Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Cristina Fernandez: Okay, thanks. And then the last question I had was, I mean you mentioned that the higher e-commerce sales are headwind to the gross margin. Can you update us, I mean where €“ what’s difference in profitability between those two channels, between the store sales and the online sales?

Bill Quinn : Yeah, I can take that. So, this is Bill. We’re very pleased with the level of profitability of our e-commerce business. Profit grew in Q4 for our e-commerce business. A few things to mention €“ actually quite a few things we mention. So our product margin expanded in Q4. We managed our advertising very well. We leveraged our fixed costs that as Bob mentioned earlier, fulfillment costs were reduced and that was largely a function of AUR going up. So our freight expense was lower as a percent of sales. But overall, e-commerce will not be a drag on the company EBIT.

Mike Longo : So Cristina, just to kind of close that gap again, it’s pretty traditional that you’d expect at the margin level that e-commerce is going to have a lower overall gross margin level. Yes, overall gross margin result, then the brick and mortar becomes a fulfillment component. So even though we’re getting better and more efficient at fulfilling the e-commerce orders, we do believe that there’s a little bit of headwind, at least in terms of the mix change on the gross margin level. Again, as Bill touched on, once we kind of factor that growth in sales for the rest of the P&L, you start to gain that leverage back. So by the time you get down to the operating profit EBIT level, it’s pretty close to the same when you look at brick and mortar versus e-comm.

Cristina Fernandez: Thank you. That’s very helpful.

Mike Longo: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of John Lawrence with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.

John Lawrence : All right, thanks guys. When you’ve been in the stores last few weeks and Jared you maybe can help me here, looking at the promos and one manufacturer I guess for a period of time was 50% off across the board, anything you buy. Some other guys, I guess your largest guys were just picking select shoes and putting them off at a $39.99 or but very limited skews. Is there anything changing in promo strategy, and is that across the board or just select story.

Gavin Bell : There’s definitely some changes with regards to the promo strategy. I mean, first and foremost we will have promos now where if you go back a few years, there weren’t any based on what was going on during the pandemic and post pandemic. But our strategies change some, where we’re looking at shorter periods, deeper marks to try and reflect the way the consumers are behaving now. And all these things are things that we’re testing to assure that the model we use for promotions gives us the right level of margin and the right level of liquidation as we move forward. But there are absolutely challenges with regard to our promotional strategy that we’re currently executing.

John Lawrence : Great, thanks. And lastly, just how much has the customer been able to split up the payments for payments for a period of time? Has that helped sales at all to reach some of those customers?

Bill Quinn : Yeah, this is Bill. I’ll take that question. We haven’t seen a major increase in that. Certainly, I don’t know if that’s a service we offer both in stores and online. I spoke earlier about customers being concerned about various financial aspects, grocery, utility, but a few things to re-mention or actually something I didn’t, which is the concern of unemployment is lower, so that is good. Also, our customers are going to cut back in other areas before they cut back in retail; travel, entertainment, eating out, and we €“ customers can continue to plan to buy more footwear than last year. And also, we’re confident in customer demand for our primary brands.

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