Sabrina Simmons
Sabrina Simmons
begin campaigns caused driving focused fourth improved led looking lower marketing product quarter sales traffic unit versus
In February, traffic worsened versus fourth quarter trends, which caused lower unit sales velocity. This led to significantly lower merchandise margins. Looking ahead, we are focused on driving traffic with improved product and new marketing campaigns that begin this week.
brands clear continued july month summer
July was a transitional month as our brands continued to clear summer merchandise.
below clearance customers efforts holiday january last margins
January was a clearance month. While customers responded to our brands' efforts to clear holiday merchandise, our merchandise margins were significantly below last year.
anticipate below challenges clearance comparable customer easter evaluate face frequency given half increase last march margins negative overall performance pressure previous quarter reflects remaining results sales shift spring store total visits
Our March performance reflects the challenges we face to increase the frequency of customer visits to our stores. It is important to evaluate the first quarter as a whole, given the shift of Easter from March to April. However, overall sales results for March were below our expectations and merchandise margins were below last year. Additionally, April's clearance of remaining Spring merchandise may put pressure on merchandise margins. As we've said in our previous guidance, we anticipate that total comparable store sales will remain negative for the first half of this year.
august below last margins results sales slightly
August sales results were disappointing and merchandise margins were slightly below last year.
last lower margins slightly
While our merchandise margins were slightly lower than last year, our markdown margins were significantly better.