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spk07: organization for their dedication and hard work in a challenging environment. Whether across our nearly 1,200 stores, our omnichannel platform, our logistics facilities, or the store support center, they proudly represent Hibbett with an unwavering commitment to the integrity of our brand and outstanding support for our loyal customers. I'll now turn the call over to Jared.
spk09: Thank you, Mike. Good morning. Please turn to slide five entitled Merchandising. The fourth quarter opened with a strong start to the holiday season, but faded at the end of December and in January. Footwear was our strongest category during the quarter, with comp sales down mid-single digits. Strong trends were seen in lifestyle, basketball, and running. This was offset with some weakness in the performance of some launches in the latter part of the quarter. Apparel and team sports were both negative comps for the quarter, down high single digits and low 30s, respectively. Seasonal categories were weak due to the warm and dry weather patterns. Apparel also continues to be affected by promotional activity due to elevated levels of inventory in the market. While apparel was a challenge, overall, socks and accessories continue to be strong performers. Specific to footwear and apparel, comp sales in the men's business were down mid-single digits, with kids' business down high single digits. Women's was our best performer, up low single digits. Men's was affected by high single-digit declines in apparel, with footwear down mid-single digits. Kids was down low 20s in apparel, while footwear was down mid-single digits. Women's was up low single digits, driven by a high single-digit increase in footwear, offset by a low 20s decrease in apparel results. As expected, we ended fiscal year 24 with a high teens decrease in inventory, compared to the end of fiscal 23. Inventory levels declined in the low teens from the end of the third quarter of fiscal 24. Promotional efforts as well as support from our key brand partners aided achieving our inventory reduction goals. I'll now hand it over to Bob to cover our financial results.
spk03: Thank you, Jared, and good morning. Please refer to slide six for an overview of Q4 results. As a reminder, all financial results are reported on a consolidated basis that includes both the Hibbett and City Gear brands. I would also like to call out that the fourth quarter fiscal 2024 was a 14-week quarter and fiscal 2024 was a 53-week year. Comp sales figures for the current quarter and the year exclude this extra week. Total net sales for the fourth quarter fiscal 24 increased 1.8% to $466.6 million from $458.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 23. Overall comp sales decreased 6.4% versus the prior year fourth quarter. Please note that we had a very strong fourth quarter performance last year, generating overall 15.5% comp. Record mortar comp sales declined 9.2% compared to the prior year's fourth quarter, while e-commerce comp sales actually increased 6.9% compared to the same period in fiscal 2023. E-commerce sales accounted for 18.9% of total net sales during the current quarter, compared to 17.4% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Gross margin was 34.5% of net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 24, compared with 35.2% in the fourth quarter of last year. This approximate 70 basis point decline was driven primarily by lower average product margin of approximately 125 basis points, an approximate 55 basis point increase in store occupancy, freight, shipping, and logistics, excuse me, freight, shipping, logistics costs, and shrink have improved as percent of sales on a year-over-year basis, partially offsetting the favorable, the unfavorable average product margin and store occupancy performance. Freight was favorable by approximately 60 basis points. Logistics was favorable by approximately 30 basis points. And shrink was favorable by approximately 10 basis points. SG&A expenses were 23% of net sales for the fourth quarter fiscal 24 compared with 21.6% of net sales for the fourth quarter of last year. This approximate 140 basis point increase is primarily the result of higher store wages and the related benefit cost driven by inflation a growing store base, and increased data processing costs associated with ongoing investment in cloud-based back office systems and technology. Depreciation and amortization in the fourth quarter of fiscal 24 increased approximately $1.4 million in comparison to the same period last year, reflecting increased capital investment on store development, technology initiatives, and various infrastructure projects over the last three fiscal years. We generated $40.6 million of operating income, or 8.7% of net sales in the fourth quarter this year, compared to $50.7 million, or 11.1% of net sales in the prior year's fourth quarter. Net income for the 14 weeks ended February 3rd, 2024 was $30.9 million, or $2.55 per diluted share, compared to $38.4 million, or $2.91 per diluted share, 13 weeks ended January 28th, 2023. At the end of the fourth quarter fiscal 24, with $21.2 million of available cash, cash equivalents on our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet, And forty five point three million of debt outstanding on a one hundred and sixty million. Dollar lot unsecured line of credit that inventory at the end of the fourth quarter was three hundred forty four point three million and eighteen point two percent decrease. From the beginning of the year, capital expenditures during the fourth quarter were twenty point seven million with approximately seventy three percent attributed store development projects, including new stores, remodels, relocations and new signage. We opened 11 net new stores in the fourth quarter, bringing the store base to 1,169 in 36 states. Made a recurring quarterly dividend in the fourth quarter in the amount of 25 cents per eligible common share for a total outflow of approximately 2.9 million. There were no repurchases of shares during the fourth quarter, similar to the prior year fourth quarter. Moving on to slide seven to discuss full year results. Total net sales for the 53 weeks of fiscal 24 increased 1.2%, to 1.73 billion, while full-year comparable sales decreased 3.1% versus the equivalent 52 weeks in fiscal 23. Brick-and-mortar comp sales declined 4.4%, and e-commerce comp sales increased 4.1% compared to the prior year. Full-year gross margin was 33.8% of net sales versus 35.2% of net sales last year. This is an approximate 140 basis point decline. The decline in year-over-year gross margin was primarily due to lower average product margin of approximately 210 basis points and higher store occupancy costs of approximately 40 basis points. On the positive side, we experienced year-over-year improvement in freight, shipping, and logistics costs as a percent of net sales. Freight was favorable by approximately 70 basis points, logistics was favorable by approximately 30 basis points, and shrink was favorable by approximately 10 basis points. SG&A expenses were 23% of net sales for the 53 weeks ended February 3, 24, compared to 22.8% in the 52 weeks ended January 28, 23. The approximate increase of 20 basis points is primarily the result of increased store wages and data processing costs partially offset by lower professional fees and advertising. We generated $137 million of operating income, or 7.9% of net sales, during fiscal 24. compared to 168.4 million, or 9.9% of net sales in fiscal 23. Net income for the current year was 103.2 million, or $8.17 per diluted share, compared with 128.1 million, or $9.62 per diluted share in the prior year. Capital expenditures in fiscal 24 were 57.9 million, compared to 62.8 million in fiscal 23. Current year capital expenditures were predominantly related to store initiatives, including new store openings, relocations, expansions, remodels, and technology upgrades. For the year, our store count increased by a net of 36 units, comprised of 44 new locations and eight closures. Our total store count stands at 1,169 at the end of fiscal 24. On a full year basis, we repurchased approximately 1.16 million shares under our share repurchase plan at a total cost of 53.2 million. We paid four recurring quarterly dividends throughout fiscal 24 for a total outflow of 12.4 million. Fifty-third week in fiscal 24 resulted in net product sales of approximately 22.9 million. This incremental week contributed approximately 2.6 to 2.8 million in net income to both the fourth quarter and the full year. From a diluted EPS standpoint, the 53rd week impacted the fourth quarter by approximately 21 to 23 cents, and impacted the full year by approximately $0.21 to $0.22. In addition, we recorded a $3.5 million increase to revenue in the fourth quarter due to a change in our estimate of gift card breakage. This change in estimate was supported by the historical redemption pattern of gift cards outstanding is applied prospectively. The impact of the fourth quarter EPS was approximately $0.23, and the full year impact was approximately $0.22. I'll now turn the call over to Bill Quinn to discuss consumer insights.
spk05: Thank you, Bob. In Q4, loyalty sales grew high single digits. This was driven by more member shoppers and average ticket growth. New member shoppers grew low double digits, and existing member shoppers grew high single digits. Higher average unit retails drove increases in average tickets. There was a lot of energy around our loyalty program in Q4. This was the first full quarter under our new connected partnership, connecting Hibbett and Nike's loyalty programs. Customers have been receptive to the program, and we are pleased with the results we are seeing. We are seeing healthy sign-ups as well as favorable purchase behavior. In FY25, the continuation of connected membership will advance the ways in which we engage and delight our members across all omnichannel touchpoints. During Q4, we also made investments in our digital channel to acquire more loyalty customers. Those efforts helped fuel our overall loyalty program sales growth and drove online sales. In Q4, total online sales increased 10.5% versus last year. E-commerce represented approximately 19% of total sales for the quarter versus last year's 17%. Online traffic, conversion, and average ticket all increased in Q4, driven by key footwear styles, marketing investments, and customers utilizing more online services, including buy online, pick up in store, buy now, pay later. For the overall business, we are continuing to keep a pulse on how our customers are feeling. This quarter, customers intend to spend more on athletic footwear and apparel than last year. However, there has been some uncertainty from customers around the size and timing of their tax refunds. Also, customers continue to have elevated concerns around inflation. Based on our research, we expect a more cautious and selective consumer going into FY25. Now I hand the call back to Bob to discuss fiscal 2025 guidance.
spk03: We're now moving forward to slide nine, talk about the guidance. Please note that fiscal 25, fiscal 2025 will end on February 1st, 2025 when we'll be comprised of 52 weeks versus the 53 weeks we just experienced in fiscal 24. The number of business and economic challenges we faced in fiscal 24 will continue to impact our business in fiscal 25. These challenges include the potential for inflation and interest rates to remain elevated, the continued use of selective promotional activity to drive traffic, ongoing wage pressures, a more cautious and selective consumer, and ongoing geopolitical conflicts. These factors contribute to the complexity and volatility in forecasting fiscal 25 results. Our estimated full-year guidance for fiscal 2025 is as follows. Total net sales in fiscal 25 are anticipated to be flat to up approximately 2% compared to our full-year fiscal 24 results. Through the transition from a 53-week year in fiscal 24 to a 52-week year in fiscal 25, comparable sales for fiscal 2025 will be compared to weeks 2 through 53 in fiscal 24. We anticipate the most material impact of this shift will be associated with the back-to-school selling season. We expect a larger portion of back-to-school sales will land in our second quarter this year. On the flip side, the third quarter will have a smaller portion of back-to-school sales. The quarterly impact of the week shift on reported fiscal 24 comp sales and net sales is highlighted in the table on the last page of this morning's press release. Total comparable sales are expected to be flat to negative low single digits for the year. Brick and mortar comparable sales are also expected to range from flat to negative low single digits. Both total e-commerce revenue for the full year and comparable e-commerce revenue adjusted for the one-week shift is anticipated to be up in the mid to high single digit range. Net new store growth is expected to be approximately 45 to 50 stores. First quarter is projected to have the lowest growth with net new units, anticipated to be more evenly distributed across the remaining quarters. Gross margin expectations include a less impactful promotional environment and small leverage gains in freight and logistics partially offset by headwinds and store occupancy. These factors are expected to drive approximately 40 to 70 basis points of improvement in the gross profit percentage in comparison to fiscal 24 results. Expected full-year gross margin is anticipated to be in the range of 34.2% to 34.5% of net sales. Estimated net sales are expected to increase by approximately 90 to 120 basis points in comparison to fiscal 24 due to new store growth, wage inflation, increased incentive compensation, transaction fees, and data processing costs. Data processing costs include the incremental investment in cloud-based technology solutions. Expected full year SG&A expense range is estimated to be 23.9% to 24.2% of net sales. Operating profit is expected to be in the range of 7% to 7.4% of net sales, a net decline of approximately 50 to 90 basis points in comparison to fiscal 24. It is anticipated there will be debt outstanding on our line of credit for much of the year, although we expect average daily borrowing to be lower than fiscal 24. We believe peak borrowings will be tied closely to the timing of receipts, leading up for peak selling seasons. Interest expense for the full year is projected to be approximately 10 to 20 basis points of net sales. Deluded earnings per share are anticipated to be in the range of $8 to $8.75, using an estimated full-year tax rate of between 22.9%, 22.2%, and an estimated weighted average deluded share of $11.6 to $11.7 million. Capital expenditures are anticipated to be in the range of $65 to $75 million, with the largest share of this investment once it's been focused on new store growth, remodels, relocation, new store signage, and improving the consumer experience. Our capital allocation strategy continues to include share repurchases, recurring quarterly dividends, in addition to the capital expenditures noted previously. That concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions.
spk01: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to ask a question from the queue. And for a participant using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Our first question is from Mitch Kometh with Seaport Research. Please proceed.
spk08: Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe I missed the comments or the release, but did you give your fiscal 25 outlook a quarter? I believe in the past you've kind of given the breakout by percentage of the year. Do you have that?
spk03: Hey, Mitch. Bob, we kind of pulled that out this year. I think with the week shift, it gets a little bit more challenging. We don't think there's a huge amount of change within the quarter cycle. throughout the year with the exception we mentioned on the prepared comments as far as back to school. But it's still expected Q1 and Q4 to be relatively similar to what we saw last year. We have that kind of right at the end of Q2, right at the beginning of Q3 that we'll be expecting back to school effectively.
spk08: Okay. And then on the footwear side, down mid-singles this quarter, I think last quarter it was up low singles. How do you explain that sequential stopping? I'm curious, you know, how much of that might have been seasonal versus anything else that you were seeing in the assortment between those two periods?
spk09: Yeah, and that's just Jared. Yes, I think, you know, first and foremost, obviously, we were up against a very significant comp that are really strong footwear results, first and foremost. Seasonal business was a challenge before, but the primary driver was weakness at the end of the quarter. We got to the last week of December and January, and the consumer was even more selective than they have been. Something we've been seeing here for the last couple of quarters, once we got out of holiday, it was pretty clear they were being super selective, and unfortunately some of the Some of the parts of our assortment and some of the things in the launch calendar were somewhat repetitive and really didn't cut through. That was the real driver of what happened in February, especially towards the end of the quarter.
spk08: And then my last question, maybe just as a follow-on to that, you know, the weakness that you saw at the end of the quarter, is there any way you can kind of, if you parse, maybe by month or We talked about how January performed versus November, December. I'm curious that maybe some of that weakness at the end of the quarter is carried over into February.
spk09: Yeah, I mean, obviously, we don't really comment on the inter-quarter, but certainly the November and December time period, we felt pretty good about our business and particularly strong. And once we got out of holiday, things started to materially slow down for us, again, end of December and into January.
spk08: All right. Thanks, guys. Good luck.
spk09: Thank you.
spk01: Our next question is from Justin Tabler with Baird. Please proceed.
spk10: Hey, good morning, everyone. It's Justin Claver. Thanks for taking the questions. Bob, first, just the revenue related to the change in gift card redemptions. Can you just walk through those numbers again you cited? I want to make sure I got those correct. And then just was that always in the guidance or was that not in the guidance?
spk03: Yeah, so the absolute dollar amount that impacted revenue was $3.5 million. Go back to make sure I just pulled my thing correctly here. So again, as I said earlier, not to get into too much accounting mumbo-jumbo, but obviously we looked at some historical patterns and felt that we were under-recognizing that gift card breakage. So $3.5 million was recorded in Q4. It impacted the quarter by about $0.23, impacted the full year by about $0.22. And by the time we issued our third quarter results and guidance, we were already working on that. So we had a pretty solid estimate of what that would be going into the fourth quarter.
spk10: Okay. Gotcha. And then the view that the promotional environment, I guess, in this upcoming year is going to moderate. Obviously, the fourth quarter seems quite promotional. And I guess what gives you confidence that promotions will will lessen this year? Is that just what you're seeing not only within your inventory, but also inventories across the channel? Just any color there would be helpful.
spk09: Justin, good morning, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so two parts. I mean, first and foremost, you know, our team worked incredibly hard throughout last year, and in particular in the back half of the year to get our inventory levels right-sized and to get us in position to you know, have an incredible gain in content of our inventory, you know, throughout fiscal 25. So we feel great about that. So while there's still some inventory that's elevated in the marketplace, and likely there'll still be some, based on where our inventory is, the work that was done, how clean the inventory has become, the support we're getting from the vendor community, we feel like our ratio of full price selling will be much higher. where we still might have some promotions from a competitive standpoint in the marketplace, but we'll have significantly less markdowns that we're dealing with as a result of old inventory.
spk10: That's a great color. Thanks for that, Jared. And the last question from you guys, just on the, you know, maybe Mike, or can you just expand on some of the investments you alluded to specific, you know, specifically the customer facing technologies, you know, what changes are going to be visible to the consumer and then, um, You talked about these enhancing your profitability longer term. You would expect these investments are bending the curve on profitability.
spk03: Yeah, I think there's a couple different, this is Bob, by the way, there's a couple different aspects to this. One is certainly the stuff you see more in the front of house, which would be the digital experience and some of the technology that we've got in the stores. We need to try to make our associates more efficient. You know, another big chunk of this is what we've done in the back office. So we've added, you know, more sophisticated financial human resource systems, as well as now we're upgrading all of our merchandising systems. So the expectation is that we're still kind of in that investment mode. We're starting to get some benefits from some of the things we've invested in over, say, 12 to 18 months ago. So in process, putting some of those things in place, we expect the leverage will start to increase just the 26th forward.
spk10: Got it. Thanks, guys. Best of luck.
spk01: Thank you. Next question is from Alex Perry with Think America. Please.
spk02: Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to follow up on the first question that was asked. Sort of within the comps behind the flat to download digital comp guides through the year, I just wanted to maybe clarify some of your comments, Bob. So do you say that 1Q and 4Q, similar to last year, would that imply that you're sort of thinking about those as flat comps and in those quarters while 2Q is a bit better to pull forward and back to full spend and then maybe 3Q a bit worse is out of the quarter. Is that sort of how we get to the guide for the year?
spk03: I was thinking more about the percent of sales that falls into each of the quarters. So I wasn't really referring to specifically, but again, you know, there's obviously some alignment with those numbers. We're really just looking more at how the revenue is going to spread across the place. And I believe that percent of revenue you'll see in Q1 and Q2 last year, you have that shift. It's like the back end is really part of Q3.
spk02: Gotcha. That makes sense. And then I wanted to ask about the store opening a bit more. Maybe just talk about what you're seeing in terms of your new store performance. If you you know, look at some of the stores you opened in 2023, for instance. Are you seeing those sort of ramp in the same way as previous cohorts? Maybe talk a little bit about where the new stores are concentrated. Are these, you know, new markets for you guys or sort of mostly in-field market? Thank you.
spk09: Good morning, Alex. It's Eric. Yeah, look, we're really pleased with our new stores. The performance has been exceptional. They're ramping up faster than we've seen historically. One of the challenges we've had is getting them open. Frankly, you know, some delays with them permitting, inspections, things of that nature has presented a little challenge. It seems incredibly hard to redefine our timelines and processes to take this to a better place. 45 to 50 this year, and then grow that number over the next few years, absolutely. With regard to markets and infill, we tend to target one new market a year. Two years ago, it was the Las Vegas market, not on the Strip. Last year, it was Milwaukee. We'll wind up with one new market again this year as well, and then the rest is infill. And as we said before, we've got an opportunity to grow the chain. We still feel that we can double the change over time, but very, very pleased with our new stores and the way they're performing.
spk02: That's incredibly helpful. Best of luck going forward. Thank you.
spk01: Our next question is from Christina Fernandez with the Telsey Group. Please proceed.
spk00: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask about the product trends. You mentioned some of the launches late in the quarter where Repentis didn't really hit it with customers. So how do you feel about the level of newness coming in this year in access to products and brands that are more certified or are doing better currently?
spk09: Yes, I think, you know, two things. I'll try to separate the question a little bit. Good morning. I think first and foremost, with regard to partnerships with vendors, our access points, our allocation, we feel great about where we are. Obviously, we've reduced the inventory significantly, you know, 18%. We expect that we can maintain inventory about at this level, but with a much higher concentration of the best product and the highest product. So we feel great about that. Still feel overall from innovation pipeline, things are going a little bit slower than we'd like. There are certainly some things that the team has invested in that we're seeing some nice results in. Whether some of those things are scalable or not is still things that we're trying to determine. And more and more of those will come in throughout the year. So we're starting to feel some of the innovations start to kick in a little bit more. We have more things that we can make investments in. Our team's been really aggressive in trying to find some of those new things that we can get good tests on and then hopefully scale as we get into the latter part of this year and into next year. So things are starting to materialize. We'd like to see the innovation pipeline go a little bit faster. But again, we'll feel good about where we're positioned and our partnerships with all the key vendors. Thanks.
spk00: And then on the apparel side, that's been soft for, you know, for many quarters now. How do you feel about the level of inventory there, potential stabilization in that category?
spk09: Yeah, I think, you know, overall, our inventory in apparel is in great shape. Teams work incredibly hard at that, so we're very confident in, you know, the level of inventory, the content of the inventory, the marketplace still feels heavy. So we're still fighting some of that, but we're absolutely seeing some things starting to materialize, particularly in our streetwear business and in our denim businesses as examples that we feel can become significant drivers for us as we get into the second half of the year.
spk00: And one more, if I can. I wanted to ask about the SG&E increases. Is there any way you can bucket sort of – the categories, you know, what's more within the 90 to 100 basis points increase? What, you know, what are the biggest chunks? Just to understand if it's incentive comp or the investments in the stores, maybe you can break it down for us a little more.
spk03: Yeah, again, this is Bob, Christina. So I think, again, when you look at kind of the biggest headwinds we're dealing with is, you know, still fighting a lot of wage inflation at the store level. came off a year where we're probably estimating somewhere in the neighborhood of 6% of wage increase. We think that number is going to be relatively close to that, maybe slightly lower than that as we move forward. So that is still something that we're obviously accounting for going forward. The other thing is we are investing, like I said, in some of the back office technologies. And those things are bringing in SG&A costs. Traditionally, those might have been things you invest in capital. dollars in and went through depreciation, but because they're cloud-based systems, the accounting rules require us to run that through our operating expense. That's why we refer to this data processing bucket. And that would be things like, you know, our ERP systems and our merchandising systems. And the last piece you did mention is, you know, we set ourselves some pretty aggressive targets for internal compensation purposes. We have obviously tried to live up to those expectations. We have had a little bit of a shortfall the last couple of years. We're putting a full value back into that. And that's why we talk about incentive compensation. We've also restructured a lot of targets within the store operations group, again, to make this much more aligned with what our goals are. So we do feel that there's going to be some upside opportunity for the employees to have some additional incentive compensation.
spk07: And this is Mike. So we'll have a couple of comments on the labor side, and I'll be followed by Ben. But, you know, it's the second largest expense on the P&L, you know, aside from cost of goods sold. So it does occupy a lot of our time.
spk06: and but it's more than just cost it's also the consumer experience so ben you want to add some flavor to this yeah and i'll tag on christina this has been like uh to some of what bob and mike said you know we have seen that wage pressure kind of throughout the year it continued in q4 at about the same pace really as we saw in the first three quarters uh but one of the ways we've you know wanted this is to continue you know investing in our mobile environment That has contributed to an increase in productivity, but it also improves the consumer experience, and that's where our real focus has been. We do think wage will soften a bit this year, but it will be similar to last year. That mobile platform has really helped us in a couple of different ways and really has taken the form of moving work to the mobile devices that we have in our stores. That includes a task that we have to do with sales associates on the floor, but it also includes additional tools to really help the customer. At the end of the day, you know, our associates and customers are used to having access to their devices and their day-to-day life, and we are simply kind of extending that to our store environment. That allows us to do a couple of things. Number one, it allows us to hire, train, and retain the right associates in our stores while also improving the store experience for the consumer. That continues in the current year and will continue in the future, and we do expect to see dividends even more so in the future, particularly around productivity and the customer experience.
spk00: I appreciate all the callers. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question is from Sam Poser with William Trading. Please proceed.
spk04: Good morning, everybody. I have a handful, please. I'm just going to start with the easy stuff. Can you give us, Jared, just what were the comps by month in general?
spk09: We don't give the comps by month, but again, as I said, November, December were We're pretty strong. We felt pretty good about it. And last week of December and January really were very difficult in the primary driver.
spk04: Are we talking about like low to mid single digit comps falling off to down doubles in that last six weeks?
spk09: I would say more flattish. You know, again, we're up against a plus 15. So it's certainly had a big hurdle to get over from a comp standpoint.
spk04: A flattish and then it went the wrong way. Okay. Your e-commerce business is very good, but your store comps aren't as good, and you're sort of guiding for that to continue. Is there more you can be doing using your digital omnichannel work to drive more people into the stores to help the store comps?
spk07: Short answer is yes. Bill, you want to give a little more detail than that?
spk05: Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Sam. Good morning. This is Bill. So, yeah, definitely, you know, omni-channel can drive a lot of traffic to the stores. I'll give you a few examples. You know, buy online, pick up in store. That definitely drives traffic in. We see a good attachment. We saw that increase, and that continues to increase. So that's one example. Our loyalty program is by far our largest omni-channel service. And that drives over 60% of our sales. We're making significant investments in that. So in terms of acquisition, as well as retention. And that will drive store traffic as well. Another thing that we're making investment in this year is around mobile. In particular, around our launch process and how to make that even better on day one and then the following day. So that's another investment that we're making to drive store traffic.
spk07: Then you might want to mention some of the innovation and raffle without giving too much away.
spk05: Yes, certainly there is on day one, depending on the launch, a certain amount of unsold items. We're putting in new processes as well as with our customers, new marketing that are going to increase sell-through on that day one and then the following day. More to come on that, but we have a lot of exciting innovations around the launch process. There's still customer friction there, and that's something that's very important to our customers and something that we're going to invest in.
spk04: Thank you. And then this is just not directly related to business, but there was a lot of moving around with your earnings dates, and I wonder, is there – Are you working or involved in any M&A right now?
spk07: We don't entertain those sorts of questions. But to your first part of the question, the moving of the earnings date was my decision. We were trying to collect additional data. Aside from what we normally get, you know, last year we probably went a week too early, and this year we backed it up. So that was the origin of it.
spk04: Well, I mean, we had originally heard that it was going to be on the 28th, and then it seemed to move towards the 15th. So I'm just trying to understand.
spk07: Okay.
spk04: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you.
spk01: We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.
spk07: Thank you very much for your time and attention today. We always appreciate the opportunity to talk about our business and to say thanks to our sales associates in the stores, the people who work so hard in our distribution center, and the people who work in the store support center. They're the reason we get in here every day and work as hard as we do so we can do a good job for our consumers. So thank you again. We look forward to seeing you in Q2.
spk01: Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.
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