And then finally, as I highlighted earlier, for those more value-oriented consumers who need that little support to close the deal we have been able to implement limited targeted promotional activity further more value-oriented consumers while still being able to expand the AUR in that channel. So, five core interventions. I’m really proud of how nimble the organization has been as we’ve read consumer behavior, competitive environment. And we feel good that these interventions will serve as well through holiday and beyond.
Operator: The next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group.
Dana Telsey: Hi, good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the nice improvement. One of the things I noticed is when you talked about your core product and the improvement that you saw just in the core product, I think it was up high single digits compared to the first quarter up mid-single digits. In addition to the continuing strength of the women’s outerwear and home business is up low double digits. In the core business, anything new on pricing, newness and product that you’re seeing there that could continue as we move forward. And then on the AUR growth of 10%, how are you thinking of the magnitude of AUR growth for the balance of the year? And with new introductions like the RL 888, is that helping to drive AUR growth? And are you seeing anything different by region? Thank you.
Patrice Louvet: Good morning, Dana. So, in terms of evolutions in our core products and products in general, what we’re seeing is the consumer really gravitating towards this sophisticated casual, more elevated style. Right. And that’s been consistent. We’re seeing that both across men’s and women. That really plays nicely to what Ralph and the teams have built over time, which is this notion of quality, luxury, authenticity, that’s pretty — I think, pretty unique to Ralph Lauren, and these are the categories that I highlighted earlier. So, our cash near cable mid-waters our tweet jackets, our garment dye Oxford shirts as illustration of that. We’re going to continue to drive that. I think — that’s what consumers are looking for right now as they are more total in where they invest.
They want to invest in pieces that are timeless, but they can wear beyond one specific season. So, we feel that’s one intervention. Second intervention, which you will likely have seen, Dana, because you’re quite close to all this, is the elevation that we’re doing on Polo with the expansion of silver label. We had a beautiful campaign recently filmed in Goodwood, the Goodwood Festival that kind of highlights these beautiful new products so leather outerwear, suits, beautiful sweaters. And you’re going to see us continue to lean into that because we’re seeing strong consumer response within that. And then on the women’s side, you highlighted it. We’ve been really pleased with the continued momentum we’re seeing on women’s, both on Polo, on collection, and on Laurence.
So, across our women’s portfolio. And again, these are iconic Ralph Lauren styles that you know well and that are really resonating with consumers right now?
Jane Nielsen : Just on the near-term trajectory of AUR, as you mentioned, up 10% this quarter, we do expect there to be — that we are past the peak of product cost pressures. So, the pressure to price with inflation a bit slightly in the balance of the year. But I think we’re planning on AUR being in the high single-digit range as we close out the year. So again, strong AUR growth, what we’re seeing is that consumers are penetrating into our higher-priced products. So, we’re seeing a penetration increase into products over $100. We’re also seeing our new consumers penetrate the new consumers that we’re recruiting penetrate into higher AUR products, so higher individual products and higher basket. That’s really given us the flexibility to do what Patrice talked about, which is reach a more value-oriented consumer with some highly targeted discounts, leveraging our one-to-one marketing personalization so that we can reach them directly.
I don’t expect to change in our AUR journey in the near term. And as you’ll recall, AUR is really for us is about many levers. It’s founded in the brand elevation journey that we’re continuing — and you’ll see us continue our product mix elevation, which is going to where the consumers — where consumer demand is going, but also building that agility and flexibility for us to continue to expand gross margins we took up our guidance and continue to drive strong DTC growth.
Patrice Louvet: Dana, the way we talk about it a lot with our marketing teams is the following model: trade-in trade up, trade across, right? And those are the three kind of levers for us to drive growth. And given the breadth of our product offering and our lifestyle proposition, we have significant trade-up opportunities. So maybe sell less T-shirts, but more tweet jackets, more RL 888 bags, more outerwear, more So trade-up is a significant growth opportunity, which will serve us for years, if not decades. Trade across same thing. We bring you — we trade you in and then there are so many different categories we can trade you across. So, I think these levers of growth kind of, again, roll back up to the diversification of growth drivers that this company now has. All right. It is time to close. So, thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing our third quarter results with you in February. Have a great day.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
