We would like to jump right in, and we will ask Mr. Yanagisawa to take us through the earnings results.
[Foreign language]
Good evening, everyone. My name is Yanagisawa, and I will be presenting our financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2024.
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First, please turn to page six of the presentation material. I would like to take you through the three timely disclosures that we announced today.
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With respect to our profit sharing with our shareholders, in principle, our group takes into consideration the trends in our business performance, financial situation, the future of our business investment plans, as well as the internal reserve balance.
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On March 31, 2023, the Tokyo Stock Exchange published action to implement management that is conscious of cost of capital and stock price, and they asked companies to address this. In response, we have analyzed the current situation and forecasted our future.
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At the moment, although our external minimum ROE target is 30%, we have maintained a high ROE of 60.1% for the fiscal year ending March 2023.
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On the other hand, we have continued to accumulate internal reserves. Therefore, even if we take into consideration our future business and investment plans, indices that represent our return on capital, such as ROE, are expected to worsen.
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Please turn to page seven. As such, we have determined that the improvement of our financial soundness beyond current levels would worsen the future capital efficiency. Hence, we have made a decision to start giving back the surplus funds to our shareholders more actively than ever before.
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In addition to raising the consolidated dividend payout ratio, we will also bear in mind the liquidity of our shares and share prices to regularly consider the buyback of our shares.
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Going forward, we will aspire to achieve an average total return ratio of over 80%, including share buybacks over the next five years.
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Next, on the following page, I would like to talk about the three specific measures we will be implementing.
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First, we will be raising the dividend payout ratio. The consolidated dividend payout ratio target will be increased from 50%- 70%. As a result, the dividend for the fiscal year ending in March 2024 will be JPY 98 per share.
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Second is share buybacks with an upper limit of JPY 10 billion or 5 million shares. We will be buying back our shares from the market. This will take place between November 1st of this year to March 1st of 2024.
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Third is cancellation of treasury stocks. We will be canceling 11,170,104 shares on November 9, 2023.
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When we implement all of these measures, the ROE for the fiscal year ending March 2024 will be 53.1%.
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From here, I will take you through the details of this quarter's performance.
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During the second quarter of this fiscal year, the GMV grew 3.0% year-on-year to JPY 258.7 billion. Gross merchandise value, excluding other GMV, increased 6.2% year-on-year to JPY 241.6 billion. Operating profit increased by 6.3% year-on-year to JPY 28.9 billion, and the operating profit margin remained the same at 12%.
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As was the case in the first quarter, the GMV during the second quarter landed slightly behind plans due to impact from climate. However, the costs have decreased, so we have overachieved on the OP. [Foreign language]
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In terms of our progress against plans, we have achieved 45.2% of our GMV, excluding other GMV, and 48.2% of the OP.
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Please turn to page 11 for the trends in consolidated business performance.
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During the second quarter, GMV, excluding other GMV, increased by 6.1% year-on-year.
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Due to the lingering summer heat, the sales during the launch of the fall winter season remained sluggish. However, as was the case in the first quarter, we have continued to receive higher levels of inventory.
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With respect to OP, we saw an increase in acquisition costs and promotional costs in comparison to last fiscal year, and Tsukuba 3's costs have been reflected on the books. However, the growth of GMV and the advertising business resulted in higher gross profit. Therefore, the OP increased by 1.3% year-on-year.
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Next, on page 12, we have the English increase decrease analysis of the OP.
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The OP went from $27.21 billion to $28.93 billion, increasing by $1.72 billion.
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There are three factors that contributed to increasing OP.
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First is the increase in gross profits from increase in GMV of ZOZOTOWN and Yahoo! Shopping businesses, resulting in an additional JPY 4.49 billion.
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Advertising business resulting in an increase in sales of $0.78 billion.
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Increase in shipping income due to rise in GMV, resulting in additional JPY 1.06 billion.
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On the other hand, there are four factors that decrease OP.
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First is the higher fixed costs due to increase in the number of employees and logistics centers, resulting in minus $1.04 billion.
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The second is increase in variable costs that fluctuate in proportion to GMV, resulting in $1.01 billion.
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The third one is increase in actual promotional related expenses, resulting in - $2.02 billion.
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Lastly, increase in other expenses due to transfer of some outsourcing commissions to other accounts, resulting in - $0.53 billion.
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On page 13, you will find the balance sheet in comparison to last fiscal year. Tangible fixed assets have increased, and this is due to the purchase of machinery, etc., for the new logistics center.
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Next, please turn to page 24 for a breakdown of the SG&A expenses.
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The SG&A expenses as a percentage of GMV was 22.9%, increasing by 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
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There are two key reasons why the SG&A expenses decreased.
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First, the average order value was higher in comparison to the same period previous fiscal year, so the packing and shipping expenses decreased by 0.4%.
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Second, we changed the accounting items for certain expenses, which brought the outsourcing fees down by 0.2%.
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On the other hand, there are three reasons why the SG&A expenses increased.
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First, we saw an increase in web ads and advertising expenses for ZOZOFIT, which we did not have the previous fiscal year, and expenses related to the niaulab located in Omotesando, which resulted in an increase in advertising expenses by 0.4 points.
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Second, the rent increased by 0.1 points for the launch of the new logistics center.
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Thirdly, depreciation of material handling equipment began with the launch of new logistics center, increasing the depreciation and amortization expenses by 0.1 points.
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Next, on page 27, you will find the trends in the actual promotion related expenses.
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In the second quarter, we spent 3.8% against the GMV for actual promotion expenses, which includes advertising and point related expenses. As was the case in the first quarter, point initiatives and web advertising have increased in comparison to the same period previous year.
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On page 25, you will find the trends in OP and OPM.
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In the second quarter, we tend to see lower ARP and AOV, so this season it's harder to secure an OPM.
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This quarter, we have increased our spending on acquisitions and promotions in comparison to the same period last year, and we have also started to incur costs in relation to the new logistics center, Tsukuba 3. Thus, the OPM was 0.6 points lower year-on-year, landing at 11%.
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From page 29 onwards, I would like to take you through the KPIs for Zozotown.
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The annual buyers increased by 80,000 to 11.55 million. If we break this down, active members increased by 160,000 to 10.51 million, and the guest buyers decreased by 80,000 to 1.03 million since the last quarter.
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We have continuously undertaken point reward campaigns for new members. Therefore, we have seen a downward trend in guest buyers, but we have seen a steady rise in active members.
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Aside from new acquisition campaigns, we have strengthened our efforts targeting specific audience segments. In the first quarter earnings briefing, we did mention that we were concerned about the decreasing light users, but we are trying to address this issue by doing more targeted promotions.
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On page 30, you will find a number of shops.
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As of the end of the second quarter, we saw a net increase of 17 shops, and in the second quarter we welcomed 34 shops.
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The brands include MUJI as well as Versace and Prada Beauty.
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On page 35 and 36, you will find the average retail price and the average order value.
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First, starting with the average retail price, it was JPY 3,590, up 3.0% year-on-year.
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The ARP has trended up due to the rise in prices of some goods and the decrease in the products sold, or the discount rate of products, which pushed up the prices of both goods sold at full price and at a discount.
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The average order value was $7,894, up 4.3% year-on-year.
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In addition to the rise in ARP, the number of items purchased per order has also increased, resulting in higher AOV year-on-year.
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The key reason why the items purchased per order has increased is due to the year-on-year increase in the free shipping over JPY 10,000 campaigns, and this has resulted in more items being purchased together on the day of these campaigns.
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On page 38, you will find that our consolidated business forecast remains the same, but in terms of the dividends, as I mentioned in the beginning, this will be JPY 98 per share for the fiscal year.
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Next, I would like to briefly take you through some of the topics that our President, Sawada, took you through during the earnings briefing.
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First, starting with produce Made by ZOZO. We have talked to you about, introduce Made by ZOZO before, and we just wanted to give you an update. This is a service where if somebody places an order, we can manufacture and ship these products within ten days at the earliest. We have seen the number of styles increase by 1.9 times.
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In terms of the exact number of styles, in 2022, we were making 461, but during the first half of 2023, this increased to 878.
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Next, moving on to communicate. FAANS is a sales support tool that we offer for the brand's shop staff, and we have seen a steady increase in the number of accounts from April of 2023. The number of accounts have increased by 1.5x .
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We've seen expansion in implementation to include clients such as Adastria, Pal, Lacoste Japan, and Adidas.
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Next is an announcement about a new shop. As I mentioned before, Muji has opened a large store on our platform.
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At the time of the launch, we had some special initiatives. For example, Muji sold limited edition T-shirts on our Zozotown, and we also did deliver Muji's products in a special Muji themed box.
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Next, as I mentioned before, Versace, a luxury brand in Italy, has opened up its store on Zozotown.
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On ZOZOVILLA, and we are seeing a steady increase of brands available on ZOZOVILLA.
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Next is Tsukuba 3. We share the video during the earnings briefing, so please take a look when you have time. But we are the first company in Japan to implement the pocket sorter, which has significantly reduced the required manpower.
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Lastly, I would like to give you an update about ZOZOFIT. Compared to the daily sales earlier this year, we've seen the daily sales increase by threefold, and we are seeing a steady increase in demand, and we're seeing good traction. We would like to continue to promote this, promote ZOZOFIT in the U.S.
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That was a brief overview of our performance. Thank you.
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We would like to move on to the Q&A session. If you have a question, please use the hand raising icon and ask your question. Thank you.
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When selected, please state your company name and your name before you ask your question. Thank you.
[Foreign language]
Tom, please go ahead.
Hi, Tom from Alma Capital. Can you hear me?
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Great. Thank you very much for the call. I was wondering, first of all, just about your change in capital policy and the buyback that you're going to do. Firstly, how did you decide the sort of balance of buyback and dividend? And then specifically with buyback and if there are future buybacks, how will it work with obviously Z Holdings holding a large stake in your company? If you keep buying back stock, you know that their stake will increase. So how will the mechanism work with that?
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In principle, as I mentioned earlier, we want to achieve an average total return ratio of over 80% in the next five years. In order to do so, we have to, and of course, we have taken into consideration the medium-term business outlook as well as the cash flow that we would need. In principle, the tool that we will use is the dividend payment, dividends. However, in supplement to that, we will be considering share buybacks.
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About us next year onwards, we will decide based on the level of cash flow required, but in terms of scale, it's going to be similar to what we will be conducting this year around JPY 10 billion. So it's not going to be significant and it won't have a material impact on the shares that LINE and Yahoo! hold.
If you keep doing buybacks over the medium term, their shareholding ratio will rise. So are they selling into your buybacks? Have you agreed with them to do that?
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Of course, over the midterm, there is a possibility that we could start talking to Z Holdings about buying back their shares.
My other question is just a more operational one. I was wondering, is it possible to talk about the outlook for consumption and sort of consumer spending and what your view is sort of on that in Japan? And then in response to that, sort of what we should expect in terms of promotion. Q3 is obviously the big quarter for promotion. So could you just comment about sort of your feel on the dynamics? And if you look into next year, do you think that consumption will remain strong or what do you think?
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In terms of trends and consumption, we have not really seen a major change this year. But in terms of fashion, it's more climate that concerns us. This summer was extremely hot and it's still quite warm and it's finally just becoming cool. So the fall winter launch has been sluggish, and we are more concerned about the impact from climate.
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In terms of promotional expenses, like last year, we have organized the PGA Golf tournament, so we will be seeing similar advertising expenses this quarter.
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Last year, the first half of the year, we reined in advertising spending, and we spent more in the third and fourth quarter. But this year, we have made a decision to more evenly allocate our advertising spend throughout the year. So like the previous quarters, we will be spending in the third quarter.
Okay. Thank you very much.
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Thank you, Tom. Tim, if you would like to go ahead.
Yes. Thank you guys very much for the presentation. It's Tim from Calypso Global. I just wanted to drill down on the previous comment that you made, Yanagisawa-san on the fall winter trends so far. You mentioned that it only recently got cold in Japan, and the fall winter trends were sluggish to start. Can you just expand on that? Maybe in terms of what you're seeing for October shipments versus your expectation or versus last year?
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We can't really share details about the most recent performance, but as I mentioned, it is just starting to get cold, so we would like to take this opportunity to make sure that we're promoting the fall winter products so that we can capitalize on the colder weather.
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We believe that as long as it gets cold, we will be able to secure GMV.
My second question is in relation to the AOV. Q1, you continue to see strong year-over-year AOV at over 6%, and then this quarter, it seems to normalize slightly at 4.3% year-over-year. Can you just comment from here on what your expectations for the full year AOV trend to be, considering the second half of last year was much stronger than the first half? So yeah, I'm curious of what your expectations are for the second half of this year.
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This is hard to forecast, but in the second quarter, the average retail price grew by about 3%. This is a result of the sluggish fall winter launch. The fall winter products didn't sell as much as we expected, so the average retail price didn't grow as much. Therefore, it impacted the AOV.
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In the second half, it will be very, it is very hard to forecast. We don't know if the winter is going to be warm or cold. If it's cold, then we will be able to sell heavy items such as coats and down jackets. But if not, then we might not see the level of sales that we expect. Therefore, this would impact the AOV.
Understood. My last question is, this quarter, you seem to have a very large revenue increase in outright purchase stock. Maybe this is a one off. I'm not sure. Can you just comment on what drove the outright purchase stock revenue to over $2 billion this quarter?
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For now, we believe that it will be temporary. The healthy growth that we saw in the second quarter was due to the collaboration items with popular games and animation and content such as those. Whether this kind of popularity will continue going forward is something that we can't really say at this point in time.
Okay, understood. Thank you, guys.
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Thank you, Tim. Glenn, if you'd like to go ahead.
Good evening. Kobayashi, I think that was you referencing the birth of your baby.
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Thank you very much.
Just a question of clarification first. Will the shares that are being bought back this fiscal year, is the intent to cancel those shares? And then my real question is just, you know, if you could just talk about the performance you're seeing and the return you're getting for the promotion expense that you are making. Have you seen any change in terms of customer uptake and customer redemption of the points and promotions? Or is what I'm seeing really just the weather impact that you spoke of? Thanks.
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In terms of the share buyback or the cancellation of shares, these are going to be the treasury stocks that we actually had already acquired and is currently reflected in our books. We will be canceling the past shares that we acquired through buybacks, and the percentage in terms of the total amount of shares is going to be about 3.58%.
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Go ahead.
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In terms of advertising and promotions, we haven't really implemented any new initiatives. We are issuing or offering personalized discounts. In terms of the points that we've awarded, we are seeing very high usage rates from our users, so we would like to continue to utilize this tool.
Okay. Just to come back to my first question, the shares that, the new shares that will be repurchased under the newly announced repurchase program, will those treasury shares also be canceled?
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Yes, if we don't really see the necessity or a reason to utilize those shares, they will be canceled.
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Generally speaking, when we buy back shares, we will hold them for about a year, and if we don't have any use for them, they will be canceled.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Glenn. Does anybody else have any other questions?
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Please click on the raise your hand icon if you have a question.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much for taking part. It doesn't seem like we have any additional questions, so we would like to wrap up today's session. Thank you.