US-based luxury clothing retailer Ralph Lauren continues to focus on its global online platform, observing coronavirus epidemics and potential resurgence challenges as an opportunity to deepen and expand its digital capabilities.
In the first quarter, Ralph Lauren accelerated the rollout of connected retail programs and moved to a truly omniChannel model that includes personalized customer engagement, including virtual sales appointments, Livestream sales, shipping from stores, and personalized promotional offers. On the men’s purple label, the company has expanded its digital product creation and rollout of digital showrooms on the horizon.
“We are going through an incredible time of change – whether it is related to the devastating spread of COVID-19 around the world or the call for a systematic solution to racial injustice”, said Ralph Lauren, Executive Chairman, and Chief Creative Officer, adding “Above all, we are focused on building a business that stands the test of time, staying true to who we are while taking action that enables us to deliver our brand vision for decades to come.”
Almost all stores are now open in Asia, Europe, and North America. Looking ahead, the company continues to realign inventory to meet expected demand and support brand development strategies. As part of its decision to realign inventory, the company rolled out more than 200 wholesale doors in the U.S. this spring to focus on productive locations for more settlements.
For the three months ended June 27, its total revenues dropped 65.9 percent to $487.5 million from $1.43 billion with retail comparable store sales down 64 percent, retail comps fell 62 percent and wholesale revenue decreased 71 percent.
Other non-reportable segments also saw a decline of 66.9 percent to $29.8 million from $90.0 million. The company exited the first quarter with $2.7 billion in cash and investments and $1.9 billion in total debt versus $2.0 billion in cash and $692 million in total debt at the end of the same year-ago quarter.
The company said it expects financial results for the second quarter and full-year to be significantly adversely impacted by the pandemic and prolonged demand recovery.
The company is in the process of evaluating their long-term operating structure in line with their evolving strategic priorities, focusing on six key areas: team organizational structures; enterprise-wide processes; distribution center and corporate office real estate footprint; door presence across owned direct-to-consumer and wholesale partners; discretionary expenses, and their brand portfolio.
Source from TEXTILETODAY
