Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Julie Rosen: And just to say, keeping to adding on, but gifting did outperform the shop in Q3 as well. So it really bodes well for Q4. And we offer gifts at a range of price points and quite frankly, we believe €“ all of our products are gifts here at BBW. So we are excited about that.

Wendy Arlin: Great. Thanks, Julie. Next question please.

Operator: Our next question comes from Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Lorraine Hutchinson: Thank you. Good morning. I just wanted to follow-up on Paul’s question about the loyalty program. From the other end, the cost side, I know there was a margin impact this quarter as you deferred some revenue and profits. But as you think forward, does the cost of the loyalty program change the earnings algorithm or margin targets in any meaningful way?

Wendy Arlin: Yes. Thanks for your question, Lorraine. So the program does have a cost as you can imagine. So the program design has a reward aspect to it, where when a customer hits $100 threshold, they earn a reward. The program also has a birthday component to it and a welcome offer component to it. So those elements of the program do at cost, it is under a point which is good, and we think it’s margin accretive in terms of dollars because we €“ as I said earlier, we know those customers spend more and visit us more often. We do see future opportunity in addition, though, to reduce CRM and direct mail in the future to partially offset the cost of this program. So at the end of the day, we feel that although there is a cost, this program is definitely accretive to the business.

The other thing I would say is as we look in the future down the road is we know that we have great data in this program. As Julie mentioned earlier, we full match on this data, and we know that once we have the data, we will be able to deliver better personalized and individual marketing, which we believe will be much more effective as we really learn to use that data effectively. Thank you. Next question please.

Operator: Our next question comes from Alex Straton with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Alex Straton: Great. Thanks ladies and then congrats on a great quarter and thanks for taking my question. I think some of the script last night mentioned that you all adjusted the pricing architecture for the consumer being more price sensitive. Perhaps you could just elaborate on what you did and how you are thinking about that heading into holiday? And then just one other one for me is on inventory. You had a great decel this quarter from last quarter’s levels. But it sounds like you expect that to tick up a little bit next quarter. Could you just talk to us about what’s driving that uptick? Thanks so much.

Wendy Arlin: Great. Yes. Thanks Alex for your questions. So, I think I will do them in reverse. We will start with inventory, and then I will mention a few things on pricing and then hand it over to Julie to talk additionally about pricing. So, on inventory, so first of all, we are very pleased with where we are with inventory. We think that we are well positioned to support a strong Q4. As we mentioned in the last call, we entered the season clean, which is extremely important for us. So, we are confident in our inventory position. What our inventory consists of, and you saw it in our remarks a little bit, is we have finished goods, of course, that are available for sale. In addition, we also own componentry that is not yet made, things like pumps or soap, etcetera, etcetera.