Chewy, Inc. (NYSE:CHWY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Sumit Singh: Got it, okay. The strength that we’re seeing, the balance is essentially drawn Dylan from the strength that we’re seeing open customers. So market prices are holding up pretty, pretty good. Autoship penetration rates are holding up steady. Asset into Autoship are holding up steady. And so our ordering frequency was higher for existing customers. And so it’s – this notion of, during times like these customers look to consolidate their share of wallet, instead of continuing to perhaps crush shop even a little bit that they do as part of their normal day-to-day. And so we believe that trend will continue through the back half of the year. Secondly, we provided a bit of a data point here today stating the penetration that we’re driving into our verticals such as Chewy Health, particularly prescription food and medication, that continues through the back half of the year as well.

And three, our mobile app continues to gain traction. The percentage of orders that went through the app and the AOE benefits that we see for customers that are more engaged is also going to build in a little bit in the back half, per se. So all of that essentially hold us. Right now, it gives us the confidence that we can deliver the back half in the way that we are. On the customer side, we – it’s more recent, right. These recent cohorts that have been a little more deals seeking and value-conscious. And so we’re just – we’re watching this one really carefully to understand what kind of cohort behavior are being demonstrated or the repeat order rate like we expect and want them to be, is there ASP compression in basket sizes as this cohort kind of ramps up, et cetera, et cetera.

So primarily, we’re going to deploy a series of tactics to make sure that we are kind of protecting ourselves as well as serving both value and convenience. So overall, we feel good playing out from here.

Dylan Carden: Got it. And kind of sneak one just about automation. Any way to kind of quantify or scale the impact you’re seeing already from automation and kind of where you are in the utilization of those facilities that I think you’ve given that historical?

Sumit Singh: Yes, so if you recall, we’ve launched four, we are on-track to open our fifth one next year. Of the four that have launched, two our ramped and two are ramping. And for every new fulfillment center that we ramp, you should expect roughly 20 basis points to 30 basis points of leverage that we will provide. Of the remaining 10 fulfillment centers, we have left room and are actively starting to retrofit with other ideas that will serve to provide leverage in the future for us. We’re actually excited to share our roadmap of the future at the Investor Day that we announced today in the back half of this year. So we’re always on track on the supply transformation side.

Dylan Carden: Great. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you, Mr. Carden. Our next question is from Mark Mahaney with Evercore. You may proceed.

Mark Mahaney: Thanks. I wanted to ask a question on the Canada launch and on sponsored ads. On the Canada launch, could you give us a sense of the timing of that during the quarter? Like, and if it’s successful, should we start seeing that in net adds already in the September quarter or is it a late quarter launch, until if successfully would only show up in Q4? And, I know we’re talking starting from nothing. So, I guess that I’d be a small contribution, but just trying to understand the timing? And then on sponsored ads, are you doing this all internally organically or you’re working with third party retail media networks to start growing that? Thank you.

Sumit Singh: Sure, so on sponsored ads we’re doing most of this internally, Mark, so that’s the short version of that answer. On Canada, we are expecting launch imminently and it starts ramping really in Q4. So the impact would likely start – we will start feeling the impact in Q4, but we haven’t built in any materiality in our forecast for this year.

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