Retailers are employing strategic and efficient techniques to manage their product inventory by decreasing their options and aiming for more frequent inventory updates to sustain client interest due to inflation and the erratic nature of consumer spending. Urban Outfitters was one of the retailers making cuts, and its wholesale income decreased during the quarter.
Along with its other brands, Urban Outfitters saw an improvement in performance during the first quarter that ended on 30thApril. Four of the five brands outperformed previous records in sales, helping to boost overall URBN revenue by 6 per cent compared to the successful first quarter of the previous year.
In-store and online sales growth in the double digits was seen for the brands Anthropologie, Free People, and FP Movement. Growth led to a 5 per cent gain in total comparable sales within the retail segment and made up for the Urban Outfitters brand’s declining comparable sales.
The company’s clothing rental service, Nuuly, continued to enjoy a resoundingly favourable reception because of its distinctive business model and product line.
The extraordinary year-over-year revenue rise of 125 per cent that Nuuly experienced was mostly due to a significant increase in active subscribers, who numbered 167,000 by the end of the third quarter. Nuuly contributed US $ 29 million more in sales during the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
However, wholesale income decreased by 11 per cent during the course of the quarter. This drop was primarily caused by some bigger partners choosing to keep leaner inventory levels and placing lower orders.
“I believe that when we planned the quarter, we planned inventory a little bit too lean, particularly in the women’s apparel area and sort of didn’t allow the women’s apparel sales to bloom as well as they may have if we have had a little bit more inventory,” said Richard Hayne, president and CEO of Urban Outfitters.
