Hibbett - Q3 2024
November 21, 2023
Executive Summary
- Q3 FY2024 delivered stable revenue ($431.9M) and stronger profitability, with diluted EPS at $2.05 vs $1.94 prior year, supported by lower SG&A leverage and disciplined cost control.
- Management raised full-year diluted EPS guidance to $8.00–$8.30 (from $7.00–$7.75), with modest improvements to SG&A%, operating margin %, interest expense %, diluted shares, and tax rate assumptions; top-line and gross margin guidance maintained.
- Comparable sales fell 2.7% YoY (brick-and-mortar -5.4%; e-commerce +12.6% to 17% of sales), reflecting a still-promotional environment and selective consumer demand; footwear outperformed while apparel lagged.
- Strategic catalysts included launch of the Connected Partnership integrating Hibbett and Nike loyalty programs, expected to deepen engagement and access to coveted product launches during holiday season.
What Went Well and What Went Wrong
What Went Well
- Strong execution and market share gains despite a challenging backdrop; management: “Our solid financial results… reflect our ability to consistently execute our strategy and we believe we continue to gain market share” — Mike Longo, CEO.
- Footwear strength and premium brand mix continued to drive performance; positive response to “trend-relevant brands and products” and normalized launch cadence.
- SG&A improved 90 bps YoY to 23.0% via store labor efficiency and strategic reductions in discretionary expense categories; operating margin held at ~8.0%.
What Went Wrong
- Comparable sales decreased 2.7% YoY; brick-and-mortar -5.4% amid elevated promotions; apparel demand remained softer.
- Gross margin contracted ~40 bps YoY to 33.9%, primarily on ~130 bps lower average product margin due to promotions and occupancy deleverage.
- Inventory remains elevated versus earlier in the year for the category (though Hibbett’s own inventory declined 5.4% since the start of FY24); management continues to navigate a promotional environment.
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Greetings, and welcome to the Hibbett Q3 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Gavin Bell, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you, Mr. Bell. You may begin.
Gavin Bell (VP of Investor Relations)
Thank you and good morning. Please note that we've prepared a slide deck that we will refer to during our prepared remarks. The slide deck is available on hibbett.com via the Investor Relations link, down at the bottom of the homepage or at investors.hibbett.com and under the News and Events section. These materials may help you follow along with our discussion this morning. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that some of management's comments during this conference call are forward-looking statements. These statements, which reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and financial performance, are made in reliance on the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to uncertainties and risks. It should be noted that the company's future results may differ materially from those anticipated and discussed in the forward-looking statements.
Some of the factors could cause or contribute to such differences have been described in the news release issued this morning and are noted on slide 2 of the earnings presentation and the company's annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We refer you to those sources for more information. Also, to the extent non-GAAP financial measures are discussed on the call, you may find a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures on our website. Lastly, I'd like to point out that management's remarks during the conference call are based on information and understandings believed accurate as of today's date, November 21st, 2023. Because of the time-sensitive nature of this information, it is the policy of Hibbett to limit the archived replay of this conference call webcast to a period of 30 days.
The participants on this call are Mike Longo, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jared Briskin, Executive Vice President, Merchandising, Bob Volke, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bill Quinn, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Digital, and Ben Knighton, Senior Vice President of Operations. I'll now turn the call over to Mike Longo.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Good morning, and welcome to the Hibbett City Gear Q3 earnings call. For those of you following along in the slides, I'm on slide 3, entitled Overview. We're very pleased to report a strong financial and operating performance for the Q3 of fiscal 2024. Our team did an outstanding job with consistent execution of our strategy as we continue to win market share. While the retail environment remains challenging, as consumers are being more selective in their discretionary spending, we've worked very hard to offer a compelling product mix that meets this demand. Additionally, our superior customer service, a best-in-class omnichannel shopping experience, strong vendor relationships, and store placement in underserved markets are distinct competitive advantages that allowed us to continue to gain market share. Our sales were supported by a strong Back-to-School season, which occurred in the first month of the Q3.
Footwear sales continued to be the key driver of our sales, especially for our premium brands. We are fortunate to have strong vendor relationships that support our ability to deliver the latest products that appeal to our fashion-conscious consumers. During the quarter, we benefited from a more regular schedule of new product launches, which received a very positive response from our brand loyal customers. As announced earlier in the quarter, we launched our Nike Connected Partnership, which connects Hibbett and Nike's loyalty programs. We're very excited about this new benefit for our customers and what it means for our joint businesses. Bill will provide some additional detail in his remarks. In addition to our solid sales performance, we're pleased with the progress we've made with respect to improved expense management and disciplined inventory controls. Bob will cover this in greater detail in his remarks.
We also continue to make the necessary investments in our business to enhance the customer experience, both in our stores and our expanding omnichannel platform. We believe our store expansion strategy will be a key driver to our continued growth, and we are still on track to meet our goal of adding approximately 40 net new stores this year. We're pleased with the trends in our business and look forward to the Q4 and a successful holiday sales season in line with our expectations. We're excited about additional new product launches around the holidays, which will boost sales, and we're confident we have sufficient inventory to support these events and our premium footwear sales. I would like to emphasize, in short, we're investing in our business model for the long term and continue to take market share.
Before turning the call over to Jared, I would like to thank our 11,000 team members across the organization for their dedication and hard work and support to our customers in a relatively challenging environment. We have a passionate and dedicated workforce operating more than 1,150 stores, our omnichannel platform, our logistics facilities, and our store support center. They distinguish our brand in the marketplace with outstanding support that continues to drive customer loyalty and extends our market reach. Thank you. I'll now turn the call over to Jared.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, Mike. Good morning. Please turn to slide 4, entitled Merchandising. The Q3 opened with a strong conclusion to the Back-to-School season. Footwear remained our strongest category during the quarter, with a low single-digit comp sales increase. Results in footwear were driven by strength in basketball, lifestyle, and running silhouettes. A favorable launch calendar also enabled these positive results.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
... Apparel and team sports were both negative for the quarter, down in the low teens. Seasonal categories were strong during the Back-to-School season, but cooled in the latter part of the quarter due to the warm and dry weather patterns. Apparel also continues to be affected by promotional activity due to elevated inventory levels in the market. While apparel was a challenge overall, socks and backpacks were strong performers in the Back-to-School period. Specific to footwear and apparel, the men's and kids business was down low single digits, while women's was positive mid-single digits. Men's and kids were both down low single digits, driven by a low teen decrease in apparel. Footwear results in both men's and kids were positive, low single digits. Women's was up mid-single digits, driven by a mid-teens increase in footwear, offset by weak apparel results. We continue to make progress on reducing our inventory.
Inventory levels declined, declined slightly in the Q3 versus the Q2, as well as year-over-year. We continue to expect the promotional environment through the Q4. Our targeted promotional efforts, as well as support from our key brand partners, will help us achieve our goals for inventory reduction. Our expectations remain unchanged, and we are on track to deliver a mid-teens year-over-year inventory decline at year-end. I'll now hand the call over to Bob to cover our financial results.
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
Thank you, Jared, and good morning. Please refer to slide 5, entitled Q3 Fiscal 2024 Results. As a reminder, all financial results are reported on a consolidated basis that includes both the Hibbett and City Gear brands. Total net sales for the Q3 of fiscal 2024 decreased 0.3% to $431.9 million, from $433.2 million in the Q3 of fiscal 2023. Overall, comp sales decreased 2.7% versus the prior year Q3. Brick-and-Mortar comp sales declined 5.4% compared to the prior year's Q3, while e-commerce sales increased 12.6% compared to the same period of fiscal 2023. E-commerce sales accounted for 17% of net sales during the current quarter, compared to 15% in the prior year Q3.
Gross margin was 33.9% of net sales for the Q3 of fiscal 2024, compared with 34.3% in the Q3 of last year. This approximate 40 basis point decline was driven primarily by lower average product margin, which is approximately 130 basis points below the same period last year. This unfavorable product margin performance is attributed to higher promotional activity across both the footwear and apparel categories. Higher store occupancy costs, mainly due to deleverage from the slightly lower sales volume, accounted for approximately 40 basis points of the overall decline in gross margin versus the prior year period. Partially offsetting the unfavorable product margin occupancy impacts was an improvement in freight, shipping, shrink, and logistics costs as a percent of sales.
SG&A expenses were 23% of net sales for the Q3 of fiscal 2024, compared with 23.9% of net sales for the Q3 of last year. This approximate 90 basis point decrease is primarily the result of our continued focus on expense management, including improved efficiency of store labor and strategic reductions in discretionary expense categories such as professional fees and advertising. These initiatives have more than offset the impacts of inflation on wages, goods, and services, and deleverage from slightly lower sales volume. Depreciation and amortization in the current quarter of fiscal 2024 increased approximately $1.4 million in comparison to the same period last year, reflecting increased capital investment on store development, technology initiatives, and various infrastructure projects over the last three fiscal years.
We generated $34.5 million of operating income, or 8% of net sales in the Q3 this year, compared to $34.2 million, or 7.9% of net sales in the prior year's Q3. Diluted earnings per share were $2.05 for this year's Q3, compared to $1.94 per share in the comparable period of fiscal 2023. We ended the Q3 of fiscal 2024 with $29.6 million of available cash and cash equivalents on our unaudited, condensed consolidated balance sheet, and $96.9 million of debt outstanding on our $160 million unsecured line of credit.
Net inventory at the end of the Q3 was $398.1 million, a 1.7% decrease from the prior year's Q3, and down 5.4% from the beginning of the fiscal year. Capital expenditures during the Q3 were $11.5 million, with approximately 75% attributed to store development projects, including new stores, remodels, relocations, and new signage. We opened 10 net new stores in the Q3, bringing the store base to 1,158 in 36 states. We repurchased just over 700,000 shares under our share repurchase plan in the Q3 at a total cost of $32 million. We also paid a recurring quarterly dividend during the quarter in the amount of $0.25 per eligible common share, for a total outflow of approximately $3.1 million.
Now I turn to slide 6, year-to-date results. Total net sales for the first 9 months of fiscal 2024 increased 1% to $1.26 billion, while year-to-date comparable sales have decreased 1.9% versus the first 9 months of the last year. Brick-and-Mortar comp sales declined 2.7%, and e-commerce comp sales increased 2.9% compared to the prior year. Year-to-date gross margin was 33.5% of net sales, versus 35.3% of net sales last year. This is an approximate 180 basis point decline. Please note the unfavorable gross margin variance on a year-over-year basis has improved since the end of the Q2. We closed Q2, trailing prior year gross margin by 240 basis points.
The decline in year-to-date gross margin continues to be driven by lower average product margin of approximately 240 basis points. This was 300 basis points at the end of Q2, and higher store occupancy costs of approximately 40 basis points. On the positive side, we experienced year-over-year improvements in freight, shipping, and logistics costs as a percent of net sales. SG&A expenses were 23% of net sales for the first nine months, compared to 23.2% in the same period last year. The approximate decrease of 20 basis points is primarily the result of lower spend in advertising and professional fees.
We have generated $96.4 million of operating income, or 7.6% of net sales, through the Q3 of fiscal 2024, compared to $117.7 million, or 9.4% of net sales in the prior year's first nine months. Net income for the first nine months of this year was $72.3 million or $5.66 per diluted share, compared with $89.6 million or $6.71 per diluted share in the prior year comparable period. Capital expenditures for the first nine months of the fiscal year were $37.2 million, predominantly related to store initiatives, including new store openings, relocations, expansions, remodels, and technology upgrades. I'll now turn the call over to Bill Quinn to discuss consumer insights.
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Thank you, Bob. Starting with our loyalty program, I'm happy to report continued growth. In Q3, our loyalty sales grew single digits. This was primarily driven by more member shopping and average ticket growth. Higher average unit retail drove the growth in average ticket, and increased member shopping was driven by continued engagement from our existing members. We continue to make improvements to our loyalty program, and we are especially excited to announce the launch of our Connected Partnership, connecting Hibbett to Nike's loyalty program. This transformative partnership will further distinguish the Hibbett retail experience. Customers can now sign up to be a Connected member, either in store or online. Also, both new and existing customers can sign up to be a Connected member. Benefits of the program include exclusive shopping experiences, personalized content, and early access to Nike and Jordan member products.
Integrating Hibbett Rewards and Nike Membership will improve the ways we engage and delight our members across all omni-channel touch points. We heavily marketed the launch of the program, and we also have a variety of ongoing digital and in-store marketing campaigns. Customers have been very receptive to the program, and we are pleased with the results we are seeing. Turning to our e-commerce business. In Q3, sales increased 12.6% versus last year. E-commerce represented approximately 17% of total sales for the quarter versus last year's 15%. We have seen a propensity of customers return to online shopping, as indicated by our most recent surveys in Q3 sales data. Traffic, conversion, and average ticket all increased in Q3, driven primarily by footwear, as well as a strong Back-to-School sale. Entering Q4, we are continuing to keep a pulse on how our customers are feeling.
Customers continue to have elevated concerns around the economic conditions, including inflation. On a positive note, concerns around resuming student loan payments have declined since the summer. Also, our customers intend to purchase more this holiday season than last year. I will now hand the call back to Bob to discuss our guidance.
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
All right, we are moving forward to slide 8. The business outlook for the Q4 of fiscal 2024 remains challenging to predict. Inflation has continued to have a broad impact, not only on consumer sentiment and spending patterns, but has also contributed to increases in our operating costs in the form of wages and prices we pay for various goods and services. Higher interest rates have driven up the cost of borrowing for us and may also be affecting discretionary purchase decisions for those consumers with variable rate loans or credit card debt. We also expect the heavier promotional environment to continue for the near term. All these factors contribute to an uncertain retail environment as we enter the traditional holiday shopping period.
Despite these headwinds and uncertainties, our strong Q3 results, coupled with a Q4 outlook that remains consistent with the assumptions supporting our previous guidance, has resulted in an adjustment of several elements of our fiscal 2024 full-year guidance. The most prominent change is an increase in our diluted EPS range. We are now anticipating diluted EPS for the full year to be between $8 and $8.30. This is up from $7-$7.75 range that we provided earlier. Consistent with prior guidance, net sales for the full year, including the impact of the 53rd week, are anticipated to be flat to up approximately 2% compared to our fiscal 2023 results. The 53rd week is expected to be approximately 1% of full-year sales.
Approximately 52% of our total sales will be recognized in the second half of the fiscal year. Total comparable sales are still expected to decline in the low single-digit range for the full year. Full-year Brick-and-Mortar comparable sales are also still anticipated to be in the negative low single-digit range. However, we now expect full-year e-commerce revenue to be flat to up low single digits. We are anticipating the slight mix shift toward e-commerce that we saw in the Q3 will continue through the holiday season. We expect our net new store count to be approximately 40 units for the year. This is at the low end of the previous range, as delays in external approvals and longer lead times on inspections and permitting have pushed back some of our construction schedules. We anticipate the aggressive promotional environment to continue in the near term.
Projected full-year gross margin remains unchanged from previous guidance at approximately 33.9%-34% of net sales. We have lowered the anticipated SG&A range as a percent of net sales to 23.1%-23.3%, down from 23.3%-23.5%, which was provided in our previous guidance. We are actively managing discretionary expenses and continue to focus on identifying efficiencies throughout the organization, which are currently helping us offset inflationary pressures, most notably in labor and benefits. Operating margin for the year is expected to be in the range of 7.6%-8% of net sales, up from previous guidance of 7.4%-7.8% of net sales.
Operating profit as a % of net sales in the Q4 benefits from higher sales volume, although the 53rd week is not considered a significant driver of incremental operating profit due to the low sales volume projected for that week. We still expect to carry debt throughout the remainder of the year, although we have lowered the interest expense range as a % of sales. Consistent with previous commentary, we anticipate that borrowings will moderate as inventory levels decline throughout and after the holiday season. As noted previously, diluted earnings per share anticipated being in the range of $8.00-$8.30, up from previous guidance of $7.00-$7.75.
This range assumes an estimated full-year tax rate of approximately 23.1%-23.3%, down slightly from prior guidance, and an estimated year-end weighted average diluted share count of approximately 12.6 million, also down slightly from prior guidance. We continue to project capital expenditures in the range of $60-70 million, with the largest allocation focused on new store growth, remodels, relocations, new store signage, and improving the consumer experience. Our capital allocation strategy will continue to include share repurchases and recurring quarterly dividends, dividends in addition to the capital expenditures noted above. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. At this time, we would like participants to ask one question, then requeue for any additional questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Mitch Kummetz from Seaport Research. Please proceed.
Mitch Kummetz (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst.)
Yes, thanks for taking my question. Just hoping to get a better sense of consumer spending patterns. It sounds like you guys had a good Back-to-School. I'm guessing maybe things slowed a bit in September and October. It sounds like from a seasonal standpoint, there were some challenges. And then there was a comment made about the holiday spending outlook that do you expect your consumer to spend more for this holiday than last? So can you just maybe elaborate on some of that? I don't know if you can kind of give us the months for the quarter, but just talk a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of kinda how the consumer's purchasing, you know, sort of peak versus non-peak period.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yep. Morning, Mitch, it's Jared. I'll start and then get Bill in, and like we've been involved in the conversation as well. Yeah, I think what we saw, obviously, the peak of Back-to-School was really strong for us, and we saw that, you know, at the tail end of the Q2 into the Q3 in the month of August. So really pleased with the Back-to-School results, really across all categories. And we're really excited around what the seasonal apparel was showing us during Back-to-School. You know, unfortunately, as we got outside of Back-to-School, outside of that peak, you know, things definitely slowed down some, with the biggest impact coming in apparel.
We do believe that is a direct result of the weather patterns not being favorable with regard to, you know, warmer temperatures year-over-year, and, you know, lack of wet weather. So we felt great, again, in Back-to-School, a little bit challenged towards the end of the quarter in apparel, as I said, but footwear was fairly consistent through the quarter. Felt really good about footwear, and in particular, the launch cadences throughout the quarter, we felt really strongly about. So, Bill?
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Yeah, good morning, Mitch. So just to answer your question around how customers are feeling, they do have elevated financial concerns, but at the same time, they do plan on spending more, during the holidays, in particular on footwear, as well as online. When we dig further into our survey results, it's pretty interesting. We found that, basically, the younger you are, the more positive you feel. So Gen Z, as well as millennials, are definitely bullish and tend to spend more versus the older population, which is good for us because Gen Z and millennials are core customers. Also, for those people that have financial challenges, you know, they are planning to make trade-offs. So cutting back on things like eating out, entertainment, to fund retail spending.
Also, some customers plan to lean more into credit, during the holidays.
Mitch Kummetz (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst.)
Okay, thanks.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yeah. Go ahead, Bill.
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Go ahead.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
I was going to say, you know, Jared and Bill summed it up pretty well. You know, we had a really nice, strong, Back-to-School selling season. You know, impacts our business in a big way. The seasonal patterns Jared mentioned, too, impact some of our outerwear sales, but I feel good about our position in inventory going into the holiday season. You know, our peak seasons have been strong, and really look forward to seeing what the Christmas, you know, selling season brings in store, so.
Mitch Kummetz (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst.)
All right, thanks. I'll go ahead and requeue.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Thank you, Mitch.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from Sam Poser, from Williams Trading. Please proceed.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much. Happy Thanksgiving, almost. A question on the inventory, Jared. You mentioned it would be down mid-teens at the end of the year, which would get it about as clean as from a pure dollar perspective as we've seen it in some times. The promotional activity that you're seeing, that's impacting the gross margin. Once your inventory gets to that level, regardless of what's going on out in the marketplace, I mean, do you anticipate a significant improvement in your gross margin on your, I call it your, let's say, your product margin going into fiscal 2025?
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
... Yep. Hey, morning, Sam. Happy Thanksgiving as well. So yeah, so it's really, you know, it's two-pronged approach. I mean, obviously, we're hyper-focused on the level of inventory, and, you know, we believe we'll get to a more optimal level by the end of the year with regard to the total level of inventory. But we do still have some pressures with regard to content, so we're highly hyper-focused on the content. We'll continue with targeted promotions around the content to try and get, you know, that—our healthiest level with regard to what we're showing to the consumer as we go forward. So, you know, likely there'll still be a few challenges as we head into next year with regard to the content, but we believe we'll get that resolved pretty quickly as we head into next year.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thanks. And then secondly, the new Nike part... How much is the new Nike partnership and what sounds like better allocations, impacting... You know, where does that impact more, in the stores or online? And then secondly, you commented that the launch calendar was very favorable in Q3. How does it look going in, in Q? Give us any indication, I know it's early, on sort of, you know, what fourth Q looks like to date. That's a cross your fingers and get an answer question.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Well, we're not gonna answer quarter to date, but we do feel good about the launch calendar in the Q4 and the support that we have regarding allocations in the Q4. You know, specific to Nike Connected, it's really will affect both channels as we go forward. Bill will give a little more color here in a moment on what we did across all the channels from a Connected membership perspective. But specific to product, you know, there is additional focus around our business with regard to access points that will both impact Brick-and-Mortar as well as digital. We'll certainly have an enhanced profile of vendor direct offering that will affect primarily the digital space. And then just a general focus of our business being elevated around additional support of inventory, you know, in the most coveted products.
So we feel really good about where we stand. Our relationship and partnership has been incredible, and this will only help to reinforce it as we continue to put forth a great experience for consumers. Bill?
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Yeah. Sam, just give you a little bit more on Connected. So it will definitely help with acquisition and retention for both channels. So, you know, what we're seeing is definitely, you know, some good sign-up rates for the Connected program, which is positive. We are doing Connected member events to drive engagement at our stores, as well as member-only products. From talking with our customers, customers are happy. I mean, the basic gist of it is it's more that the program is more valuable because you're getting more than just Hibbett. And as a result of that, we're starting to see new customer sign-ups increasing overall.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thanks. So just one last thing. Can you give us any variation between what you're seeing out of Hibbett's and City Gear?
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
It's pretty consistent, Sam. Yeah, I think obviously, you know, both, both of our brands are highly focused on the fashion consumer, so it's been pretty consistent.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thanks very much. Continue to success.
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Thank you.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from Cristina Fernández from Telsey Advisory Group. Please proceed.
Cristina Fernández (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst.)
Hi, good morning, and congratulations on the better results. I wanted to ask about the channel mix you're seeing, particularly with the strong performance in e-commerce. Do you think it's more due to the product launches or consumers looking for promotions which, you know, have been more, I guess, significant online? Well, first, sort of, yeah, the trends in e-commerce, and then, I guess, what initiatives are you taking to drive more traffic in stores, which has been, you know, a challenge for a few quarters now? Thank you.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yeah. Hi, good morning, Cristina. It's Jared. I'll start. Yeah, I think from a channel perspective, obviously, we're hyper-focused on both channels. You know, our ability to gain additional access and inventory levels and a lot of the most coveted products is certainly driving additional engagement from a digital perspective. So, you know, we believe a lot of that is due to the strength of our footwear business and less about the promotional activity from a digital perspective. Bill, I think I'll hand it to you. I'm sure you'll have some commentary around this.
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, the As Jared said, the strength of the footwear business really drove, you know, that e-commerce penetration for the quarter. We believe that will continue just based on what we're looking at here for Q4. So we did raise guidance for digital to flat to single digit positive. You know, as far as, you know, driving store traffic and what we're doing around that, you know, our biggest acquisition and retention vehicle is our loyalty program, and we're doubling down on that. We have a variety of initiatives to continue that, improving that program, as well as Connected, obviously. We're also doing a lot around launches, particularly in store, to drive higher sell-throughs and more traffic around that as well.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from Justin Kleber from Robert W. Baird. Please proceed.
Justin Kleber (Senior Research Analyst)
... Hey, guys, it's Justin Kleber. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on the partnership with Nike. I wanna ask a question on margin, kind of two parts. Just first, on the product margin decline of 130 in the quarter, can you parse that out maybe a bit, at least directionally, between apparel and footwear, and kind of what's really driving that decline? And then just longer term, your new operating margin outlook for this year, 7.6%-8%. I guess barring some, you know, economic shock, do you guys feel this level is kind of the new baseline now for operating margins, and we can either hold or maybe even expand, you know, as we look out into the future? Thank you.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Hey, Justin. Jared, good morning. Thank you. I'll start with regard to the product, and it's really across both, you know, footwear and apparel. I mean, as we said, we're, you know, making great progress. You know, Stephanie and the team have done an incredible job on managing the inventory, getting the inventory lower, and as we said, we feel great about where we expect to land in the Q4. But we still have some work to do to get, you know, to an optimal level of content. So that's across both categories. I would also say that, you know, typically the seasonal product early in the season tends to be very margin-rich.
So, some of the challenges around seasonal apparel in the latter part of a quarter didn't help us as much as we might have expected with regard to margin from a product standpoint. Bob?
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
Morning, Justin. As far as... You know, obviously, we're not giving any guidance into the future at this point, beyond the current fiscal year. But I think, you know, directionally, we're obviously looking to continue to try to slowly, you know, improve performance over time. Nothing's a complete linear equation, so we're gonna see some ebb and flow in margin. We'll see some ebb and flow in SG&A, but I think, again, we've kind of - we've talked about this before, about established kind of new baseline. We do believe that, this is a number we can again be comfortable with, probably into the near term. But, again, we'll provide more formal guidance, obviously, into fiscal 2025 after we finish the current year.
Justin Kleber (Senior Research Analyst)
All right, guys. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the technical difficulties. We'll move on to our next question, which is coming from the line of Alex Perry with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Alex Perry (Senior Research Analyst)
Hi, thanks for taking my questions here. I guess first, I just wanted to ask a little bit more about the guidance and sort of the Q4 implied guidance. It looks like the comp guidance and gross margin guidance remains unchanged. Is that just conservatism, or, you talked about the launch calendar being strong, or are you seeing, you know, more cautious consumer behavior that, that led to, to not raising the, the guide? Thanks.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Hey, Alex. Good morning. Jared, I'll start. Yeah, I mean, I think all the above, right? I think there's still a lot of market uncertainty. You know, there's uncertainty around the consumer. We still think there's elevated inventory levels in the market, which will likely lead to a pretty heavily promotional environment. The weather at the tail end of the Q3 obviously didn't help that. So I think all of the above. There's still a lot of uncertainty in the market, and even though we're confident in our plans and certainly confident about the investments we've made in the business, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market.
Alex Perry (Senior Research Analyst)
That's really helpful. Then just a follow-up: Can you maybe talk a little bit more about some of the secondary brand performance? I know that had been, you know, a bit softer earlier in the year. Are there any call-outs or strong brands outside of Nike and Jordan that are continuing to help the business?
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yeah, I mean, we have a really broad brand portfolio, as you know. You know, we typically don't talk specifically about a lot of brands on this call, but, you know, historically, we tend to have a pretty significant brand churn. You know, there are some of our secondary brands that are doing a nice job from a pipeline perspective of innovation or at least newness. You know, and innovation in our business doesn't necessarily mean new technology. It can mean something that hasn't been in the market that's brought back and put forth in front of the consumer. So some brands are doing a little better with regard to the innovation pipeline, and they're succeeding, and others are still, unfortunately, very slow with regard to innovation that's continuing to have challenges.
So, you know, as brands improve, you know, throughout next year and into the future with regard to that newness and innovation profile, we'd expect a better performance out of our secondary brands.
Alex Perry (Senior Research Analyst)
Perfect. And then just my last one. Could you just talk a little bit more about apparel inventories? Are there still overages that need to be worked through? And I guess on the seasonal product, has that, you know, improved a bit now that the weather has turned? Thanks.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yep. Hey, Alex, Jared again. We feel really good about where our apparel inventory is. Obviously, that was the category that we really started putting solutions against first. So no real significant challenges with regard to apparel. Obviously, there's a lot of business to be done in the Q4 and a lot of uncertainty out there, so we'll see how that all finishes up. But again, we feel good about where the inventory is expected to land, and really good about where we expect to have content as we get into next year. Perfect. That's really helpful. Best of luck this holiday season.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Thank you so much.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question is coming from John Lawrence with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.
John Lawrence (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Great. Thank you. Congrats, guys, and Mike, would you talk about a little bit about expenses? I mean, obviously, great strides there, and I know you're doing a lot. What, what inning are we in, before you would wonder if you're cutting into muscle on the labor side, whatever, just some thoughts on how much room you have on the expense cut?
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for the question. Ben will come in after me on this one, I think. To set the table on the question, if you'll recall, several quarters ago, we spoke about the fact that sales had accelerated over the past few years, and we drug some costs inadvertently, as you know, as is normal. We drug some costs into our current structure. We went a little too far on a handful of things, whether that was a handful of people or a handful of projects or particular systems that we didn't need. And so we began a systematic process to review those, about 12 months ago, and that has borne fruit, and we're pretty proud of that. We don't think that we're anywhere near cutting into the muscle.
I would term it more, we're taking the savings and reapplying them to the consumer experience, which has the virtuous circle of improving cost, improving our efficiency and effectiveness and speed with which we can serve the customer. Ben?
Ben Knighten (SVP of Operations)
Yeah, Mike, appreciate it, John. It's been nice. You know, it is a little bit rare in retail when you're able to kind of gain both, efficiency while increasing your effectiveness, to your point, not cutting into that muscle. Our big move here to the mobile platform has kind of enabled us to do both. You know, putting those tools in our associates' hands has made them even more productive and, and enabled them to do their job better with the customer. It's kind of elevated that customer experience and the associate experience, I might add, to Mike's point. That combined with, you know, our sales culture out there, has led to really results and improved SG&A for, you know, Q3 specifically.
Just really proud, kind of, and wanna state that of all the hard work, you know, done from our associates and being able to do that and really elevating that customer experience in store and online.
John Lawrence (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Yeah, thanks. And the last one for me is just taking that thought going forward, you get back to more normal weather patterns, et cetera, the apparel business, and there's no reason with a reasonable, with a reasonable positive comp that you can't leverage that even further.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Yeah, we think so. And so to answer your first question, we think we're in the mid-innings. Just know that we're not gonna take all that to the bottom line. We are, again, we'll reiterate, reinvesting much of those savings into the business model so that we can continue, into the future, having that positive consumer experience online and at retail. But thanks for the question.
John Lawrence (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Great. Thanks, guys. Happy holidays.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Ben Knighten (SVP of Operations)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question is coming from Mitch Kummetz with Seaport Research. Please proceed with your question.
Mitch Kummetz (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst.)
Yeah, I just had a quick follow-up. On, on the women's business, I just wanna have a better understanding there because that was up in the quarter. I think you said that footwear was up mid-teens. Can you say how much of your business is women's? Can you, can you elaborate on the strength of that business, particularly in footwear? Like, how much of it is that maybe there's just a better underlying product trend in women's, or that you're better positioned to take market share there? And, and like, what do you see the runway for your women's going forward? Like, do you think there is continued opportunity for kind of outperformance of that side of the business?
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yep. Hey, Mitch, good morning again. Jared. Yeah, I think, look, if we really go back and look at our history and the history of this industry, the women's really hasn't been focused on. We took a significant approach in 2020 when we went through our merchandising reorganization to put a focus on each gender. We felt like women's have the broadest opportunity, you know, followed by kids. You know, since that point, we've more than tripled the women's business, so feel great about what we're doing in women's. We have a hyper-focused team, specifically on women's, that we've added resources to. And we're getting, you know, great focus from our brand partners on the women's business.
You know, the women's business is very, very fast and trend forward for us, and our team's done an exceptional job on following those trends and getting the right levels of inventory and getting support from the vendors, and we still see it as a big growth vehicle for us.
Mitch Kummetz (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst.)
All right. Thanks again.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our final question is coming from the line of Sam Poser with Williams Trading. Please proceed with your question.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Since I got the last one, I got a handful. The inventory cleanup that you're doing, that you talked about, Jared, to get the quality better, is this something where you're sort of being more aggressive during the holiday to sort of take care of it while the ducks are flying kind of situation?
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yeah, I think, you know, it's really the approach is to remain targeted with regard to promotions. I mean, we don't. We're not in a position where we need to do this mass fire sale with regard to inventory. We're targeting the promotions in the right places, and we'll do our best to move through as much of it as we can, you know, here in the Q4 and put us in the best position as we go forward. But there certainly will be a balance around, you know, how much we wanna do versus how much we'll hold over into next year, and then how much other support we can get from our partners with regard to relief on inventory. So multipronged approach. Again, I feel like the team's executing really well against it, and we've made major strides.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thanks. And then secondly, you know, you called out Nike as doing quite well. On the footwear side, can you—is there a positive call-out on the apparel side of the business, you'd say, you know, this or a category brand or whatever, that is doing well in a very difficult situation?
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Yeah. I'd say right now, our biggest driving category on the apparel side is denim. Denim's been a significant focus for us for a number of years. We continue to expand our presence in denim, you know, along with, you know, adding the additional product within the woven categories. So both of those have been exceptional, continue to be a focus for us, and we believe continue to be a differentiator in our business.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thanks. And then, Bob, on the share count, the current Q4 share count, what number should we be using? And then, I just wanted to know about where everybody stood with the loyalty program as well, as far as new members and the percent of business. I might have missed that earlier.
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
Yeah, the end of year share count is approximately 12.6 million diluted shares, Sam.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
No, I understand, but Q4 is gonna be significantly lower than that. Is that like 11.9? Is that a-- I mean, that's to get you to just under 12.6. Is that-
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
Yeah, we don't-
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
I mean, that's roughly-
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
We don't give the specific guides for the quarters. Just you can do the math on the difference.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thank you. Then on the loyalty?
Bill Quinn (SVP of Marketing and Digital)
Yeah, loyalty, we saw a growth in total active members, so that's anyone who's purchased within the last 12 months, year-over-year, so we're continuing to see good growth there. Loyalty is over 60% of sales. As far as the breakdown, you know, most of the growth of loyalty in the quarter was driven by existing member shopping. When we look at new customers, the number was slightly down, but the sales from new customers was actually up, and that's because of an increase in average ticket.
Sam Poser (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thank you very much, and happy holidays again.
Jared Briskin (EVP of Merchandising)
Thank you.
Bob Volke (SVP and CFO)
Thanks, Sam. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to pass the floor back over to management for any additional closing remarks.
Mike Longo (President and CEO)
Well, thank you so much for your time and attention today. We appreciate it. We're pretty proud of the quarter, more to come. Look, going into this holiday season, I'll leave you with the message of: you don't have enough sneakers or denim yet, so we'll see you, your family, and friends out in the stores this holiday season. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation, and you may disconnect your lines at this time.