Abercrombie & Fitch Tightens Focus On More Productive Store and Digital Shopping Features

Apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch called out its focus on store performance and progress on its 2025 Always Forward plan unveiled in June during its first investor day since 2018.

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz said the retailer opened 21 stores “and right sized another four across Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie Kids brands. We continue to focus on smaller, more productive stores which is a key enabler of improved for while operating margin. We believe store expansion and marketing execution nicely positions Abercrombie brands for the growth expectations in the Always Forward plan.”

She pointed to sales lift from its YPB and Best Dressed Guest initiatives as feeding new brands growth during an earnings call on Wednesday (March 1) for fiscal Q4 ended Jan. 29.

Horowitz added that “Our teen customer continues to favor the in-store experience with more than two-thirds of Hollister sales happening in-store and [in] 2022, during the year, we opened 38 stores finishing 2022 with 529 stores globally. Towards the end of the year, we introduced our evolved store design in a few locations, which continues to open up and brighten the shopping experience while offering improved product placement flexibility. You will continue to see the store play an integral role in Hollister.”

Noting that digital sales comprise roughly 44% of A&F sales in 2022, Horowitz said the “digital revolution” that’s a core of its Always Forward growth plan is proceeding, saying, “Our customer journeys are different and ever-evolving, necessitating a robust set of tools and technologies. Our team has been hard at work modernizing our technology foundation. A focus area in 2022 was evolving our data infrastructure to enable faster, more predictive insights, which will largely conclude in 2023.”

Speaking on customer experience as it relates to digital, Horowitz said, “We are improving experience across the web, mobile apps and stores, pointing to A&F’s Share to Pay feature “that enables our customers to easily share their digital shopping bag with family members or friends to complete the purchase. Share to Pay is an example of how our new digital teams are applying customer analytics and agile development to uncover and quickly deliver against customer opportunities.”