8/14/2026

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

PARTICIPANTS ARE ABLE TO ASK QUESTIONS BY DIALING POUND KEY 5 ON THEIR TELEPHONE KEYPAD. NOW I WILL HAND THE CONFERENCE OVER TO CEO HERMAN HERROLDSEN AND CFO MICHAEL BURGBY. PLEASE GO AHEAD.

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

THANK YOU AND GOOD MORNING TO ALL AND WELCOME TO OUR Q2 2026 WEBCAST. SO LET'S JUST TURN TO THE FIRST SLIDE, THE AGENDA. SO FOR TODAY'S PRESENTATION, WE'LL FOLLOW OUR USUAL AGENDA. I'll take you through the highlights and the strategic developments, and then Michael will walk you through the numbers in detail. So please move on to the next slide. When we started in 2026, our ambition was clear. We wanted to get back to double digital growth. We were quite confident that the initiatives we had put in place in 2025 were the right ones to position us strongly in the market and that they would bring us our growth momentum back. So this is why I'm very pleased that the results came through even faster than we expected. We grew 13% in the second quarter and we almost doubled our EBIT margin to 6.5%. And this was a broad-based performance with every major category and every market contributing. Behind the quarter, there were three main drivers. The first is our new assortment strategy, which is broader and more inspirational than before. We offered 55% more styles on Boost.com than in the same quarter last year and sold almost as many different styles also during the quarter. That was very positive. The second is AI. Our new AI initiatives have clearly improved the customer experience, and we're happy to see that our customers are responding accordingly. And the third thing is a real step change in our commercial organization. We've built a powerhouse of local country specialists, all sitting together at our new headquarters in Copenhagen, and this is something that we just couldn't have done before we moved the headquarters from Hylland, Sweden, to Copenhagen. Alongside this very encouraging performance, we also decided during the quarter to sharpen our focus to make sure that we capture the full potential of our core business. So this is why we closed our B2B gift shop initiative and narrowed our focus. So as we say, we don't need to do everything, we just need to be very good at doing the right things. We are now ramping up inventory as planned and will go into the autumn and winter season with more stock than last year and considerably better stock. And this is the key to keeping our momentum. On the back of the current performance, we've also decided to expand our share buyback program to 300 million Swedish kronor, up from the 200 million we announced after Q1. And finally, with Q3 tracking as expected, the guidance upgrade we announced on 29th of June is firmly confirmed. We don't take the second half for granted, but we're entering it from a position of real strength. So now please turn to slide number five. The women are back. Our clearance acceleration is coming from women's fashion. After several quarters of decline, the category is now growing strongly again. The numbers of customers shopping women's fashion at Boots.com was up 20% in the quarter, and this wasn't just a one-month spike. The trend was stable and solid all the way through the quarter. And this matters a great deal because women who shop with us, they don't stay in one category. They browse and buy across all of them, home, beauty, kids and sport, and even in menswear. And that is exactly what lifts basket value and loyalty across the platform and ultimately what creates long-term sustainable growth. So let's turn to the next slide. One of the key drivers behind this acceleration is our revised assortment strategy. We've deliberately become more inspirational and less promotional, adding new brands, more breadth and greater variety to our offering on boost.com. That also included more premium products which helped to elevate the shop and ultimately the brand. We added around 55% more styles to our spring-summer offering and it really paid off through the second quarter. We got more clicks from our performance marketing channels and we converted them better. So more choice for the customer combined with reaching the right audience worked just as we had hoped. Our focus now is firmly on the second half, and our plan for the autumn-winter is at least as ambitious as what we've just done for spring-summer. We'll again increase the number of styles versus last year, and we'll bring in strong brands such as GAP, Max Mara and Paul Smith, along with other strong brands that support the categories. So with that, we're quite confident that we can carry our momentum into the most important time of the year. So please move on to the next slide. We've been able to grow revenue significantly in the first half despite running on low inventory. And that says a lot about the quality of our stock and how well our assortment has performed. Now, we tend to be quite careful about carrying too much stock. Some would say that we're almost allergic to it, but we recognize that going into the spring-summer season, we probably went a little too low. So we're pleased that after those lower levels during the first half, our inventory is now above last year's, so the buildup is well on track. And as we speak, autumn-winter products are arriving and going live in good volumes, and that leaves us feeling very confident about the season ahead. So let's move on, looking at AI and the customer journey. We covered our main initiatives on the last quarter's call, so I won't go into all that detail again. But I think there are kind of two things worth highlighting this quarter. The first is imagery. Since we launched AI model images in April, we produced around 10,000 of them, adding roughly 300 new variants a day from just 16 reusable models and with no casting cost at all. Video is next, along with categories like shoes, bags and accessories. The second is our Shopping Assistant, which now has been live across all markets since June. It's still very early days, only around 3% of our customers use our AI Assistant so far, but those who do, They convert at roughly 2.5 times our normal rate and they spend about 8% more per order. We've only just started and the next step is to make the underlying search even smarter and even more personal. So it is opportunities like these that let us significantly improve the customer experience, our service levels and the overall appeal of our sites. And all at relatively low costs. Let's move on to the next slide. Here is a nice illustration, a colorful one, if you like, of AI at work. For the World Cup, we wanted to capture the moment, so we used AI to style outfits and create campaign imagery in each team's colors. entirely from stock we already had, with no new photoshoots required. It was relevant, it was fast, and it was very local, except perhaps for Norway, who became global darlings during the tournament and could be used everywhere. It was quite spontaneous, and it's a small example, but it shows how quickly we can move on marketing content, basically how we can be relevant at light speed and at low cost. So please move to the next slide. Our department store model keeps compounding. 54% of our customers now buy from more than one category. Over the last 12 months, every single customer group buying across more than one category grew double digits versus last year. And our most engaged customers, the ones buying across all six categories, were up by 15%. This is exactly the pattern that we're chasing. The more of a platform a customer touches and the more of her categories she buys into, the more valuable she becomes and the longer she stays with us. Put simply, it creates both value and stickiness. So with that, I will now hand over to Michael for the financial review.

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Thank you, Herman, and good morning, everyone. Please go to slide number 12. So we accelerated growth significantly in Q2, and when looking at all metrics, internal and external, the conclusion is that it was very broad-based across categories, countries, customers, etc. So we see strong growth in our new customers, but for the first time in years, we also have good growth in sales to our current existing customers. The initiatives that we have executed are playing out as planned. Our positioning and the focus on boost has led to strong double-digit growth, as you can see on the slide. And this is really our main site and premium site where we see then slower growth in BoostLED. That implies a higher quality of earnings, better margins, and it's also a positive for our long-term brand relationship. We saw double-digit growth in all months of the quarter, and the change into growth trajectory really happened from March. And as such, we believe that our performance has been driven through market share gains rather than being market driven. During the summer, we did, however, see a small signs of general improvement in consumer spending in our core markets, we believe. Next slide. So the repositioning and ambition to grow the profitability in a healthy way is really now showing up in the numbers as we have probably advertised a couple of times. But of course, margin reached 40.1%, a full percentage point ahead of last year. This is driven by real product margin. Boost.com is doing less discounting as it leans further into being the premium destination, and the mix has shifted, so it's relatively more sales that comes from Boost versus Boostlet. Other revenue grew 6% in a quarter, and we expect that to accelerate quite materially in the second half, which will provide further support for the gross margin for the second half. Please go to slide number 14, and profits. The profit development is generally showing improvement in the quality of earnings, increasing and healthy gross margin with leverage on the operational cost base. This is how we want to drive probability improvements as we move along. In particular, for this quarter, we see improvement in the marketing cost ratio based on less offline spending, but also less marketing spend for Boostlet. Admin and other cost ratio is up fully as expected and planned, and as a result of our relocation to our new headquarter in Copenhagen, but also investments in our commercial team and resources. Adjustments for the quarter amounted to 39 million SEK. 28 million relates to share-based payments, which is a non-cash component, as you know, and correlates with performance and the share price. The remaining 11 million SEK related to initiatives taken to focus on the core business, which Herman has already mentioned, and it mainly relates to the closing of the B2B shop initiative, leading to some FTE terminations, write-down of fixed assets, and elimination of a vendor software agreement. This was truly extraordinary, and we expect no further adjustments for the rest of the year, except for the usual share-based payments. Please go to slide number 15. So we delivered 13% higher revenue with lower inventory levels throughout the first half year. And as such, it should not be a surprise that the performance of our inventory is much better than the performance in the same quarter last year. You can see that on the chart to the right. We have fewer products, but a stronger return on the capital we have employed. Currently we now have inventory levels that is higher than last year and we know that more products create more sales but typically with a diminishing return on capital so this is how we will continue to have a strong growth in the second half. Please move to slide number 16 and our cash development for the year. So we have generated strong cash over the last 12 months of more than 600 million SEK and for Q2 alone we were just above cash break even. It's a bit more than 100 million less than last year, despite stronger profit, and there are two reasons for that, as you can see on the bars on the chart. One, we pay exit tax related to our headquarter move, and two, we are increasing our inventory position compared to the same period last year. Both factors are fully in line with plan and expectations. Please go to the next slide on how we deploy this cash, because on slide 17, we have outlined that today the board has initiated a mandate to increase the current share buyback program by another 100 million SEK. With this expansion, we expect to repurchase shares for an amount of 400 million, around 400 million this year, and that brings us to around 850 million SEK for the last two years, i.e. close to 10% of the share capital. We continue to have a very strong balance sheet, and we want to maintain that as we move forward, while still being disciplined in returning the excess cash that we generate back to shareholders. It is important to understand the dynamics of our cash generation because in periods with very high growth, we will tie capital in inventory and areas to support the growth, whereas over the cycle, boosts will fundamentally be highly cash-generated. And that means that over the cycle, we will also be able to distribute significant cash back to shareholders. This concludes my presentation for the Q2 results and I'll now go to my final slide regarding the 2026 outlook. So during the year we have upgraded now our financial outlook two times already and based on the accelerating growth momentum. Since our last upgrade on 29 of June we have seen performance in limelight expectations and as such we are today confirming our outlook. Our expectations for CAPEX have been adjusted to an interval towards the high end of our previous expectations, and this is mainly related to higher one-off investments in assets and installations at our Copenhagen headquarter. So with this, I'm now handing back to Herman for final remarks.

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

Thank you, Michael. Yeah, we came into this year with one main goal, and that was to get back to double digital growth. It took the better part of a year to get the business ready, and this quarter is the clearest proof yet that what we're doing is working. We did a great deal of the groundwork in 2025. We called it a transition year, a year to prepare for our next growth phase. You could think of it as a kind of boost 3.0, and now the results are starting to show. We are selling more, discounting less and spending our marketing budget more intelligently. It's exactly the kind of growth that we want to keep reporting high quality and getting more profitable as it scales. We are now building inventory ahead of the holiday season and I believe it will be the strongest autumn-winter lineup we've prepared. Now, we're not taking anything for granted. The comparison base gets tougher in the second half, and a good deal still depends on executing the inventory, build up well, and how the consumer holds up. But with a sharper organization and the momentum we're carrying, we feel well prepared for the most important part of our year. So that concludes our presentation, and operator, will you please open up for questions?

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Johan Fred from SEB. Please go ahead.

speaker
Johan Fred
Analyst, SEB

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Starting off with the sales growth in Q2. As I read, it was aided by an improved consumer sentiment in late Q2. How much of the 13% constant currency growth would you say is selecting a genuinely sort of improved demand backdrop versus timing slash comps? And has the sentiment improvement persisted into pre? That's my first question.

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

Thank you and good morning. It's actually a difficult question because we see the consumer sentiment numbers in the region and actually during the quarter they didn't improve. But as you say, consumers seem to be more optimistic and I think that the optimism has continued in the summer, so I would rather lean on the optimistic consumer than the pessimistic one. Having said that, I think that the growth in the quarter has to do with what we've been doing. I don't think we've been supported by more general consumer demand and more optimistic consumers, so it's been the structural changes we made, and again, somewhat easier comparisons, but again, we see probably a more optimistic consumer now than we did in the last quarter.

speaker
Johan Fred
Analyst, SEB

Got it. Thank you. A second question on of AOV and new customer acquisition. New customer acquisition was strong in Q2, and you also stated here in the presentation that share of women shoppers grew 2%, and also stated that customers buying from more categories also grew in Q2, which, as you say, should imply a higher AOV. However, in Q2, AOV on Boost.com declined year on year, EVEN THOUGH WE'VE ALSO SEEN A REDUCTION IN PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY. COULD YOU JUST HELP US UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICS HERE IN Q2 AND WHAT'S THE EXPECTED TRAJECTORY FOR THE NEW COHORDS AS SORT OF THEIR SPENDING TIME OR, YEAH, AS THEY MATURE ESSENTIALLY?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Yes, thank you very much for the question. So it is a good pick that the AOV for Boost.com declined slightly in the quarter, whereas it increased in BoostLed. The reason for the decline is the average number of items in the basket. So we actually saw a very small increase in average price in Boost.com, Average items per basket is down. And that is because we had a relatively larger share of revenue on Boost.com coming from new customers. And the new customers tend to buy only a few items per basket when they initially engage with us and then later on they expand to new categories. and then they also expand the number of items in the basket, so in time with higher AOV. And that is why we believe that this is sort of a one-time effect, if you like, when we get a lot of new customers coming in and a relatively higher share of revenue coming from new customers. Then you can see a dip in AOV, but that will increase again going forward. So we don't expect that to be sustained going forward.

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

If I can add to that, you know, you asked also about the cohorts. It's a bit early to say about the Q2 cohorts, but we see that all the cohorts from all the years are actually increasing or spent with us this quarter. And we haven't seen that trend for quite a while. So basically the cohorts are back and that is also very positive.

speaker
Johan Fred
Analyst, SEB

And just to follow up there, when you say later on, what does that imply timing-wise? How long does it take on average for a new customer to become a returning sort of buying across category customer?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

It depends. We monitor how many are back after 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and we always see a dip in the following year and then they get back again. But generally what we are following is the cohort behavior like the 16 cohort, 17, 18, 19 cohort. And we are seeing now that they are actually increasing their spend with us. again so above index 100 and we haven't seen that actually for some years so that's positive and there's no reason to believe that the Q2 cohort will not behave the same way because it's the same quality etc. And as Michael said the item price increased so I think it bodes quite well for future behavior.

speaker
Johan Fred
Analyst, SEB

If I may ask another question on the gross margin. The gains here was driven by better mix and reduced promotional activity in Boost.com. How should we think about the sort of pricing discipline into H2 given sort of the higher volume autumn, winter season and sort of the competitive intensity increasing especially during Q4?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

So this is Michael speaking, and this will always be a tactical decision that we do not decide in a fixed term before we go into the season, but something that we trade accordingly. And this is, I would say, some of the strengths with our inventory model is that we can actually change relatively fast. We have a clear ambition that we want to position our Boost.com as a premium site. And we don't expect that there will be any significant change in the price competition if you look at it from a market perspective. So we expect what we've seen in Q2 to be able to be sustained also in the second half.

speaker
Johan Fred
Analyst, SEB

So just to clarify, do you think that the pricing discipline is sustainable and see a little risk for competitive intensity pressuring margins back down in H2?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Yes, based on what we see right now, that's what we expect. But I will also say that we will act sort of tactically when we take decisions going into sort of the, especially the Black Friday trading and so on.

speaker
Johan Fred
Analyst, SEB

Got it. Thank you. I'll get back in the queue now. Thanks so much for taking my questions.

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Erik Sandstedt from Kepler Shoebrew. Please go ahead.

speaker
Erik Sandstedt
Analyst, Kepler Shoebrew

Thanks. I want to start off by asking about the full year guidance. You got sales 13% in Q2 and you talk about a fairly good momentum heading into the second half of the year and inventory ramp up and so forth. But why does the 7-11% full year guidance imply a slowdown from the Q2 growth rate? Is it just an element of concertism here? You mentioned the comps. and so forth. Just maybe help us understand that a little bit.

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

Yeah, it's kind of Q4 is the main season and we have tougher comps and I believe that our guidance for the second half is somewhere between 7% and 13% growth. So obviously the aim is to have a double-digit growth for the full year. So obviously our target is to... be at the upper half of the range, but it's kind of, it's too early, you know, after June to end after, you know, July and August to start kind of discussing, you know, is there an upgrade because we don't know how the season will pan out. But of course, you know, there's no indications that we cannot reach double digit growth for the full year. So this is what we're targeting, but it's just too early to discuss any changes to the guidance.

speaker
Erik Sandstedt
Analyst, Kepler Shoebrew

Yeah, fair enough. Then a question on the competitive environment. Could you say anything about what you're seeing in competitors like Zalando and the Chinese competitors, Xin and so forth? Any changes in the competitive intensity and so forth?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

I think that we are extremely competitive at the moment, probably more competitive than for a long time, due to that we have very good control of all that is within our span of control. Our assortment is kind of considerably better than before. We have more choice, more options, more inspiration. Our platform is own-built, so we can act fast and utilize AI to the utmost. So I think that we are very competitive and I don't think that the competition is more intense. It might be even slightly less intrusive, because I think a lot of players have challenges, I believe. So I think that we are, because of our focus, focusing on what we are extremely good at, which is also why we dismissed the gifts of B2B, so I think that our focus and our determination and with more inventory and with an extremely strong commercial team, I think we're in a very good shape going into the second half.

speaker
Erik Sandstedt
Analyst, Kepler Shoebrew

Perfect, thanks. And then just finally on capital allocation, with organic growth now accelerating, do you still increase the buyback rather than investing even more in the business? I'm just a bit interested in the balance here between buybacks and reinvesting in growth.

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Yes, and that is a good question and something that we have to consider all the time because having an inventory-led business model also implies that when we grow very fast, we also need to increase the inventory and that will take up quite significant capital and even more than the profit that we have delivered. But we don't want to have any cash, excess cash on the balance sheet. We want to be disciplined and as you know, we don't actually expect to have much higher inventory when we end the year compared to when we started this year. And at the same time, we have higher growth. So we have liquidity and sort of a healthy balance sheet The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yes, good morning, Herman and Michael. A couple of questions. Startinging with marketing spend as a percentage of sales and also in absolute numbers came down quite a bit. And you talk about deliberate shifts away from offline marketing channels in favor of digital marketing. Is that sort of big leap in improving efficiency Is that going to continue in the coming quarters? When you look at last year, you also had a big improvement in Q3 and onwards. Are we meeting the changes that you already saw last year or what's new here and what could continue?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Yes, so we actually believe that we are more efficient on marketing now, but that does not mean that we will see this kind of improvement in the marketing cost ratio going into second half. We see extremely strong momentum and that customers are responding right now. So you should expect that the benefit from improved marketing cost ratio will be smaller in second half than it was in the first half. It is a good opportunity right now to grow fast and we want to invest properly behind that.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. And a similar question on fulfillment efficiency. You write about improved distribution agreements across partners. At the same time, you're also, of course, negatively affected by higher volume. Is that also going to be the case as you ramp up inventory during the second half to sell more? When you look at Q3 and Q4, how are they going to stack up against each other, you think?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Yes, exactly. So within the fulfillment cost, then we will always have ambitions to improve. When we have much higher inbound, that means something. And of course, when you sell more, you also have higher returns. So that has an impact on fulfillment. And at the same time, on distribution, we have seen with the oil prices that there is a little bit of pressure also on the cost. But regardless of this, we will continue to be very, very strict on our targets for fulfillment and distribution cost ratios. So with higher volumes, we will continue to target lower ratios and continue to see small improvements both in the fulfillment cost ratio and the distribution cost ratio.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

And you also talk about the temporary effect from the installation of sprinkler systems. you did during the spring. That seems to be done now. Was that a meaningful impact on efficiency in Q2?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

It had some impact. I think we managed it very well. But I would say it had a small negative impact. But definitely it impacted how efficient you can be when you have installations like that going on.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

But that disruption is basically gone as we leave Q2?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Exactly. That is finalized completely.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

And then just a couple of detailed questions. You closed down the B2B gift shop. What does that mean in terms of lost sales or EBIT and what is the saving on those 11 million?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

So all of the costs that are related to that has basically been written off. So it was an initiative that was started off. You will see limited savings because it was an initiative that was coming up, but in essence it was a change of direction. So I would say you will see the benefit in increased sales and focus on our core business. From a sales perspective, it was actually a very good initiative and it had some potential to also be quite profitable. In essence, it worked well, but we just needed to prioritize to focus on what we do best, and that is our B2C core business.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

I understand. I see your point in sort of trying to get more out of the B2C business when you're more focused of course, but you did have some B2B sales in Q3 and Q4 last year, I guess, which you don't have this year. Is that a meaningful number?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

No, we didn't have any sales. So we hadn't even started the gift shop. So basically we closed it down before it was operating. So again, you know, as Michael said, it's a good idea. So let's just focus. So we don't lose any revenue. It's just like we just closed it down before it was affecting the business.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

And then I think, Mikey, you also mentioned that other revenues will see a good pickup in H2. What is the visibility on that?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

We have quite strong visibility because we discuss with the brands all the time and there's no doubt that the Q1 in general was actually quite tough for the sort of trading environment in general and that's why some brands hold back and really with coming into H2 where we increase our buying budget that implies directly that they will spend more because that's part of the agreements with them. and at the same time we see also that the general environment is improving and that means also that they will also be more willing to do marketing investments with us. So it's sort of constant dialogues that we have with the brands and therefore the visibility is quite strong.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Would you say that Q3 is already in the bag in terms of agreements that you have signed?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

In the bag, there's still some work to be done for September, but it is more or less solid. It's very few percentages that can change now, yes.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

But I guess some of it is performance-based as well, so you don't really know the outcome.

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

Only to a very, very small extent, so we will know the outcome, not now, but very close to. Okay.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, guys, that's all for me. Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you, Daniel. The next question comes from Nicholas Ekman from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Thanks. Can I start by asking about the monthly sales trend? And the main reason for asking is because you said that sales in this quarter was fairly even throughout the quarter. And as I remember in Q2 of last year, you had a decline in April, May for the first time ever, and then June was back to double digits. I'm just curious, have you seen growth rates around 13% for all months despite the big variations in comparisons from the year before?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

No, that is not 13%, but what we did see was double-digit growth. But you are right, May last year was very weak, so we did have relatively more sales in May. But I would say from a momentum perspective and how it was planned out, it was fairly... evenly distributed among the months, and we had double-digit growth in all months.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Very clear. And also, we talked about the guidance being conservative on sales here. And kind of the same thing when you look at margins. Even the upper end of your margin seems to indicate very limited margin expansion in H2, and the low end actually implies margin contraction in H2. So is there any reason there or anything you care to elaborate on why you're being conservative?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

I think it's Q4. You know, it depends on how that pans out. We have increased our inventory and we are allergic to stock, so it's just to be prudent. As we always say, you know, we have the low end, meaning that if there's less demand than we expect, we need to discount more. And of course, if demand is good, consumers are optimistic, then We will be towards the high end of the year. Q4 is just such a big quarter that you have to be careful in expecting too much. But of course we expect much. We are trying to be a bit prudent.

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

And if you look at it from a financial and ratios perspective, then I would say we have already communicated that we expect to see an improving gross margin. So that's going to be supportive to margin H2 or H2. But we have also communicated that the admin and cost rates will increase. So these two will be offsetting each other. And then the one that is still variable is, of course, the marketing cost ratio. We will not see the same benefits as we have seen in H1 because we will invest more

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

make sure that we support our golf so I think that's really this is sort of the key component of whether it will be a high and low end or even above the range fair enough very clear and this question here on cash flow we touched upon this a little bit before here but in the past your cash flow has been the strongest when growth has been the lowest and now that sales growth is back What kind of needs do you see for increased investment in fulfillment and working capital as your sales are now back to double-digit growth?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

We believe we are at a good revenue to inventory level. So that means that we believe that we have to increase the inventory in line with revenue as we move forward. So you can sort of model that inventory should increase as much as revenue as we move forward. Because that is a good level. Then payables will of course increase also with higher inventory. Then we have discussed the H4 for sometimes a new outstore which is required at some point, but that's a bit too early to discuss that at this call, but we will come back with further when we know more.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay, but this is most likely with investment in 27 already, right?

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

That is what we have communicated previously, yes.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Very clear. Thank you so much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you, Niklas. The next question comes from Benjamin Wahlstedt from ABGSC. Please go ahead.

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

Good morning. I will start by sort of nitpicking some words from a previous back and forth with Daniel. You say we should expect a smaller benefit from marketing in the second half than the first half. And I was wondering if you could just confirm whether or not we should expect savings from the marketing ratio in H2 at all, please.

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

I think this is generally what we believe is possible and long term we believe that we can operate at a lower marketing cost ratio. So that is the general pattern and again the general trend that you should expect. But we don't want to guide specifically for H2 on the marketing cost ratio because of the growth momentum that we see right now. We want to make sure that we have actually room to invest if needed. So we will allow ourselves to make that a little bit open and not be too firm on our guidance on marketing cost ratio exactly for H2.

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

All right, but you're not ruling it out either. I take it.

speaker
Michael Burgby
CFO

No, and the sort of general long-term direction is that we can be more efficient in marketing.

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

Perfect, thank you. I was wondering if you could expand a bit on Norway as well. Growth in Norway is quite higher than the group average. Previously, you've sort of discussed the opportunity to increase the marketing push to the market since you don't pay import tariffs and weren't And I was basically wondering, is this what is happening, or do you see any other concrete reason for the strong Norway performance specifically, please?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

We are focusing more on Norway. We're not giving away the tariffs, the savings that we made. So we are more kind of granular marketing. And now also we are, as of September, strengthening our Norwegian setup. So I expect that we will actually perform even better in Norway. There's a huge potential in Norway. And so we are kind of... Yeah, perhaps a bit slowly, but we are gaining momentum in Norway and getting stronger there. And I think that Norway will continue to be a strong market for us because it's after we have the risk of tariffs, it's providing good profitability and there's no need for us to pass the savings on to the consumers so we can keep that. So that's also contributing to our profitability. So Norway is, I expect,

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

Perfect, thank you. Do you still retain the head start versus competitors related to the importers, in your view?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

No, all our competitors are at the back of our court case. they got the listing. So we took the battled and they benefited as well. But that is what it is. So it's even playing ground. So if you fulfill the requirements for the VOEG, as it's called, then you don't need to pay Paris. Growth is not that you're... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Our German friends, they listed shortly after us. So they always won.

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

Perfect. I was wondering as well, is it possible at all to discuss the incremental sales gained from the new brands on site? Like I understand there are obvious difficulties in terms of cannibalization and so on, but could you give us any color at all on the potential growth impact from the new brands this

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

No, it's very difficult. But what I can say is that the broader assortment combined with better targeting, meaning that we get the right audience into the sites and they convert better. I think that's a very good formula. And the good thing is that we talked about having 55% more styles, variants live on the site, but we also sold around 55% more styles in the quarter. So we can't quantify the benefit but kind of it trickles down and I think that the good thing again is that we actually had the clicks are slightly more expensive but as they convert better because it's the right audience and they are getting the right choice it converts but high conversion rates which is a good thing. That's why it's been quite beautiful that relation. But I can't give you a number of how much that meant. But it's been very positive and this is what we're continuing into the second half with the same increase in assortment with and around more with more items. So we are going strongly into the quarter with Immuntory.

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

Final one from me then. I was wondering if you could discuss the fact that your new customer generation is actually stronger than previously. simultaneously with lower marketing ratios than before. Would you say this is due to the fact that you have new brands that have a different target audience?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

This is exactly what I was talking about. Our commercial team, we have basically built a local country marketing team in our new headquarters. So a power team there that are much more focused on performance in the individual markets using technology to attract and target the right audience. And when they get to the site and have more assortment, then they buy more. So basically, the customers that haven't bought before and come in, they see a beautiful site with a lot of inspiration, images, good assortment, and they buy more. So this is kind of why we went into this virtual circle by combining good assortment, AI-led inspiration, et cetera, with strong targeting. So that's why we're in this kind of... We're not hesitating when we're saying that it's structural stuff that we've done that is the main reason why we're growing this strongly for Boost.com, 15% in the quarter. So it's this virtual circle that we've just went into.

speaker
Benjamin Wahlstedt
Analyst, ABGSC

I know you don't really communicate the conversion rate anymore. I guess you could sort of backtrack it slightly, but Could you say anything like on the order of magnitude your conversion rate has improved?

speaker
Herman Herroldsen
CEO

No, I'd rather not do that, but it's improved significantly, and of course, you know, I'm always concerned about costs, you know, and when I hear that click costs are increasing, but that just basically means that we are buying more qualified clicks, and they convert better. So that is, I think, and it's a combination of very focused staff focusing locally, and we're also very good at using technology to locate the right There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments. Okay, thank you for listening in and I guess we will see you over the next couple of weeks and I wish all of you a good day and a good weekend ahead. Thank you.

Disclaimer

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