That’s on product. When it comes to digital, part of the improvement has been also driven by an enhanced search capability that we’ve implemented as well as different brand presentations for our ADT product description pages, which are driving both traffic, ADT and conversion — for our outlets in particular, we relooked at our staffing model to make sure that we’re providing the consumer with a great experience every single day and hour of the week. And that shift has actually translated into stronger traffic, stronger ADT, stronger AUR across the channel. And then I referred to our broad marketing program earlier, and I think the team is doing a really nice job making sure that each individual element is connecting with that target customer and we’re seeing the benefits of that.
And then finally, I would add, as Jane and I mentioned earlier, that for those more value-oriented consumers, we have done in a very limited and very targeted way promotional activity that has helped close the sale with them. And what we’re pleased about is this inherent agility that we built into our model over time, enables us to continue to grow AUR six year in a row and have the flexibility to be pointed on promotional activity where needed most relevant in those more value-oriented channels. In terms of how we’re set up for holiday, I think we’re actually well positioned. We’ve got a game plan that’s clear. We’re executing the strategy that we have had in place for some time now. We are seeing consumers respond nicely to both our marketing and our product offering.
And while we’re keeping an eye on the volatility of the situation. We feel good about the momentum we have going into the holiday period. You saw the vast number of marketing activities we had in Q2, that gives us momentum going into the holiday season. The pivot on product that we’ve been able to make positions us really nicely in terms of showcasing our core strength, which is our iconic propositions. And each channel, each region has the flexibility and the agility to respond to what we see in the market. So, while we recognize the environment continues to be choppy and will likely be for the foreseeable future, I think we’re well positioned coming into holiday.
Jane Nielsen : Just on gross margin, Matt, we’re really pleased to raise our outlook to 120 basis points to 170 basis points of gross margin expansion in constant currency for this year. There are really three primary drivers. Freight, we are seeing upside in freight, notably in ground transportation that’s more than offsetting cotton headwinds now. So, more opportunity in freight — we are also seeing upside in AUR. We put up a double-digit AUR growth this quarter while growing gross margin and reigniting DTC. So, we believe that for Q3 and Q4, we have upside to our AUR and channel mix. The acceleration in DTC that Patrice called out in Q2, we’d expect that performance to continue for the balance of the year. We still have a cost headwind in cotton.
But again, I think we’ve more than fully offset that. And we’re seeing some of our productivity initiatives flow through, as we said, a little more balanced in COGS than in SG&A, but we are realizing those productivity initiatives, and that’s gross margin as well. So very encouraged by that. And as we look at the progress we’ve made this year, there’s no change in our Investor Day guidance to mid-teens constant currency OI growth. We remain firmly committed to that goal and firmly committed to our outlook in FY ’24, while recognizing that we’re operating in a highly volatile environment. We know what we need to do we need to continue our top-line growth. We need to continue to drive our cost productivities. And we need the investments that we’re making and the investments that we’re making, we know will pay off not only in the second half but into FY ’25.
So, we’re happy to remain committed, and to our Investor Day guidance of mid-teens.
Operator: The next question comes from Rick Patel with Raymond James.
Rick Patel : Thank you, good morning, and congrats on strong execution in a tough macro. I was hoping you could help us understand the higher comps in the outlet channel impressive results given the pressure on the consumer there. Can you talk about the changes that you implemented that drove that result and how we should think about the sustainability of that growth going forward?
Patrice Louvet: Sure. It’s really the execution of the different strategic pillars that we have in place. So first, I think as we talked earlier, be leaning into our core products and we see consumer — strong consumer response, both on our men’s business, very strong response on our women’s business, strong improvement on our kids’ business. So, leading into core products, it’s been intervention one, Rick, that’s going to keep going, right? Intervention number two has been customer experience and making sure that we’re servicing the customer in the right way, consistently throughout the week. And we know we have some opportunities to rebalance staffing and strengthen staffing in some areas to make sure that the customer walking through the door was getting the type of experience that they deserve from Ralph Lauren.
Point number three is marketing activities and targeted marketing activities for that shopper for that consumer, leveraging both the centers, capabilities, and platforms and our own database. And then point number four, relates specifically to connected retail and how we leverage our connected retail capabilities. Now I don’t know if you’ve been in some of our outlets recently, but we’ve implemented endless aisle screens, for example, where now you can shop the entire catalog from that store, full price outlet, anything that’s available within the Ralph Lauren catalog, we also have digital clienteling for outlet customers, which has also been useful and driven the performance this past quarter and are structural. So, will continue to pay benefits moving forward.
