World Tour was the start of it, we then had the My Wings, My Way campaign, which was extremely successful and very popular. And then that led into Mariah Carey, which was our best received of all of the work that we did last year. So as I think forward to what will be the next iteration of our flagship marketing events, I think it will be less fashion and more commercial. It’ll be less ethereal and more fun. It’ll be more of our own product and less of other people’s products. And it will be more focused on holiday commercial and building commercial sales into the all-important time of year. So, I always try to look forward, Simeon, rather than to look backwards. We’re excited about what we’ve got coming forward. The World Tour was a bold and progressive expression of our brand, and it gives us a basis from which to build and continue to move forward.
As it relates to your second question on promotions, our level of promotionality in the fourth quarter was slightly up relative to prior year. We still, as TJ talked about, were able to maintain healthy gross margins, but we did feel the need in a down market in a very competitive environment to lean into promotionality. The first quarter of this year looks about the same with promotions up slightly. We, on a day-to-day basis, are balancing the art of offering newness at full price with being aggressive in our core categories. And I will tell you that it’s very much the balance of art and science and it’s different by category. In some areas where it’s more difficult for us to defend share, like panties, which is a less differentiated merchandise category, we will need to be aggressive and you will see us leaning into promotions as aggressively as we ever have.
In other areas where we’ve got true differentiation and added value, it’s less of a requirement. So that’s the skill of what we do, Simeon, and we manage it very carefully on a day-to-day basis and I’m very proud of the team that are doing that work. Thank you for your question. Next question, Fran.
Simeon Siegel: Thanks, guys.
Operator: Jonna Kim with TD Cowen. Ma’am, your line is open.
Jonna Kim: Thank you for taking my question. Just curious what you’ve seen in terms of consumer behavior, quarter to date and in terms of traffic and conversion? And then also if you can talk about key drivers behind international strength and what gives you confidence that momentum will continue throughout the year? Thank you.
Martin Waters: Yes, on consumer behavior, I would say nothing particularly meaningfully different year-over-year. We did see spikes in traffic. So traffic to stores came back at certain peak weeks, and that put pressure on our selling organization to be ready. We did see an increase in browsing traffic, so conversion was down in stores, and some peak times. We saw that our digital business performed slightly better in the quarter than our stores business. We actually picked up some share in digital. That’s partly due to us being more efficient with our marketing dollars, partly due to the enhanced digital experiences that we’re seeing. So honestly, I think it’s more about us than it is about the consumer behavior. So I would say, nothing particularly meaningful.
As we look across the different cohorts of customers behaviors were broadly similar at the higher end of the income bracket as they were at the lower end of the income bracket. As it relates to international, the headline is really about China, where our partnership with Regina Miracle continues to go from strength to strength, working closely with that team on digital experiences, direct to consumer experiences that are working extremely well. I think we’re marketing the brand very well in China and we still have a lot of growth still to come. Across the franchise network, we saw health all around the globe. We’re very pleased with our partner operations, getting a store model that enables us to expand. We’re going to open 70 to 90 stores this year, so a smaller footprint with a lower capital expense that enables us to get to more customers more quickly.
And also embracing digital in the international space, be it operated by us or operated by our partners, a combination of both. All of those factors are driving growth. We also see some opportunity in new markets in Scandinavia, Benelux, Balkans, again both in digital and in stores. So all across the system, and I didn’t mention travel retail. I should mention strength in travel retail as well. So all across the system we see opportunity to continue to grow that business. So well done to the international team. Thank you for the question.
Jonna Kim: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question now is from Dana Telsey with the Telsey Group. And ma’am, your line is open.
Dana Telsey: Hi, good morning, everyone. Martin, can you expand on the Store of the Future, how it’s looking to you and any tweaks since you first introduced it? And on the PINK apparel, the path to improvement there and how you’re thinking about directional change along with the marketing message with the Victoria’s Secret Collective and how that’s progressing and how you’re utilizing that tool? Thank you.
Martin Waters: Yes. Thanks, Dana. Let’s go to PINK first and then I might ask TJ to comment on the retail, on the Store of the Future question. So in PINK, we identified more on about 15 months ago that the PINK business was under significant pressure. We didn’t like the customer that we had developed in the PINK business. We needed to get back to PINK being an on-ramp for Victoria and very clearly targeting a younger consumer, a collegiate age consumer. So we set about rebuilding the brand, the identity of the brand, the categories that we operate in, the way that we go to market, everything about the brand. Because it was such a big rebuild, we decided to buy very, very conservatively and not swing for the fences. And what we found during the fourth quarter was, we had an increase in the number of customers that came into PINK, so that was good.
