妝台、櫥櫃五金和牆面加寬。在 Mark and Graham，勝利來自旅行類別，包括行李箱和旅行配件。我們為第三季度的業績感到自豪。但我們也意識到，消費者和投資者都在考慮經濟的不確定性。

During the third quarter, we experienced deceleration and choppiness in our demand, and it is hard to know where the economy is going or how long the uncertainty will last. Nonetheless, we are controlling what we can control and looking at opportunities to reduce costs without an impact to the customer experience. In fact, we believe that protecting service and innovation is key to outperforming our peers.

在第三季度，我們經歷了需求減速和波動，很難知道經濟將走向何方或不確定性將持續多久。儘管如此，我們正在控制我們能控制的東西，並尋找機會在不影響客戶體驗的情況下降低成本。事實上，我們認為保護服務和創新是超越同行的關鍵。

As it relates to pricing, we continue to be committed to not running site-wide promotions as we did before the pandemic, but we will continue to mark down and clear overstocks. We are working with our vendors to reduce costs and pass on that value strategically to our customers. As for additional expenses, out of market and redundant shipping expenses and transportation costs have negatively impacted our gross margin. We continue to focus on these pressures and mitigation of these costs will be a significant benefit for us in the future, particularly in the second half of next year.

由於涉及定價，我們將繼續承諾不會像大流行之前那樣進行全站促銷，但我們將繼續降價並清理積壓庫存。我們正在與我們的供應商合作以降低成本，並將該價值戰略性地傳遞給我們的客戶。至於額外費用，市場外和多餘的運輸費用以及運輸成本對我們的毛利率產生了負面影響。我們繼續關注這些壓力，減輕這些成本將在未來為我們帶來重大好處，尤其是在明年下半年。

In summary, we are conscious that the home furnishings market may contract due to macro factors. If this happens, we believe we are uniquely positioned to take market share even if there is a downturn, and here's why. We built a company of loved brands with a shared platform of competitive differentiators that leads the industry, in-house design, digital first but not digital-only platform and our value. We have identified opportunities for growth through strategic initiatives like B2B, global end marketplace where we have the opportunity to disrupt. And finally, we have a culture of innovation and an experienced team who knows how to increase operational efficiencies and control costs while protecting service and driving new growth opportunities.

綜上所述，我們意識到家居市場可能會因宏觀因素而收縮。如果發生這種情況，我們相信即使經濟低迷，我們也處於佔據市場份額的獨特地位，這就是原因。我們建立了一家由知名品牌組成的公司，擁有一個領先行業的競爭優勢共享平台、內部設計、數字優先但非數字平台和我們的價值。我們已經通過戰略計劃（例如 B2B、我們有機會顛覆的全球終端市場）確定了增長機會。最後，我們擁有創新文化和經驗豐富的團隊，他們知道如何提高運營效率和控製成本，同時保護服務和推動新的增長機會。

Now I will turn it over to Jeff to walk you through the results in more detail in his first earnings call as CFO.

現在我將把它交給傑夫，在他作為首席財務官的第一次財報電話會議上向您詳細介紹結果。

Thank you, Laura, and hello, everyone. I am so pleased to join you today for my first earnings call in my new role as Chief Financial Officer. While I'm relatively new to this particular role, I'm a 20-year member of the Williams-Sonoma leadership team. I come into this role with deep knowledge and experience across our brands, operations and financials. I look forward to applying my breadth and depth of experience to drive continued strong results.

謝謝你，勞拉，大家好。我很高興今天能和大家一起參加我作為首席財務官的新職位的第一次財報電話會議。雖然我對這個特定角色還比較陌生，但我在 Williams-Sonoma 領導團隊中已有 20 年的經驗。我帶著對我們品牌、運營和財務的深厚知識和經驗進入這個角色。我期待著運用我的廣度和深度經驗來推動持續強勁的業績。

Diving into our third quarter results. We delivered another quarter of record revenues and earnings in a challenging environment. Our top line results illustrate our ability to gain market share. Our bottom line results demonstrate the power of our operating model to sustain merchandise margins and control SG&A expenses.

深入了解我們的第三季度業績。在充滿挑戰的環境中，我們又創造了四分之一創紀錄的收入和收益。我們的最高業績說明了我們獲得市場份額的能力。我們的底線結果證明了我們的運營模式在維持商品利潤率和控制 SG&A 費用方面的力量。

Net revenues grew to $2.2 billion, with comparable brand revenue growth at 8.1% for a 2-year comp of 25% and a 3-year comp of almost 50%. Our revenue growth was driven by strong order fulfillment, ongoing momentum in our growth initiatives and our continued ability to take market share, even as we experienced inconsistent demand within our portfolio of brands and across the quarter. Both channels continued to experience strong growth, with retail at a 16.9% comp and e-commerce at a 4.4% comp.

淨收入增長至 22 億美元，可比品牌收入增長 8.1%，2 年 comp 為 25%，3 年 comp 接近 50%。我們的收入增長受到強勁的訂單履行、我們增長計劃的持續勢頭以及我們持續佔據市場份額的能力的推動，儘管我們的品牌組合和整個季度的需求不一致。這兩個渠道繼續強勁增長，零售增長 16.9%，電子商務增長 4.4%。

Moving down the income statement. Gross margin was 41.5%, 220 basis points below last year and in line with our expectations. We sustained strong merchandise margins that were flat year-over-year. We remain committed to our decision to no longer offer site-wide promotions and preserve the pricing integrity our proprietary, differentiated product commands.

向下移動損益表。毛利率為 41.5%，比去年低 220 個基點，符合我們的預期。我們維持了強勁的商品利潤率，同比持平。我們仍然致力於我們的決定，不再提供全站促銷，並保持我們專有的差異化產品命令的定價完整性。

The strength of these merchandise margins is particularly impressive given we absorbed significant cost increases from our vendors and ocean carriers, including higher demurrage and detention charges. As expected, the gross margin decline was driven by higher outbound shipping costs. This is due to our increased furniture mix, higher back order fulfillment and incremental freight costs. We also incurred higher costs to best serve our customers by shipping from out-of-market distribution centers and in some cases, shipping multiple times for multiunit orders, which typically would have been fulfilled in a single shipment.

考慮到我們從供應商和海運承運人那裡吸收了顯著增加的成本，包括更高的滯期費和滯留費，這些商品利潤率的優勢尤其令人印象深刻。正如預期的那樣，毛利率下降是由更高的出境運輸成本推動的。這是由於我們增加的家具組合、更高的延期交貨履行和增加的運費。我們還通過從場外配送中心發貨以及在某些情況下為多件訂單多次發貨而為我們的客戶提供最佳服務而產生了更高的成本，這些訂單通常可以在一次發貨中完成。

Occupancy costs at 9.2% of net revenues were 30 basis points above last year, with occupancy dollars increasing 10.5% to approximately $202 million. Our ongoing retail store optimization initiative partially offset incremental costs from our new distribution centers on both the East and West Coast. These new distribution centers will support our long-term growth, improve service time for our customers and drive cost efficiencies over time.

佔用成本占淨收入的 9.2%，比去年高出 30 個基點，佔用費用增長 10.5%，達到約 2.02 億美元。我們正在進行的零售店優化計劃部分抵消了我們在東海岸和西海岸的新配送中心的增量成本。這些新的配送中心將支持我們的長期增長，改善我們客戶的服務時間，並隨著時間的推移提高成本效率。

Our SG&A rate continues to be at historic lows at 26%, leveraging 150 basis points over last year, driven by advertising and employment leverage. Our advertising leverage reflects the agile, performance-driven proficiency of our marketing team, our in-house capabilities, first-party data and multi-brand platform allow us to test, learn and scale, which is a unique competitive advantage.

在廣告和就業槓桿的推動下，我們的 SG&A 率繼續處於 26% 的歷史低位，比去年高出 150 個基點。我們的廣告槓桿反映了我們營銷團隊敏捷、以績效為導向的熟練程度，我們的內部能力、第一方數據和多品牌平台使我們能夠測試、學習和擴展，這是一個獨特的競爭優勢。

Our SG&A leverage also reflects our culture of financial discipline, where we consistently challenge all expenses for return on investment and drive operational efficiency throughout the company. On the bottom line, we delivered another record quarter of earnings. Q3 operating income grew 2% to $340 million, and we delivered strong operating margin at 15.5%, only 80 basis points below last year despite significant headwinds and cost pressures. Our diluted earnings per share of $3.72, was up 12% from last year's record third quarter earnings per share of $3.32.

我們的 SG&A 槓桿也反映了我們的財務紀律文化，在這種文化中，我們始終挑戰所有費用以獲得投資回報並提高整個公司的運營效率。最重要的是，我們實現了另一個創紀錄的季度收益。第三季度營業收入增長 2% 至 3.4 億美元，儘管面臨巨大的逆風和成本壓力，我們仍實現了 15.5% 的強勁營業利潤率，僅比去年低 80 個基點。我們的稀釋後每股收益為 3.72 美元，比去年創紀錄的第三季度每股收益 3.32 美元增長了 12%。

On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $113 million, with no debt outstanding and year-to-date operating cash flow of $588 million. That enabled us to fund the operations of the business and expand our capital investments to support our long-term growth. In addition, year-to-date, we have returned excess cash of over $1 billion to shareholders through $165 million in dividends and $840 million in share repurchases.

在資產負債表上，我們本季度末的現金餘額為 1.13 億美元，沒有未償債務，年初至今的運營現金流為 5.88 億美元。這使我們能夠為業務運營提供資金並擴大我們的資本投資以支持我們的長期增長。此外，年初至今，我們已通過 1.65 億美元的股息和 8.4 億美元的股票回購向股東返還超過 10 億美元的超額現金。

These decisions reflect our commitment to maximizing returns for our shareholders. And with our strong and disciplined balance sheet, combined with our expected free cash flow, we have flexibility to continue to invest in the growth of the business and opportunistically invest in our own stock and drive long-term shareholder returns.

這些決定反映了我們對股東回報最大化的承諾。憑藉我們強大而規範的資產負債表，再加上我們預期的自由現金流，我們可以靈活地繼續投資於業務的增長，並抓住機會投資於我們自己的股票，並推動長期股東回報。

Moving down the balance sheet. Merchandise inventories, which include in transit, were $1.688 billion, increasing 33% over our reduced level of last year. Inventory on hand increased 34% over last year, but was up only 11% to 2019 versus sales up 52% over the same time. In the quarter, back order levels decreased but remained well above historical levels. We are working hard to get these goods in to fulfill our customer orders but continue to anticipate our backorder levels will remain elevated in the first half of '23.

向下移動資產負債表。包括在途商品在內的商品庫存為 16.88 億美元，比我們去年減少的水平增加了 33%。在手庫存比去年增加了 34%，但到 2019 年僅增長了 11%，而同期銷售額增長了 52%。本季度，未交貨訂單水平有所下降，但仍遠高於歷史水平。我們正在努力獲取這些貨物以滿足我們的客戶訂單，但繼續預計我們的延期交貨水平將在 23 年上半年保持較高水平。

Summarizing our Q3 results, we are proud to have delivered another quarter of record revenues and earnings. I would like to thank all our associates for their hard work and dedication in driving these great results. Now turning to our expectations for the remainder of the year and beyond. We acknowledge that the near-term macroeconomic picture remains uncertain, with conflicting economic signals surrounding consumer spending trends, decade high inflation and Federal Reserve monetary policy, intentionally moderating economic demand.

總結我們第三季度的業績，我們很自豪又交付了一個創紀錄的季度收入和收益。我要感謝我們所有的同事，感謝他們的辛勤工作和奉獻，以取得這些偉大的成果。現在轉向我們對今年剩餘時間及以後的期望。我們承認，近期宏觀經濟形勢仍然不確定，圍繞消費者支出趨勢、十年高通脹和美聯儲貨幣政策的經濟信號相互矛盾，有意減緩經濟需求。

Additionally, our trends have been increasingly inconsistent and less predictable. This combination of conflicting economic signals and inconsistent trends makes our guidance unusually difficult to predict. However, we remain confident in our ability to operate in any environment, and are, therefore, reiterating our fiscal year '22 guidance of mid- to high single-digit revenue growth with operating margins relatively in line with fiscal year '21.

此外，我們的趨勢越來越不一致，也越來越難以預測。這種相互矛盾的經濟信號和不一致的趨勢的結合使我們的指導異常難以預測。然而，我們對我們在任何環境下運營的能力仍然充滿信心，因此，我們重申我們的 22 財年指導方針，即中高個位數收入增長，營業利潤率與 21 財年相對一致。

Our outlook is grounded in 3 factors. First, we are currently in the early stages of our upcoming holiday seasonal rent with the biggest weeks yet to come. Second, our Q3 quarter demand trends support a wide range of outcomes. And third, the ongoing improvement we see in fulfillment of our customer order backlog. From a profitability perspective, as we said in our last call, we continue to expect cost pressures to persist for the balance of fiscal year '22 and into the first half of '23, primarily across our supply chain.

我們的展望基於三個因素。首先，我們目前正處於即將到來的假期季節性租金的早期階段，最大的幾週尚未到來。其次，我們的第三季度需求趨勢支持廣泛的結果。第三，我們在履行客戶訂單積壓方面看到的持續改進。從盈利能力的角度來看，正如我們在上次電話會議中所說，我們繼續預計成本壓力將持續到 22 財年的剩餘時間和 23 財年的上半年，主要是在我們的供應鏈中。

These headwinds include our incremental distribution centers, higher product and freight costs and our efforts to best serve our customers by delivering products as timely as possible. Our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged. In fiscal year '22, we expect capital expenditures will be approximately $350 million. We plan to continue to return excess cash to our shareholders through quarterly dividends and opportunistic share repurchases.

這些不利因素包括我們不斷增加的配送中心、更高的產品和運費成本，以及我們通過盡可能及時地交付產品來為客戶提供最佳服務的努力。我們的資本配置策略保持不變。在 22 財年，我們預計資本支出約為 3.5 億美元。我們計劃繼續通過季度股息和機會性股票回購將多餘的現金返還給我們的股東。

While the near term may be uncertain, the current management team has successfully navigated challenging environments before, including the 2008 great financial crisis and the 2020 global pandemic. We know the levers to pull, and we have already taken steps to reduce cost and inventory to mitigate downside risk.

雖然短期內可能不確定，但目前的管理團隊以前曾成功應對充滿挑戰的環境，包括 2008 年的金融危機和 2020 年的全球大流行病。我們知道可以拉動的槓桿，並且我們已經採取措施降低成本和庫存以減輕下行風險。

Given the increased macro uncertainty, we will not be reiterating or updating our fiscal year '24 guidance at this time. We will be providing guidance for fiscal year '23 and beyond at our next call. We remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of our business. Our confidence remains rooted in our ability to take market share in the fractured home furnishings industry. The strength of our in-house proprietary design, the competitive advantage of our digital first but not digital-only channel strategy, the ongoing strength of our growth initiatives and the resiliency of our fortress balance sheet.

鑑於宏觀不確定性增加，我們此時不會重申或更新我們的 24 財年指南。我們將在下次電話會議上提供 23 財年及以後的指導。我們對我們業務的長期基本面仍然充滿信心。我們的信心仍然植根於我們在支離破碎的家居裝飾行業中佔據市場份額的能力。我們內部專有設計的優勢、我們數字優先而非純數字渠道戰略的競爭優勢、我們增長計劃的持續優勢以及我們堡壘資產負債表的彈性。

And having been here before, we see opportunity to take an offensive stance in a challenging macro environment. In summary, we are very proud of our results. We continue to deliver for our customers, our associates and our shareholders. And now I'd like to open the call for questions. Thank you.

之前來過這裡，我們看到了在充滿挑戰的宏觀環境中採取進攻姿態的機會。總之，我們對我們的結果感到非常自豪。我們繼續為我們的客戶、我們的員工和我們的股東提供服務。現在我想開始提問。謝謝你。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Peter Benedict with Baird.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Peter Benedict 與 Baird 的對話。

First one is on inventory. Just wanted -- maybe you could give us a little more color, your comfort with the current makeup furniture versus non-furniture. It sounds like you've adjusted some receipts, I guess, in response to the slower -- or the softer macro. But how should we think about the level of inventory that you'd be comfortable operating with? I think you're about 120 day currently. I think you used to run like 100 days pre-COVID. I don't know. Like any benchmark to help us think about as we move through next year, how inventory might look depending on different sales scenarios. That's my first question.

第一個是庫存。只是想要 - 也許你可以給我們多一點顏色，你對當前化妝家具與非家具的舒適度。聽起來你已經調整了一些收據，我猜，以響應較慢或較軟的宏。但是我們應該如何考慮您可以輕鬆操作的庫存水平？我認為你目前大約有 120 天。我想你曾經像 COVID 前 100 天一樣跑步。我不知道。就像任何幫助我們思考明年的基準一樣，根據不同的銷售情況，庫存可能會是什麼樣子。這是我的第一個問題。

Thanks, Peter. I'm going to let Jeff take that one.

謝謝，彼得。我要讓傑夫拿那個。

Peter, when you think about inventory, I really think it's tough to look at it on a 1-year basis. I know we're up 33%. But if you think about this time last year, we're at our most aggressive inventory levels because if you think back to last year, that's when Southeast Asia was really closed, and we were still seeing the residual impacts of the COVID closures from India and China. So we're at our lowest inventory level at that point.

彼得，當你考慮庫存時，我真的認為很難以一年為基礎來看待它。我知道我們上漲了 33%。但如果你想想去年的這個時候，我們的庫存水平處於最激進的水平，因為如果你回想去年，那是東南亞真正關閉的時候，我們仍然看到來自印度的 COVID 關閉的殘餘影響和中國。所以我們當時處於最低庫存水平。

We really like to look at it on a 3-year basis, where our 3-year on-hand inventory is up 12% versus our sales up 52% over the same time period. How we're thinking about it is we're making progress, but there's still a lot more work to do. Our backlog remains at historically high levels, and we're working hard to get our composition right as well as our location of our inventory to service our customer best. We anticipate our inventory levels and our back orders to gradually improve through Q4 and in the first half of '23.

我們真的很想從 3 年的角度來看它，我們的 3 年現有庫存增長了 12%，而同期我們的銷售額增長了 52%。我們的想法是我們正在取得進展，但還有很多工作要做。我們的積壓訂單仍處於歷史高位，我們正在努力調整我們的構成以及我們的庫存位置，以便為我們的客戶提供最好的服務。我們預計我們的庫存水平和未交貨訂單將在第四季度和 23 年上半年逐步改善。

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then my second question. I know it's an unpredictable environment, but you did -- you have some line of sight here, I think, in terms of the out-of-market shipments and the other items that you said would provide some saving. Any way you can maybe help frame the size of those opportunities as we think about the back half of '23 as those start to come into the P&L?

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。然後是我的第二個問題。我知道這是一個不可預測的環境，但你做到了 - 我認為你在這裡有一些視線，就場外發貨和你說會提供一些節省的其他項目而言。當我們考慮 23 年的後半部分開始進入損益表時，您是否可以通過任何方式幫助確定這些機會的規模？

Thanks, Peter. I think that's a great question, and it's really how we're looking at it. So we have tremendous headwinds right now, particularly on our gross margin from higher product costs, higher inbound ocean costs. And as you mentioned, higher out-of-market costs as well as shipping multiple shipments to the same customer for the same order when we should really be shipping it once. That right now for the Q4 and into the first half of '23 is a headwind, and it will be impacting our margin. But we're pretty optimistic as we look to the back half of '23 and into '24. This is going to be a substantial tailwind and give us a lot of room to sustain our margins.

謝謝，彼得。我認為這是一個很好的問題，這正是我們看待它的方式。因此，我們現在面臨著巨大的阻力，特別是我們的毛利率來自更高的產品成本、更高的入港海運成本。正如您所提到的，更高的市場外成本以及在我們真正應該運送一次的情況下為同一訂單向同一客戶運送多批貨物。現在對於第四季度和 23 年上半年來說是一個逆風，它將影響我們的利潤率。但我們非常樂觀，因為我們展望 23 年後半期和 24 年。這將是一個巨大的順風，並為我們提供很大的空間來維持我們的利潤率。

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Shemesh with RBC Capital Markets.

你的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Steve Shemesh。

First one is on the slightly negative demand comp in the quarter. Can you share any additional perspective on how demand trended throughout the quarter and, I guess, where we stand in the first few weeks of November? And then as a follow-up on the backlog. I mean, it seems like the supply chain lead times improved pretty meaningfully throughout the quarter. Just curious if that materially changes your view on when you'll clear the backlog. I know you still said first half '23, but to the extent that's true, just curious why that wouldn't clear sooner.

第一個是本季度略微負面的需求組合。您能否就整個季度的需求趨勢以及我想我們在 11 月的前幾週所處的位置分享任何其他觀點？然後作為積壓工作的後續行動。我的意思是，整個季度的供應鏈交貨時間似乎有了很大的改善。只是好奇這是否會實質性地改變您對何時清除積壓的看法。我知道你仍然說 23 年上半年，但在某種程度上這是真的，只是好奇為什麼不早點清除。

Steve, let's take your demand question first. So in terms of the cadence across Q3, it was incredibly inconsistent and choppy as we described, and that's both across our portfolio of brands in the quarter. We started the quarter off relatively strong, mid-single-digit comps, as we talked about in the Q2 call. And then we saw it really trail off after Labor Day once the Fed announced our fourth rate hike. And even if you look at it, whether it's 1 year, 2 year or 3 years, it was just inconsistent. One year decelerated across the quarter, 2 year was up and down and 3 year actually accelerated across the quarter. So it's tough to get a read on it, and then we just described it as inconsistent and choppy. But what we're pretty confident about is even in this choppy environment, we continue to take market share.

史蒂夫，讓我們先回答你的需求問題。因此，就第三季度的節奏而言，正如我們所描述的那樣，它非常不一致且起伏不定，這在我們本季度的品牌組合中都是如此。正如我們在第二季度電話會議中談到的那樣，我們在本季度開始時取得了相對強勁的中個位數業績。然後，一旦美聯儲宣布第四次加息，我們就會看到它在勞動節後真正減弱。即使你看一下，無論是 1 年、2 年還是 3 年，它都是不一致的。一年在整個季度減速，2 年在整個季度上下波動，3 年實際上在整個季度加速。所以很難讀懂它，然後我們只是將它描述為前後不一致且起伏不定。但我們非常有信心的是，即使在這種動蕩的環境中，我們也會繼續佔據市場份額。

Regarding the backlog, your second question. We still have more work to do, like I mentioned in the previous question. There's a lot of work left to do to deliver to our customers. The backlog remains sizable. And for us, some of the challenges are getting it in the right location and in the right composition so we can complete a multiline order for a customer. So we -- again, we think it's going to take us through Q4 and in the first half to really normalize that level of activity.

關於積壓，你的第二個問題。正如我在上一個問題中提到的，我們還有更多工作要做。要交付給我們的客戶，還有很多工作要做。積壓的工作量仍然很大。對我們來說，一些挑戰是將它放在正確的位置和正確的組成中，這樣我們才能為客戶完成多行訂單。所以我們 - 再一次，我們認為這將帶我們度過第四季度，並在上半年真正使這種活動水平正常化。

Your next question comes from the line of Cristina Fernandez with Telsey Advisory Group.

你的下一個問題來自 Cristina Fernandez 與 Telsey Advisory Group 的對話。

I wanted to ask also on demand, but a different way. It seems like performance by brand is diverging. I assume that's the same on the demand level. Any insights you have into customer age or income that you see changes in how the different cohorts are responding to your products?

我也想按需詢問，但方式不同。似乎各品牌的表現各不相同。我認為這在需求水平上是相同的。您對客戶年齡或收入有任何見解，您是否看到不同群體對您的產品的反應發生了變化？

Sure. Thanks, Cristina, for the question. So you can clearly see, even by looking at the net comps, how strong Pottery Barn was. They've really been outperforming. The rest of the brands are kind of in a similar range. But remember, you got to look at more than just a 1 year. So when you look at West Elm on a 3-year, it's really, really strong and not as far off as you might think.

當然。謝謝克里斯蒂娜提出這個問題。所以你可以清楚地看到，即使是看淨收入，Pottery Barn 有多強。他們的表現真的很出色。其餘的品牌都在類似的範圍內。但請記住，您不僅要看 1 年。因此，當您在 3 年期看西榆樹時，它真的非常強大，而且並不像您想像的那麼遙遠。

So in terms of what we see in the demos, it's really -- I'm careful not to draw any big conclusions from it because the data is very sensitive.

因此，就我們在演示中看到的內容而言，它真的——我很小心不要從中得出任何大的結論，因為數據非常敏感。

It looks like the only thing we can see is lower income being more affected. We don't see necessarily an age issue. We just see lower income being more hurt than higher income, which is consistent with what you'd probably expect out there. The good news is, in total, our core customer is pretty affluent. And we also know that a lot of this is just uncertainty because there's really nothing that's happened. They still have a lot of home appreciation, and we have more savings than they did before the pandemic.

看起來我們唯一能看到的是低收入受到的影響更大。我們認為不一定是年齡問題。我們只是看到低收入比高收入受到的傷害更大，這與你可能期望的一致。好消息是，總的來說，我們的核心客戶非常富裕。而且我們也知道其中很多只是不確定性，因為實際上什麼都沒有發生。他們仍然有很多房屋升值，我們的儲蓄也比大流行前多。

And so depending on what happens with the macro, this could be short. But if the macro gets worse and wage loss happens and the Fed continues to do what they are tasked to do, which is to stop growth, it could impact those customers more than it even has already. And so that's the reason we've been hesitant to give guidance out into '24. It's not that we're not confident in our business. It's that it's really hard to tell what's going to happen in the macro. If that was even just going to be as it is today, we would predict it. But it's changing so rapidly. And frankly, none of us are economists.

因此，根據宏發生的情況，這可能很短。但是，如果宏觀經濟變得更糟並且發生工資損失並且美聯儲繼續執行他們的任務，即停止增長，那麼它對這些客戶的影響可能會比現在更大。因此，這就是我們一直猶豫是否要為 24 年提供指導的原因。這並不是說我們對我們的業務沒有信心。就是很難說出宏觀上會發生什麼。如果那隻是今天的樣子，我們會預測它。但它的變化如此之快。坦率地說，我們都不是經濟學家。

But we do know that we have a lot of levers to pull. We have a lot of growth strategies that are working. We talked to you about B2B, marketplace, global. You can see in our brands when you go through them, some really exciting initiatives that are not just interesting, but they're really producing great results, big one being accessible home for Pottery Barn is something that we think we can do across all brands, frankly.

但我們確實知道我們有很多槓桿可以拉動。我們有很多有效的增長戰略。我們與您討論了 B2B、市場、全球。當你瀏覽我們的品牌時，你可以看到一些非常令人興奮的舉措，這些舉措不僅有趣，而且確實產生了很好的效果，大的舉措是 Pottery Barn 的無障礙之家，我們認為我們可以在所有品牌中做到這一點， 坦白說。

So despite what could be an uncertain environment, we see ourselves in a really good place like we were, if it's going to be '08 or if it's even because it's going to be the pandemic, I think people are always worried about what happens. And we tend to come out much better than most. So that's my insight to what's happening out there and how it affects our customer and what our opportunities are. Thanks for the question.

因此，儘管可能是一個不確定的環境，但我們認為自己處於一個非常好的地方，就像我們過去一樣，如果它是 08 年，或者甚至因為它將成為大流行病，我認為人們總是擔心會發生什麼。而且我們往往比大多數人表現得更好。所以這就是我對那裡發生的事情以及它如何影響我們的客戶以及我們的機會是什麼的洞察力。謝謝你的問題。

And then as a follow-up. If demand were to slow further, can you give some examples of the levers you can pull on the cost side to preserve as much of the operating margin, if you can?

然後作為後續行動。如果需求進一步放緩，您能否舉例說明您可以在成本方面採取哪些槓桿措施來盡可能多地保留營業利潤率？

Go ahead, Jeff.

來吧，傑夫。

Sure, Cristina, we have quite a few levers, particularly on our SG&A line, where advertising, we can definitely adjust as we go. And the nice thing here is we have our own hands on the keyboards with our in-house marketing team who's really agile and performance driven. We also have opportunities on employment, which, of course, leverage with sales with most of our employment in our distribution centers and stores and call centers. And then there's a number of other cost efficiencies we can drive throughout our operations to continue to leverage our SG&A to help our operating margin.

當然，克里斯蒂娜，我們有很多槓桿，特別是在我們的 SG&A 線上，在廣告方面，我們絕對可以隨時調整。這裡的好處是，我們的內部營銷團隊擁有自己的鍵盤，他們非常敏捷且以績效為導向。我們也有就業機會，當然，我們的大部分就業機會都在我們的配送中心、商店和呼叫中心進行銷售。然後我們可以在整個運營過程中推動許多其他成本效率，以繼續利用我們的 SG&A 來幫助我們的運營利潤率。

Your next question comes from the line of Adrienne Yih with Barclays.

你的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Adrienne Yih。

I'm sorry if I missed this, but could you -- Jeff, could you just give me the digital penetration or growth where we're sitting at kind of for the quarter? And then, Laura, I really wanted to congratulate you on the Starbucks, that win. If you can talk about -- I know that they're undergoing a sort of massive renovation, refresh of their entire store fleet. So I'm wondering where you think you can go from here having done that flagship?

如果我錯過了這個，我很抱歉，但是你能不能 - 傑夫，你能不能告訴我我們在本季度所處的數字滲透或增長？然後，勞拉，我真的很想祝賀你贏得了星巴克。如果你能談談——我知道他們正在進行大規模的翻新，更新他們的整個商店。所以我想知道你認為你完成了那個旗艦之後可以從這裡去哪裡？

And then also for you, Laura, is India. As you look internationally, you're opening stores, company-owned stores in Canada. Are there any other markets in which you would contemplate owning your stores from a company-owned perspective versus franchising them?

勞拉，還有印度。當你放眼國際時，你正在加拿大開設商店，公司擁有的商店。在任何其他市場中，您會考慮從公司所有的角度擁有您的商店而不是特許經營？

Okay. Let me go backwards, forwards. So India. We just -- Jeff and I actually had a chance to go over the ourselves and see our stores. And at the time, West Elm were the only stores open. I'd tell you, they're as good as any store here in the United States. And our partners, the Reliance Group, are so good at digital and their marketing campaigns and the collaborators that we're working with.

好的。讓我後退，前進。所以印度。我們只是 - 傑夫和我實際上有機會自己去看看我們的商店。當時，West Elm 是唯一一家營業的商店。我會告訴你，它們和美國這裡的任何一家商店一樣好。我們的合作夥伴 Reliance Group 非常擅長數字化和他們的營銷活動，以及與我們合作的合作者。

And we just walked away saying, we got to really spend more time than we even think on this because this is a market where it's enormous middle-class growing and a real penchant for high-quality design and goods. There's not much out there, so we're the first person out there with a full lifestyle suite of stuff. It reminds me of we first started Pottery Barn and brought furniture into our stores in the '90s. It's that big of an opportunity. So we're thrilled that we have a great partner.

我們只是走開說，我們真的要花比我們想像的更多的時間，因為這是一個巨大的中產階級成長的市場，並且真正喜歡高質量的設計和商品。那裡沒有太多東西，所以我們是第一個擁有完整生活方式套件的人。這讓我想起了我們在 90 年代首次創辦 Pottery Barn 並將家具帶入我們的商店。這是一個很大的機會。所以我們很高興我們有一個很棒的合作夥伴。

When you have a great partner in some of these very far away, more difficult to do business places, that's the way to go, in my opinion. I mean, Canada is a lot easier than India or in the Middle East, you have to have a partner. But at this point, there's nobody else that we're -- there's nowhere else that we're intending to open company-owned stores. There is an opportunity to do DTC Europe eventually when it's the right time to do that. This would not be the right time, in my opinion, to do that, but we could do that out of DTC -- DC and our platform that we have set up in the U.K.

在我看來，當你在其中一些非常遙遠、更難開展業務的地方有一個很好的合作夥伴時，這就是要走的路。我的意思是，加拿大比印度或中東容易得多，你必須有一個合作夥伴。但在這一點上，我們沒有其他人——我們沒有其他地方打算開設公司所有的商店。最終有機會在合適的時間做 DTC Europe。在我看來，現在不是這樣做的合適時機，但我們可以通過 DTC - DC 和我們在英國建立的平台來做到這一點。

Okay. Starbucks. We're thrilled we finally can talk about this. We've been working closely with them for 3 years. We've been doing a lot with them. And what I can say that I think they're going to be okay with me saying is that they're great partners, and they've been very creative with us to allow us to do some designs for them to their specs, for their stores. And we've really built this partnership up. And I don't know if you've been to that flagship, I just got the pictures, it is spectacular. And so that's one of many that we've done.

好的。星巴克。我們很高興我們終於可以談論這個了。我們已經與他們密切合作了 3 年。我們和他們一起做了很多事情。我能說的是，我認為他們會同意我說的，他們是很棒的合作夥伴，他們對我們非常有創意，允許我們根據他們的規格為他們做一些設計，因為他們商店。我們確實建立了這種夥伴關係。而且我不知道你是否去過那個旗艦店，我剛拿到照片，它很壯觀。這就是我們所做的眾多工作之一。

You'll start to notice and see us popping up, but I can't give you any sort of road map of scale on the Starbucks other than to say, it's one of the many great opportunities that we have. And we continue to really believe that B2B is going to be bigger than anyone expects. And then I'll pass it over to Jeff for digital growth.

你會開始注意到並看到我們突然出現，但我不能給你星巴克的任何規模的路線圖，只能說，這是我們擁有的眾多絕佳機會之一。我們仍然堅信 B2B 的規模將超出任何人的預期。然後我會把它交給 Jeff 來實現數字增長。

Sure. Adrienne, we're proud of both of our channels, and they both really did a great job this past quarter and delivered strong results. Retail was up 15.9%. And to get to your question, B2C delivered a 4.4% comp and was sequentially in line with our Q2 results coming about 65% of the total. Long term, we continue to see e-comm growing to 70% of revenues but both channels remain part of our digital first but not digital-only channel strategy, and we're happy to serve the customer in every channel they want to shop in.

當然。 Adrienne，我們為我們的兩個頻道感到自豪，他們在上個季度都做得很好，並取得了很好的成績。零售業上漲 15.9%。為了回答你的問題，B2C 提供了 4.4% 的補償，並且與我們第二季度的結果相一致，約佔總數的 65%。從長遠來看，我們繼續看到電子商務增長到收入的 70%，但這兩個渠道仍然是我們數字優先但不是數字唯一渠道戰略的一部分，我們很高興在他們想要購物的每個渠道為客戶提供服務.

I'll just also add, Adrienne, that when you really think about last year, Thanksgiving to Christmas, this is the time when, unfortunately, for a lot of people, Thanksgiving or Christmas or both or Hanukkah got canceled, get togethers got canceled because of COVID. And so it wasn't the full open that it is now.

我還要補充一點，Adrienne，當你真的想到去年，從感恩節到聖誕節，不幸的是，對於很多人來說，感恩節或聖誕節或兩者兼而有之，或者光明節被取消，聚會被取消因為新冠肺炎。所以它不是現在的完全開放。

We actually -- or I actually believe that retail is going to be the big winner of this holiday season. I think you can see people are out and about. And we're really stocked and ready to go. We are staffed. We have the goods in the stores already, and we put them there earlier so we can capture the sales.

我們實際上 - 或者我實際上相信零售業將成為這個假期的大贏家。我想你可以看到人們在外面走來走去。我們真的儲備充足，可以出發了。我們有工作人員。我們已經在商店裡備有商品，我們更早地把它們放在那裡，這樣我們就能獲得銷售額。

And honestly, we also have something we never had before pre-pandemic, which is our omni services. So of course, BOPIS is a thing everybody does. Shipping from store is not a thing that everybody does, but we have learned to get quite good at it. And then also shipping to the store is something we do. And we have just enabled, which I am quite excited about, shipping to any store in the company. So for example, if you buy online, PB Kids, but there's no PB Kids next to you, you can ship it to your local Williams-Sonoma store and you go pick it up.

老實說，我們還有一些在大流行前從未有過的東西，那就是我們的全方位服務。所以當然，BOPIS 是每個人都會做的事情。從商店發貨並不是每個人都會做的事情，但我們已經學會了非常擅長這件事。然後我們也會將貨物運送到商店。我們剛剛啟用了運送到公司任何商店的功能，對此我感到非常興奮。因此，例如，如果您在線購買 PB Kids，但您旁邊沒有 PB Kids，您可以將其運送到當地的 Williams-Sonoma 商店，然後去取貨。

And we did this when we worked on dorm. And our dorm strategy this summer, we saw great results. And so I think this is going to be something that continues to build, not just because we don't have stores in every market, but because also it's a convenience play as people are back in the office more and also some people don't want to have to wait at home or UPS won't deliver to their ZIP code for that reason.

我們在宿舍工作時就這樣做了。而我們今年夏天的宿舍策略，我們看到了很好的結果。所以我認為這將是一種持續發展的東西，不僅僅是因為我們沒有在每個市場都有商店，而且因為人們更多地回到辦公室，而有些人則沒有，這也是一種方便的遊戲想在家等待，否則 UPS 不會因此而送貨到他們的郵政編碼。

This is a way to get around having to be there and wait for it to arrive at your porch. So this is yet another example of how we're taking omni, and it optimizes the retail inventory. So for example, if I'm wrong and retail isn't as good as I think it's going to be, this inventory can be shipped against DTC orders, which I think is a really exciting advantage that we have that particularly stores or brands that don't have retail don't have the opportunity to achieve.

這是一種繞過必須在那裡等待它到達你的門廊的方法。所以這是我們如何採用 omni 的另一個例子，它優化了零售庫存。因此，例如，如果我錯了並且零售業不如我認為的那麼好，那麼可以根據 DTC 訂單運送該庫存，我認為這是一個非常令人興奮的優勢，因為我們擁有這樣的商店或品牌沒有零售就沒有機會實現。

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Chukumba with Loop Capital.

你的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital 的 Anthony Chukumba。

So just 2 real quick ones. First off, super exciting about Starbucks. I know in the past, you said that you expected B2B sales to be about $1 billion this year, and I was just wondering if -- I just noticed you hadn't commented on that, so I'm just wondering if that's still the right way to think about it.

所以只有 2 個真正快速的。首先，星巴克超級令人興奮。我知道過去，你說過你預計今年的 B2B 銷售額約為 10 億美元，我只是想知道是否 - 我只是注意到你沒有對此發表評論，所以我只是想知道那是否仍然是正確的思考方式。

And then my second question is just kind of what you're seeing from -- in terms of the competitive environment. I mean, obviously, you're sticking with getting rid of site-wide promotions. I 100% agree with that. But just I was wondering if you're seeing your competitors get any more promotional.

然後我的第二個問題就是你所看到的——就競爭環境而言。我的意思是，很明顯，您堅持要取消網站範圍內的促銷活動。我 100% 同意這一點。但我只是想知道您是否看到您的競爭對手獲得更多促銷活動。

Jeff, do you want to go ahead with B2B?

傑夫，你想繼續 B2B 嗎？

Sure. We see our track on B2B just continuing to propel forward, and we are on track to hit the $1 billion this year. The demand pipeline through our projects and our major partners continues to be strong, and we're very confident in our ability to get there.

當然。我們看到我們在 B2B 上的軌道繼續向前推進，我們有望在今年達到 10 億美元。通過我們的項目和主要合作夥伴的需求渠道繼續保持強勁，我們對實現這一目標的能力充滿信心。

And from a long-term standpoint, it is such a fractured market, total addressable market, $80 billion. And we think we have a really compelling proposition with our portfolio of brands, our in-house design, our global sourcing capabilities to really capture this. And we're seeing a lot of promising signs out there in terms of pent-up demand for renovations in hotels and restaurants. And we think it's quite a great opportunity for us.

從長遠的角度來看，這是一個支離破碎的市場，潛在市場總額為 800 億美元。我們認為我們的品牌組合、我們的內部設計、我們的全球採購能力可以真正抓住這一點。在酒店和餐廳被壓抑的裝修需求方面，我們看到了很多有希望的跡象。我們認為這對我們來說是一個很好的機會。

Jeff, why don't you take the second piece of the question?

傑夫，你為什麼不回答問題的第二部分？

Could you repeat your second question, Anthony?

你能重複你的第二個問題嗎，安東尼？

What you're seeing in terms of the competitive environment, particularly around promotions.

您在競爭環境方面所看到的，尤其是在促銷方面。

We're seeing -- we're definitely seeing more promotions in the environment as the economy softens. I think a lot of retailers have been thinking -- have been talking about that this week. Our approach has been very consistent in terms of the level of promotions that we've been doing.

我們看到 - 隨著經濟疲軟，我們肯定會在環境中看到更多的促銷活動。我認為很多零售商一直在思考 - 本週一直在談論這個問題。就我們一直在做的促銷活動而言，我們的方法非常一致。

And plus, I want to reiterate that we remain committed to not offering site-wide promotions in our brands, and we will do whatever it takes to continue to not do that. We think that our in-house design proprietary product really resonates with the customer because of its differentiation and commands its own pricing power, and we're seeing that in our results.

另外，我想重申，我們仍然致力於不在我們的品牌中提供全站促銷，我們將盡一切努力繼續不這樣做。我們認為我們的內部設計專有產品因其差異化和擁有自己的定價權而真正引起了客戶的共鳴，我們在我們的結果中看到了這一點。

Your next question comes from the line of Max Rakhlenko with Cowen.

你的下一個問題來自 Max Rakhlenko 和 Cowen 的對話。

So first, on the gross margin pressure, how would you quantify the various headwinds, just putting them into different buckets? And then how should we think about that pressure in 4Q? And just any color on puts and takes into the quarter there.

那麼首先，關於毛利率壓力，您將如何量化各種不利因素，只是將它們放入不同的桶中？那麼我們應該如何看待第四季度的壓力？任何顏色的看跌期權都會進入該區域。

Thanks, Max. I'm giving that to Jeff, too.

謝謝，馬克斯。我也把它給傑夫。

All right. Thanks, Max. I think all of them are heavy pressures on our gross margin, as we've been communicating. There's the product costs, which have been with us all year as part of inflation. There's the ocean costs, which, although we see ocean costs overall coming down, we still have the cost in our balance sheet and need to sell through that higher cost inventory.

好的。謝謝，馬克斯。正如我們一直在溝通的那樣，我認為所有這些都對我們的毛利率造成了沉重壓力。還有產品成本，它作為通貨膨脹的一部分一直伴隨著我們。還有海洋成本，雖然我們看到海洋成本總體下降，但我們的資產負債表中仍有成本，需要通過成本較高的庫存進行銷售。

Our shipping costs domestically have been high, as we talked about because of out of market and shipping multiple times a customer. As I said in the answer to the first question, we still have quite a bit of work to do to get our inventory in the right composition as well as the right location to properly service our customer and work on this backlog we have.

我們在國內的運輸成本一直很高，正如我們所說的那樣，因為市場外和多次運輸客戶。正如我在回答第一個問題時所說的那樣，我們還有很多工作要做，以使我們的庫存具有正確的組成以及正確的位置，以便為我們的客戶提供適當的服務並處理我們的積壓工作。

So we think it will be -- continue to be a headwind for Q4 and into the first half of '23. The thing I'm really optimistic about is when we turn the corner, when we start to look at the back half of '23 and into '24, it's going to be a tremendous tailwind. And I'm optimistic that we can really sustain our margins when I think about all the cost pressures we've been under and still delivered the results we're delivering today.

所以我們認為這將是——繼續成為第四季度和 23 年上半年的逆風。我真正樂觀的是，當我們轉過彎時，當我們開始審視 23 世紀的後半部分和 24 世紀的時候，這將是一個巨大的順風。當我想到我們一直承受的所有成本壓力並且仍然提供我們今天提供的結果時，我很樂觀地認為我們能夠真正維持我們的利潤率。

The other piece of this is we are starting to see our vendors reduce their pricing to us. And I'm not just talking about shipping, I'm talking about product vendors. And that is a pretty sizable thing as you think about the future. In some cases, it's going to be important to pass along part of that to the consumer because everybody had to take a price increase. And when it comes down, we want to make sure that we have the best value out there.

另一方面，我們開始看到我們的供應商降低了對我們的定價。我不只是在談論運輸，我在談論產品供應商。當你考慮未來時，這是一件相當大的事情。在某些情況下，將其中的一部分轉嫁給消費者很重要，因為每個人都必須接受價格上漲。當它下來時，我們要確保我們擁有最好的價值。

So we're always scrubbing to see how's our design vis-a-vis the competition. How's our quality, how's our sustainability problems and how is our price. And so as we get better prices from our vendors, which we're already starting to see, there will be some that are passed along to the consumers so that we can really continue to grab market share because we're going to offer an even better value. And so there are -- in addition to just the cost being normalized, I think there's some real opportunities as you think about the back half of next year and beyond to really improve the margin from here.

所以我們總是仔細檢查我們的設計與競爭對手相比如何。我們的質量如何，我們的可持續性問題如何以及我們的價格如何。因此，當我們從我們的供應商那裡獲得更好的價格時，我們已經開始看到，將會有一些價格傳遞給消費者，這樣我們就可以真正繼續搶占市場份額，因為我們將提供一個更好的價值。因此，除了成本正常化之外，我認為在你考慮明年下半年及以後的時候，還有一些真正的機會可以真正提高利潤率。

Your next question comes from the line of Oliver Wintermantel with Evercore.

你的下一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Oliver Wintermantel 系列。

Jeff, congratulations on the new role. I had a question regarding retail. I think you said up 16%, 16.9%. Can you give us a little bit more detail what drove that? Is that AUR? Or is that mix or traffic versus ticket? That would be great.

傑夫，祝賀你擔任新職務。我有一個關於零售的問題。我想你說的是 16%、16.9%。你能告訴我們更多的細節嗎？那是 AUR 嗎？或者是混合還是流量與門票？那很好啊。

Okay. Oliver, it's Laura. Remember, the 16.9% is the net comp not a demand comp. It's driven by AUR and the resulting traffic fill from the previous sales. As we look at demand comp -- yes, as we look at demand comps now, at retail, our traffic is better than our competition, better than the industry, which is really exciting. And you all know Christmas is the -- and the holidays is the time that people love to come into our stores. And I've said before, you salivate just thinking about walking into a Williams-Sonoma store. And so we're really focused on conversion, and we have the traffic. So that's why I tend to be quite optimistic that retail is going to be -- the retailers, for us at least, is going to continue to overdeliver in the short term as we're comping the pandemic not completely out of the house that we were in last year.

好的。奧利弗，是勞拉。請記住，16.9% 是淨收入而不是需求收入。它由 AUR 和之前銷售產生的流量填充驅動。當我們看需求比較時——是的，當我們現在看需求比較時，在零售業，我們的流量比我們的競爭對手好，比行業好，這真的很令人興奮。你們都知道聖誕節是——假期是人們喜歡光顧我們商店的時候。我之前說過，只要想到走進 Williams-Sonoma 商店，您就會垂涎三尺。所以我們真的專注於轉化，我們有流量。因此，這就是為什麼我傾向於對零售業的發展持樂觀態度——至少對我們而言，零售商將在短期內繼續超額交付，因為我們正在應對大流行病，但並未完全走出我們的家。在去年。

Got it. And my second question was regarding B2B. If you just think about the macro environment and let's say that there's a slowdown, how do you think B2B is holding up versus the consumer business? Do you think there's more headwinds? Or could that hold up better than the consumer business?

知道了。我的第二個問題是關於 B2B。如果你只考慮宏觀環境，假設經濟放緩，你認為 B2B 與消費者業務相比如何？你認為有更多的逆風嗎？或者這能比消費者業務更好嗎？

That's a great question, Oliver. I think that the B2B business will hold up stronger potentially in a soft macro environment than the consumer. If you think about the dynamics of the past couple of years, the consumer market took off during the pandemic as people were home and they started shopping. And now that's possibly trailing off a little bit with the Fed's monetary actions and the macroeconomic environment.

這是一個很好的問題，奧利弗。我認為 B2B 業務在軟宏觀環境中的潛力將比消費者更強。如果你想想過去幾年的動態，消費市場在大流行期間起飛，因為人們在家並開始購物。現在這可能會隨著美聯儲的貨幣行動和宏觀經濟環境而有所減弱。

B2B on the other hand, a lot of those verticals they were shut down for several quarters and even over a year. And there was a big backlog of work and renovation work and projects that weren't done. And all of that pipeline of those -- that pent-up demand and deferred projects is really coming online now. We're seeing it in the RFPs we have out, talking to our customers in B2B. And when I attend trade shows, there's just a general energy about the amount of projects that are out there. Funded projects, a lot of renovations. There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal, I think it was last week and the week before, talking about the hotel experience and how there's just a dearth of great hotels. A lot of them need to be updated and renovated. And that just speaks well to our opportunity with B2B. So in sum, it can really be countercyclical if there is a macroeconomic downturn.

另一方面，B2B，很多垂直行業都關閉了幾個季度甚至一年多。並且有大量積壓的工作和翻新工作以及未完成的項目。所有這些管道——被壓抑的需求和推遲的項目現在真的要上線了。我們在與 B2B 中的客戶交談的 RFP 中看到了這一點。當我參加貿易展時，那裡的項目數量只是一種普遍的能量。資助的項目，很多裝修。 《華爾街日報》上有一篇很棒的文章，我想是上周和前一周，談論酒店體驗以及如何缺乏優質酒店。其中很多需要更新和翻新。這很好地說明了我們在 B2B 方面的機會。所以總而言之，如果宏觀經濟不景氣，它真的可以是逆週期的。

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Zaccone with Citi.

你的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Steven Zaccone。

I'll extend my congrats to you, Jeff, as well on the new role. First question I had was just how much do you think the competitive environment is factoring into the slowing demand trends that you're seeing in your business? The macro is difficult, we understand, but the home furnishing industry has also gotten a little bit more promotional. And I guess, Laura, as you look across the industry, are you concerned inventory levels are getting high in the channel?

傑夫，我要祝賀你擔任新職務。我的第一個問題是，您認為競爭環境在多大程度上影響了您在業務中看到的需求放緩趨勢？宏觀困難，我們理解，但家居行業也得到了一點點的推動。我想，勞拉，當你環顧整個行業時，你是否擔心渠道中的庫存水平越來越高？

Yes. So it's funny, the macro environment or -- no the competitive environment has always been promotional. When you really go back and you think about -- even before all these new start-ups came about, there was Macy's always in the home business and a lot of other big players. And then Amazon came along and Wayfair. They've always been after price first. What we do versus them is very different in that we're designing our own goods. And we've been doing it for a lot of years. And so we tend to be first with new trends and able to bring out finishes that others can't replicate even when they try to copy us, they can't replicate. And so when you actually go and look at the difference between our furniture or even our tabletop or any of the categories versus theirs, you're going to see a big difference in quality and the resulting price even with their markdowns, our value is better.

是的。所以這很有趣，宏觀環境或 - 沒有競爭環境一直是促銷活動。當你真正回頭想想——甚至在所有這些新的初創企業出現之前，梅西百貨總是在家庭業務中，還有許多其他大公司。然後亞馬遜和 Wayfair 出現了。他們總是首先追求價格。我們所做的與他們所做的非常不同，因為我們正在設計自己的商品。我們已經這樣做了很多年。因此，我們傾向於率先掌握新趨勢，並能夠帶來其他人無法複製的飾面，即使他們試圖複製我們，他們也無法複製。所以當你真正去看看我們的家具甚至我們的桌面或任何類別與他們的家具之間的區別時，你會發現質量和最終價格的巨大差異，即使他們降價，我們的價值更好.

We keep looking at that, looking at whether it's the sofa, the coffee table, the rug. I mean, when you take a product down like-for-like and you really look at it in person, look at the price, I feel very good about where we sit. There's always a few exceptions. There's always a few opening price points that I wish were sharper. Those are -- the opening price points are the place that I want to get back to be more competitive as we were pre pandemic. Those are the areas where I think everybody got a little too high. But in total, I really don't think it's a competitive pricing issue because it's hard to match our goods against anyone else's goods. Now in terms of inventory in the channel, Bed Bath & Beyond has a ton of inventory that they're pressing and going to continue to press at deep markdowns.

我們一直在看那個，看它是沙發、咖啡桌還是地毯。我的意思是，當你把一個產品拿下來，然後你真的親自去看它，看看價格，我對我們坐的地方感覺很好。總會有一些例外。總有一些開盤價點是我希望更清晰的。這些是——開盤價是我想回到大流行前更具競爭力的地方。這些是我認為每個人都有點過高的領域。但總的來說，我真的不認為這是一個有競爭力的定價問題，因為很難將我們的商品與其他任何人的商品相匹配。現在就渠道中的庫存而言，Bed Bath & Beyond 擁有大量庫存，他們正在壓制並將繼續壓制大幅降價。

Again, different products. But will that hurt everybody on the fringes? That one might be the biggest factor going. But the Wayfair and the Amazon, those guys are the biggest out there, but it's just -- it's a very different business. So you might buy one thing from them for your garage or something, but you're not going to furnish your living room, your full bedroom from some of those brands. Our customer wouldn't anyway because there are -- what they're looking for is a much higher quality level and design sensibility. And they want someone to help them put it together.

再次，不同的產品。但這會傷害邊緣的每個人嗎？那一個可能是最大的因素。但是 Wayfair 和亞馬遜，這些人是那裡最大的，但它只是 - 這是一個非常不同的業務。所以你可能會從他們那裡購買一件東西用於你的車庫或其他東西，但你不會從這些品牌中購買一些東西來裝飾你的客廳，你的完整臥室。我們的客戶無論如何都不會，因為他們正在尋找更高的質量水平和設計敏感性。他們希望有人幫助他們將它們組合在一起。

So those are, I think, the factors at play, and we just have to make sure that we're not distracted by a short-term blip and that we are all focused on what we've built here and continuing to feed it, which means innovation, innovation and product and service and continuing to press forward when everyone else is doing the duck and cover. And that's the thing. I mean it's exciting, even though it's a different hand than we expect it to be dealt right now. It's an exciting time to really think about it offensively. And what's the company that we want to look like and again, make improvements to. If this is a recession, what are we going to look like on the other side of it. And I think when you saw us come out of '08, we were stronger and we're much stronger coming out of the pandemic. And whatever this is going to be, I would say the same thing, we're going to be much stronger coming out of this, too.

所以，我認為，這些是起作用的因素，我們只需要確保我們不會被短期的曇花一現分心，我們都專注於我們在這裡建立的東西並繼續為它提供支持，這意味著創新、創新以及產品和服務，並在其他人都在做鴨子和掩護時繼續前進。就是這樣。我的意思是這很令人興奮，儘管它與我們現在預期的不同。這是一個令人興奮的時刻，真正從進攻性的角度考慮它。我們希望看起來像什麼樣的公司，並再次對其進行改進。如果這是一場衰退，我們在它的另一邊會是什麼樣子。我想當你看到我們走出 08 年時，我們變得更強大了，而且我們從大流行中走出來更強大了。不管這將是什麼，我會說同樣的話，我們也會因此而變得更加強大。

Your next question comes from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett.

你的下一個問題來自 Chuck Grom 和 Gordon Haskett 的對話。

Historically, there's been a nice lead, lag relationship between housing turnover and furniture sales. I'm curious, Laura, do you think that relationship still exists? Or has it been decoupled? If you listen to the home improvement names over the past week, they're seeming to suggest that this time is different and that we are seeing some decoupling, which could indirectly be good for your business over the next couple of years.

從歷史上看，房屋成交量和家具銷售之間存在很好的領先、滯後關係。我很好奇，勞拉，你認為這種關係還存在嗎？還是解耦了？如果你聽過過去一周的家居改善名稱，他們似乎暗示這次不同，我們看到一些脫鉤，這可能在未來幾年間接地對你的業務有利。

Yes. I mean I just think this is a people are nervous sort of situation. As I said earlier, Lowe's, Home Depot, they're really very optimistic. I'm sure everybody listened to their calls and people still love their homes. And the sentiment is still I want a nicer home. I want a second home. I want a bigger home. Now they're not going to buy one because nobody wants to buy right now. That doesn't mean that you don't still love your home, you don't want to still spend money on it. And so the renovation, a lot of those renovation projects are still lagging from the pandemic when you couldn't even get a refrigerator, right? You still can't get a refrigerator. And so you're not done with your kitchen, so you're not fishing your kitchen yet. So it's interesting that those projects are still lagging, and there's still, there should be, in my opinion, there should be still a big upside as they finish those projects and then they go to spruce up the furnishings.

是的。我的意思是我只是認為這是一種讓人緊張的情況。正如我之前所說，Lowe's、Home Depot，他們真的非常樂觀。我相信每個人都聽了他們的電話，人們仍然熱愛他們的家。情緒仍然是我想要一個更好的家。我想要第二個家。我想要一個更大的家。現在他們不會買，因為現在沒人想買。這並不意味著你不愛你的家，你不想在它上面花錢。因此，當您連冰箱都買不到時，許多裝修項目仍然因大流行而滯後，對嗎？你還是買不到冰箱。所以你還沒有完成你的廚房，所以你還沒有釣魚你的廚房。所以有趣的是，這些項目仍然滯後，而且在我看來，應該還有很大的好處，因為他們完成了這些項目，然後他們開始裝修家具。

Because if you spend a lot of money on your new bathrooms and your new kitchen, which are usually where people go first, generally speaking, you buy furniture next. So it should be a very positive thing for us. What I think is happening is, right now is more fear than reality, and we'll see what happens and which way that goes. But as I said earlier, our customers are still in really good economic shape. They're just -- I think they're taking a small pause for a minute as everyone's been talking about.

因為如果你在新浴室和新廚房上花了很多錢，一般來說，這些通常是人們最先去的地方，接下來你會買家具。所以這對我們來說應該是一件非常積極的事情。我認為正在發生的事情是，現在恐懼多於現實，我們將看看會發生什麼以及走向何方。但正如我之前所說，我們的客戶仍然處於非常好的經濟狀況。正如每個人都在談論的那樣，他們只是 - 我認為他們會稍作停頓。

Okay. And then I know directionally, B2B is more accretive than the traditional retail business. But clearly, some of the optimism, I think on the longer term, margin structure is in B2B, particularly as it ramps. I was wondering if you or Jeff could just maybe speak to some of the buckets of why that B2B business is so much stronger on the margin front because I think it would help bridge the gap from some of the fears on some of the costs starting to come back into the P&L as an offset.

好的。然後我從方向上知道，B2B 比傳統零售業務更具增值性。但顯然，我認為從長遠來看，有些樂觀情緒是 B2B 的利潤率結構，尤其是在它上升的時候。我想知道你或 Jeff 是否可以談談為什麼 B2B 業務在利潤率方面如此強大的原因，因為我認為這將有助於彌合對某些成本開始的一些擔憂的差距作為抵消回到損益表中。

A couple of things there, Chuck. So first of all, B2B is slightly accretive to our op margin. And really, the dynamic there is you don't have the overhead of some of the retail and then not as much advertising costs. So it does lend some accretion from that standpoint. But I think when you think about the costs that are hitting the P&L, the second part of your question is, I think we have to think about that really in 2 phases. The first is the near term, which is Q4 and the first half of '23, where we're seeing the higher product cost, a higher inbound shipping costs and all of our additional costs as we work through our backlog. That will become a tailwind for us. As we turn the corner and head in the back half of '23 and '24, I think that in and of itself will support our margins long term. And then B2B will really just be the icing on the cake on top of it.

有幾件事，查克。因此，首先，B2B 略微增加了我們的運營利潤率。真的，那裡的動態是你沒有一些零售的開銷，也沒有那麼多的廣告成本。因此，從這個角度來看，它確實提供了一些增長。但我認為當你考慮影響損益的成本時，你問題的第二部分是，我認為我們必須真正分兩個階段來考慮這個問題。第一個是近期，即第四季度和 23 年上半年，我們看到產品成本更高，入站運輸成本更高，以及我們處理積壓訂單時的所有額外成本。這將成為我們的順風。當我們轉過彎，進入 23 和 24 的後半段時，我認為這本身將長期支持我們的利潤率。然後 B2B 真的只是錦上添花。

Your next question comes from the line of Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities.

你的下一個問題來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Seth Basham。

My first question is around merchandise margins. You guys have been doing a great job holding the line on merchandise margin despite some of the pressures. As you move forward, could you help us understand the puts and takes the arc of merchandise margins in the fourth quarter and through the first half of 2023?

我的第一個問題是關於商品利潤率。儘管有一些壓力，你們在保持商品利潤率方面做得很好。隨著您的前進，您能否幫助我們了解第四季度和 2023 年上半年的商品利潤率曲線？

Thanks, Seth. We don't guide specific line items like that, but we are giving you a guidance on the overall direction of gross margin, with March margin a sone component of that. And we do see headwinds there in Q4 and in the first half of '23 for all the reasons that we've talked about, the product cost, the ocean costs and then our own challenges with getting through our backlog with out-of-market shipments and multiple shipments to customers. And again, I think that, that becomes a huge tailwind. As we look to the back half of '23 and '24, that gives us optimism from the long-term sustainability of our margins.

謝謝，賽斯。我們不會像這樣指導具體的項目，但我們會為您提供毛利率總體方向的指導，其中 3 月份的利潤率是其中的一個組成部分。由於我們已經討論過的所有原因，我們確實在第四季度和 23 年上半年看到了不利因素，產品成本、海洋成本以及我們自己在解決市場外積壓方面的挑戰裝運和多次裝運給客戶。再一次，我認為，這會成為一個巨大的順風。當我們展望 23 和 24 的後半部分時，這讓我們對利潤率的長期可持續性感到樂觀。

Got it. Just to frame the question differently then, Jeff. Thinking about the merchandise margins and how you've been able to hold them flat year-over-year given the level of inventory that's rising and the likely higher level of clearance and discontinued lines that you'll have going forward, would you expect to be able to offset those pressures on merchandise margins with things like product costs and in-bound shipping cost reductions?

知道了。 Jeff，只是為了以不同的方式提出問題。考慮到商品利潤率以及考慮到庫存水平不斷上升以及未來可能更高的清關水平和停產線，您如何能夠保持同比持平，您是否期望能夠通過產品成本和入境運輸成本的降低來抵消商品利潤率的壓力嗎？

I think one thing to think about with our inventory that's different from, say, an apparel retailer, fashion retailers, we have a much higher penetration of the core. So we don't have that seasonal pressure to move like other companies do that are in the retail industry. And from a long-term standpoint, again, to the back half of '23 and into '24 these headwinds we're experiencing really become tailwinds, and that's where we see opportunity on the margin from a long-term standpoint.

我認為我們的庫存與服裝零售商、時裝零售商不同，需要考慮一件事，我們對核心的滲透率要高得多。因此，我們沒有像零售行業的其他公司那樣的季節性壓力。從長期的角度來看，從 23 年的後半部分到 24 年，我們正在經歷的這些逆風真的變成了順風，從長期的角度來看，這就是我們看到邊緣機會的地方。

Your next question comes from the line of Brad Thomas with KeyBanc.

您的下一個問題來自 Brad Thomas 與 KeyBanc 的對話。

Two financial questions, if I could. The first just thinking about sales for the fourth quarter, I know you reiterated the full year guidance, but technically, if we back into what's implied, it's a pretty wide range. Wondering if there's any more color you could share with us with how to think about the fourth quarter revenues.

兩個財務問題，如果可以的話。首先只是考慮第四季度的銷售，我知道你重申了全年指導，但從技術上講，如果我們回到暗示的範圍，它的範圍相當廣泛。想知道是否還有更多顏色可以與我們分享如何看待第四季度的收入。

And then we get a lot of questions about the structural margins of Williams-Sonoma and it does seem to me that you've done some great things with the brands and probably deserve a higher merchandise margin than pre-pandemic levels. And similarly, you've done a great job of getting more efficient with occupancy expense and having a greater mix of e-commerce sales and perhaps that should support a higher margin. But I would love to hear your latest thoughts on perhaps what structural margins look for you as we think about perhaps slower trends ahead.

然後我們對 Williams-Sonoma 的結構性利潤率提出了很多疑問，在我看來，你確實用這些品牌做了一些偉大的事情，並且可能應該獲得比大流行前水平更高的商品利潤率。同樣，您在提高入住費用效率和電子商務銷售組合方面做得很好，也許這應該支持更高的利潤率。但我很想听聽你的最新想法，也許在我們考慮未來可能放緩的趨勢時，你會尋找什麼樣的結構性利潤率。

Okay. Let's start with the Q4 implied sales. And yes, it's a wide range. As I spoke to in my prepared remarks, we saw a tremendous amount of choppiness in Q3. The result of that choppiness is there's a wide range of estimates. But our guidance is a blend of those ranges of estimates and reflects our best estimate as what we see potentially happen in Q4. As a result -- as it relates to the structural margin, there's been quite a bit of change within the structural margin. And here, I think there's a lot to talk about in terms of how we really improved our operating model. The first one is the impact of elimination of site-wide promotions. That is really buttressing our merchandise margins and giving us a lot of opportunity there to continue to sustain that. I think it speaks to something we really learned and sort of maybe relearned in the pandemic is that our proprietary differentiated product that our in-house design produced really commands its own price in the marketplace.

好的。讓我們從第四季度的隱含銷售額開始。是的，範圍很廣。正如我在準備好的發言中所說，我們在第三季度看到了巨大的波動。這種波動的結果是存在廣泛的估計。但我們的指導是這些估計範圍的混合，並反映了我們對第四季度可能發生的情況的最佳估計。結果——由於它與結構性利潤率有關，因此結構性利潤率發生了相當大的變化。在這裡，我認為就我們如何真正改進我們的運營模式而言，有很多值得討論的地方。第一個是取消全站促銷的影響。這確實支撐了我們的商品利潤率，並為我們提供了很多機會繼續維持這一點。我認為這說明我們在大流行病中真正學到並可能重新學到的東西是，我們內部設計生產的專有差異化產品確實在市場上擁有自己的價格。

And that product really resonates with the customer, and they're really willing to pay for it. The second thing is, throughout the pandemic, we really, number one, improved the profitability of our retail stores and as mix has shifted to e-commerce, which by nature is more profitable for us. So a combination of those different factors really helps us with sustaining the margin. And then over the long term, we see additional opportunity to take costs and drive efficiency throughout our P&L.

該產品真正引起了客戶的共鳴，他們真的願意為此買單。第二件事是，在整個大流行期間，我們真的，第一，提高了我們零售店的盈利能力，並且隨著組合轉向電子商務，這對我們來說本質上更有利可圖。因此，這些不同因素的結合確實有助於我們維持利潤率。然後從長遠來看，我們看到了在整個損益表中降低成本和提高效率的更多機會。

This concludes our question-and-answer portion for today. I now turn the call back to management for closing remarks.

今天的問答部分到此結束。我現在將電話轉回管理層以作結束語。

Yes. Thank you all for joining us. I want to wish you a very happy holiday season and look forward to talking to you next year.

是的。謝謝大家加入我們。我想祝您假期愉快，並期待明年與您交談。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的出席。您現在可以斷開連接。