Rent the Runway, Inc. (NASDAQ:RENT) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So I think other retailers have recognized that our data provides a significant advantage and that these could be blockbuster styles on their sites as well and have approached us. Last week, as an example, in our recent celebrity collections that we did with Ashley Park. All eight pieces from that collection were in the top 5% of styles rented by volume on our platform and we have tens of thousands of styles on our platform. So this is quite a big set of the styles that we manufactured with our data. So I don’t know what’s going to happen related to us selling this to more retailers over time, but we will certainly kind of inform you more as this pilot progresses and we feel very encouraged by the reception that we are getting.

Scarlett O’Sullivan: And more directly we are not giving guidance at this point on 2023, but I am not building anything in my expectation at this moment.

Rick Patel: Thank you very much.

Operator: Our next question is from Lauren Schenk with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Nathan Feather: Hey. We have got Nathan Feather on for Lauren Schenk. Congrats on the quarter. Kind of going back to 2Q, there was some abnormal seasonality. You have talked about at least a little bit to the pricing change. Can you talk about the intra-quarter trends in 3Q and was that seasonality is much different from last year or pre-COVID? And then a second question, in terms of the special occasion mix in 3Q, how close are you to closing that gap, is it fully closed? And then kind of more broadly, what’s your ability in terms of lead time to adjust that assortment across different chains? Thanks.

Jennifer Hyman: Yeah. So Q3 is always seasonally better for us than Q2 and it was this year as well. But we did see in Q2 because of the price increase we saw that churn rates were higher than we would have anticipated, pause activity was higher than we would have anticipated, acquisition was slightly lower than we would have anticipated and all three of those metrics, which are the most important KPIs in our business have improved quarter-over-quarter and have delivered a quarter where we were able to grow sequentially. So we are seeing that the customer has really adjusted and the initial, let’s say, sticker shock she had to those increases in price, she’s now feels comfortable and we have seen reductions in return, reductions in her pause activity and increases in acquisition.

Scarlett O’Sullivan: Yeah. So in terms of the second question, I think, you are referring to the fact that we had mentioned that there might have been some gaps in our assortment related to high formality. We have a good ability to react. We were able to quickly shift some of our buys and our kind of chases during the quarter. So we were able to — be able to really address the customer demand for these types of items. We acquired quite a bit more in terms of high formality items starting in Q3. We have seen a significant improvement in terms of that penetration of those items that are our new receipts that came in during the quarter, in fact, they were double last year’s level. So, we do have a very good ability when we see the data, we see data much more quickly given that our customer is constantly giving us feedback, we are able to react very quickly.

Jennifer Hyman: Great. I think that that’s really the difference and one of our competitive advantages that because every time that someone is wearing clothing from Rent the Runway, they are required to give us data. We are getting data real time. So we knew in Q2 that we were under assorted on the things that she wanted in higher formality. We were able to go to market, react really quickly, use the levers that we have in terms of our relationships with our brands, our consignment business to procure way more of that special occasion inventory for Q3 and as Scarlett said, we doubled receipts of that high formality inventory. So we feel very well assorted right now and we are encouraged by this really nice mix in the business we are seeing.

Workwear is double what it was. Our special occasion utilization rates are at some of the highest levels that we have seen in Rent the Runway history. We are seeing over 50% of her use case for everyday casual occasions. So it feels really good right now that all three of these components of the business are growing.

Nathan Feather: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Ike Boruchow with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

Unidentified Analyst: Yes. Hi. This is Kate on for Ike. Thanks for taking our questions. Scarlett, one for you really quickly, I am not sure I heard it. Can you speak to your net add expectations into Q4 tied to the current revenue expectations just given the improvement in 3Q. By my modeling here, it looks like you are expecting them to be down year-on-year. So I wanted to make sure we are thinking about it correctly. And then, secondly, pleased to see the improvement on the fulfillment cost expectation for the year, can you just speak to the contribution from your at-home pickup initiative and drivers of the improvement there and maybe how we should think about opportunities on that line item looking out to 2023? Thank you.

Scarlett O’Sullivan: Yeah. Thanks for the question. So in terms of Q4 and net adds, we don’t specifically give guidance on net adds. I encourage you to take a look at Q4 in relation to a more normalized Q3 excluding the Exclusive Designs, right? So we said that, I’d give you the expectation there with revenue coming down a little bit, but you should probably exclude the pilot that I had mentioned to give you a little bit more of a sense of that. And then in terms of Q4, generally, look, you have to recognize that some of the issues that we suffered in Q2 have impacted Q4 as well, right? So we are entering Q4 with kind of that negative impact from the price increase that we just talked about, it takes some time to build back the stubs. So we are pleased with the progress that we have seen and we do think that there’s more work to do and we are especially focused on that for next year. And then in terms of — anything

Jennifer Hyman: At-home.

Scarlett O’Sullivan: anything you wanted to add there, Jen, before I talk about at-home pickup for a moment or if you want to go there.