EXPR
#From a productivity standpoint, our outlet stores are more productive.
As we said before, they are 1.5 times more productive than our retail stores.
Some of our other metrics ---+ the AUR of the outlet locations is about 20% to 25% lower than the AUR of the retail locations.
But also, from an AUC standpoint, our AUC is about 20% lower.
And therefore, when you look at the merchandise margin, the merchandise margin of the outlet locations is close to the overall merchandise margin of the retail locations.
As you move down to the P&L from a B&O standpoint, the B&O of the outlet location is fairly attractive, given the rent profile.
And from an SG&A standpoint, it is similar to the retail business.
So overall, the margin for the outlets continues to be very favorable to us.
Thank you.
I think the number one thing is continuing to offer the best fashion that is available out there, and in a differentiated way.
And continuing to offer our exclusive product and elevating our brand.
I think that is the number one big opportunity for us.
And we can continue to do that.
And we have made big strides this year with several areas of inventory discipline.
While we've made big strides, there's still more opportunity there, from holding more back in reserve, as <UNK> talked about a minute ago, to, while we have a good, pretty fast supply chain today, looking for opportunities to continue to increase the speed of the supply chain as well.
So we think there is still big opportunity there, along with the growth in the outlet channel.
In addition to that, we are moving all our deliveries ---+ relevant deliveries ---+ back to the West Coast now, as well.
So that's also another opportunity for us.
But the good news is, as <UNK> said, we are bucking the trend to some extent with traffic in-stores, which is a positive.
And I think that a lot of that is driven by the brand work that we have done, along with the great product that we have in the store.
Thanks, <UNK>.
Well, what happened last year with the e-commerce business was, we had specific e-commerce-only promotions that we ran last year.
And we made the decision this year to have a single view to the customer around promotional activity.
Whether it be in stores or online, it should be the same customer experience, a consistent experience to the customer.
So we pulled off some of the e-comm-only promotions that we had on last year.
And that is what led to the 6% comp online in the third quarter.
We believe this is absolutely the right thing to do, from the long-term health of the business, and that is should be able to help us overall long-term with the overall customer experience.
<UNK>, look, the way we're working it here is, we are constantly looking at continuous improvements in every area of the business.
And there are clearly opportunities still with our sourcing, for us to be able to get faster.
I think some of the work that we have done over the last six to nine months has been magnificent, in terms of moving on speed.
But there is more that we can do; there's always more that we can do.
And we're clearly focused on that.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
This concludes our call for today.
Thank you for joining us this morning, and for your ongoing interest in Express.
Please accept my best wishes for the holiday season.
