ZOZO, Inc. (3092) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] This is Page 9, a balance sheet. There is no particular topics -- noteworthy topics here. This is Page 11. The cash flow from operating activities have continued to increase steadily. Cash flow from investing activities have decreased due to the acquisition of yutori this fiscal year and establishment of the new office and logistic facilities. Cash flow from financing activities have increased due to the repayment of short-term borrowings. Now Page 16. This is the quarterly changes in the GMV. During the fourth quarter, Z Holdings undertook promotions actively, and the PayPay Mall did extremely -- especially well. The GMV contribution of the PayPay Mall was 10.6%. This was the first time its contribution reach double digits. Now this is Page 22, the changes in the SG&A per quarter. In the fourth quarter, we ran TV commercials and other promotional campaigns in time with ZOZOCOSME launch. So the promotional expenses have increased. The promotion expenses as a promotion of the GMV -- proportion of the GMV was 2.8%. Page 21, the changes in the OP and OP margin. In the fourth quarter, the SG&A as a percentage of GMV was higher in the fourth quarter than the third quarter. So the OPM decreased to 9.7%, but improved in comparison to the previous fourth quarter previous year. This is Page 20. This is the full year SG&A. The SG&A as a percentage of the GMV was 23.5% and decreased by 1.4% in comparison to the previous fiscal year. This percentage came down because there's 4 reasons. One, we stopped giving back 1% as reward points for members in April 2020, which improved the point related expenses by 0.8%. The second one is the operational improvements in the logistics centers, which has improved the logistic expenses within payroll by 0.3%. Third, GMV growth and cancellation of lease agreements with some of the logistics centers reduced the rent expenses by 0.2%. And the fourth reason is one-off expenses we incurred in the previous fiscal year, which has -- have improved the other expenses by 0.5%. Thus SG&A increased by 0.4% due to the increase in shipping expenses as a result of the decrease in the AOV and by 0.3% due to the increase in the number of employees and bonuses paid out at the end of the fiscal year. On Page 24, here are some of the KPIs for ZOZOTOWN. These figures do not include the PayPay Mall results, just for ZOZOTOWN. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the number of annual buyers increased by 340,000 to 9.48 million. The number of active members increased by 360,000 to 8.13 million. The number of guest buyers decreased by 20,000 to 1.34 million. We have welcomed many new active members due to the continued digital shift triggered by COVID. And the TV commercials aired during the beginning of the year fell in January 2021. And at the time when the ZOZOCOSME launch in March as well as other promotion activities organized in time for the ZOZOTOWN renewal, have successfully attracted new users. Guest buyers have decreased due to the improvements in services provided to members made during the last couple of years. We believe this downward trend will continue. And Page 25, the number of shops. As of the end of the fourth quarter, we had 1,468 shops, a net gain of 35 shops since the last quarter. Over the past fiscal year, we welcomed 225 shops. A net increase of 131 shops since the end of the fiscal year. In the fourth quarter, there were several nice shops that joined the platform. These shops included Polo, Estee lauder, Jo Malone London cosmetic brands that I mentioned as well as luxury brands such as Chloé, [indiscernible], Jil Sander. And an influencer brand directed by Twins. So those kind of brands have joined the platform. Page 30. The average retail price was JPY 3,748, down 4.1% year-on-year. The key reason for the decline in ARP was the relatively lower price point products sold well. And the next page is the average order value. The AOV was JPY 7,991, down 3.8% year-on-year. In the fourth quarter, the number of items per shipment increased year-on-year. But as I mentioned before, the ARP decreased, and as such the AOV decreased as well. This was the -- until now, I have introduced the results for FY 2021 -- or 2020, sorry. And next, I would like to introduce our plans for FY 2021. Page 33. This is a consolidated business result forecast and dividend forecast for FY 2021. The GMV will grow by 12.7% year-on-year to JPY 472.8 billion. The GMV, excluding other GMV, will grow by 10.5% year-on-year to JPY 450.4 billion. The net sales will grow to JPY 162.6 billion by 10.6% year-on-year. The OPM will be 10.6%. OPM is projected to grow by 8.3% year-on-year to JPY 47.8 billion. We will endeavor to raise a dividend payout ratio to more than 50% and the dividends per share will be JPY 55. We will focus our efforts on growing the GMV of both ZOZOTOWN and the PayPay Mall shop to achieve more than 10% growth of the GMV, excluding other GMV. For FY 2021, how we recognize revenue will change. Previously, the reward point-related expenses were reflected in the SG&A. But going forward, it will be deducted from the net sales of each business. Moving on to Page 34. We will also reorganize the business segments from this fiscal year. So as this document indicates, the reason why we organized the business segment is to be able to clearly aggregate the GMV, identify the inventory risk and to ensure that the segments reflect the unique characteristics of the products. So more specifically, we had consignment shop, ZOZOUSED, purchase stock shop in ZOZOTOWN. And we also have PB and MSP business as well. But FY 2021 onwards, within the ZOZOTOWN business, we'll have consignment sales, used sales and also purchase and production and sales business as well. So the PB and MSP business will be included within the purchase production and sales business. So basically, new, used and purchase and production, regardless of whether there is a inventory risk or not is how we would like to split the business. And as a result, we will begin referring to the targets based on these new business segments. And moving on to Page 35. This is the target by business segment. ZOZOTOWN is mainly comprised of consignment sales. And for this business, we will aspire to achieve double-digit growth, 10.1% year-on-year growth for this business. And we hope to do our utmost to help the PayPay Mall shop grow while benefiting from the promotional campaigns undertaken by Z Holdings. So we hope to do JPY 33 billion with PayPay Mall and grow that by 17% year-on-year. So that's it from myself. I'd like to pass the baton on to Sawada.

Good afternoon. So I would like to look back about previous fiscal year and also what we would do in the coming fiscal year. So efforts that we have undertaken in the previous fiscal year, I hope you remember this chart. We introduced this around the same time last year. So we discussed how we wanted to expand selling space and products as well. And we have undertaken these activities within the last fiscal year. With respect to selling space expansion, as we mentioned earlier, PayPay Mall, we have opened the ZOZOTOWN shop within the PayPay Mall. And we will continue -- we have continued to grow the GMV in the PayPaymall. And with respect to product expansion, we introduced ZOZOMAT and introduce technologies that will help us improve in certain categories. We did our [ shoes. ] And on May 18, finally, we launched the cosmetic mall within ZOZOTOWN. And as you know, we created ZOZOGLASS, which we announced at the end of the third quarter. So we utilized a technology to launch cosmetics. And we also launched ZOZOVILLA as well. Created a zone within ZOZOTOWN for high-end luxury brands. So we launched that zone as well. And in the summer, we also started an influencer business as well to sell clothing that they direct. So we did carry out and deliver on the promises. And let me go through some of them in detail. With respect to ZOZOTOWN PayPay Mall shop, in the beginning, it wasn't -- we struggled somewhat in the beginning of the year. But it has grown significantly towards the end of the fiscal year. As you can see from the first half and second half is considerably different. So the price promotion campaigns undertaken by Z Holdings, have provided a lot of benefit to ZOZOTOWN. It's helped us welcome new users. And we also had the PayPay Festival brand finale in March, which is a huge promotion. And for the first time, it's just 1 day, but the PayPay Mall ZOZOTOWN shop sales exceeded that of ZOZOTOWN. So we were quite surprised by that. But likewise, we would like to grow the PayPay Mall ZOZOTOWN shop in the coming fiscal year quite strongly. The second, the initiative is ZOZOCOSME, ZOZOGLASS. We've already explained the details. But currently, with respect to ZOZOGLASS, we received more than 900 orders. So it's really been well received. So it has been more received by the public. And we do have 9 million active users on ZOZOTOWN, about 1% has already used -- or 10%, sorry, have already used these glasses and started to order products, and we apologize that we haven't gone up with a shipment test. So there are customers who are waiting for ZOZOGLASS. So we hope to ramp up production so we can deliver these glasses to our customers as quickly as possible. And what's important is to generate sales with using ZOZOGLASS. So we launched ZOZO's customer zone within ZOZOTOWN. In comparison to last year, it was more low key but we -- on the first date, sales of cosmetics was more than 20x. And of course, we did invest a lot of promotions as well. So this has had a positive impact on the performance. And in terms of the contribution of ZOZOGLASS, we -- what we mean by the 10% increase is that this is the new active members who started to give order because of the ZOZOGLASS. So we believe that it's going to -- the quickest way to improve our performance is, again, new users. So introducing new services and technologies will allow us to gain new users more quickly and accelerate our efforts. So this is as we expected. And these are some of the comps that we picked up from the social media, but it has been very well received. The public likes them. So you can analyze your skin tone, skin color. And people have -- it will recommend the foundation based on your skin tone. And many people have said there was a perfect color as well. So we are very happy with the comments that we have seen, and we feel like we've achieved something. So we talked about more tech and fashion tech, but utilizing technology to sell fashion items, that is a path forward. So please understand that, that's the path we're trying to follow. So that's a look back at the previous fiscal year. Now moving on to the strategy for the current fiscal year and beyond. So it's not just a single year strategy. It's a multiyear strategy. So please bear that in mind. We're not going to achieve everything in a single year. Now moving on. So we believe that there are 3 key pillars to the strategy. One is to expand ZOZOTOWNs. So this is what we are already doing, but I will explain more in detail later. But we want to increase traffic outside of just buying. And the second area is to start offering production support and also trying to sell technology licenses. So the third point is mainly for -- well, we'll be focusing on the global market for point 3. So let me start from the top. The first one. In a nutshell, ZOZO has been a place to buy fashion, but we want to evolve to become a place simply for fashion. So until now, we will get products from brands and think about how we can make sure we have the lineup and sell it in a very easy straightforward way. So that's what we have focused on in the past, so -- and that's what we're focusing on currently. But from here, we want to -- we think that it's time to step-up from here. So of course, we're going to be the #1. We want to take number of position as a place that sells fashion. But to do so, we believe that personalization is going to be quite important. We have a lot of different data. So we want to hire and we have hired engineers who can understand the data and utilize AI, and we want to increase traffic that way. And another way is to use brands content on ZOZOTOWN. So we have a lot of know-how and expertise that we have cultivated in the past. We can utilize that to not just to sell something but make the platform a firm place for people to come every single day regardless of whether they buy or not. So we want people to come every day just to come and touch base. So if we have more customers just coming to have fun, touch base, we believe that, that will provide an opportunity for us to generate revenue in the end -- more revenue in the end. So I think it's hard to measure what we mean by this. But, for example, what we could do is -- one, is personalization. So we want to offer personalized content every day. So we want to create an app or site that offers personalized content based on this technology. So we have measurement data that we mentioned in the past. We also talked about that in the ZOZOGLASS. But our users like our technology. And ZOZOSUIT, too, have not been provided to the general public yet, but we do have those technologies in the works so -- in the pipeline. So users can use ZOZOSUIT, for example, to analyze the skeletal structure and ZOZOGLASS can analyze skin tone. So combining these kind of data, we can significantly improve the accuracy of recommendations. So it's best for your skin tone, its best for your skeletal structure and purpose products and the entire outfits as well. And by doing so, we can start personalizing content and featuring models that have the same skin structure as skin tone. So maybe it's going to replace fashion magazines and offer personalized content, new content every single day. A lot of different information that caters to -- specifically to you. So that's one way. It's just one example of what we could do. So we want to use what is unique to us and become a category killer. Another -- so our strategy is to use brand -- the content that the brands have. So we're providing a mechanism that will enable brands to share their content. So currently, we're working on this product and we will probably be able to start operations within the fiscal year. And it's not a service for the general user, it's more for brand shops and shop -- people who work in the retail outlets. And we are currently calling it fans, fashion advisers are your neighbors. And what this one enabled the shop staff to do is that with COVID, the role of retail outlets are starting to change. So this shop staff have become more proactive in sharing their coordinations and outfits. Where? Sorry, there is some noise, okay. Let me continue. So the shop staff can share their outfit. And we will enable them to see what kind of people, how many people are looking at their coordinations and how they're reacting? And also we want to provide a mechanism that will enable them to live stream from the shops as well and they can communicate with the users directly. And so -- and it doesn't have to be kind of push content, but they can use it as a tool to interact with the customers online. So the shop staff that the users know well, they can speak to the consumers directly and answer any questions that they may have about the brand or the product. So because the rules of the shops are changing, we thought about what's the value of these shops. And it's basically the shop staff, their expertise. That's the number on value that the retail shops have. So we want to -- we are creating a mechanism that will enable the shop staff to share their expertise. So I think for ZOZOTOWN users, they can feel more reassured when they purchase from us. And we can also create a mechanism that allows the shop staff to reach out every day to their fans, other users. So that's something that we'd like to do. And as a result, how things will change, going back to what we were discussing. We have focused on just being a place to buy fashion. But going forward, we want to expand on this a little bit. So to increase our revenue streams. So for example, we already have the advertising business, but we think that this is an area that we can also increase significantly. And right now, you can actually search for outfits based on your hair, the style of your hair, so maybe we can actually use that function to promote beauty shops or beauty salons or the fans that I talked about earlier. Of course, people want to still go to the offline stores to look at the product, so we can utilize our services to direct traffic to offline stores as well. So we want to generate GMV regardless of whether our users buy or not. So those are the kind of models that we would like to add. And going forward, we want ZOZO to be a place that's all about fashion. And if we do become that kind of a platform, we can start matching human resources, provide financing for brands. So we think that there's various different areas to expand this idea into. We're running out of time. So we're going to quickly run through the other pillars. The second point is offering production support. So we didn't -- we are a sales platform. So we weren't involved in production yet so far, but there's a lot of -- products are being mass-produced at the moment. So there's a lot of waste at the moment. And so we thought about what we could do to help alleviate this issue. So we believe that we should start offering production support. However, that's not to say that we're going to launch a brand again. We're going to just offer production support, and this will help us change the supply chain in our own unique way. And why we see that this is possible is because, one, we have a place to sell. That's like a big reason. So when people have more inventory than they want to, then if you place an ad on the top page of our ZOZOTOWN, they can easily get rid of the inventory. So we're capable of helping brands that way. And also made to order, and that's another way as well. We can actually offer the service in a very short amount of time. So we can make it as very quick. We see the order online quickly, that will be sent to the factory, and they would respond to the order very rapidly. So what makes the order business is going to reduce inventory to 0. So we would like to try doing something along those lines. And the third pillar of the strategy is selling the technology licenses. So we've already introduced some of these technologies, but we have the measurement technology, which is becoming quite unique. Even globally as well, it's very unique. And you see ZOZOMAT for hands on lower left. This is to measure your hand. So we can apply, adopt the technology to measure your hands. And it's near completion, actually. So this technology -- we can sell the licenses to these technologies. How we generate revenue. There is a -- we need to actually try. So we are going to explore different revenue streams. And selling, we're not going to be selling products. There is different -- people want different things in different markets. But in technology, we do share the -- we have a common language. So we would like to work in these kind of areas. And we have already been approached by different companies. So for example, with ZOZOSUIT companies with -- that offer diet services have already contacted us and also medical companies as well. And ZOZOMAT for hands, actually, we've been contacted by -- we can work with jewelery brands. So we are being contacted by various companies and it's great for us, but we hope to work with companies domestically as well as internationally and collaborate with these partners to turn in revenue in the end. Lastly, these are some of the profit drivers we would like to add. So of course, as we mentioned earlier, we would like to grow in terms of double digits with respect to our current business, but we don't want to simply be dependent on what we have. So we want to create a profit structure that does not solely rely on GMV. So the next couple of years, we will endeavor to establish these 3 pillars of businesses. So that's how we will -- what we will be doing in the coming couple of years, and we're running out of time. But I would like to take you through your sustainability efforts. So I'll tell now, we have done a lot of CSR activities donating to -- just helping recovering efforts, assisting the cheaper [indiscernible]. But we want to actually set targets and make sure that we approach in a more structured way. So let us take you through our thinking. So how we will approach sustainability is, of course, our company vision is inside the world, deliver joy every day. And we also have, as a strategy, more fashion and fashion tech. So we have our philosophy and strategy. And we want to use fashion and technology to resolve the challenges that society is facing today. And envision to grow business as well. So this is a very important sustainability statement, which we have -- are showing you at the moment. But we want to create a sustainable future and connect the world through fashion. Because we are a platformer, connecting is a value that we offer as a platform connecting people together, technology together, companies together. There are different connections that we can offer, but by connecting everything around us, we want to help achieve sustainability. And more specifically, what we will be doing is we have discussed this at length, harnessing internally. And these are the 4 that we have come up with in terms of the 4K actions that we should undertake. One is the highlights sustainable fashion choices, improved user experience. So it's very easy, but we want to connect companies that create sustainable fashion products and users who are concerned -- who want to make sustainable choices. And the second one is -- basically, the second pillar of the strategy that we introduced earlier to create a made-to-order platform for 0 waste. This is going to be quite key, making sure that we reduce weight (sic) [ waste ], to reduce -- thereby reducing environmental impact so we want to utilize all the know-how expertise that we have cultivated over the years to realize this. The third point is to promote diversity and inclusion among everyone involved in fashion. So we want to -- we believe that we're one of the players leading the way in the fashion industry. So we want to be forward-thinking and communicate this message to various brands, manufacturers, all the stakeholders. And the fourth one is -- we've already done this in the past but we have to move our headquarters, and we want to start from there. And we want to do whatever we can to help that community address their -- its challenges. And we hope that, that kind of approach will spread to other communities. So I apologize, we ran over a little bit, but these are some of the sustainably key actions that we have identified. That's it for me. Thank you very much.

That's it for the ZOZO, Inc. FY 2020 consolidated business results earnings briefing. Thank you for joining us. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]