Let us begin. ZOZO's FY 2024 full-year earnings briefing. Today's session is being live-streamed only. This session will end at 5:40, and from 5:50 we have a different Zoom channel on which we will be holding a Q&A session for institutional investors. Let me introduce today's participants, presenters. President and CEO Kotaro Sawada, as well as Executive Vice President and CFO Koji Yanagisawa. Thank you. We have two presenters for this session today. Our CFO will take it from here.
Today I will take you through the FY 2024 full-year results. The presentation materials have been uploaded to our IR site, so please take a look. Let me jump right in and introduce the FY 2024 results. The FY 2024 full-year GMV increased by 7% year-on-year, landing at JPY 614.3 billion. The GMV, excluding other GMV, increased by 7% year-on-year, ending at JPY 574.6 billion. OP increased by 7.8% to JPY 64.7 billion, and the OPM was 11.3%, up by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year. Against our corporate plans, we achieved 100.4% of the GMV, excluding other GMV, and 100.9% of the OP.
We experienced a very long summer and lack of inventory during the fourth quarter sales season. Thus, the GMV, excluding other GMV, did not meet our expectations, but line income significantly overachieved our plans due to active and effective promotions. Therefore, the GMV overachieved our initial plan. We also overachieved our plans for OP mainly due to the higher-than-expected operational efficiency within our logistics center, ZOZO BASE, which has resulted in cost reductions for logistics center payroll. We booked record-high results for both GMV and OP. The profit attributable to owners or parents increased by 2.3% year-on-year. Compared to the OP, it has grown at a more moderate pace.
However, this was due to a reactionary effect from the previous fiscal period, during which the company benefited from tax credits, primarily as a result of successful sustainability initiatives. Despite this, the company has still met its financial targets. On page eight, here are the consolidated results for the fourth quarter. GMV, excluding other GMV, for this quarter increased by 3.9% year-on-year. Especially during the January-February sales period, many brands had a hard time facing a lack of sales inventory, and we were likewise impacted by the situation, so the year-on-year growth rate was sluggish. Primarily due to an increase in provisions for year-end bonuses and proactive investment in promotional expenses aimed at achieving the full-year GMV target, the OP resulted in a year-on-year profit decline by negative 9.6%. The OPM was 9.1%, down by 1.4 percentage points year-on-year.
Now, let me take you through our results in more detail. If you turn to page nine, here is the increase-decrease analysis of the OP. From JPY 60.07 billion last fiscal year, the OP increased by JPY 4.68 billion to JPY 64.75 billion. These factors contributed to the OP increases. Therefore, the GMV for the ZOZO business and LINE Yahoo Commerce contributed to a gross profit increase of JPY 11.55 billion. The advertising business grew, contributing JPY 1.47 billion. Thirdly, the change in the shipping policy resulted in an increase in shipping revenues and gross profits by JPY 3.97 billion. Lastly, although expenses for taxes, public dues, and utilities increased, this was offset by a decrease in one-time expenses such as operational equipment associated with the start of operations of ZOZOBASE TSUKUBA 3, .
Therefore, other expenses decreased, adding JPY 0.18 billion to the OP. On the other hand, the following factors drove the decrease in OP. First, fixed costs rose, driven by increased provisions for year-end bonuses, a larger workforce, and the addition of new logistics centers, resulting in negative JPY 5.44 billion. Variable costs increased, including those that rise in proportion to the growth in transaction volume and higher shipping expenses, resulting in negative JPY 3.93 billion. Lastly, actual PR-related costs, including advertising promotion activities, rose, resulting in JPY 3.12 billion. On page 11, you will see the changes in cash flow. Cash flows from operating activities improved due to factors such as an increase in profit before income taxes, a rise in depreciation expenses, and a smaller increase in working capital.
Cash flows from investing activities during the current fiscal year reflect expenditures for DPL Tsukuba 2 related investment and equipment upgrades at existing logistics centers. Cash flow from financing activities reflected an increase in dividend payments. On page 22, these are the SG&A expenses. The SG&A expenses as a percentage of GMV was 23.2%, up by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year. The SG&A increased due to the following four factors. One, the AOV increased year-on-year. However, we accepted Yamato's price increase from April 1, 2024. The shipping expenses increased by 0.3 percentage points. Secondly, due to an increase in provisions for year-end bonuses associated with achieving the initial targets for GMV and OP, the employee-related expenses within payroll increased by 0.2 percentage points.
Thirdly, we started paying rent for logistics centers, ZOZOBASE TSUKUBA 3, and DPL Tsukuba 2. Therefore, the rent went up by 0.1 percentage point. Lastly, we have incurred depreciation costs from material handling equipment for the full year. Thus, the depreciation cost increased by 0.1 percentage point. The SG&A decreased for the following two reasons. Due to improved operational efficiency through inventory optimization at logistics centers and labor reduction via automation initiatives, logistics-related personnel costs have decreased by 0.3 percentage points. Other expenses declined as a result of reduced one-time costs, including operational equipment, which were incurred in the previous fiscal year in connection with the launch of ZOZOBASE TSUKUBA 3, .
This resulted in a decrease of 0.2 percentage points. Now, on page 24, you will find the SG&A expenses by quarter. In the fourth quarter, the SG&A expenses as a percentage of GMV was 24.7%, up 1.8 percentage points year-on-year. As was the case in the second and third quarters, the operational efficiencies in the logistics centers improved. Therefore, the logistics expenses as a percentage of GMV has been relatively lower than the same period last fiscal year. However, as we already mentioned, we provided higher year-end bonuses, so employee-related personnel expenses increased. We also spent more on customer acquisition promotions. We also incurred temporary expenses in relation to the M&A of Lyst. Therefore, the SG&A expenses as a percentage of GMV for this quarter has increased. On page 25, here are the trends in actual promotion-related expenses.
As we already mentioned, this quarter, we used 4.8% of the GMV as actual promotion-related expenses, which includes both advertising expenses and point-related costs. The reason why this has gone up by 0.8 points since the same quarter previous year is because we proactively used the promotional budget we had not used by the end of the third quarter to help support sales. For the full year, the actual promotion-related expenses as a percentage of GMV was 4.1%, nearly on target with our initial plans. On page 26, from here, I will take you through ZOZOTOWN's KPIs.
The annual buyers increased by 150,000 from the previous quarter to 12.21 million. The active members increased by 190,000 from the previous quarter to 11.4 million, and guest buyers decreased by 3,000 from the previous quarter to 810,000. This quarter, like the GMV, due to the impact from the lack of sales inventory in January and February, we found it challenging to acquire new members. That said, we proactively ran acquisition campaigns such as web ads in March onwards, and because the spring-summer demand increased, recent new member acquisitions have been trending well. Now, on page 21, the number of shops. The number of shops as of the end of this quarter was 1,649 shops. The net decrease was 7 shops. The new shops we welcomed 28 new shops this quarter, including Sekkisei and Visée operated by Kose, and also Tom Ford Beauty operated by The Estée Lauder Companies .
We have achieved our new shop targets this year, but since many brands left our platform due to brand closures, the number of shops have decreased quarter- on- quarter. On page 31, you will find the average retail price. Average retail price was JPY 4,038, up 0.9% year-on-year. As I have already mentioned, many brands suffered from lack of inventory during the sales period in January-February, and possibly due to concerns about early stock, thus a discount rate declined compared to the same period last year. As a result, the average retail price was positively impacted, ending slightly higher year-on-year. On the other hand, on page 32, you will find the average order value. This was JPY 8,980, up 2.8% year-on-year. The increase in the number of items purchased per order led to a higher growth rate in AOV compared to the growth rate in average retail price.
This increase in items per order was primarily driven by a more frequent implementation of free shipping promotions for purchases over JPY 12,000 compared to the same period last year. As a result, the promotion of bundle purchases rose, particularly on days when the promotion was running. Next, I would like to take you through our FY 2025 plans. On page 34, here are the consolidated business forecasts for the current fiscal year. With the acquisition of Lyst, the amortization of goodwill and related expenses are expected to increase and impact operating profits. Thus, from this fiscal year, we will begin disclosing EBITDA and EBITDA margin by excluding non-cash items that occur on a recurring basis. We aim to provide a clearer picture of our actual earning power following M&A activities. We expect the GMV to increase by 1.5% year-on-year to JPY 623.6 billion.
GMV, excluding other GMV, is forecasted to increase by 5% to JPY 603.4 billion. Net sales is expected to increase by 5.1% to JPY 224.1 billion. OP is expected to increase by 7.8% to JPY 69.8 billion. OPM is forecasted at 11.6%. EBITDA is expected to increase by 0.2% to JPY 76.9 billion, and the EBITDA margin is forecasted at 12.7%. These are our plans. The standalone business impact of Lyst has not been included in these consolidated forecasts, as its impact is still being reviewed. Once the review is complete, we plan to promptly disclose any revisions to the consolidated forecast. Next, moving on to page 15, here are the changes in the dividends per share and the payout ratio. On April 1, 2025, we implemented a stock split at a ratio of three shares for each one existing share.
The dividends here that you see is after these shares have been split. The dividends per share for FY 2025 is forecasted to be JPY 107. For the current fiscal year, we will continue to target a dividend payout ratio of 70% or higher, with dividends per share of JPY 39. Here are the targets by business segment. This is page 35. Regarding ZOZOTOWN, we will continue to focus on increasing the number of buyers and increasing ZOZOTOWN's share of fashion spending to achieve continuous growth. With LINE Yahoo Commerce, at the moment, the level of promotions LINE Yahoo will be conducting is to be confirmed. However, we would like to approach non-users via Yahoo! Shopping and acquire new ZOZOTOWN users through this channel, thereby growing the segment by up to 10%.
As for B2B business, we estimate this to decrease by 35.2% year-on-year, but this takes into account the fact that our support for two high-revenue brands will come to an end. As for other GMV, we intend to cease recognition of GMV from ZOZO Option contract stores on ZOZO Yahoo! Shopping from the second half of the year. Thus, it is expected to significantly decrease by 49.1%. That said, as I've already explained in the past, the GMV from ZOZO Option does not directly impact profitability. ZOZO will continue to place importance on GMV, excluding other GMV. The growth rate, including other GMV, was 1.5%. That was the growth rate, but this is due to this factor that I just mentioned. Lastly, I would like to explain about the two announcements we have made today.
Our group's policy on shareholder returns is to consider and implement such returns in a balanced manner with internal reserves. Taking into account our comprehensive account, our business performance, financial position, and future business and investment plans. On October 31, 2023, we announced a new shareholder return policy, stating that we aim for a total payout ratio, including share buybacks, of over 80% on a five-year average basis, starting from the fiscal year ending March 2024. In line with this policy, we have continuously reviewed the possibility of share buybacks, taking into consideration factors such as stock liquidity and market trends. As part of our efforts to achieve our total shareholders' return target, we have decided today to implement a share repurchase. The repurchase will be conducted through market purchases with an upper limit of either 10 billion or 10 million shares.
The scheduled repurchase period is from May 1 to September 1, 2025. In addition to the share buyback, we have also decided to cancel a portion of the treasury shares we currently hold. We will be canceling 9.39 million shares on May 9, 2025. That concludes results for this fiscal year. I will take it from here. Let me share with you some supplemental information. Last year, we shared this with you, the growth target for the future. We mentioned JPY 800 billion in GMV. We are already at JPY 560 billion, and our active members have gone from 12 to 13 million. We would like to continue to aim to hit these goals. Moving on, these are the growth drivers. I already talked about this last year as well.
As a ZOZOTOWN business, we want to attract a broader range of customers and also improve the frequency of purchase per customer. Thirdly, we want to continue to support brands in terms of production and also add new categories after cosmetics and also monetization of technology. These are the five growth drivers, and I would like to take you through the progress of each. First, attracting a broader range of customers. Last year, we continued to focus on promotions for the younger target, younger audience. ASEA, that you see on the left, which these are events for K-pop office. We have been sponsoring these events for K-pop artist fans, and it has been doing well, especially for women. I think this was a good way to approach younger female audiences. In order to buy these tickets, they had to sign up for a ZOZOTOWN account.
It is a little bit different from the digital promotions effect, but we have been able to acquire new acquisitions, new customers through different initiatives. These are the results as well. These are some of the KPIs that we have been able to capture. This graph, we asked consumers, we surveyed women aged 15 to 59. When you think of buying fashion products, what site or service comes to mind? We conduct the survey regularly, and as you can see, ZOZOTOWN from last year, this includes offline shops as well, but we are the number one service that they think of. We want to get people to come to the site and also work on our recognition and favorability. We are doing well on both fronts. We want to continue to increase this index going forward. Moving on to premium frequency of purchase per customer.
Here, as you have access to a lot of information, but AI agent is, of course, quite popular. It is in. It is much talked about. It is not just about searches. We want AI agents to help people discover clothing. We are working on that right now. Of course, some people may be thinking, how useful is a category killer, how effective? We want to use generative AI and AI agents as well to become a category killer within the fashion industry. I think there is still a lot of room for growth, a lot of potential. We are focusing in that area. One of the outputs here is one of the outputs you see here. We revamped WEAR. We had fashion genre assessment, and this enabled us to get a lot of new users, and we are seeing a lot of traffic to ZOZOTOWN.
We're using AI agents to analyze fashion, utilize this database, to utilize these insights to do more personalized recommendations. We've taken this a step further. We want to continue along this path and develop a fashion AI agent in the near future. In addition to that, we talked about WEAR already, but in the same group, we have a very important channel, LINE. We want to utilize LINE as a channel and implement the fashion AI agent to LINE to continue to address a wide range of users, add another contact point with our potential users. Thirdly, production support. We are actually manufacturing more SKUs and more volume as well. The more volume, basically volume means sales for us, but the total number of items produced rose by 17.8%. We don't want to only just make normal clothes.
We want to have manufactured clothes that are dedicated or specially made for people with challenges. This is made to order. It is very sustainable. There is no waste. It is a very futuristic initiative. We believe that we can continue to increase the number of SKUs and items produced. It does not have a significant impact on our performance yet, but we want to continue to increase the number of SKUs and items that we produce. Last, fourth one, expansion of the cosmetics category and the next step. With cosmetics, as you can see, GMV grew by 30% year-on-year. Currently, it is at JPY 14.7 billion. This includes sales on Yahoo! Shopping as well. It is becoming quite a significant presence now. It is one of the largest cosmetic malls in Japan now. We want to further accelerate our efforts. We are thinking of different promotional initiatives.
We have been doing cosmetics for three years, four years now. We are learning from the apparel business. Of course, we have the systems and logistics centers. We have used the same system and logistics center for apparel to cosmetics. When adding new genres, we want to do this a little bit more quickly. Over the last year, we are trying to make participation a little bit lighter. It is not too heavy. To sell on ZOZOTOWN, we want to make it a little bit easier to just join ZOZOTOWN. This system we have been working on over the last year, and it is going to be finalized this fiscal year. Last year, we talked about this in one of our press releases, but Korean fashion mall, the largest, Musinsa, we are going to be partnering with that company. We are prepared to start our partnership.
We will be adding Korean fashion to our fold to ZOZOTOWN provided by Musinsa. Musinsa has a couple hundred billion JPY of GMV, so we will be able to add a lot of K-fashion very quickly. Logistics and duties, that's quite complicated, but we want to make it very easy for these kinds of players to join ZOZOTOWN. Musinsa is focused on fashion, but we would like to also welcome other category partners like furniture, for example. We have now the framework in place to add more categories more quickly. We would like to add more categories going forward very quickly. Fifth one is the monetization of technologies and going to the global market. We already offer ZOZO Fit. We've talked about that in the past, but it's going well. It doesn't have a significant impact on our overall performance.
As we have already announced in our press release, we have acquired Lyst. This is the last page that I will be covering. These are external evaluations of our company, especially around sustainability. I am not going to be able to cover each and every one of these, but many of these companies' indexes are praising our efforts. Please just take a look later. Within the remaining time, Yanagisawa, we would like to take you through the acquisition of Lyst. On April 9, we disclosed that we have acquired Lyst. Let me take you through some of the fine points. There are four agenda topics. First, ZOZO's global strategy overview, Lyst, the future created by both companies, and then the transactional structure is the last agenda topic. First, our corporate philosophy is inspired by the world, deliver joy every day.
It reflects our ongoing ambition to expand globally, an ambition that has seen both challenges and setbacks in the past for us. In recent years, we have once again begun exploring overseas opportunities as part of our medium-term goals. We want to go global through technology. As part of these, we would like to go over the efforts that we have been undertaking in that regard. In recent years, our overseas expansion has been driven by leveraging the business expertise and technological assets cultivated in Japan with initiatives across both B2C and B2B. ZOZO Fit and ZOZO Metri, we have launched these kinds of services, and we have also begun providing technology licenses to international. We would like to begin providing technology licenses to international platform operators, as you can see on the left of this page.
That is when we encountered Lyst, a fashion platform based in Europe. Through extensive discussions, we became convinced of the strong complementary relationship between our two companies, as well as alignment of our future visions. This led to our decision to acquire Lyst. With Lyst joining ZOZO Group, we are now positioned to make a full-scale entry into Western markets and expand our presence in the luxury segment. These are areas we had previously been unable to reach, but now we are well-positioned to do so. We believe this partnership marks the first bold step in both deepening and accelerating ZOZO's evolving global strategy. Next, we would like to explain our growth vision for the overseas business going forward.
Building on the foundation of our fashion tech initiatives, such as ZOZO Fit and ZOZO Metri, as previously mentioned, the addition of Lyst marks our transition into the second phase of global expansion. Lyst has already established a strong brand position, usually based in Western markets, and achieved steady organic growth. By strategically integrating our AI measurement technologies with the Lyst platform, we aim to simultaneously enhance the user experience and improve profitability. This will enable us to fully accelerate our expansion in the e-commerce and media domains across Europe and North America with Lyst at the center. In the mid to long term, we envision positioning Lyst as a core platform of our group, and also, we are considering strategic M&A opportunities. Through this second phase, we are committed to laying the groundwork for realizing transformative growth. Now, I would like to reintroduce Lyst.
Lyst is a global fashion shopping platform headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with services currently available across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other markets. Since its founding in 2010, Lyst has steadily expanded its business primarily in Europe and North America by leveraging external capital. It has established an asset-light business model that operates from the United Kingdom as a central base while covering multiple countries. Going forward, by combining Lyst's operation with our technological and data assets, we aim to further unlock its growth potential and generate synergies across the entire group. Next, let us explain Lyst's business model. Its most notable feature, similar to our own, is its asset-light structure. While traditional e-commerce in Western markets tends to focus on inventory-based models or brand-owned online stores, Lyst has built a performance-based model by partnering with such businesses and earning commission fees through directing traffic affiliate margins.
Lyst aggregates and analyzes product data from over 27,000 brands and e-commerce sites, delivering a personalized user experience powered by AI. This enables users not only to quickly find out where and at what price they can purchase items they want, but also to discover items they might never have found on their own that perfectly match their preferences. This unique approach to discovery lies at the heart of Lyst's competitive advantage. Currently, Lyst partners with approximately 550 retailers and covers over 27,000 brands, offering a product catalog of around 97 million SKUs. Through its strong partnership relationship with major partners, primarily in Europe and North America, it provides access to an extensive range of product information. The platform attracts approximately 160 million unique users annually, with over 2.2 million actual purchasers, demonstrating a strong and sustained presence in Western markets.
Furthermore, Lyst's product line of focus is limited to high-end price range. The average order value among its major partners is approximately JPY 63,000, which is significantly higher than ZOZOTOWN. From here, I would like to talk about our similarities. First, both operate as platform-based models that do not hold inventory, so we have very similar business models, allowing brands to take the lead in how their products are handled. Lyst has partnered, as I mentioned, with 27,000 brands worldwide, while ZOZO boasts one of the largest brand lineups in Japan. Both companies also emphasize strong trust-based relationships with their partners, respecting brand policies and pricing strategies. This is also another similarity. Additionally, both organizations have technology and data-driven development structures, actively investing in areas such as AI and UX enhancement. That was also another commonality.
This is precisely because of these structural similarities that we believe that there is a high level of strategic compatibility between ZOZO and Lyst. I would like to talk about synergy now. As I explained, Lyst and ZOZO share many similarities in terms of business model and core values. These common foundations will enable us to generate tangible synergies quickly as we move forward with integration. There are three key areas where we can expect to see concrete synergies. First is a geographical complementarity on the sales front. While ZOZO has a strong presence in the Japanese market, Lyst is well-established in Western markets, particularly in the luxury segment. By combining our strength, we can rapidly expand our global reach. Second is how we complement each other around technology and expertise.
Integrating ZOZO's capabilities in AI and body measurement with Lyst's strength in SEO and personalization will enhance the user experience in fashion commerce. Third is the benefit of economic scale. By unifying our system infrastructure and back office operations, we expect to achieve improvements in both efficiency and profitability. As outlined so far, our collaboration with Lyst has established a complementary structure that brings together our respective strengths and technology expertise and regional presence. By leveraging these synergies, our goal is not merely to expand scale, but to enter the next phase of strategic growth. Currently, the global fashion e-commerce market overseas faces several challenges, including excessive price competition driven by frequent discounts, overly generous benefits such as free shipping, or overly relaxed return policies. As a result, the overall profitability in the e-commerce sector overseas is declining, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to preserve their value.
In response to these market conditions, ZOZO and Lyst aim to shift the axis of competition from price to experience value by focusing on AI-powered demand forecasting and personalization, user experience-driven customer journey design, and pricing and experience strategies that align with both brand and consumer expectations. By doing so, we want to shift the axis of competition from price to experience value. Through this approach, we aspire to evolve fashion e-commerce from a place where people simply buy things at a discount to a destination where they can discover the joy of fashion and express their individuality. Lastly, we would like to provide an overview of the transaction. As disclosed, as all the necessary approvals and closing conditions were met, the transaction was completed on April 18th of this year. We acquired 100% of Lyst's shares through a newly established subsidiary at a total purchase price of approximately JPY 22.1 billion.
The funds for this acquisition were sourced from our existing cash reserve, with no external financing involved. The impact on our financial performance is expected to be reflected in the consolidated results for the fiscal year ending March 2026, as details are currently under review. To conclude, we have received a video message from Ms. Emma McFerran, CEO of Lyst. Please take a look.
Hello. I'm Emma McFerran, the CEO of Lyst, and it's a pleasure to join you today. I'm delighted to officially announce that Lyst is now part of the ZOZO Group. Together, Lyst and ZOZO share a vision to transform the online fashion shopping experience by bringing joy back to fashion discovery. We are so excited to deliver this vision together. First, let me tell you a little about what we do. Lyst is a leading global fashion shopping platform.
We connect 160 million shoppers annually with 27,000 of the world's best premium and luxury brands and retailers through a powerful asset-light model. We are based in London, with a strong presence in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., where we have nurtured deep, trusted relationships with fashion's most powerful brands. We have built one of fashion's largest datasets, enabling our AI-powered recommendations to create an immersive, personalized shopping experience on our app and website. We also use this intelligence to create influential content like the Lyst Index, our quarterly report ranking fashion's hottest brands and products, which has become a definitive benchmark for the industry. I know that ZOZO Group is the right home for Lyst. Both ZOZO and Lyst are leaders in harnessing technology to enhance the shopping experience. ZOZO's scale, expertise, and support will help accelerate the development of Lyst's cutting-edge AI-driven discovery experience.
Of course, ZOZO's market intelligence and strong brand presence in Asia will further elevate the global authority of the Lyst brand. Together, we will join forces to expand our global presence and achieve sustainable growth. On behalf of the Lyst team, I'd like to thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to the exciting journey ahead of us. 以上で説明を終えたいと思います。
This concludes our explanation.