Global Fashion Group SA

XETRA:GFG

Earnings Call Transcript

[Helen Hickman, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Global Fashion Group's Q3 2024 Results Presentation.

I'm Helen Hickman, CFO of GFG. I'm here with our CEO, Christoph Barchewitz, who will join us for Q&A.

Today, I'll provide an overview of our third quarter results and full year guidance. After that, we'll open it up for questions.

In Q3, we saw the recovery in top line performance continue from last quarter with NMV declining 4% year-on-year. This is the slowest rate of decline we've achieved in the last 2 years and is significantly better than the 17% and 12% decline seen in Q1 and Q2, respectively. This quarter, we also saw a slower rate of decline in active customers and orders, driven by positive momentum in reactivated customers and a reduced churn rate.

Our gross margin increased 2.5 percentage points, reaching a Q3 record high of 45%. This was driven by stronger retail margins due to less discounting and a more efficient inventory profile across all regions.

This gross margin expansion, coupled with the successful implementation of additional cost initiatives throughout the year led to a 5 percentage point improvement in our adjusted EBITDA margin compared to Q3 last year.

Our absolute adjusted EBITDA losses reduced significantly to an EUR 8 million loss.

The improved NMV trends and adjusted EBITDA results set us up well for our peak trading season and enabled us to upgrade our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year in October.

In Q3, the decline in active customers slowed to 14%. This positive shift compared to both the first half of the year and Q3 last year reflects improving consumer sentiment and online channel dynamics in most of our markets. Our efforts to attract and reactivate customers are proving effective. As a group, we are on the verge of a key inflection point where new and reactivated customers will outnumber those that have churned in the period. Brazil and Australia, our 2 largest markets, already achieved this in quarter 3.

Whilst order frequency had a small decrease to 2.3x, the overall positive trends in customer acquisition and retention signals improving market conditions and the success of our approach.

We generated EUR 264 million of NMV in quarter 3. The group's Marketplace share remained broadly flat at 38% as both our team and Marketplace brand partners effectively managed inventory and sales across our platforms.

Average order value increased by 9%, primarily due to price inflation and favorable category mix shifts. This increase more than compensated for the lower -- for the impact of lower order volumes on NMV.

Now moving to our key financial metrics. Q3 revenue declined by 3%, performing slightly better than NMV due to stronger performance in retail compared to that of Marketplace.

Our 45% gross margin reflects improved retail margins across all regions, which offset the impact of a slightly reduced Marketplace share. Our Platform Service business model also contributed positively to gross margin with increased share in both SEA and ANZ.

Our adjusted EBITDA margin improved to negative 5%, driven by a total cost base reduction of EUR 8 million or 7% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. The pace of our cost reduction has moderated this quarter compared to the first half of the year, where we saw greater volume and annualization savings.

Q3 7% reduction in our cost base exceeded the 4% year-over-year decline in NMV, primarily due to the cost initiatives implemented throughout this year. This includes an over 20% reduction in total head count for Q3 year-on-year.

Now let's turn to our regional performance. We saw a continuation of Q2 positive trends across all regions. Whilst top line metrics remained under pressure, the rate of decline has slowed significantly compared to previous quarters. Simultaneously, Q3 adjusted EBITDA margins continued to improve, which was particularly pronounced in both LatAm and ANZ.

In LatAm, Brazil's strong top line performance was offset by weaker trends in Colombia and Chile. Despite demand challenges, the region achieved its slowest rate of NMV decline since quarter 2 2021, and key customer base metrics showed positive momentum.

Whilst the active customer metric is still declining, it's important to note that this metric is a lagging 12 -- last 12-month indicator and will take time to reflect recent improvements.

The combined impact of streamlining efforts in 2023 and further cost and efficiency measures implemented in 2024 has significantly improved both gross profit and adjusted EBITDA. Among the 3 regions, LatAm delivered the most substantial improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin in Q3.

In SEA, NMV declined by 12% in Q3 due to a highly competitive pricing environment. Whilst this is a weaker performance compared to our other regions, the rate of SEA's NMV decline has still slowed from previous quarters. In quarter 3, SEA achieved a strong sell-through from its retail business, which helped limit the revenue decline to 4% year-over-year.

ANZ delivered its slowest rate of NMV decline since Q1 2023 with NMV nearly flat year-over-year. This result was fueled by stronger customer metrics. As mentioned previously, ANZ became the first region where new and reactivated customers in the quarter outpaced our churn to customers since the demand downturn began at the end of 2022.

ANZ also saw the largest step-up in gross margin, increasing by 2.9 percentage points year-over-year to reach 47%. This improvement was driven by a healthier inventory profile, reduced discounting and a higher proportion of marketplace sales.

Taking a closer look at inventory, our position remained healthy and was fresh entering quarter 4. By the end of Q3, inventory levels were down 19% year-on-year on a constant currency basis and stock older than 180 days reduced 5 percentage points year-on-year to represent 17% of gross inventory. We're now meeting the point where we're cycling over our prudent inventory management actions taken last year. Therefore, we expect our inventory position to now follow our usual seasonal patterns.

Now let's move on to our cash flow for the quarter. Here, we have our normalized free cash flow breakdown, which is our measure of operational cash invested in the business. In Q3, our adjusted EBITDA was an EUR 8 million loss, representing a EUR 10 million improvement from last year. This improvement was offset by a working capital outflow of EUR 7 million. This outflow was primarily due to the timing of our payables. As described previously, whilst we anticipate a full year working capital benefit, it will not repeat to the same extent as we saw in 2023.

On CapEx, we invested EUR 9 million in the quarter, increasing EUR 2 million from last year. This increase was primarily due to the completion of our investment in migrating ANZ's order warehouse management system to that of SEA's as also known as our OWMS project. This investment offset the benefits gained from our operational efficiency initiatives related to capitalized payroll for technology projects.

Our normalized free cash flow was flat compared to last year with an outflow of EUR 33 million in quarter 3.

Year-to-date, we've improved our adjusted EBITDA by EUR 29 million, which has more than offset the impact of less favorable working capital cash flow and slightly elevated CapEx. This has resulted in normalized free cash flow improving by EUR 9 million year-over-year for the year-to-date.

Looking ahead, quarter 4 is our largest quarter and one where we seasonally generate strong positive normalized free cash flows.

Now looking at our pro forma cash position, which remained strong at EUR 189 million. We closed the quarter with EUR 128 million in pro forma net cash. This figure is net of our convertible bond liability of which has EUR 55 million outstanding after all repurchases completed to date.

Throughout the year, we've successfully repurchased EUR 124 million of our convertible bond at a discount, resulting in a EUR 20 million saving on future principal repayments at par. Overall, we've repurchased 85% of our convertible bond and remain open to considering other opportunities to repurchase the remaining outstanding bonds.

I'll now conclude our presentation today by looking at our guidance. The slowing rate of NMV decline as reflected in our Q3 results, coupled with the ongoing operational efficiency assets delivered in the quarter led us to revise our full year guidance in October. We narrowed our NMV expectations from a 5% to 15% decrease and now expect an 8% to 12% decrease in NMV on a constant currency basis, which equates to around EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.16 billion.

For adjusted EBITDA, we reduced our full year loss expectations and now forecast the full year adjusted EBITDA loss to be between EUR 16 million to EUR 28 million for the year.

With the Q3 year-to-date adjusted EBITDA loss of EUR 29 million, this indicates we expect to deliver a profitable quarter in Q4, our key trading period of the year.

Our financial priorities remain consistent. CapEx and leases are expected to remain broadly in line with last year. Whilst we plan on generating a working capital inflow, it will not be to the same scale as that achieved last year.

As we enter Q4, our peak trading quarter, our October results indicate a continuation of the recovery trend with NMV year-over-year performance showing a single-digit decline.

These results are promising, yet we remain cautious and prepared for various scenarios as we still have some of our biggest sales events of the year ahead of us.

In summary, year-to-date, we have delivered strong gross margin and profit improvements, driven by operational efficiencies and recovering consumer demand trends. Whilst we expect a full year top line decline, we have seen that the rate of decline is reducing.

By delivering on our priorities for the year of improving adjusted EBITDA and cash flow, we are moving closer to our longer-term ambitions of generating positive adjusted EBITDA and delivering sustainable normalized free cash flows.

We will now open the call to your questions. [Operator Instructions]

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from Anne Critchlow from Berenberg.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

I've got a couple of questions. Shall I ask them one at a time perhaps. So first of all, just thinking about trading in Q4 to date, I'm wondering whether the run rate has improved compared to Q3, if there are any significant weather impacts to mention. And also, if you're expecting a positive trend in NMV in local currency for Q4.

[Helen Hickman, executive]

It's Helen here. Thank you for the question. So based on what we're seeing in October, as I mentioned, it's single-digit decline, very similar to really what we're expecting and what we saw in Q3 as a whole. So we're on track with that reduced declining position.

I think you mentioned something about weather, is that correct? Are we seeing any adverse weather impact? So no, whilst we've had things earlier in the year, especially around floods and extreme temperatures in Brazil, there's nothing to note recently and in the current quarter.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

Okay. And I'm just wondering also how promotional the market is in your various territories, how price-sensitive consumers are now compared to what you've seen over the past year? And sort of what your strategy might be going into Black Friday and peak season?

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

Sure. Anne, it's Christoph. I'll take that. So I think what is -- continues to be true in all of our markets is a consumer who is price-sensitive and responds very well to that. So we see clearly the big promotional days playing an important role and also when we are not as promotional to find it harder to trade.

So our strategy around this has really been, number one, to make sure that we enter this peak trading season with a very clean inventory position. So we have good freshness, you saw it in the presentation from Helen around the position there. And I think that's really geared towards driving healthy gross margins. And as you heard, Q3 was a record gross margin for the third quarter. So while being promotional and accepting that, that's where the customer is currently, to be really able to serve that at a healthy margin level.

And I would say, secondly, what we continue to double down on us really search for points of differentiation in the assortment. So be that our own brands in Australia in particular, be that exclusive brands that are only available on our platform or only on our platform and the brand.com's, which we have quite a bit of in Southeast Asia and Australia, but also in Latin America. And then also looking for opportunity stock where possible to really drive a very attractive commercial offer to the customers.

So I think we accept that reality, but doing that in a very disciplined way. I think the broader market, what we're seeing is somewhat inconsistent, I would say. So I think there's, on the one hand, less of an overstock situation in the broader industry, in particular, around the sports category. So that's healthy and helpful for everyone. And I think there's also a strong desire from most online players in our markets to drive better profitability overall.

But then sometimes that discipline goes out the window when people are not quite seeing the trade, and it's a little bit of dilemma where someone then blinks first and goes into a more aggressive or overlays a bigger discount on a peak trading day to kind of get their volumes up. And then what we see as others following.

Our own position in that is that we want to be on the most disciplined side, but we do follow when we feel it is necessary because we clearly want to be competitive on price in the key products and brands where there is a broader availability in the market. So hopefully, that gives you a bit of color around how we see the situation currently.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

That's very helpful. If I could just sort of follow up on that. Regarding your inventory position, do you feel that it might be too clean at the moment? Or do you think it's just right?

And also, if you could give us maybe an idea of the percentage of exclusive products that you have within your mix sort of broadly for the group, if that's possible, please?

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

Yes. So on the inventory position, I would say, in the headline number, we feel pretty good. When you go deeper, I would say there are some markets where we still have a bit more aged stock in Southeast Asia, some of the smaller markets in Latin America as well that we would like to have.

And there are certainly also some pockets where we would like to have slightly better availability, especially around sizing, because we know that size availability is a critical enabler for conversion. And in some of the more bestsellers and high-demand brands and SKUs, sometimes we're not quite deep enough in terms of that availability.

So there's always a bit of a mixed bag. And I would say we have been focused over the last 18, 24 months very much in kind of releasing capital from the inventory and getting to a very, very clean position. I would say we're 80%, 90% happy on where we got to in terms of that side of it, but we're also chasing newness and some intake. And sometimes we're not quite getting the stock that we'd like to have in a certain brand or a certain SKU and so there's definitely some missed sales.

And as you know, the aged inventory is always more visible than the missed sales opportunity, but we're very conscious of both and finding the balance.

And I think Helen's point around the working capital is also important to show that last year we always had a big working capital benefit. In the cash flow this year, that's going to be a much smaller number. And then I think going forward, we expect that to be a lot more normalized and kind of directly linked to the broader retail NMV trajectory.

So I hope that answers the question. I don't know if you had a second part to it.

[Operator]

And we'll now take our next question from Volker Bosse of Baader Bank.

[Volker Bosse, analyst]

Volker Bosse at Baader Bank. I would like -- 2 questions. You speak about customer inflection point. Sure, it takes a while to see it in the figures, but is it fair to assume that you see already an improvement of KPIs in the fourth quarter means that potentially active customer decline could come down to the single-digit figures versus it was still double-digit in the third quarter, please? So do you expect already in the fourth quarter to see an impact, so to say?

Second question would be on the very nice average order value increase of plus 8.6%, if I have it right in mind, in the third quarter. My question on that is, is it just driven by less discounts as you stated in the press release? Or is it also a result of underlying strategic decision to have more premium products, to have a more premium assortment on shelf? So what was basically the driver of the higher average order value?

And perhaps a third question then, if I'm not -- if I'm allowed. It's also on competition and somewhat also a follow up on Anne's question, how is competition evolving? Did that also help you to slow down the NMV decline as other competitors stated that they see a kind of normalization of promotional activity. The question is, do you see that, too, in your regions? Yes.

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

Thanks, Volker. So I'll take the first on the customer numbers and the third on the competition and let Helen take a little bit the average order value.

So on the customer inflection, I think the point that I think we're trying to bring across is that since the active customer base is really an LTM metric, it will be always lagging and it clearly looks like a nicer metric when you're in a growth situation. So the metric that is more short term that we have really been focusing on as we're managing kind of the turnaround and trends is really the relationship between new and reactivated customers. And within that, reactivation as a more mature business obviously plays a bigger role over time against the churn customers.

And we clearly have post-COVID -- some of those large new customer cohorts from the COVID period gradually churn out over time, certainly initially in '21, '22, more of that, but I think we've still seen a bit of a lingering effect from that.

We are now at a place where in Q3 already, the 2 biggest countries in terms of NMV, Brazil and Australia, have seen a positive ratio there. So we are acquiring and reactivating more customers during that period than we are losing. And this is obviously driven by marketing efforts, CRM efforts, churn prevention efforts. So it's working on all input factors into that metric.

And we obviously have the ambition that, that number is positive at all times in all markets. We're not quite there, but that's the direction of travel, and we are clearly prioritizing our biggest markets first in terms of really driving that, making some of the marketing investments earlier in the year that we've talked around, things like the brand campaigns in Australia, et cetera. So very pleased to see that.

I think to your specific question around does active customer decline then slow. Yes, that is our expectation that, that will continue to slow. How exactly that shapes up? A bit difficult to forecast, but we certainly have the expectation that the leading indicator is this relationship between new and reactivated customers over churn. And then logically, if that persists for a couple of quarters, then the active customer number will move into positive territory as well. And that's clearly the ambition for the next year or so.

On the competition question, I think it's fair to say that there is a degree of normalization because we've seen a bit more stable operating environment. We have seen still quite a lot of disruption from many of, let's call it, the Asian cross-border players, although some of them are obviously localized to some degree in our markets. And so they have been, I would say, the biggest disruptors and market share gainers in many of our markets. Our positioning is, as you know, very well, quite different, much higher average order value, authentic brands, international and local brands, all those factors, but there's certainly an impact from that.

And I think we're seeing a little bit more of a stabilization around that and maybe the customers are also understanding now the proposition more clearly, where they like it, may not like it, where they like the quality, not the quality and other parts of the experience. And we've also seen, in some markets, some regulatory actions that have kind of started to somewhat level the playing field. I think we're still far away from a fully level playing field. But for example, in Brazil, there's been some changes in the rules around -- I think it was July, August. So there are some benefits that are maybe coming from that side as well.

Broadly speaking, it is still a very competitive environment, both in terms of the pure online players, the general merchandisers in our markets where, in most markets, there are several of them who are strongly competing against each other. And we're seeing also continued significant presence, obviously, from the brands themselves in their dot-com efforts, but I would say with a more rationale and profit-focused mindset. And clearly we are able to serve some of those brands, in particular, in Southeast Asia supporting their e-commerce efforts. And I think that continues to be an important strategic priority for us to really be the partner and drive the brand.com success in partnership with the biggest and best brands.

Helen, do you want to cover on the AOV?

[Helen Hickman, executive]

Yes, of course. So Volker, on AOV, there's a variety of drivers driving it. So in price inflation being one, probably the main driver, but then very much into category mix. And that category mix is a blend of both an increased mix in premium, which is something that you specifically called out, but also in other higher-priced categories. So we're getting benefits there.

We're also seeing reduced discounting, which is driving it forward as well as a little bit around our actual sort of country and regional mix, all of that then offsetting a slight decline on our items per order.

I think you referenced specifically premium. So just sort of touching on that. So last year, our overall premium mix was 15% from our overall top line. And over the course of the year, we are seeing that start to increase moderately.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We will now take a follow-up question from Anne Critchlow of Berenberg.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

I'd just like to sort of follow up on my previous question, I'm not sure that it was addressed. Just an idea of the percentage of exclusive products within the mix overall, if that's possible?

And then also talk a little bit about marketing as a percentage of sales into Q4 and actually into next year as well. And how you intend to balance out driving sales through marketing and maybe driving sell-through promotions. I know you talked a lot last time about your sort of app-centric approach, but could you give us a split perhaps of how you're putting your marketing efforts into that versus, say, retargeting customers via e-mail or other campaigns?

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

Thanks, Anne. Yes, I knew there was a second part that I missed, so apologies for that. So on the exclusive assortment, I mean, it's always a bit hard to tell. I would say we have a part of our assortment, a part of our sales that is coming from fully genuine exclusive brand relationships and our own brands in Australia that's a meaningful percentage in terms of -- it's definitely a double-digit -- small double-digit percentage of our NMV. So I think we're very pleased with that as a point of differentiation. And we then obviously have exclusive brands on our platform.

I mean, if I would kind of give you a broad guess, I think we're probably talking about something like 20% or a bit more that is genuine in the online channel, exclusive product. If you wanted to go further and basically say, look, what is exclusive where we are the only multi-brand platform online that has it, then that number may be a bit higher even.

But it's also a lot of the brand partners we work with, in many cases, they may only have the product on the brand.com and on our platform, but then they do maybe some end-of-season clearance on a general merchandiser or they experiment with a general merchandiser. We've seen some do that and then kind of come back to be exclusive with us.

I would say that the objective we're trying to drive towards is that we have as much as possible assortment parity with the brand.com as an aspiration, and we obviously respect our partner's desire to maybe sometimes offer exclusive SKUs just on their platform.

We're also working on exclusive collaborations, and we've done that with some of the biggest brands where there is a certain SKU, a certain style that is only available on us and we can then market as an exclusive collaboration. So we've done that.

And I think we then want to make sure that we are very clearly segmented and differentiated against the general merchandise platforms, in particular, who I think most of the brands also see as a different channel than a multi-brand fashion platform like we are.

And I think what continues to be important in our market is that there aren't really many who are pure fashion multi-brand online. And so I think there, we have a very distinct proposition. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of color.

On the marketing side, I'm not sure I can fully answer that to your satisfaction, but I would say we are very focused on 2 aspects in addition to the traditional paid performance marketing. Number one, to go more into the top of the funnel, brand awareness, reenergizing our brand, reconnecting with the customer. And we really do that through a varied range of activities: it can be off-line activations, off-line advertising, it can be more brand-led things on YouTube, et cetera.

So we're doing that, I would say, the most prominent one is the Got You Looking campaigns we have done in Australia in the course of this year with 2 boosts, one in Q1 and one in Q3. And that has really yielded strong results around brand awareness, but also brand trust and understanding of what the brand stands for. So I would say the top of the funnel is really important.

And then the other end is really the CRM where I think we're a little bit under-invested from a tech perspective, and we're very excited on what we're doing there in terms of investing a bit more into that area and really focusing on making sure that we're not just doing the basics of e-mail notifications, but we're really leveraging personalization and increasingly generative AI and machine learning as well to really drive a very specific offer to the customer that meets their preferences in terms of brands, in terms of campaigns, but also more broadly looks at where the customer is. So treating customers who have only done 1 order very differently from very loyal customers and kind of in that way, looking at a much more segmented and targeted approach around CRM.

So I would say the investment areas are top of the funnel brand and CRM.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

That's very helpful. I wonder also if perhaps you could give an idea of shape that we might be thinking about looking into FY '25, particularly on cost savings, for example? And how you see the drivers of sales going into next year?

[Helen Hickman, executive]

Anne, thank you. So we're sort of describing sort of cost savings a little bit more around sort of in our DNA. So very much there is a focus for maintaining the momentum that we've seen in the last 2 years with regard to cost savings into next year.

And I think if you look at the progress that we've made to date on adjusted EBITDA, our overall losses broadly reduced by EUR 29 million to date, that's the trajectory that we're very much continuing into next year with regard to that real focus around mitigating losses through cost initiatives, but also off the back of where we are now, we're seeing the declining NMV trends, hoping that they are planning for them to continue to decline.

Whilst we don't anticipate a resurgence in double-digit growth into next year, we're very much focusing around how we return to an element of small growth based on the trends that we're seeing to date. But obviously, there's a lot of external factors outside of our control. And I think to Christoph's point, we need to focus on what's in our control and with regards to our customer base to be able to drive that top line forward.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

That is helpful. And perhaps just a general question on your newly developed AI pricing system in Southeast Asia that you have talked about in the past. And I think it was helping to improve margins and inventory efficiency. I'm just wondering where you see potential perhaps to put that into other regions? And also what you're seeing from it?

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

Yes, I think it's a good example of an effort that is not new in the sense of we've built capabilities around machine learning and using those types of tools to really support the commercial decision-making and commercial management of what is a pretty complex business when you look at the number of SKUs, the amount of change in the SKU base as well and the complexity of many countries.

And I think it's no coincidence that we've, in particular, focused this in Southeast Asia, given that it's a very diverse set of markets with, to some degree, separate inventory pools, a high Marketplace share, et cetera, et cetera. So there's, I think, particular factors that probably make some of these things even harder to do in a more, let's say, human-led and manual way.

I think what we're seeing here is really that we are able to bring together what technology can do in terms of insights around needing to -- and kind of continuously versus just in certain intervals looking at the stock position, looking at trading and giving us indicators of price adjustments needed in a much more recurring and easy way. So I think we're just more agile, more quick in taking actions.

And I think it's also helped us to really look at reordering and be very clear on when we need to bring in incremental stock and kind of flagging opportunities where more stock would really create an incremental opportunity to drive sales and margin.

So I think we're quite pleased with this. None of these things are ever perfect. There continue to be work in progress. But the way that these tools are built are always built with the mindset of ultimate deployment into all markets.

So a few years ago, we started building a tool that was really driven around personalization and recommendation, and that has by now been rolled out in all countries. And then there's a continuous optimization journey around this. And I think we definitely see that some of those initiatives that have been underway for years are somewhat accelerating with some of the capabilities that are coming through from the broadly AI tools. And so deploying those with urgency is a big priority, and we're discussing it on current -- on a constant basis and really seeing ourselves as a deployer of those tools. We're not going to do most of those things in-house. We're going to leverage the capabilities that are evolving from the big global players that are making this available, and we obviously have very established partnerships with all the key players there.

So very exciting, and I think it's going to continue to give us opportunities to bring the art and science of fashion retail together and maybe do a little bit more science and a little bit less art going forward.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

Very interesting. And just as a quick follow-up to that, I'm wondering if you see a significant opportunity to derisk inventory perhaps across the group at some stage.

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

I think, I mean, derisked in the sense of -- I think where this still breaks down to some degree is just the agility of the supply chain because we can have all the insights in the world of what will be optimal for us, but we have a strong network of partners and many of our markets tend to be not the biggest for the global brands. And so in some cases, we have very long preorder cycles.

There are brands and markets where we have already placed orders for the second half of next year or even Q4 of next year. And so when you have these very long order cycles in our industry, you need to kind of take a call or flight early and with limited information. And I think that is, I think, more inherent in the supply chain.

So I think the bigger unlock would be a more dynamic, more digital, more fast-moving, broader supply chain between our brand partners and us and we'd certainly love for the industry to move in that direction.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

Okay. That's good to know. And just one final one, please, for me on return rates. So I'm wondering whether the product return rates are trending down still and what you're seeing in different regions there?

[Helen Hickman, executive]

Apologies, Anne. I was on mute there. So our returns rate position has not really moved from when we spoke previously. So sort of on a year-on-year basis, we're broadly flat sort of at a year-to-date position. If we take quarter 3, in particular, our returns are lower year-on-year. That's across all regions, most markedly in Australia that we're seeing slight reductions in returns across all regions.

[Anne Critchlow, analyst]

Okay. And then in Australia, do you think that is due to the marketing effort that you've put in that's sort of encouraging customers to hold on to their orders? Or do you think it's sort of some tools that you've put in or anything technical?

[Christoph Barchewitz, executive]

Yes. Maybe, Anne, I can build on Helen's answer there. I think with the opportunity we see in return rates are broadly 2 things. First of all, I think, as you know, our overall return rates are fairly low when you compare it to, let's say, Western European standards. So I think it's less of a detractor for our business around inventory and costs than it is maybe for some of the European players. But still, we are very focused on it.

I think the 2 opportunities to improve is, one, obviously, the sizing topics and giving the customers clarity on that, prepurchase and removing the #1 reason -- or addressing the #1 reason for return, which is still sizing.

I think the other part is we see a very strong concentration of returns around a relatively small segment of customers, many of which are very high frequency and loyal shoppers.

But we're also seeing definitely, to some degree, behavior that we would say is kind of not fair use. And so that is something that we're looking at very carefully like others in the industry have, and really discouraging and addressing and finding out why some customers have such exceptionally high return rates. And sometimes, there are reasons that we think are not an appropriate use of this policy. And so we're looking at the return policy around, let's say, these serial returners as well.

So those are, I would say, the 2 opportunities to improve.

[Operator]

There are no further questions in queue. Kindly reach out to Investor Relations if there are further questions. I will now hand it back to Helen for closing remarks. Thank you.

[Helen Hickman, executive]

Thanks, everyone, for joining today, and we will speak to you at our Q4 results in March.