This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zoomies, Inc. third quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question and answer session towards the end of this conference. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone of the company's safe harbor language. Today's conference call includes comments concerning Zoomies, Inc., business outlook, and contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not based on historical facts are subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in the Zoomies filings with the SEC. At this time, I will turn the call over to Rick Brooks. Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brooks?
Rick Brooks
Hello, and thank you everyone for joining us on the call. With me today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin today's call with a few remarks about the third quarter before handing the call to Chris, who will take you through our financial results and outlook in more detail. After that, we'll open the call to your questions. The economic headwinds we discussed at the end of the second quarter continue to impact our business in the third quarter. Compared to the year-ago period when consumers were flush with record levels of savings through the U.S. stimulus and child tax credit measures, we've seen a dramatic shift in consumer sentiment across the retail landscape. As inflation levels remain elevated, we continue to see a pullback in our consumers' discretionary spending. This industry-wide softness has led to an increasingly promotional domestic environment with consumers appearing to trade down to less expensive options. In addition to these challenges, our international concepts are also faced with a major headwind this quarter as they saw their very solid currency-neutral growth completely offset by unfavorable foreign currency movement. These demand and currency dynamics, along with inflation-driven cost and expense pressures, made for a very difficult operating environment compared to the year-ago period. We spoke to you at the end of the second quarter. We assumed that these difficult trends impacting the broader retail sector would continue to intensify into the third quarter. We remained flexible and agile as the quarter progressed, focusing on the areas of the business that we can control to help offset some of the ongoing pressure. While our results were down significantly year over year, we were able to deliver sales and EPS results that were better than our most recent outlook provided in early September. Some bright spots during the period included We exceeded our sales expectations this quarter as the back-to-school season played out slightly better than expected in the U.S. We saw sales growth of 13.8% year-over-year in our European and Australian markets on a currency-neutral basis. And while negative currency fluctuations amassed this on a reported basis, we are pleased to see the continued efforts of our teams operating our international concepts. Product margins decreased only 40 basis points compared to the year-ago period, despite an increasingly promotional retail environment and increased mix pressure as our international entities continue to grow and share. Overall expense management was strong, with the majority of our loss the prior year driven by the top-line sales decline. Our model continues to be highly sensitive to sales fluctuation, with sales increases showing a large flow-through to the bottom line and a reverse impact during a sales downturn. Inventory was managed well, with an overall foreign exchange adjusted increase of only 6.3%, driven primarily by our international entities with larger store growth, while U.S. inventory was up only 1.3%. Earnings per share of $0.36 in the third quarter was higher than our guidance, driven primarily by flow-through on incremental sales. And substantial work was completed on our long-term initiatives, including the opening of 35 new stores since this same time last year, with nearly half of those stores furthering our international expansion. Looking ahead, we expect continued top and bottom line pressure because of the current economic environment, and remain cautious in our near-term outlook that Chris will share shortly. While our business trajectory is softened in the short term, we remain very confident in the long-term outlook for Zoomies. As a management team, we remain focused on building and positioning the business for long-term, sustainable growth. For over 40 years, Zumius has endured multiple business and fashion cycles, emerging each time a stronger and more profitable company. For example, in 2008 and 2009, we saw annual comparable sales down 6.5% and 10% respectively, only to be followed by comparable sales increases of 11.9%, 8.7%, and 5% over 2010, 11, and 12, respectively. This outcome is to one of the most challenging economic periods in recent memory should inspire confidence in the resiliency of our flexible, customer-centric strategy and the strong brand and culture that will position Zoomies well for driving shelter value once the economic environment becomes more favorable. As we like to say, periods of significant change create opportunities. And companies that have the right people, strategies, and resources in place can take advantage of times like this to advance their brand and their business. Obviously, the operating environment in 2022 has proven to be one of the more difficult periods in our industry. But the original philosophies, goals, and ideals on which we built this business remain the same and will serve us as well today as they did during the last major economic downturn. With that, I'll turn the call to Chris, who will discuss financials. Chris. Chris.
Chris Work
Thanks, Rick, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to start with a review of our third quarter results. I'll then provide an update on our fourth quarter to date sales trends before providing some perspective on how we're thinking about the remainder of the year. Third quarter net sales were $237.6 million, down 17.9% from $289.5 million in the third quarter of 2021. The year-over-year decrease in sales was primarily driven by the benefits from domestic stimulus in the prior year, as well as increased macroeconomic headwinds as inflation weighted on consumer discretionary spending during the current year quarter. Growth was also negatively impacted by 200 basis points related to unfavorable changes in foreign currency. From a regional perspective, North American net sales were $206.3 million, a decrease of 19.9% from 2021. Other international net sales, which consists of Europe and Australia, were $31.3 million, down 2.3% from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales decreased 19.6%, and other international net sales increased 13.8% compared with 2021. From a category perspective, all categories were down in comparable sales from the prior year during the quarter with men's being our most negative, followed by hard goods, women's, accessories, and footwear. Third quarter gross profit was $82 million compared to $114.7 million in the third quarter of last year. Gross margin as a percentage of sales was 34.5% for the quarter compared to 39.6% in the third quarter of 2021. The 510 basis point decrease in gross margin was primarily due to lower sales in the quarter driving deleverage in our fixed costs as well as rate increases in several areas. Store occupancy costs deleveraged by 250 basis points on lower sales volumes. Web shipping costs increased by 100 basis points. Distribution center costs deleveraged by 70 basis points. Buying and private label costs deleveraged by 40 basis points. Product margins decreased by 40 basis points. and shrink increase by 30 basis points in the quarter. SG&A expense was $71.5 million or 30.1% of net sales in the third quarter compared to $74.8 million or 25.8% of net sales a year ago. The 430 basis point increase in SG&A expenses as a percent of net sales resulted from the following. 220 basis points in our store wages tied to both deleverage on lower sales as well as wage rate increases. 120 basis points related to other store operating costs, primarily impacted by lower sales levels, 90 basis points in non-store wages, and 30 basis points in corporate costs. These increases were partially offset by a 70 basis point decrease in annual incentive compensation. Operating income in the third quarter of 2022 is $10.4 million, or 4.4% of net sales, compared with $39.8 million, or 13.8% of net sales last year. Net income for the third quarter was $6.9 million, or 36 cents per diluted share. This compares the net income of $30.7 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2021. Our effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2022 is 27.9%, compared with 25.5% in the year-ago period. The tax rate in the quarter is inflated due primarily to the allocation of income across entities and the exclusion of net losses in certain jurisdictions. Turning to the balance sheet, The business ended the quarter in a strong financial position. We had cash and current marketable securities of $141.1 million as of October 29, 2022, compared to $338.1 million as of October 30, 2021. The $197 million decrease in cash and current marketable securities over the trailing 12 months was driven primarily by share repurchases of $183.1 million, resulting in a reduction of our shares outstanding over the last year of 17.5%. We also had capital expenditures of $24.7 million, partially offset by cash generated through operations of $26.6 million. As of October 29th, 2022, we had no debt on the balance sheet and continue to maintain our full unused credit facilities. We ended the quarter with $177.2 million in inventory, up 1.2% compared with $175.1 million last year. On a constant currency basis, our inventory levels were up 6.3% from last year. Overall, while slightly more aged, our North America inventory is healthy and continues to sell at a favorable margin. Internationally, our inventory is more current than the same time last year, and we have seen margins improve during the quarter. Total sales for the 31 day, no, sorry, now to our fourth quarter to date results. Total sales for the 31 day period ended November 29, 2022 decreased 23.9% compared to the same 31 day period in the prior year ended November 30th, 2021. Comparable sales for the 31-day period ended November 29th, 2022 were down 24.8% from the comparable period in the prior year. From a regional perspective, net sales for our North America business for the 31-day period ended November 29th, 2022 decreased 27.7% over the comparable period last year. Meanwhile, our international business decreased 4% versus last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales decreased 27.4%, and other international sales increased 7.7% compared with 2021. From a category perspective, all categories were down in comparable sales for the fourth quarter to date. Men's was our largest negative category, followed by hard goods, accessories, women's, and footwear. With respect to our outlook, I want to remind everyone that formulating our guidance involves some inherent uncertainty and complexity, and estimating sales, product margin, and earnings growth given the variety of internal and external factors that impact our performance. With that in mind, we are currently expecting the total sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 will be between $258 million and $265 million. Consolidated operating profit as a percent of sales for the fourth quarter is expected to be between 3.4% and 4.7%, and we anticipate diluted earnings per share will be roughly 36 cents to 51 cents. Now, I want to give you a few updated thoughts on how fourth quarter guidance rolls into our fiscal 22 results. With the first three quarters of 2022 behind us, we remain cautious in how we're looking at the full year, given the operating environment and the current headwinds we are facing. Inclusive of the fourth quarter guidance, we anticipate the total sales will be down in the 20% to 21% range in fiscal 22 compared to 2021. In fiscal 2021, we achieved peak product margins once again, representing our sixth year in a row of product margin expansion. As we have moved through the first three quarters of the year, we have closely managed inventory and seen only a modest decline in product margin despite inflationary pressures, a promotional environment, and mixed pressures between categories and across countries. We continue to believe we will see some product margin erosion in the fourth quarter, and are planning the fourth quarter to be down approximately 50 basis points from the prior year in our current guidance. We continue to manage costs across the business. However, with our current sales projections, we are anticipating deleverage across the fixed costs of the business. We currently anticipate the fiscal 2022 operating margin will be between 2.6% and 3% based upon the drop in sales, inflationary cost pressures, and the return to normal for items like mall hours, travel, and training and events. Diluted earnings per share for the full year is currently planned to decrease less than operating profit related to the share repurchase earlier in the year. We currently anticipate 2022 diluted earnings per share to be between 85 cents and a dollar. We are currently planning our business, assuming an annual effective tax rate of approximately 33%. We are planning to open approximately 33 new stores during the year, including approximately 16 stores in North America, 13 stores in Europe and four stores in Australia. And we expect capital expenditures for the full 2022 fiscal year to be between $27 million and $29 million compared to $16 million in 2021, with most of the increase tied to the additional stores in 2022. We expect that depreciation and amortization excluding non-cash lease expense would be approximately $20.8 million, down 3% from the prior year. And we are currently projecting our share count for the full year to be approximately 19.4 million diluted shares. With that, operator, we'd like to open the call up for questions.
Operator
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And today's first question will come from Sharon Zafla with William Blair. Please go ahead.
Sharon Zafla
Hey, good afternoon. I guess two questions. You've obviously kind of kept the pedal to the metal here on development. And I know historically, it's definitely paid off to grow during times like now. But I wonder, just given the severity of the slowdown that we're seeing, if you're kind of maybe rethinking what you might do in 23 with the potential for rents to even get more favorable, if the consumer continues to weaken and the retail environment stays shaky. And then secondarily, I just wanted to kind of ask about the fourth quarter outlook, because I think it does imply kind of a 23 to 26% year-over-year decline, but you do have easier comparisons in December and January than you had in November. I think your sales were like up double digits November last year and then got weaker as the quarter went on, as a lot did with Omicron. Are you seeing something that makes you just even more nervous, even against those easier comparisons as we go into December and January? And kind of counterbalancing that as well with the early holiday sales we saw in October and November last year. I know that was like a 300-part question, and I apologize.
Rick Brooks
All right. Thank you, Sharon, for those questions. I'll take the first one and let Chris take the second one. So, So your first question, are we rethinking around our growth initiatives for 2023 relative to where the business is at? Well, of course we are. I think that's a natural aspect of what we're going to do. And, of course, 2023, we don't know where 2023 is going to end up. We're not prepared to talk about that today. But I think a natural expectation would be that, yes, we'll have these conversations with our board about what our plan is, where the opportunities are, and where the most crucial investments are. Now, I think the good news here from my perspective, Sharon, is we've been through these cycles many times. We know how to manage through them. I think we're pretty good at managing through them. I think we can talk about why they appear to be so severe for us, particularly relative to sales. On the bottom line, we're all going to be pretty comparable. We're just getting to the bottom line differently because of the nature of our business. We don't have to discount as much on the top line because of the nature of our business relationship with our brand partners. Yes, we are. We'll rethink those things, but I will tell you that We are committed to pushing forward our long-term initiatives, our long-term strategies that are about meeting consumer expectations over the long term and where we really believe we have to adapt and evolve our business significantly. And there are a number of critical areas we're going to do that. And a lot of them aren't actually very capital-intensive from that perspective as to how we allocate our resources and deploy some capital relative to technology. But there are some critical things we've got to do, I think, in that respect to make sure that when we emerge from this, which we will emerge from this cycle, as we always have from these tougher cycles, we're going to emerge stronger, better, and be able to gain more market share. So I think you'll see us potentially moderate some growth. Again, we're not ready to talk about that today. That is an ongoing discussion with our board. But we're going to remain prudent and prudently disciplined today. about investing in the things we really believe are going to drive the business forward in terms of, again, what we have to do to meet future consumer expectations as we're defining them and as our long-term strategies and initiatives address those expectations.
Chris Work
Sure. And to your second question, just around Q4 and the outlook and how we're thinking about the decline in sales and then matching that up against the comparisons to what we saw last year, You know, I think where we stand here is, you know, when we reported to you after back to school, we were a little more optimistic about where Q4 would come out and how the sales trends. And clearly we believe, you know, as a full price, full margin retailer, we're seeing more pressure than others, especially as we've been able to generally hold price. So, you know, I think when we look at our consumer and we look at kind of, you know, savings rates declining and credit card spending increasing and a real move to value, not to mention the impact of inflation on them in other areas of their life, as well as retail. And then just that pressure we've talked about throughout the year for, you know, that discretionary dollar, whether it be, you know, restaurants, travel, or other areas of, you know, just cost of living. So I think we put all that together in our thought process, Sharon, and coming up with the sales plan of $258 million, $265 million was really to say, let's stay true to this run rate because this was a little below where we thought it would be for November. So we kind of took this run rate forward, especially pretty much across all of our entities. We assumed a little bit better in Europe. As you may recall, in Europe last year, there were some closures. in one of our important markets in Austria that happened right towards the end of November and into October, right up to Christmas, pretty much. So we assumed a little bit of run right there and then, you know, really tried to just kind of think that that's what our consumer might be feeling as we move through the quarter. So that's how we plan the quarter on a sales side.
Q4
Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Sharon.
Operator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Mitch Kumis with Secord. Please go ahead.
Mitch Kumis
Yes, thanks for taking my questions. I'll just ask them one at a time. I was curious on the comp. So on the quarter-to-date comp, is there any way you can kind of talk about the period of Black Friday through Cyber Monday, if that was any better than what the quarter-to-date is or if it's pretty much in line?
Chris Work
Sure, I'll take that question, and the answer is it's pretty much in line. I think when we looked at the quarter, and we've obviously, as you would expect, sliced and diced this quite a few ways, trying to kind of think through how this is coming together. I think what's different as we went through the quarter in this Black Friday weekend compared to the same Black Friday weekend last year is we did run product margin gains pretty meaningfully last year at this time. we were trying to move through some inventory and it just had a bigger impact on margin. Some of the promotion we had last year. So, but overall trend line was pretty consistent across the quarter, uh, week to week. Um, and you know, the main difference being how product margin performed over the holiday weekend.
Mitch Kumis
Okay. And then on the, uh, on the quarter today, uh, you get, you guys gave us sales and comp for that period. Do you know what that is on a three year?
Chris Work
I don't have it on a three-year off the top of my head.
Mitch Kumis
Okay. Do you know if the full year or the full quarter guide assumes kind of a similar three-year for the full quarter versus quarter date? You probably don't know that off the top of your head, do you? Okay. A couple last things. Maybe, Rick, you talked about the trading down that you're experiencing. Can you just maybe elaborate a little bit more on how you're addressing that when you think about maybe your mix of product and brands, and particularly if there's any sort of trying to elevate the exclusive brand side of your business?
Rick Brooks
Sure, Mitch. I'd be glad to. You know, we are, what we're seeing in this situation is I feel, you know, on the whole, pretty good about our core consumer. And even over the Black Friday weekend, we saw our, what I consider to be good signs about our core consumer. We saw much higher conversion rates and much larger basket sizes. we showed our core consumers staying true to doing business with us. But what we are seeing and reflected in that is the mix of penetration to our private label is significantly, a private label is significantly growing. So this clearly reflects the way that we can convey value for that core consumer. And it's resonating, it's working because again, the penetration of private label is up significantly year to date and even higher here in the fourth quarter date period. It's been gaining throughout the year. So to me, Mitch, that is the way through what we're doing in bundling and price points and two for deals and all the things we're doing, how we use private label. It does two things. First, it delivers value for our customer. And second, it helps us on the margin side of the business again, because private label has higher margins than our branded partners. Now, on the branded side, we are reluctant to As you know, Mitch, when we have brands that have equity and have real value that can sell at full price, we're reluctant to do markdowns because we think it's a disservice to our brand partners. And I tell you, our brand partners feel the same way. So in there, we're trying to be disciplined about how much we buy, how we move through product for our brand partners, how we work with our brand partners in terms of flowing the product to make sure that we're not getting an overstock situation with them. And don't get me wrong, we'll be aggressive if we own too much and we'll take markdowns and move through the product. But the goal is to manage it and to basically drive markdowns to where we need to liquidate, whether it be seasonal product or, again, such things that haven't worked out is kind of how we're approaching it. But we don't want to destroy brand equity for our brand partners either.
Mitch Kumis
That's helpful, Rick. And then maybe one last question, just on the skate business. I know that's been more difficult over the last probably, six quarters or so. I mean, it kind of rebounded before COVID and then it accelerated with COVID. And you saw the kind of penetration levels go from, I think it was like 11% in 2018 to up to 19% in maybe it was 2021. I'm curious if at this point, maybe like on a trailing basis, is the penetration of hard goods kind of back down to levels where it was at before kind of the rebound and acceleration, or is it still above where it was for that period?
Rick Brooks
Yeah, it's a good question, Mitch. And as you saw in Chris's comments, he commented that skate hard goods were our second largest declining department. And remember that it's a relatively small percent of sales. So that still tells you about something about the scale of the diminishing sales in that department on a relatively small mix of our sales. in its position as the second largest declining department. So we haven't hit bottom yet, is my message for you, is what we're saying at this point. We're getting down to all-time lows at this point, Mitch. But there's no doubt, as you said, that 2021, the penetration was significantly above our all-time highs for penetration of the skate hard goods department. So we're definitely giving that back up relative to, as you said, the recovery that started in skate hard goods in 19 and to have what the pandemic did to accelerate significantly I think, pull forward of demand. So now we're giving it back. And that's just the way our business works, right? Things trend up, things trend down. And particularly, we've seen that skate cycle many times. I think what we're seeing this time, though, is a massively accelerated cycle. And now we're taking a bit of pain as we fall back to where we're going to bottom out. And we may stay at a bottom for a period of time. The losses will diminish. And then we'll start the cycle back up at some point. Okay.
Chris Work
All right.
Rick Brooks
Thanks for that update.
Chris Work
Yeah, go ahead. And Mitch, just clarify on the growth curve. It was 2018 was 10%. 2019 was 13%. And then 2020 was our peak. We got all the way to 19%. I think that's when we really saw outsized skate sales during the closures in the 2020 year. And then last year was 15%. So still very, very healthy to where we've been. And the current run rate would be, you know, trending at our lowest that we've had for quite some time. So we are expecting that to continue to decline, as Rick said.
Mitch Kumis
Okay. Thanks for that, and good luck for Hollywood. Thank you, Mitch.
Operator
Thank you. And as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1-1. And one moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Corey Tarler with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Corey Tarler
Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. So maybe if you could just start, because you talk about within margin, obviously there's a bunch of puts and takes, but some of those puts and takes might stick throughout from the third quarter into the fourth quarter and then perhaps into the next year, and then some of those might go away, right? Right. Could you maybe talk about what you see sticking versus what you see going away as it relates to the margin headwinds that you've faced this year?
Rick Brooks
Just so I'm clear, Corey, you're talking about product margins or gross margins, or where are we talking about here?
Corey Tarler
I think it would probably be most helpful to get perspective on gross margin with things like freight, commodity cost pressures, et cetera.
Chris Work
Sure. Well, let me take a crack at it and then I'll let Rick add in anything that he might want to. I think if you're talking about gross margin, I think that the most important thing is obviously just to start with product margin and just think about where we're at. And as we said in our prepared remarks, we've run six years of product margin gains through 2021. So we were at all-time highs for us across all of our entities. So now as we kind of transition into 2022, what's really interesting is we have seen this sort of push to private label apparel, right? And actually over the last six years, at least coming into 2021, we did see private label actually declining. We saw a branded cycle that really drove the last six years of product margins. which is kind of counterintuitive to what you would expect, but it's really just what our customer was looking for and how our buyers were able to work with the brands to build the product margin up. So I think when I think about kind of what moves forward from here, if we continue to see that private label push, we will have some stickiness in where product margin goes. The second piece with product margin that I think is really important to note is all of our international entities, Canada, Europe, and Australia, all perform below the US in product margin. And they are also the bigger growth areas of our business at this point. So we're seeing margin expansion across those concepts. I think they're doing a really good job working with brands in each region as they gain scale, being able to push higher levels of margin, and also seeing things like private label increase as a percent of their businesses. So as we see the international entities grow and drive scale, we hope over time that will also drive product margin and drive it closer to our U.S. margin levels. Now, there will be some mixed shifts in the midterm as we, you know, see the international sales grow as a percent at a slightly lower margin. But overall, we think that can be a benefit over the long term. So I think you kind of start there. And then as we think down kind of through the other components of gross margin, the next biggest item is occupancy. This is really a story of deleverage. As you know, our sales are down and down, you know, meaningfully to not only 2021, but even 2019 levels. And so I As we think about that, this is one of the bigger areas of our deleverage. So our teams have worked extremely hard with our landlord partners in trying to manage this expense, and I think done a really good job. But with the sales declines we've had, it still becomes a deleverage item. So as we think longer-term gross margin, this is about growing sales and therefore being able to leverage the fixed costs associated with occupancy. The other big cost, as you pointed out in your question, is just shipping and where shipping's been. We have seen increased cost of shipping. We are working very hard on different strategies to minimize that across both the inbound, but probably more importantly on the B to C that falls into gross margin. And I think as we can continue to drive sales and work with our carriers, this is something we can hopefully manage to get more leverage out of that line item as well as we move forward.
Corey Tarler
Great. That's very helpful. And then maybe to just double-click on inventory, it seems like that's in a relatively good spot versus kind of where maybe you initially expected. Could you just talk a little bit about that, how you feel that's positioned as we head through the key holiday period for most of retail here?
Chris Work
Sure. Yeah, I think, you know, on the inventory side, we feel good about where our teams are with inventory. We can't, you know, we've talked about in our prepare remarks for about $177 million in inventory. It's up 1.2% to Q3. It's pretty in line with where we actually ended Q2 as well. We were up 1.1% at Q2. Obviously we're getting a little bit of FX benefit there, but we're down 3.3% to 2019 as well. So I think you kind of put all that in perspective and, The levels are managed pretty well in regards to what's happening across the retail landscape. I think entity by entity, North America is slightly more aged, but continues to be at a very healthy margin. Our international inventory is in a better spot than where we were a year ago, much more current than last year. And as we mentioned in our remarks, we're seeing margin gains there. You know, I think the important thing with inventory, as we kind of think about how we're managing it and our business strategy here, is really how we're thinking about the business overall. we're doing the work as you would expect to kind of line ourselves up with a lot of the retail market. And our strategy is just a little different. I mean, we're really focused on full price, full margin. That requires in a cycle like this that you have to be, you know, really nimble in how you manage your inventory so that you can be opportunistic in your buys and really see what's working with the customer so our teams are are really pushing that. And then I, you know, at the end of the day, I think, you know, this is probably part of why our sales may look a little softer than others because we're really holding price. And, and I think, you know, as you kind of line that up, I'm not sure we're a whole lot different on the bottom line than other people, but we just have not seen the product margin declines that we've been reading about across the market. So again, I think, you know, that's really the strategy of what we're doing. The last piece probably being just remembering for us in particular how important the screenable business is to our business. Obviously, it's a it's a quicker term business. It's something we can, we can move on in a big way as we see things work. And, and we're, we're focused on managing that piece as well. So, you know, I think on the inventory side, going into Q4, we feel good about where we're at. I think our guidance sort of implies we did say margin would be down about 50 basis points, but in relation to what we're seeing in the market, I think that's a pretty strong and definitely strong in relation to kind of a multi-year look. If you were to do a, three-, four-, five-year look at our product margin over time, I think you'd feel really good with kind of where we're standing. And overall, I just commend our buyers across all of our companies across the world. They've done a great job managing inventory in a very difficult cycle.
Rick Brooks
And I just want to add that, Corey, that, again, we're thinking about this long-term. We have to manage effectively through these short-term challenges. And in doing that, when I say effectively, part of that is managing our brand. And that's how our brand, as Azumi's brand, ties in with our multi-branded strategy, merging branding strategy, which is about price integrity for brands that have real equity for consumers. So this is where, again, we might get to – we might have better product margins in this environment. It might be a little tougher on the sales line sometimes, but as Chris said, we get to about the same place as everyone else. We're just doing it differently. And I like to think the way that we're doing it is better – is a better long-term – strategy and approach for the benefit of both us and the discipline around pricing for our business, but the discipline around pricing for our brand partners, too, because we're not eroding their brand equity.
Corey Tarler
That's great. Thank you very much for all the color and best of luck. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Rick Brooks for any closing remarks.
Rick Brooks
All right, thank you very much. As always, we appreciate your interest. And as I said in the commentary, I just want to reiterate how competent I am and how we're positioned in the marketplace, our understanding of our consumer, what their behaviors that we're trying to solve for here as we look into the next few years, the next three to five years. I want to tell you that we have the strategies and initiatives in place, the right investments, as commented on Sharon's question, to move those initiatives and strategies forward. So when we get through this cycle, we're going to come out stronger than we've ever been, and we're going to gain market share. So I remain really confident about our positioning. We've managed through cycles like this before. We're experienced doing it. And we're going to come out this other side stronger, better, and bigger. So thank you, everyone. We'll look forward to talking to you in March.
Operator
Thank you for participating. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. you Thank you.
spk00
Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zoomies, Inc. Third Quarter Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone of the company's Safe Harbor language. Today's conference call includes comments concerning Zoomies, Inc. business outlook and contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not based on historical facts are subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in the Zoomies filings with the SEC. At this time, I will turn the call over to Rick Brooks. Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brooks?
Rick Brooks
Hello, and thank you everyone for joining us on the call. With me today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin today's call with a few remarks about the third quarter before handing the call to Chris, who will take you through our financial results and outlook in more detail. After that, we'll open the call to your questions. The economic headwinds we discussed at the end of the second quarter continue to impact our business in the third quarter. Compared to the year-ago period when consumers were flush with record levels of savings through the U.S. stimulus and child tax credit measures, we've seen a dramatic shift in consumer sentiment across the retail landscape. As inflation levels remain elevated, we continue to see a pullback in our consumers' discretionary spending. This industry-wide softness has led to an increasingly promotional domestic environment with consumers appearing to trade down to less expensive options. In addition to these challenges, our international concepts are also faced with a major headwind this quarter as they saw their very solid currency-neutral growth completely offset by unfavorable foreign currency movement. These demand and currency dynamics, along with inflation-driven cost and expense pressures, made for a very difficult operating environment compared to the year-ago period. When we spoke to you at the end of the second quarter, we assumed that these difficult trends impacting the broader retail sector would continue to intensify into the third quarter. Remain flexible and agile as a quarter progressed, focusing on the areas of the business that we can control to help offset some of the ongoing pressure. While our results were down significantly year over year, we were able to deliver sales and EPS results that were better than our most recent outlook provided in early September. Some bright spots during the period included We exceeded our sales expectations this quarter as the back-to-school season played out slightly better than expected in the U.S. We saw sales growth of 13.8% year-over-year in our European and Australian markets on a currency-neutral basis. And while negative currency fluctuations masked this on a reported basis, we were pleased to see the continued efforts of our teams operating our international concepts. Product margins decreased only 40 basis points compared to the year-ago period, despite an increasingly promotional retail environment and increased mix pressure as our international entities continue to grow and share. Overall expense management was strong, with the majority of our loss the prior year driven by the top-line sales decline. Our model continues to be highly sensitive to sales fluctuation, with sales increases showing a large flow-through to the bottom line and a reverse impact during a sales downturn. Inventory was managed well, with an overall foreign exchange adjusted increase of only 6.3%, driven primarily by our international entities with larger store growth, while U.S. inventory was up only 1.3%. Earnings per share of $0.36 in the third quarter was higher than our guidance, driven primarily by flow-through on incremental sales. And substantial work was completed on our long-term initiatives, including the opening of 35 new stores since this same time last year, with nearly half of those stores furthering our international expansion. Looking ahead, we expect continued top and bottom line pressure because of the current economic environment, and remain cautious in our near-term outlook that Chris will share shortly. While our business trajectory is softened in the short term, we remain very confident in the long-term outlook for Zoomies. As a management team, we remain focused on building and positioning the business for long-term, sustainable growth. For over 40 years, Zumius has endured multiple business and fashion cycles, emerging each time a stronger and more profitable company. For example, in 2008 and 2009, we saw annual comparable sales down 6.5% and 10% respectively, only to be followed by comparable sales increases of 11.9%, 8.7%, and 5% over 2010, 11, and 12, respectively. This outcome to run the most challenging economic periods in recent memory should inspire confidence in the resiliency of our flexible, customer-centric strategy and the strong brand and culture that will position Zoomies well for driving shelter value once the economic environment becomes more favorable. As we like to say, periods of significant change create opportunities, and companies that have the right people, strategies, and resources in place can take advantage of times like this to advance their brand and their business. Obviously, the operating environment in 2022 has proven to be one of the more difficult periods in our industry. But the original philosophies, goals, and ideals on which we built this business remain the same and will serve us as well today as they did during the last major economic downturn. With that, I'll turn the call to Chris, who will discuss financials. Chris. Chris.
Chris Work
Thanks, Rick, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to start with a review of our third quarter results. I'll then provide an update on our fourth quarter to date sales trends before providing some perspective on how we're thinking about the remainder of the year. Third quarter net sales were $237.6 million, down 17.9% from $289.5 million in the third quarter of 2021. The year-over-year decrease in sales was primarily driven by the benefits from domestic stimulus in the prior year, as well as increased macroeconomic headwinds as inflation weighted on consumer discretionary spending during the current year quarter. Growth was also negatively impacted by 200 basis points related to unfavorable changes in foreign currency. From a regional perspective, North American net sales were $206.3 million, a decrease of 19.9% from 2021. Other international net sales, which consists of Europe and Australia, were $31.3 million, down 2.3% from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales decreased 19.6%, and other international net sales increased 13.8% compared with 2021. From a category perspective, all categories were down in comparable sales from the prior year during the quarter, with men's being our most negative, followed by hard goods, women's, accessories, and footwear. Third quarter gross profit was $82 million compared to $114.7 million in the third quarter of last year. Gross margin as a percentage of sales was 34.5% for the quarter compared to 39.6% in the third quarter of 2021. The 510 basis point decrease in gross margin was primarily due to lower sales in the quarter driving deleverage in our fixed costs as well as rate increases in several areas. Store occupancy costs deleveraged by 250 basis points on lower sales volumes. Web shipping costs increased by 100 basis points. Distribution center costs deleveraged by 70 basis points. Buying and private label costs deleveraged by 40 basis points. Product margins decreased by 40 basis points. and shrink increase by 30 basis points in the quarter. SG&A expense was $71.5 million or 30.1% of net sales in the third quarter compared to $74.8 million or 25.8% of net sales a year ago. The 430 basis point increase in SG&A expenses as a percent of net sales resulted from the following. 220 basis points in our store wages tied to both deleverage on lower sales as well as wage rate increases. 120 basis points related to other store operating costs, primarily impacted by lower sales levels, 90 basis points in non-store wages, and 30 basis points in corporate costs. These increases were partially offset by a 70 basis point decrease in annual incentive compensation. Operating income in the third quarter of 2022 is $10.4 million, or 4.4% of net sales, compared with $39.8 million, or 13.8% of net sales last year. Net income for the third quarter was $6.9 million, or 36 cents per diluted share. This compares the net income of $30.7 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2021. Our effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2022 is 27.9%, compared with 25.5% in the year-ago period. The tax rate in the quarter is inflated due primarily to the allocation of income across entities and the exclusion of net losses in certain jurisdictions. Turning to the balance sheet, The business ended the quarter in a strong financial position. We had cash and current marketable securities of $141.1 million as of October 29, 2022, compared to $338.1 million as of October 30, 2021. The $197 million decrease in cash and current marketable securities over the trailing 12 months was driven primarily by share repurchases of $183.1 million, resulting in a reduction of our shares outstanding over the last year of 17.5%. We also had capital expenditures of $24.7 million, partially offset by cash generated through operations of $26.6 million. As of October 29th, 2022, we had no debt on the balance sheet and continue to maintain our full unused credit facilities. We ended the quarter with $177.2 million in inventory, up 1.2% compared with $175.1 million last year. On a constant currency basis, our inventory levels were up 6.3% from last year. Overall, while slightly more aged, our North America inventory is healthy and continues to sell at a favorable margin. Internationally, our inventory is more current than the same time last year, and we have seen margins improve during the quarter. Total sales for the 31 day, no, sorry, now to our fourth quarter to date results. Total sales for the 31 day period ended November 29th, 2022 decreased 23.9% compared to the same 31 day period in the prior year ended November 30th, 2021. Comparable sales for the 31-day period ended November 29th, 2022 were down 24.8% from the comparable period in the prior year. From a regional perspective, net sales for our North America business for the 31-day period ended November 29th, 2022 decreased 27.7% over the comparable period last year. Meanwhile, our international business decreased 4% versus last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales decreased 27.4%, and other international sales increased 7.7% compared with 2021. From a category perspective, all categories were down in comparable sales for the fourth quarter to date. Men's was our largest negative category, followed by hard goods, accessories, women's, and footwear. With respect to our outlook, I want to remind everyone that formulating our guidance involves some inherent uncertainty and complexity and estimating sales, product margin, and earnings growth given the variety of internal and external factors that impact our performance. With that in mind, we are currently expecting the total sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 will be between $258 million and $265 million. Consolidated operating profit as a percent of sales for the fourth quarter is expected to be between 3.4% and 4.7%, and we anticipate diluted earnings per share will be roughly 36 cents to 51 cents. Now, I want to give you a few updated thoughts on how fourth quarter guidance rolls into our fiscal 22 results. With the first three quarters of 2022 behind us, we remain cautious in how we're looking at the full year, given the operating environment and the current headwinds we are facing. Inclusive of the fourth quarter guidance, we anticipate the total sales will be down in the 20% to 21% range in fiscal 22 compared to 2021. In fiscal 2021, we achieved peak product margins once again, representing our sixth year in a row of product margin expansion. As we have moved through the first three quarters of the year, we have closely managed inventory and seen only a modest decline in product margin despite inflationary pressures, a promotional environment, and mixed pressures between categories and across countries. We continue to believe we will see some product margin erosion in the fourth quarter, and are planning the fourth quarter to be down approximately 50 basis points from the prior year in our current guidance. We continue to manage costs across the business. However, with our current sales projections, we are anticipating deleverage across the fixed costs of the business. We currently anticipate the fiscal 2022 operating margin will be between 2.6% and 3% based upon the drop in sales, inflationary cost pressures, and the return to normal for items like mall hours, travel, and training and events. Diluted earnings per share for the full year is currently planned to decrease less than operating profit related to the share repurchase earlier in the year. We currently anticipate 2022 diluted earnings per share to be between 85 cents and a dollar. We are currently planning our business assuming an annual effective tax rate of approximately 33%. We are planning to open approximately 33 new stores during the year, including approximately 16 stores in North America, 13 stores in Europe and four stores in Australia. And we expect capital expenditures for the full 2022 fiscal year to be between $27 million and $29 million compared to $16 million in 2021, with most of the increase tied to the additional stores in 2022. We expect that depreciation and amortization excluding non-cash lease expense would be approximately $20.8 million, down 3% from the prior year. And we are currently projecting our share count for the full year to be approximately 19.4 million diluted shares. With that, operator, we'd like to open the call up for questions.
Operator
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And today's first question will come from Sharon Zafla with William Blair. Please go ahead.
Sharon Zafla
Hey, good afternoon. I guess two questions. You've obviously kind of kept the pedal to the metal here on development. And I know historically, it's definitely paid off to grow during times like now. But I wonder, just given the severity of the slowdown that we're seeing, if you're kind of maybe rethinking what you might do in 23 with the potential for rents to even get more favorable, if the consumer continues to weaken and the retail environment stays shaky. And then secondarily, I just wanted to kind of ask about the fourth quarter outlook because I think it does imply kind of a 23 to 26% year-over-year decline, but you do have, you know, easier comparisons in December and January than you had in November. I think your sales were like up double digits November last year and then got weaker as the quarter went on, as a lot did with Omicron. are you seeing something that makes you just even more nervous, even against those easier comparisons as we go into December and January? And again, kind of counterbalancing that as well with the early holiday sales we saw in October and November last year. I know that was like a 300-part question, and I apologize.
Rick Brooks
All right. Thank you, Sharon, for those questions. I'll take the first one and let Chris take the second one. So, So your first question, are we rethinking around our growth initiatives for 2023 relative to where the business is at? Well, of course we are. I think that's a natural aspect of what we're going to do. And, of course, 2023, we don't know where 2023 is going to end up. We're not prepared to talk about that today. But I think a natural expectation would be that, yes, we'll have these conversations with our board about what our plan is, where the opportunities are, and where the most crucial investments are. Now, I think the good news here from my perspective, Sharon, is we've been through these cycles many times. And we know how to manage through them. I think we're pretty good at managing through them. I think we could talk about why they appear to be so severe for us, particularly relative to sales. On the bottom line, we're all going to be pretty comparable. We're just getting to the bottom line differently because it's the nature of our business. We don't have to discount as much on the top line because of the nature of our business relationship with our brand partners. So, yes, we are. We'll rethink those things. But I will tell you that We are committed to pushing forward our long-term initiatives, our long-term strategies that are about meeting consumer expectations over the long term and where we really believe we have to adapt and evolve our business significantly. And there are a number of critical areas we're going to do that. And a lot of them aren't actually very capital-intensive from that perspective as to how we allocate our resources and deploy some capital relative to technology. But there are some critical things we've got to do, I think, in that respect to make sure that when we emerge from this, which we will emerge from this cycle, as we always have from these tougher cycles, we're going to emerge stronger, better, and be able to gain more market share. So I think you'll see us potentially moderate some growth. Again, we're not ready to talk about that today. That is an ongoing discussion with our board. But we're going to remain prudent and prudently disciplined today. about investing in the things we really believe are going to drive the business forward in terms of, again, what we have to do to meet future consumer expectations as we're defining them and as our long-term strategies and initiatives address those expectations.
Chris Work
Sure. And to your second question, just around Q4 and the outlook and how we're thinking about the decline in sales and then matching that up against the comparison to what we saw last year, You know, I think where we stand here is, you know, when we reported to you after back to school, we were a little more optimistic about where Q4 would come out and how the sales trends. And clearly we believe, you know, as a full price, full margin retailer, we're seeing more pressure than others, especially as we've been able to generally hold price. So, you know, I think when we look at our consumer and we look at kind of, you know, savings rates declining and credit card spending increasing and a real move to value, not to mention the impact of inflation on them in other areas of their life, as well as retail. And then just that pressure we've talked about throughout the year for, you know, that discretionary dollar, whether it be, you know, restaurants, travel, or other areas of, you know, just cost of living. So I think we put all that together in our thought process, Sharon, and coming up with the sales plan of $258 million, $265 million was really to say, let's stay true to this run rate because this was a little below where we thought it would be for November. So we kind of took this run rate forward, especially pretty much across all of our entities. We assumed a little bit better in Europe. As you may recall, in Europe last year, there were some closures. in one of our important markets in Austria that happened right towards the end of November and into October, right up to Christmas, pretty much. So we assumed a little bit of a run right there and then, you know, really tried to just kind of think that that's what our consumer might be feeling as we move through the quarter. So that's how we planned the quarter on a sales side.
Q4
Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Sharon.
Operator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Mitch Kumis with Secord. Please go ahead.
Mitch Kumis
Yes, thanks for taking my questions. I'll just ask them one at a time. I was curious on the comp. So on the quarter-to-date comp, is there any way you can kind of talk about the period of Black Friday through Cyber Monday, if that was any better than what the quarter-to-date is or if it's pretty much in line?
Chris Work
Sure, I'll take that question. And the answer is it's pretty much in line. I think when we looked at the quarter and we've obviously, as you would expect, sliced and diced this quite a few ways, trying to kind of think through how this is coming together. I think what's different as we went through the quarter in this Black Friday weekend compared to the same Black Friday weekend last year is we did run product margin gains pretty meaningfully. Last year at this time, We were trying to move through some inventory, and it just had a bigger impact on margin, some of the promotion we had last year. But overall, trend line was pretty consistent across the quarter, week to week, and the main difference being how product margin performed over the holiday weekend.
Mitch Kumis
Okay. And then on the quarter to date, you guys gave us sales and comp for that period. Do you know what that is on a three-year period?
Chris Work
I don't have it on a three-year off the top of my head.
Mitch Kumis
Okay. Do you know if the full year or the full quarter guide assumes kind of a similar three-year for the full quarter versus quarter date? You probably don't know that off the top of your head, do you? Okay. A couple last things. Maybe, Rick, you talked about the trading down that you're experiencing. Can you just maybe elaborate a little bit more on how you're addressing that when you think about maybe your mix of product and brands, and particularly if there's any sort of trying to elevate the exclusive brand side of your business?
Rick Brooks
Sure, Mitch. I'd be glad to. You know, we are, what we're seeing in this situation, I feel, you know, on the whole, pretty good about our core consumer. And even over the Black Friday weekend, we saw our, what I consider to be good signs about our core consumer. We saw much higher conversion rates and much larger basket sizes. which tells me our core consumers staying true to doing business with us. But what we are seeing and reflected in that is the mix of penetration to our private label is significantly, a private label is significantly growing. So this clearly reflects the way that we can convey value for that core consumer. And it's resonating, it's working because again, the penetration of private label is up significantly year to date and even higher here in the fourth quarter date period. It's been gaining throughout the year. So to me, Mitch, that is the way through what we're doing in bundling and price points and two for deals and all the things we're doing, how we use private label. It does two things. First, it delivers value for our customer. And second, it helps us on the margin side of the business again, because private label has higher margins than our branded partners. Now, on the branded side, we are reluctant to As you know, Mitch, when we have brands that have equity and have real value that can sell at full price, we're reluctant to do markdowns because we think it's a disservice to our brand partners. And I tell you, our brand partners feel the same way. So in there, we're trying to be disciplined about how much we buy, how we move through product for our brand partners, how we work with our brand partners in terms of flowing the product to make sure that we're not getting an overstock situation with them. And Don't get me wrong. We'll be aggressive if we own too much, and we'll take markdowns and move through the product. But the goal is to manage it and to basically drive markdowns to where we need to liquidate, whether it be seasonal product or, again, things that haven't worked out is kind of how we're approaching it. But we don't want to destroy brand equity for our brand partners either.
Mitch Kumis
That's helpful, Rick. And then maybe one last question, just on the skate business. I know that's been more difficult over the last probably – six quarters or so. I mean, it kind of rebounded before COVID and then it accelerated with COVID. And you saw the kind of penetration levels go from, I think it was like 11% in 2018 to up to 19% in maybe it was 2021. I'm curious if, you know, at this point, maybe like on a trailing basis, is the penetration of hard goods kind of back down to levels where it was at before kind of the rebound and acceleration, or is it still above where it was for that period?
Rick Brooks
Yeah, it's a good question, Mitch. And as you saw in Chris's comments, he commented that skate hard goods were our second largest declining department. And remember that it's a relatively small percent of sales. So that still tells you about something about the scale of the diminishing sales in that department on a relatively small mix of our sales. in its position as the second largest declining department. So we haven't hit bottom yet, is my message for you, is what we're saying at this point. We're getting down to all-time lows at this point, Mitch. But there's no doubt, as you said, that 2021, the penetration was significantly above our all-time highs for penetration of the skate hard goods department. So we're definitely giving that back up relative to, as you said, the recovery that started in skate hard goods in 19 and to have what the pandemic did to accelerate significantly I think, pull forward of demand. So now we're giving it back. And that's just the way our business works, right? Things trend up, things trend down. And particularly, we've seen that skate cycle many times. I think what we're seeing this time, though, is a massively accelerated cycle. And now we're taking a bit of pain as we fall back to where we're going to bottom out. And we may stay at a bottom for a period of time. The losses will diminish. And then we'll start the cycle back up at some point. Okay.
Chris Work
All right.
Mitch Kumis
Thanks for that update. Yeah, go ahead.
Chris Work
And Mitch, just clarify on the growth curve. It was 2018 was 10%. 2019 was 13%. And then 2020 was our peak. We got all the way to 19%. I think that's when we really saw outsized skate sales during the closures in the 2020 year. And then last year was 15%. So still very, very healthy to where we've been. And the current run rate would be, you know, trending at our lowest that we've had for quite some time. So we are expecting that to continue to decline, as Rick said.
Mitch Kumis
Okay. Thanks for that, and good luck for Hollywood. Thank you, Mitch.
Operator
Thank you. And as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1-1. And one moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Corey Tarler with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Corey Tarler
Hi, good afternoon and thanks for taking my question. So maybe if you could just start, could you talk about within margin, obviously there's a bunch of puts and takes, but some of those puts and takes might stick throughout from the third quarter into the fourth quarter and then perhaps into the next year, and then some of those might go away, right? Could you maybe talk about what you see sticking versus what you see going away as it relates to the margin headwinds that you've faced this year?
Rick Brooks
Just so I'm clear, Corey, you're talking about product margins or gross margins, or where are we talking about here?
Corey Tarler
I think it would probably be most helpful to get perspective on gross margin with things like freight, commodity cost pressures, et cetera.
Chris Work
Sure. Well, let me take a crack at it, and then I'll let Rick add in anything that he might want to. I think if you're talking about gross margin, I think that the most important thing is obviously just to start with product margin and just think about where we're at. And as we said in our prepared remarks, we've run six years of product margin gains through 2021. So we were at all-time highs for us across all of our entities. So now as we kind of transition into 2022, what's really interesting is we have seen this sort of push to private label apparel, right? And actually over the last six years, at least coming into 2021, we did see private label actually declining. We saw a branded cycle that really drove the last six years of product margins. which is kind of counterintuitive to what you would expect, but it's really just what our customer was looking for and how our buyers were able to work with the brands to build the product margin up. So I think when I think about kind of what moves forward from here, if we continue to see that private label push, we will have some stickiness in where product margin goes. The second piece with product margin that I think is really important to note is all of our international entities, Canada, Europe, and Australia, all perform below the US in product margin. And they are also the bigger growth areas of our business at this point. So we're seeing margin expansion across those concepts. I think they're doing a really good job working with brands in each region as they gain scale, being able to push higher levels of margin, and also seeing things like private label increase as a percent of their businesses. So as we see the international entities grow and drive scale, we hope over time that will also drive product margin and drive it closer to our U.S. margin levels. Now, there will be some mixed shifts in the midterm as we, you know, see the international sales grow as a percent at a slightly lower margin. But overall, we think that can be a benefit over the long term. So I think you kind of start there. And then as we think down kind of through the other components of gross margin, the next biggest item is occupancy. This is really a story of deleverage. As you know, our sales are down and down meaningfully to not only 2021, but even 2019 levels. And so As we think about that, this is one of the bigger areas of our deleverage. So our teams have worked extremely hard with our landlord partners in trying to manage this expense, and I think done a really good job. But with the sales declines we've had, it still becomes a deleverage item. So as we think longer-term gross margin, this is about growing sales and therefore being able to leverage the fixed costs associated with occupancy. The other big cost, as you pointed out in your question, is just shipping and where shipping's been. We have seen increased cost of shipping. We are working very hard on different strategies to minimize that across both the inbound, but probably more importantly on the B to C that falls into gross margin. And I think, you know, as we can continue to drive sales and work with our carriers, this is something we can hopefully manage to get more leverage out of that line item as well as we move forward.
Corey Tarler
Great. That's very helpful. And then maybe to just double-click on inventory. It seems like that's in a relatively good spot versus kind of where maybe you initially expected. Could you just talk a little bit about that, how you feel that's positioned as we head through the key holiday period for most of retail here?
Chris Work
Sure. Yeah, I think, you know, on the inventory side, we feel good about where our teams are with inventory. We can't, you know, we've talked about in our prepare remarks for about $177 million in inventory. It's up 1.2% to Q3. It's pretty in line with where we actually ended Q2 as well. We were up 1.1% at Q2. Obviously, we're getting a little bit of FX benefit there, but we're down 3.3% to 2019 as well. So I think you kind of put all that in perspective here. The levels are managed pretty well in regards to what's happening across the retail landscape. I think entity by entity, North America is slightly more aged, but continues to be at a very healthy margin. Our international inventory is in a better spot than where we were a year ago, much more current than last year. And as we mentioned in our remarks, we're seeing margin gains there. I think the important thing with inventory as we kind of think about how we're managing it and our business strategy here is really how we're thinking about the business overall because we're doing the work as you would expect to kind of line ourselves up with a lot of the retail market. And our strategy is just a little different. I mean, we're really focused on full price, full margin. That requires in a cycle like this that you have to be really nimble in how you manage your inventory so that you can be opportunistic in your buys and really see what's working with the customer so our teams are are really pushing that. And then at the end of the day, I think this is probably part of why our sales may look a little softer than others because we're really holding price. And I think as you kind of line that up, I'm not sure we're a whole lot different on the bottom line than other people, but we just have not seen the product margin declines that we've been reading about across the market. I think that's really the strategy of what we're doing. The last piece probably being just remembering for us in particular how important the screenable business is to our business. Obviously, it's a quicker term business. It's something we can move on in a big way as we see things work. we're focused on managing that piece as well. So, you know, I think on the inventory side, going into Q4, we feel good about where we're at. I think our guidance sort of implies, we did say margin would be down about 50 basis points, but in relation to what we're seeing in the market, I think that's a pretty strong and definitely strong in relation to kind of a multi-year look. If you were to do a three, four, five-year look at our product margin over time, I think you'd feel really good with kind of where we're standing and And overall, I just commend our buyers across all of our companies across the world. They've done a great job managing inventory in a very difficult cycle.
Rick Brooks
And I just want to add that, Corey, that, again, we're thinking about this long-term. We have to manage effectively through these short-term challenges. And in doing that, when I say effective, part of that is managing our brand. And that's how our brand as Azumi's brand ties in with our multi-branded strategy, merging branding strategy, which is about price integrity for brands that have real equity for consumers. So this is where, again, we might have better product margins in this environment. It might mean a little tougher on the sales line sometimes, but as Chris said, we get to about the same place as everyone else. We're just doing it differently. And I like to think the way that we're doing it is a better long-term strategy and approach for the benefit of both us and the discipline around pricing for our business, but the discipline around pricing for our brand partners too, because we're not eroding their brand equity.
Corey Tarler
That's great. Thank you very much for all the color and best of luck. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Rick Brooks for any closing remarks.
Rick Brooks
All right. Thank you very much. As always, we appreciate your interest. And as I said in the commentary, I just want to reiterate how competent I am and how we're positioned in the marketplace. our understanding of our consumer, what their behaviors that we're trying to solve for here as we look into the next few years, the next three to five years. I want to tell you that we have the strategies and initiatives in place, the right investments, as common on Sharon's question, to move those initiatives and strategies forward so that when we get through this cycle, we're going to come out stronger than we've ever been and we're going to gain market share. So I remain really confident about our positioning. We've managed through cycles like this before. We're experienced doing it. And we're going to come out this other side stronger, better, and bigger. So thank you, everyone. We'll look forward to talking to you in March.
Operator
Thank you for participating. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer