Williams-Sonoma Stock

Welcome to the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Jeremy Brooks, Chief Accounting Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that during this call, we will make forward-looking statements with respect to future events and financial performance, including our updated annual guidance for fiscal '26 and our long-term outlook. We believe these statements reflect our best estimates. However, we cannot make any assurances that these statements will materialize and actual results may differ significantly from our expectations. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after today's call.

Additionally, we will refer to our Q2 results on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes the recognition of income from tariff refunds and other tariff-related adjustments. The amounts in detail of these adjustments, along with a reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP results, appears in Exhibit 1 to the press release we issued earlier this morning. Our non-GAAP results should not be considered replacements for and should be read together with our GAAP results.

This call should also be considered in conjunction with our filings with the SEC. Finally, a replay of this call will be available on our Investor Relations website.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Laura Alber, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call.

We had a very strong second quarter. Our comp for Q2 came in at 6.2% with total revenue growth of 6.7%. This performance reflects strong execution by all of our brands across all of our channels and the hard work of our dedicated teams. I'd like to thank everyone at the company for their commitment to our continued success.

We are pleased that our strategies are continuing to gain momentum. Every brand delivered strong results in Q2. We saw a significant improvement in Pottery Barn, which had a 5.1% comp. Our Williams Sonoma brand had a 7.6% comp, and West Elm continued its strong performance with a 6.4% comp. Our children's businesses delivered 3.5%. And our powerful emerging brands contributed double-digit growth. And B2B grew 14.5% in Q2, with record-breaking demand in the quarter.

As you can tell, these results were broad-based. We had strength in both DTC and retail, and positive comps in both furniture and non-furniture, with an even stronger furniture comp than in Q1. Newness and innovation delivered, supported by our product pipeline strategy. Collaborations were again a key contributor. And as a result, we gained market share in the quarter, and we continue to outperform the industry.

Our strategies are driving our success, and they continue to differentiate us from the competition. Across all of our brands, we have prioritized incremental newness, innovative, higher-quality product lines, and more inspiring photography, floor sets and storytelling, all of which drive full price selling.

In terms of profitability, we delivered an operating margin of 17.3%. Earnings per share were $2.10. We delivered this profitability while continuing to manage through a volatile environment, which includes war, ever-changing tariffs, rising interest rates and broader macro uncertainty. We continue to compound results quarter after quarter despite the stagnant housing market and the other uncertain macroeconomic events of today. We believe our strong brands, our execution and our focus on customer service is why we are delivering. And while we will continue to deliver in the balance of 2026 and over the long term.

We have always been known for our high-touch customer service model, and we're excited that technology that we are using can take it to the next level. We are improving the customer journey, we are strengthening product discovery, and we are scaling personalization. We're also continuing to advance our design tools and improve the checkout experience to drive conversion.

And we have recently launched our next AI-powered shopping assistant, Otto, across the Pottery Barn family. Otto begins to bring the agentic discovery experience we're building with Williams Sonoma's Olive to the furniture brands. Both Olive and Otto are helping our customers with product recommendations and their increasing consumer engagement with our content, design tools and free design service offerings.

AI is an accelerator to our strategy and our productivity. We're using it to drive sales, improve service and make our teams more effective. So many aspects of our tactile and taste-driven business cannot be replaced by AI, but our processes can certainly be enhanced by it, especially in supply chain and inventory management and, therefore, customer service.

On the supply chain front, we are pleased to see improvements in our metrics. Our transportation team has done a very good job at mitigating increasing supply chain costs. There is never a dull moment in the logistics world today, and the whole team has been committed to minimizing the costs of war and fuel pressures by finding offsets, all whilst maintaining our high level of service.

Now before we turn to guidance, let's talk about tariff refunds. We're pleased to have received a refund of $200 million. I want to thank the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. team and our vendor community for all of their hard work navigating the tariff environment. The results that we have discussed so far exclude income of $174 million that we recognized in Q2 from tariff refunds. We are excited to be able to reimburse a total of $47 million to many of our vendors for the discounts they gave us to mitigate the tariff pressures and another $10 million to our associates to their 401(k) for all their work during this difficult time.

Now let's discuss guidance. We are proud to be raising our annual outlook on both the top and bottom lines. We now expect comparable brand revenue growth of 4% to 6.5%, an operating margin in the range of 17.8% to 18.2%. Our raised guidance reflects the success of our current initiatives and our confidence in our ability to execute and also what we know today about the environment.

Now let's review our brands. Pottery Barn delivered another quarter of significant improvement with a 5.1% comp in Q2. We're encouraged by the continued acceleration in the brand. Customers are responding to our merchandising strategy, and the brand saw strength across key categories including furniture, lighting and textiles. The quarter reflected Pottery Barn's continued focus on newness, product innovation and improving the customer experience across channels. Customers responded to expanded assortments, new product introductions and compelling collaborations.

At the channel level, DTC gained traction as we enhanced the digital shopping experience and made it easier for customers to discover and shop the assortment. Retail remains strong with customers continuing to engage with our stores design services and the in-person shopping experience.

Looking ahead, we're excited about Pottery Barn's fall collection and the pipeline of differentiated new products the brand will introduce throughout the back half of the year. We believe Pottery Barn's focus on compelling product, strong storytelling and disciplined execution positions the brand for growth.

Now let's turn to our Pottery Barn Children's business, which delivered another strong quarter with a 3.5% comp in Q2. Growth was driven by product innovation, life stage leadership and differentiated collaborations. LoveShackFancy and Chris Loves Julia remain strong drivers. And newer partnerships, including Pink Palm Puff and our exclusive Nuna and LoveShackFancy collection generated a very strong customer response. The brand also saw continued momentum in baby supported by product innovation and expanded nursery assortments.

Across categories, furniture built on its momentum from earlier in the year and textiles delivered continued strength. In dorm, the customer response has also been strong with complete room solutions, exclusive collaborations and enhanced shopping experience. And we are very pleased with our relaunch of Dormify. This new brand is extending our reach with differentiated, functional, style-driven solutions.

Now let's review West Elm. West Elm delivered a positive 6.4% comp in quarter 2. The brand continued to make progress across product, brand heat and channel excellence, and the results are compounding. New introductions in both furniture and nonfurniture fueled growth, with summer and fall newness each delivering double-digit comps. The strength of newness combined with promotional discipline drove full-price selling. And this strong performance was broad-based across both retail and direct to customer.

Collaborations continue to be a big part of the West Elm strategy. In Q2, West Elm launched its second Pierce & Ward collection with an expanded assortment following the success of last year's debut. Strategic marketing targeted both repeat and new customers, drove higher social engagement and earned strong press coverage. The Emma Chamberlain collection also continues to be one of the brand's most successful collaborations exceeding expectations and attracting younger customers.

Overall, we are thrilled with the momentum at West Elm. The brand is executing, and we feel good about the opportunity to build on this progress.

Now let's review the Williams Sonoma brand. Williams Sonoma continued its strong performance, delivering a 7.6% comp in Q2. The brand saw strength throughout the assortment across categories and price points. Our summer assortment was strong with exciting exclusive collaborations, including AERIN, Sanderson and the newly-launched collaboration with Hill House for both Williams Sonoma and Williams Sonoma Home.

Beyond product, our team remains committed to bringing the Williams Sonoma brand to life through experiences that deepen customer engagement and extend our reach. We continue to engage customers through culinary events, book signings and our Skills Series classes, all of which create meaningful ways for customers to experience our brands and our products in person.

Q2 also marked the launch of our 2026 No Kid Hungry campaign, featuring celebrity-designed spatulas from Cher, Shania Twain and leading food creators. The annual campaign increases awareness of childhood hunger in America. And together, our customers, vendors and associates have helped us raise almost $23 million in support of the cause from its inception of the program in 2010.

The Williams Sonoma brand continues to demonstrate its strength and relevance with sustained momentum across the business. Through differentiated and exclusive products, compelling collaborations, engaging brand experience and continued investment in stores and marketing, we are creating more reasons for customers to shop with Williams Sonoma than ever before.

Now I'd like to update you on B2B. B2B had another record-breaking quarter, growing 14.5%, with strength in both contract and trade. The team had an active quarter participating in many new marketing events and trade shows. We continue to expand into underserved but high-growth markets, including cruise ships, senior living and student housing.

Notable projects that closed during the quarter included the Virgin Hotel in New York City, Signature Aviation's Miami Executive Airport, the Harden House at the University of Texas at Austin, Napas, Carneros Inn and a strong group of multifamily apartment and restaurant projects throughout the country. We're encouraged by the strength of our project pipeline across industry segments and remain confident in the momentum our B2B team is building as we head into the second half of the year.

Now I'd like to update you on our emerging brands. Let's start with Rejuvenation. Rejuvenation delivered another outstanding quarter with a double-digit comp and strong profitability. We saw continued strength across project-led categories including cabinet hardware, bath, lighting, utility and mirrors. Customer acquisition accelerated and we had strong engagement from both consumer and trade customers, and we saw continued momentum across DTC and retail.

High quality and product innovation continues to differentiate this brand. Cabinet hardware, bath and lighting all reached record levels in the quarter, with customers responding to innovative finishes, expanded assortments and Design Forward collections across the home. Rejuvenation continues to strengthen its leadership in whole home renovation by combining premium craftsmanship, customizable solutions, timeless design and meaningful product innovation.

Mark and Graham also delivered another strong quarter, up double-digit growth, with momentum across their key categories. Our new product offerings and corporate gifting strategies were strong. The brand built upon its reputation for beautiful personalized gifts for important occasions. And we saw strong growth in wedding and a successful launch of Mark and Graham Dorm.

And last but not least, GreenRow. We continue to be excited by the growth in GreenRow, which also delivered double-digit growth in the quarter. And in May, the brand launched its first collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden, a beautiful collection of textiles decor and furniture, which was inspired by the archives of this historic garden.

Finally, I'd like to talk about our global business. In Q2, we delivered growth across our priority markets, led by Canada, Mexico and the U.K. Performance was supported by continued DTC momentum, expansion of our brands in the U.K. and further growth in our design and trade businesses abroad.

In summary, we delivered a very strong second quarter. We drove strong top line growth, including 6.2% comp and total revenue growth of 6.7%, with every brand positive comping. We gained market share and we continue to outperform the industry. We delivered operating margin ahead of expectations while managing through a volatile environment. And finally, we raised our annual outlook.

This quarter reflected the power of our strategy and execution. We saw strength across brands, channels, furniture and nonfurniture, B2B and emerging brands. We saw significant improvement in Pottery Barn, continued strength in West Elm and the Williams Sonoma brand and strong momentum across our children's business.

Our business is broad and diverse. A strong national real estate market with more turnover would certainly be a tailwind for us. But I believe that we have now proven that our business can succeed regardless of the housing market. Our goal is to continue to execute and build on the current strength of our business quarter after quarter and year after year. We're also continuing to invest in the customer experience using technology and AI to support our strong teams.

We feel good about the first half of the year, and we remain confident in our priorities and strategies for the remainder of 2026. And while the external environment can shift quickly, we are prepared to navigate volatility and keep delivering.

And with that, I want to thank our teams again for their hard work and their commitment. And I also want to thank our vendors and our shareholders for their partnership and support. And finally, a huge thank you to all of our customers for shopping our brands.

And now I will turn it over to Jeff to walk you through the numbers and our outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone. Q2 was a quarter of acceleration. Our comp accelerated to 6.2%. We grew earnings per share through the peak of the tariff impact and we are raising our outlook for the year on both the top and the bottom lines.

I'll cover 3 things this morning. First, the IEEPA tariff refunds; second, our Q2 results; and third, our raised guidance. I'll start with the IEEPA tariff refunds because they are the largest driver in our GAAP results and need the most explanation.

First, what we received. As disclosed in our first quarter 10-Q, we filed for $198 million of IEEPA tariff refunds. In the second quarter, we received $200 million, including interest. As of this call, we have received substantially all of our refunds.

Second, what ran through the income statement this quarter. We recognized $174 million into income. $168 million of that was recorded as a reduction in cost of goods sold and $6 million was booked as interest income. Against that, we're using $47 million to reimburse many of our vendor partners for discounts they gave us to mitigate the IEEPA tariffs. We also recorded $10 million in SG&A for a onetime contribution to all eligible employees 401(k) accounts in recognition of their efforts navigating the IEEPA tariffs. So net-net, approximately $117 million of benefit to second quarter GAAP pretax results.

Third, what is still to come. An unrecognized benefit of $29 million was recorded as a reduction of inventory on the balance sheet and will flow through gross margin in the third quarter as the related inventory is sold.

Finally, the presentation in our financial statements. These refunds are onetime and material. So we have excluded them from our second quarter non-GAAP results, and we plan to do the same in the third quarter. That will give investors a clean, comparable view of the operating business across fiscal '25, '26 and '27. The full GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation is in our press release.

The second quarter operating results and guidance I discuss from here are all on a non-GAAP basis. Turning now to our second quarter results.

Second quarter net revenues were $1.96 billion, up 6.7% year-over-year. Comparable brand revenue accelerated to 6.2% from 4.8% in the first quarter. The growth was broad-based. Furniture led the quarter, and both furniture and nonfurniture posted positive comps. All brands posted positive comps, including double-digit comps across all our emerging brands as well as business to business. By channel, e-commerce comped up 6.5% and retail up 5.5%.

Here's the thing I would highlight. The home furnishings industry was essentially flat in the quarter. So effectively, all our growth was market share gain. And we took that share while increasing our penetration of full-price selling. We are driving growth and market share gains without discounting.

Moving down the income statement. Q2 gross margin was 45.5%, down approximately 160 basis points versus last year. Merchandise margins declined approximately 230 basis points as tariffs impacted our weighted average cost of goods sold. As we've guided, Q2 was the peak of the tariff impact on our gross margin. From here, we expect the pressure to moderate.

Offsetting this tariff pressure were 70 basis points of supply chain efficiencies and occupancy leverage. Supply chain efficiencies, including a lower shrink accrual, delivered approximately 30 basis points of benefit despite the headwinds from higher fuel prices on transportation costs. And occupancy leveraged approximately 40 basis points, with our top line growth more than offsetting a 3% increase in occupancy dollars.

Overall, our gross margin landed in line with our expectations because our accelerating growth and supply chain efficiencies absorbed roughly 1/3 of the hit from tariffs.

Turning to SG&A. Q2 SG&A ran at 28.2% of revenues, approximately 100 basis points of leverage versus last year. Employment expense leveraged 120 basis points. Roughly half of that is due to our disciplined payroll management and the balance from incentive compensation. Advertising expense was 7.4% of revenues, 10 basis points higher year-over-year. Strong returns on our advertising spend throughout the quarter gave us confidence to continue investing, especially in more content-led channels like social, collaborations and influencer partnerships. General expense deleveraged approximately 10 basis points.

On the bottom line, operating income was $338 million, up 3% year-over-year, with operating margin at 17.3%. Diluted earnings per share was $2.10, up 5% year-over-year. I want to underline what that means. We grew operating income and we grew earnings per share through the peak quarter of tariff pressure.

On the balance sheet, merchandise inventories were $1.45 billion, up 1% to last year. Revenue was up 6.7% on inventory up 1%. We are chasing inventory in our bestsellers across both core and newness.

During the quarter, we invested $58 million in capital expenditures to support our long-term growth, and we paid $90 million in dividends, a 15% increase year-over-year. We did not repurchase shares in the quarter. Year-to-date, we have repurchased $288 million of stock or approximately 1.4% of shares outstanding. And we have approximately $1.1 billion remaining under our authorizations.

Summing up the quarter, we accelerated the top line, we took share in a flat industry, and we grew earnings through peak tariff pressure. I want to thank our team for their execution this quarter. They are the ones making these results happen and they deserve the credit.

Now to our outlook. Based on our results and the momentum in our business, we are raising our full year guidance on both the top and the bottom lines. On the top line, we now expect comparable brand revenue growth of 4% to 6.5%, with total net revenue growth of 4.7% to 7.2%. On the bottom line, we now expect operating margin of 17.8% to 18.2%. Note that with both the top line and bottom line guidance, we have raised both ends of the range.

Our guidance continues to assume no material changes in the macroeconomic environment, housing turnover or interest rates. We are still not building in a housing recovery.

Now I'd like to update you on 3 topics related to guidance that I know are top of mind: tariffs, oil and the IEEPA refunds.

First, tariffs. Our guidance reflects all tariffs in place as of this call: the Section 232 tariffs, the existing Section 301 tariffs, the new Section 301 tariffs announced on July 23 and the latest round of tariffs between Canada and the U.S. As I said earlier, Q2 was the peak. We continue to expect the impact to moderate across the back half as we begin to comp the tariffs we paid last year.

Second, oil. Higher oil prices continue to pressure transportation and supplier costs. Fuel prices near today's levels are embedded in our guidance, and we continue to work with our suppliers to offset and reduce costs. The direction of oil prices is difficult to predict. Our guidance reflects our best estimate of the impact.

And third, IEEPA refunds. To be explicit, our guidance is non-GAAP and does not contemplate any benefit from the IEEPA refunds or the related interest. The raise you see is operational.

Below operating income, we are guiding full year interest income of approximately $25 million and a full year effective tax rate of approximately 26%. On capital expenditures, our guidance is unchanged. We expect to spend approximately $275 million on capital expenditures for the year. About 95% of that investment goes to retail, e-commerce and supply chain. We continue to expect year-end store count to be essentially flat to last year, after which we anticipate 1% to 3% store count growth each year beginning in fiscal '27. Embedded in our fiscal '26 guidance continues to be approximately 70 basis points of non-comp growth from our retail investment.

On returning cash, we will continue to pay our quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share, a 15% increase year-over-year. That marks our 17th consecutive year of increased dividend payouts. And we plan to continue to repurchase shares opportunistically against the $1.1 billion remaining under our authorizations.

Looking beyond fiscal '26, we are reiterating our long-term outlook: mid to high single-digit revenue growth, with operating margins in the mid to high teens. This quarter, we operated at that algorithm while absorbing the peak tariff impact.

Wrapping up, the 5 reasons we are confident we will continue to outperform our peers have not changed, but this quarter gave you fresh evidence for each of them. One, our ability to gain share in a fragmented industry. The industry was flat and we comped 6.2%. Two, the strength of our in-house proprietary design. Full-price penetration went up with all brands driving positive comps.

Three, the advantage of our digital-first but not digital-only channel strategy. E-commerce was up 6.5%, retail up 5.5%. Four, the ongoing strength of our growth initiatives. Business-to-business or emerging brands and our retail investment are driving growth. And five, the resiliency of our fortress balance sheet. No debt, inventory up 1% on revenue up 6.7% and $1.1 billion of repurchase capacity in reserve.

With that, I'll open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs.

I think the theme that we heard from the prepared comments from both Laura and Jeff today is that newness and collaborations are really working to drive demand. So I wondered if you could talk a little bit about the pipeline of innovation that we could maybe see in the second half of this year. And I know you can't announce what collaborations might be coming out, but how does the cadence of those collaborations look versus the first half?

And then finally, holiday. I know last year faced a little bit of headwind. How are you viewing the merchandising offering for holiday 2026 versus last year?

Great questions, Kate. In terms of our brand strategies, we're very pleased to see all brands making progress and driving growth. And I really believe that's because we're approaching them similarly in terms of the initiatives to drive growth. So as you mentioned, one of the key ones is product. We're also going after the other things that I'll talk about in a second.

But back to product every category, every brand we look at constantly and are looking at, how do we improve vis-a-vis what we had last year and vis-a-vis the competition and bring innovative, relevant products to market? And we've really been focused on making sure that the quality is higher than our competition and that we are better, and competitive pricing to our competition. And that also is part of the strategy that we've been firing on all year, and that has been working.

But in terms of specifically innovation and newness, there's still a lot of opportunity, frankly. I mean we're happy with the numbers, but there's still a lot of categories that we think we can do a lot better in. We're very self-critical and we can see the white space very clearly. So as much as we've done well and we're thrilled to see the broad-based results across brands and particularly furniture coming around, there are still categories where I'm quite critical and the teams are working hard to improve and bring even better product to market. As we look at the back half, we get after some of those categories more than we did in the front half.

And then also, we do have some very exciting collaborations coming, that I can't talk about, as you said. But what we try to do is make sure by brand, we have exciting collaborations every season. We are quite aware of what we had last year. And also, it's interesting to watch some of the names we've had for a long time continue to outperform. And those collaborators work hard with us to bring new and exciting things to the customers that they already attracted. And in many cases with these collaborations, whether it's Emma Chamberlain or LoveShackFancy, we tend to sell out quickly. So it becomes an opportunity with the next season to bring in and have more stock again for those customers.

But the other thing that's important is that the work that we're doing on the storytelling and the channel execution is helping not only -- it's not just the newness, it's the core. So the core product is being lifted by the newness strategy, but also by the channel strategy and the storytelling strategy. So we're seeing it not in just one category. We look at newness year-on-year, we look at non-comp newness that was not new this season but new last season, we look at core, we age the core, and we call that our layer cake. And we're thrilled to see strength and improvements across the layer cake.

And when you have newness like we do that's working, it's also exciting because in the home furnishings business different than fashion business, you can really build on it. So you start to see a new trend. You run out of some of the key things that sold quickly. And then you can continue to chase the inventory, but also develop products in the aesthetic -- the new aesthetic that's working. And I'm really excited to tell everybody that we're seeing that what we thought was going to work is working, and we're excited to build on it for years to come.

Your next question comes from the line of Peter Keith with Piper Sandler.

[ Nice ] results. The acceleration at Pottery Barn is quite impressive. And I know you've spoken to initiatives in the past around improving DTC and even some of the imaging, but maybe you could unpack what you saw in Q2 specifically that allowed for some of that healthy acceleration.

I'd love to. We are seeing improvement across both channels, but in particular DTC, which was lagging a bit, as you mentioned. And we've been very focused on product discovery, inspiration and storytelling there. We've improved the photographic layer, both with AI and our own in real-life shots, and have really, if you've looked at the fall assortment in the fall photography, you can see a warmth to Pottery Barn that is very dreamy and very relevant and very much what you think about when you think of the best Pottery Barn in your mind's eye, what does it look like? And I think you start to see that in the film that we're showing the customers.

The furniture category has really improved, which is a big part of the business, and we're thrilled to see that. We have worked on multistep finishes on our woods and authentic materials and bringing back some more quirky dec-acc and patterns. And I think when you go and you go to the stores right now and you go online, you see a brand that has incredible design and quality and the prices are better than the competition. It really, right now, in my opinion, you start to see what we've been talking about when we say going back to our heritage aesthetic.

And the other thing that's exciting is that we mentioned the collaborations, we're launching them all the time. So we launched fall, and then a couple of weeks later, we just launched our new [ Cravit ]. Please go look at it, especially if you look at it on social, you'll see the depth of color and fabrication across categories that the Cravit product offers.

And then in terms of stores, the other thing that's exciting is our new stores are really performing. Our remodeled -- our repositioned stores are really performing. And that's another part of the flywheel.

So in total, between iconic products, introductions and better storytelling and better DTC, I think that's why we're starting to see the better results. And as I said earlier, as much as we're pleased with it, there's a lot more work to do. We look at the stack on a multiyear basis, we expect more. So that's what we're focused on. We are not doing round off saying we've hit it. We're saying we're on the right path and we expect more.

Okay. That's great. The second follow-up question, for Jeff within the guidance. The EBIT margin guidance that you've raised both at the bottom end and the top end, could you give us the puts and takes around that increase? Is it simply a function of the sales increase in the corresponding leverage? Or are there other good guys and bad guys factored in there?

Yes. Good morning. We raised our operating margin guidance to 17.8% to 18.2%, reflecting the strength and momentum in our business. And it's not just about the top line. Like you said, there's a lot of puts and takes underneath.

There's 3 points I want to make on gross margin for everybody to consider for the back half. One is Q2 was the peak impact of tariffs on our margins. We expect the pressure to moderate over the back half as we begin to comp the tariffs we paid last year. Remember, they go comp mid-Q3 and are essentially comped in Q4.

Second thing is higher oil prices. Fuel costs are impacting our overall gross margin. We absorbed those in both Q1 and in Q2, and our guidance embeds those higher fuel costs all through the back half. And finally, I want to remind everyone of the impact of the shrink accrual benefit from last year. Should be a good guy in Q3, but we come up against about 150 basis points in Q4 that we have to anniversary that will eat up some of the good guy from lapping the tariffs. But here's the thing. We're not including any benefit from the IEEPA tariff refunds in our guidance. This is purely an operational guide -- purely an operational raise on our guide.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Chris Nardone with Bank of America.

I just want to follow up on the tariff refunds. How are you thinking about deploying the residual refunds outside of what you already communicated in terms of reimbursing some of the vendors and increasing the 401(k) contributions. Are there other revenue-driving initiatives that you're planning on doing to deploy the residual funds?

I want to say, first of all, we're so appreciative to have the money back and to be able to reward our employees with part of it. They have done such an amazing job. It was a very chaotic year moving products all over the world and trying to resource them, and teams did a great job also in supply chain offsetting some of these costs that the tariffs forced upon us. So we're thrilled about that. It means a lot to the people who have done the work.

The second piece is our vendor community has always been our -- they've been our key partners. And they have been there for us. We have known them for years. We've built our business together. And we thought it was really the right thing to do. They gave us discounts. And when we got the money back, we gave them their money back. And that is a big deal that I think is going to really just continue to further solidify the special partnership we have with them versus our competitors.

In terms of the rest, we're always investing in our business. We look at ROI. You know we have a very high ROIC. And we're always investing where we see returns. And it's not as if we have felt starved in doing so. We have been able to fund the initiatives that we see are important. And so there's not like some big step-up thing that we haven't done already. it more -- gives us more flexibility. We love cash. So why not have some more? And who knows, we may decide to do something, but right now, there has been no other decisions made to deploy any of it in any other way than we would normally, which is just looking at the best returning initiatives that we have to address.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Lasser with UBS.

It sounds like based on Jeff's comments, that we should be modeling gross margin degradation in the back half of the year. So, A, is that true? And b, as you look to 2027, presumably, you're going to be expecting that it's going to be an algorithm year. Where do you think the model can generate expansion in the year ahead, especially as you're going to be lapping some of these complicated gyrations of tariffs and other factors this year? And is it really coming from more full-price selling, the operating costs or other areas?

I'm going to start with just the future. We are not here to give guidance next year. You know that. But I will tell you that we're very confident, because our growth strategies are working and so are our operational strategies, and there's still a lot of runway. When we think about the world of home furnishings and the TAM that's out there, the reality is that no one owns much share. We are not that big. There's a lot more room. If we have 2 percent point more market share gains, it's $16 billion more, right? We're $8 billion today, ish. So imagine if we continue to gain share, which is what we're doing now, how much there is for us to gain out there with our amazing brands?

I don't think anybody else has a better portfolio of brands aesthetically across price points and strength in multichannel. And we have enough new brands also that are growing double digit, as we said earlier, to keep fueling the growth. So we'll come back to you on what that growth number looks like for next year, but let's just hold off on a specific range.

On the bottom line, as I said, there's still a lot of room in supply chain. We're seeing opportunity also with AI implementation in service. And when I think about maybe the biggest opportunity of all, it's something that we haven't really put enough, we haven't really deployed much against at all, which is our inventory accuracy.

So as we think about the future, there's -- we told you we're going to improve our customer metrics. We've been at it for years. We told you we are going to reduce our promotional selling. We have. That's really been a huge driver of margin. But as I look to the future, I see even -- I see very big buckets, including inventory accuracy, more supply chain, more reg price selling, and then, of course, leverage on the base with sales.

Okay. So Jeff, back to the back half.

The back half and the question about modeling the back half. As you know, Michael, we don't guide specific longs, and we guide operating margin guidance, which we've raised both ends with our higher guidance today. And I think something I would point out is there's a lot of puts and takes between gross margin. Certainly, the tariff impact will lessen over the back half of the year. We still have fuel prices, with a shrink benefit. But we also know the levers to pull in SG&A to make results happen.

The thing I would point out is if you take a look at the midpoint of our higher guide, you'll notice it's actually slightly above last year's operating margin for the back half.

Your next question comes from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett.

Great quarter. Like you said, gained a lot of market share in the quarter. But there's been a lot of volatility across your peer group. So I was hoping you could speak to the cadence of your comp throughout the quarter.

And then when we think about the acceleration in unit growth next year, the 1% to 3%, can we think about the banners you're going to look to lean into? And can you also double-click on when we'd expect to see more store growth at Rejuvenation, which you guys seem very excited about?

Chuck, so on cadence, I think everyone knows that we don't provide specific cadence by month. The fact is our comps accelerated from Q1 to Q2 on both a 1 and 2-year basis. And if you zoom out, we've been positive comp for 6 years -- sorry 6 straight quarters, and it's been pretty steady performance. So it's less about the month-to-month cadence to the comp and more about the consistency of the comps over time on both a 1 and 2-year basis.

Pivoting to the store count question, the store count overall will end this year essentially flat. But we will see, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, 70 basis points of growth from new stores throughout the year. Reminding everyone that most of our leases terminate at the end of every fiscal year, so there will be a number of closures at the end of this year. And then the store count, starting in fiscal year '27 and for each year after that, we anticipate growing our store count by 1% to 3% per year in units.

And we see this across all our banners. We have a lot of opportunity. There's opportunity in our big brands like Pottery Barn, there's still markets that we are not in, as well as West Elm. There's places that we can infill stores, major markets that would be natural for these stores, even the Sonoma brand. In some of the smaller brands like Kids and Teen, there are still places that were underrepresented.

And in terms of Rejuvenation, we will slowly and methodically build out the Rejuvenation brand. It's important to us to get the right location and to build it over time. We still believe that that brand can grow to a $1 billion opportunity, and we believe retail is one piece of that puzzle to get them to $1 billion, but we will do so very strategically and methodically.

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Matuszewski with Jefferies.

My question was on the Sonoma banner. Highest comp this quarter among the brands and also the hardest comparison. You mentioned some of the tactical things you're doing with collaborations and book signings and things like that. But maybe we could zoom out, and bigger picture here, are you seeing shifts in demand drivers for that kind of cookware industry category? And as you think about your outperformance versus the industry, any context in terms of it being driven by new customer acquisition? Or is this higher wallet share from existing shoppers? Just looking for more color in terms of the industry and share gains for Sonoma banner.

Yes, thanks, Jonathan, for noticing the great results in Sonoma. Team has been really delivering really across all categories, all kitchen divisions, positive food showing, some nice improvement from Q1. And then the other thing that is very small but exciting is we're finally seeing some fantastic results from Williams Sonoma Home, meaningful results this quarter with both furniture improving, but also the [ littles ] improving, which drives customer acquisition.

So in terms of product and innovation, we have a lot more exciting launches to come. We have some key launches that we're building upon. And we've had these collaborations. Hill House was great. We have Oakville Grocery. We've done some really great stuff with [ Bookers Day ] recently. And we've also been very involved with the community and showing up in places where the tastemakers are. And one of the collaborations that I love, that's not new, but has a new layer on, is Sanderson, that you should look at, that's really beautiful.

And so as you look across the product and innovation, you see a lot of wins. And then when you look at the customer and brand initiatives, whether it was Bottle Rock or what we did at Nantucket By Design or No Kid Hungry, we're very involved in being where our customers and where the chefs are and there's a lot of good vibes going with the Williams Sonoma brand that I think you can't put a price on in terms of how people see the brand and their excitement and coming into our stores.

Your next question comes from the line of Cristina Fernandez with Telsey.

Congratulations. I wanted to go back to the collaborations, which seem a big driver of market share gains along with everything else. But is there a way you could size for us the impact of collaborations in the business, I guess how that has changed over the past couple of years or year-over-year, whether it's the number of collaborations you are doing or the percentage of sales? Just trying to get a sense of their importance to the business and the brands.

Yes. I would say it's the icing on the cake. It's not going to make the comp in and of itself, but it certainly brings -- it's a noticing value. It brings new customers in when done right. They get to -- we get to attract their customer base because the collaborators have their own following that may not necessarily be our following. So that's good both short term and long term. Emma Chamberlain, for example, has brought younger customers to the West Elm brand, which is fantastic. And not to mention, she had such great clever product that sold at multiple price points from furniture to dec-acc that everyone could come in and get a piece of it. And so you see it hit on new customer acquisition, you see it be a traffic driver, social buzz. And it is sales.

I mean -- but it's not, as I talked about that layer cake. And the way it breaks down, it's not a bulk of the comp. It is in some businesses bigger. So in Kids and Teen, which have been at it the longest, they have some mega collaborations that do very well. [ Rolled back Rabbit ] and LoveShackFancy, and Harry Potter, which just came back. These are big long-term developed collaborations. But the other brands are just getting going. And it's so fun also for our internal teams to be able to think about a different aesthetic for the brand or something they might not have designed. It's just -- it's exactly what it sounds like it is, which is it's fun, fun for us and it's a fun for the customer. And it's resulting in good numbers.

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Zaccone with Citi.

Congrats on the strong results. Could you talk about the second half outlook a bit more? You clearly described the second quarter as an acceleration. It seems like the high end of the full year guide embeds an acceleration in the back half to get there. Maybe just talk to some of the puts and takes for the second half outlook from a sales perspective.

Yes. Sure, Steve. So we raised our top line guidance from comps of 2% to 6% to comps of 4% to 6%. We have a strong product lineup, as Laura has been talking about, exciting collaborations that drive buzz and a lot of momentum in our growth initiatives. And as you know, we don't guide the specific quarters, I would just point to the framework, as I usually do.

The midpoint of our range reflects the continuation of our current 1 and 2-year trends. The high point of the range reflects some continued acceleration in those trends, driven by strong traction in our initiatives. And if we have a really strong holiday, we would wind up there. The low end of the guide contemplates just less traction on initiatives and maybe a softer holiday. But overall, I think the punch line is our business is strong; it accelerated from Q1 to Q2. And as a result, we've raised our guide.

Your next question comes from the line of Max Rakhlenko with TD Cowen.

Great. Congrats on all the success. So my question is on B2B. Given the very impressive growth in both contract and trade, are you internally moving up the target for what channel can reach $2 billion in revenues? And if you're ready to share that publicly, when you think that could occur?

And then did I miss this, but did you provide growth in both contracts as well as trade this quarter?

Nice try, Max. I think as everyone knows, B2B has been one of our key initiatives, and I just want to recognize the B2B team for their outstanding contribution particularly this quarter. They delivered overall double-digit growth of 14.5%. In fact, it was our largest quarter -- largest volume quarter-to-date.

To answer your question, contract grew 20% and trade grew 12%. So we're seeing both spectrums growing. I think everyone knows our focus is on the contract side of the business. It accounted for 36% of the B2B business, and we're just getting started. We continue to gain momentum across hotels, restaurants, multifamily, residential, education, sports and entertainment. We do continue to see a clear path to grow to $2 billion over the next several years. We haven't given a time line to that. We just continue to capture market share in the $80 billion fragmented B2B market.

Thank you. Before we end the call, I thought I'm going to ask a question to Sameer, who's in the room and because he's doing so many exciting things to support both the sales and the profits. What are you excited about in technology for Williams-Sonoma in the back half?

Yes. Thank you, Laura. Let's talk about AI because the acceleration in results that we saw this quarter, frankly, it's pretty incredible. And I think it's a testament and proof that our strategy is working. And we've talked about this before, but what we're doing is we're taking our advantages, category authority, decades of expertise, proprietary tech platforms and our secret sauce, which is rich first-party data that nobody else has. We're connecting it with AI and we're starting to drive some really, really impactful results.

I'll give you examples from the quarter. So Olive, our Williams Sonoma assistant is a great example. So we've expanded our capabilities. We brought her AI intelligence to customers while they're shopping. This is not just a chat bot. We're bringing this AI intelligence. We're connecting with the customers where they are in the shopping experience. And the results are starting to show.

Since the beginning of the year, engagement with Olive is up 700%. Revenue was up 620%. And customers who engage with Olive convert at 3x higher rate.

We took the same approach with the Pottery Barn brands with Otto, which we're very excited to say we launched this month. Otto will help you narrow down the right piece for your space. They'll coordinate items that go together, sofa to rug. It works room by room, it knows rug sizing, outdoor materials the way that our associates do. And when the conversation calls for it, it will book you a design appointment or hand you straight to a Pottery Barn designer, exciting capabilities. And the -- it's early, but the early results are following the same pattern as Olive's. Almost -- or actually over 70% of engagements with Otto were able to be resolved without handing over to a person.

Similarly, e-commerce site personalization is accelerating. A visit where we personalize the experience now generates roughly 9x the revenue of a visit -- of an average visit. Last year, that was 2x. So you're seeing that acceleration again.

And everything I've talked about so far is customer-facing. We're seeing similarly compelling results across supply chain, inventory, merchandising corporate operations, really, really exciting stuff, and we'll keep building on all this in the back half of the year.

Thank you, Sameer. Okay. Well, we are now headed off to our favorite season, which is the holiday season, and we are looking forward to having a strong holiday and talking to you guys on the other side of it. Thank you so much for your continued support. It means the world to us. And please go shop at our stores.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Welcome to the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Jeremy Brooks, Chief Accounting Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call.

Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that during this call, we will make forward-looking statements with respect to future events and financial performance including our annual guidance for fiscal '26 and our long-term outlook. We believe these statements reflect our best estimates. However, we cannot make any assurances these statements will materialize and actual results may differ significantly from our expectations. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after today's call.

Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures should not be considered replacements for and should be read together with our GAAP results. This call should also be considered in conjunction with our filings with the SEC. Finally, a replay of the call will be available on our Investor Relations website.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Laura Alber, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. We are off to a strong start in fiscal 2026. In Q1, our comp came in at 4.8%, reflecting strong execution across our portfolio of brands, our channels and our teams. Thank you to everyone at the company for your hard work and dedication. We are pleased that our growth initiatives are working, and every brand delivered a positive comp in Q1. We also saw strength in both our retail and DTC channels with improvements across the customer journey. Furniture and non-furniture trends were strong and collaborations, newness and innovation all performed well.

From a profitability standpoint, we delivered an operating margin of 16.2% ahead of expectations. We delivered this operating margin even while absorbing tariffs and higher fuel costs. Earnings per share was $1.93, up from $1.85 last year.

We continue to outperform on both top and bottom lines in this uncertain environment which includes, but is certainly not limited to war, trade policy, including tariffs and interest rates. We are delivering compounding results year after year despite the cyclical swings of the housing market and other macroeconomic events. We believe our strong brands, our proven ability to execute our vision and our relentless focus on customer service will allow us to accomplish our goals in 2026 and beyond.

First, on growth. In Q1, our 4.8% comp reflected our company-wide focus on growing our top line. Our quarter was driven by strong performance at all of our brands, growth from our B2B division and continued outperformance of our smaller but quickly growing and profitable emerging brands. Also, the product pipeline that we laid out this year is working. We are committed to delivering great customer service, and we continue to put the customer at the center of everything we do. We extended AI further into the customer journey. We scaled personalization across our portfolio of brands and we continue to optimize the shopping and checkout experience.

We also made progress using automation to improve customer care and strengthen product discovery, while continuing to advance our design tools. And across the operations, we delivered enhancements to support supply chain efficiency and enable important brand initiatives this quarter. And we continue to make progress in supply chain performance with our focus on time and delivery and low returns and replacements. These improvements helped us offset higher year-on-year tariff and higher fuel costs. We stayed lean and efficient throughout the organization and managed variable costs. And you can see those results in the P&L we share with you today.

Additionally, in the quarter, we returned $373 million to our investors through share buybacks and dividends. Our results demonstrate our discipline and commitment to delivering quality earnings and returning free cash flow to our stockholders.

Now let's talk about guidance. We are reiterating the annual guidance we provided on our Q4 call. We are confident about our business, both because of our Q1 results and our strategies for the balance of 2026. However, despite [indiscernible] in the first quarter, we are not raising guidance as it is early in the year, and there's a lot of uncertainty in the external environment. We are not building in on meaningful housing recovery, and we are assuming continued volatility across geopolitics, war, fuel prices, trade policy and tariffs and interest rates.

Of course, we can never plan for extreme outlier events, but what we can do is give you our best estimate for 2026 which at this point reflects comp brand revenue growth of 2% to 6% with a midpoint of 4% and an operating margin in the range of $17.5 to 18.1% with a midpoint of 17.8%.

Now let's review our brands. Pottery Barn delivered a positive 1% comp in Q1, and we were pleased to see the brand's results improve. We saw progress in key categories for Pottery Barn across furniture, lighting and textiles. Customers responded to both our spring and summer assortments. The quarter also reflected the actions we have been taking in marketing. We are focused on Pottery Barn's heritage aesthetic, both in marketing and product design, and we are improving value across key categories. At the Pottery Barn channel level, DTC improved as we focused on the digital experience. Retail remained strong as customers continue to respond positively to our stores, design services and the in-person shopping experience, including Take It Home Today. We remain focused on executing the Pottery Barn strategy quarter-by-quarter and are confident about the brand's trajectory in 2026 and beyond.

Before I move on, I also want to share an update on leadership at Pottery Barn. This morning, we announced the promotion of Jennifer Kello to the role of President of Pottery Barn. Over the course of her 29-year tenure, Jen has demonstrated an exceptional track record of driving growth and incubating brands. She brings deep expertise across merchandising, design, e-commerce and marketing and has helped drive significant growth for our company. We also have a strong bench of talent in our Pottery Barn Children's businesses, and that team will continue to lead the brands and will report to me.

And finally, today, we announced former Pottery Barn President Monica Bhargava's departure from the company. I want to thank Monica for her significant accomplishments throughout her 26 years with our company. Monica's visionary leadership and creative talent have made a lasting impact across our brands, and we are grateful for her many contributions.

Now let's turn to our Pottery Barn Children's business which delivered yet another strong quarter, running a positive 4.5% comp in Q1. Growth was driven by product innovation with strength in both furniture and non-furniture. Collaborations and licensing remain key drivers led by LoveShackFancy, Chris Loves Julia and partners to keep the assortment fresh and bring in new customers. We also saw a strong momentum in Baby supported by high-quality furniture and expanded gifting assortment and improvements to the registry experience, both in stores and online. And in Dorm, we are entering the season well positioned with complete solutions that meet customers' needs and preferences. In the quarter, we also launched Dormify as our tenth brand which expands our reach in dorm in small space living with functional style-driven solutions to the next generation of customers.

As we think about the future, we see meaningful growth ahead in our Children's business. Our pipeline of new product introductions and continued collaboration growth is strong, and we are excited about the momentum as we move through the year.

Now let's review West Elm. West Elm had a positive, 8.5% in Q1 and I'm proud to say again that West Elm is on a roll. The drivers at West Elm are consistent and the results are compounding. West Elm continued to make improvements across products, brand heat and channel excellence, new introductions in both furniture and non-furniture drove growth and both Springs and Summer Newness performed particularly well. Retail West Elm was a highlight in Q1. Customers came into our stores and saw more newness and better in-stock availability. And the strength of the brand gives us confidence to return store count growth with 5 West Elm openings planned in 2026. Collaborations also remain a key pillar of the growth strategy at West Elm. The Emma Chamberlain collection was a great example that brought new energy to the brand and connected with the younger customer. It is another proof point tath West Elm can create brand heat and drive growth through distinctive products and storytelling. Overall, we are thrilled with [indiscernible] at West Elm. The brand is executing well, and we feel good about the opportunity to build on this progress as we move through '26 and beyond.

Now let's review the Williams-Sonoma brand. Williams-Sonoma continues its streak of strong performance with a positive 5% comp in Q1 on top of a 7.3% comp last year. As we spoke about on the last earnings call, 2026 marks Williams-Sonoma's 70th anniversary. At 70 years old, this brand is not slowing down. In fact, it's gaining momentum. The Kitchen business continues to accelerate and our pipeline of proprietary in-house design products and market exclusive separate us from the competition.

We also continue to strengthen the brand through collaborations and marketing partnerships. In Q1, we welcomed well renowned interior designer, Kelly Wearstler as a spokesperson for our exclusive [indiscernible] offering. We also launched the Stanley Tucci pizza oven from GreenPan and a food collaboration with Oakfield Grocery on Napa Valley culinary institution and the oldest continuously operating grocery store in California.

In our Williams-Sonoma stores, we continue to bring the brand to life through experiences that deepen engagement. In Q1, skill series classes remains an important driver, and we also built momentum in registry through events and concierge appointments. We also saw notable momentum in Williams-Sonoma Home in the quarter. Customers responded to newness and innovation in color, print and pattern. And while the business is small, we see opportunity to expand in the underserved high-end furniture and home furnishings market. Looking ahead, we are excited for the summer entertaining season. We have [indiscernible] this weekend which is another great example of how we bring the brand to life, to food, community and experiences that are uniquely Williams-Sonoma and if you're going to be in Napa this weekend, please give me a call.

Now I'd like to update you on B2B. B2B started the year strong with another record-breaking quarter, delivering growth of 13.7%. We saw the strength across B2B with continued momentum in both trade, which were 9% and contract, which grew 22%. Our B2B team continues to strengthen our position as a preferred partner. We're winning because of our deep relationships with designers, developers, procurement groups and brands and because our design to deliver capabilities are difficult to replicate.

We also delivered several marquee projects in the quarter, including hospitality work for Delano Miami, [indiscernible] Resort and Spa, multiple locations with national developers like AMAR and Greystar and continued momentum in sports and entertainment with Capital One Arena, Live Nation Philadelphia and upcoming work with the U.S. Open. And to start Q2, the team was recognized that the Hospitality Design Expo, winning the Best in Show award. Overall, we are pleased with the start to the year in B2B and we remain excited about the pipeline and the opportunity ahead.

Now I'd like to update you on our emerging brands. With our proven ability to incubate and scale rooms in-house, these concepts represent sizable growth opportunities for us. Starting with Rejuvenation, which had another strong quarter with double-digit comp growth. Performance was driven by continued momentum in project light categories, including cabinet hardware, bath, lighting and mirrors. Rejuvenation also continued to see strong engagement from the trade which reinforces the brand's position with design and renovation customers. And in DTC, growth is supported by continued engagement in our core categories. Product innovation continued to be a focus on the brand with high-quality, design-driven products, distinctive details and customizable options that matter in home project categories. With only 13 stores and great online growth, we are thrilled with the progress in Rejuvenation, and we continue to believe in the opportunity for Rejuvenation to be our next billion-dollar brand.

Mark & Graham also had strong Q1 with a double-digit positive comp. The brand continued to build momentum across key categories, and it remains a distinctive destination for personalized gifts for less meaningful moments. As we look ahead, we are leaning into major seasonal milestones like Graduation, Father's day, Wedding Season and [ Summer Entertaining ] and we are doing that with compelling new products and elevated coastal point of view.

And last, but certainly not least, GreenRow. GreenRow continued to deliver growth in Q1. We opened our first store in March and is a great manifestation of the brand. And since we've last talked, I hope you have had an opportunity to stop by and see the store yourself in SoHo. GreenRow focuses on sustainable, responsibly crafted vintage inspired design. The brand combines colorful eclectic styling with airline quality materials and low-impact manufacturing practices.

Finally, I'd like to talk about our global business. We continue to see strong performance across our strategic global markets, including Canada, Mexico and the U.K. driven by differentiated products, ongoing omnichannel improvements, and continued growth in our design and trade businesses.

So in closing, as you can see, we are off to a strong start in fiscal 2026. I would summarize Q1, the 3 accomplishments. First, we delivered strong top line growth with every brand positive. Second, we drove operating margin that exceeded expectations. And third, we delivered earnings growth and we did all of this in a dynamic and uncertain external environment. This quarter reflected what we set out to do in 2026. We are accelerating growth through strong execution across channels, strength in both furniture and non-furniture and continued momentum in collaborations, product newness and product innovation. We are continuing to invest in the customer experience and making progress in service and supply chain. And finally, we are staying disciplined on cost and productivity, which supports strong profitability and returns to our shareholders. We feel good about the start of the year, and we remain confident in our priorities and our strategies for 2036. And while the external environment can shift quickly, our model and our team are built to navigate volatility and keep delivery.

And with that, I want to thank our team again for their work and their commitment. And I also want to thank our vendors and our shareholders for their partnership and support. Now I will turn it over to Jeff to walk you through the numbers and our outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone. We delivered another quarter of growth and strong earnings in Q1. Our results reflect the power of Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s operating model. And our team's strong execution on the priorities we laid out for fiscal year '26, accelerating growth, delivering world-class customer service and driving earnings. As I walk through the numbers, you'll see how we delivered on all 3 priorities this quarter. I'll start with our Q1 results and then review our guidance for fiscal year '26.

Q1 net revenues finished at $1.81 billion, with comp growth of 4.8%. Both our 1-year and 2-year comps accelerated from Q4 to Q1, reflecting the continued strength and momentum of our business. Both Furniture and non-furniture categories posted positive comps in the quarter, and the trend in both categories accelerated significantly from Q4. From a channel perspective, both e-commerce and retail delivered strong comps with e-commerce up 4.8% and retail up 4.7%. We accelerated our market share gains as the home furnishings market declined in the low single digits in Q1. We accomplished this even as we maintained our level of full price selling. Our strong results demonstrate the power of our portfolio of brands, which span different aesthetics, life stages and price points. Combined with our growth strategies, our portfolio sets Williams-Sonoma Inc. apart in the home furnishings industry.

Moving down the income statement. Q1 gross margin was 44%, down approximately 30 basis points versus last year. Our focus on growth, customer service and supply chain efficiency partially offset the headwinds from tariffs and higher fuel costs. Merchandise margins declined 100 basis points versus last year. Higher tariffs flowing through to our weighted average cost of goods sold drove this decline. Full price selling was essentially flat year-over-year.

Ocean freight costs were also pressured by higher oil prices. However, our size and scale and our talented supply chain team helped mitigate the impact. Supply chain efficiencies, including a lower shrink accrual delivered approximately 50 basis points of gross margin benefit in the quarter. Our focus and execution on customer service continued to drive efficiency across our supply chain enabling us to offset the impact of higher fuel prices to domestic shipping costs. I'd like to acknowledge and thank our supply chain team for their relentless focus on service and efficiency that is helping us offset higher fuel prices.

Occupancy costs leveraged approximately 20 basis points versus last year with our strong top line growth more than offsetting the 3% increase in occupancy dollars. Overall, our gross margin came in ahead of our expectations. We are pleased with our ability to partially offset tariff-related merchandise margin pressure and higher fuel prices through supply chain efficiencies and occupancy leverage.

Turning now to SG&A. Q1 SG&A ran at 27.8% of revenues, approximately 30 basis points higher than last year. Employment expense deleveraged 30 basis points. We continue to manage variable employment costs in line with top line trends while staying focused on investing in talent. Advertising expense as a percent of revenues leveraged 10 basis points. Our in-house marketing team continued to test, scale and optimize across our portfolio of brands, driving strong customer engagement while remaining disciplined on spend. We also invested in social media, using compelling content, collaborations and influencer partnerships to increase relevance, expand reach and drive brand heat. Lastly, general expense deleveraged approximately 10 basis points, primarily from timing. On the bottom line, we delivered operating income of $292 million with operating margin at 16.2%. Diluted earnings per share were $1.93, up 4% versus last year. On the balance sheet, merchandise inventories were $1.46 billion, up 9% to last year. Included in our inventory is approximately $60 million of embedded incremental tariff costs. Excluding these tariff costs, inventories would have been in line with our top line growth. Our inventory levels and composition continue to be well positioned to support our sales growth and customer service goals. During the quarter, we invested $58 million in capital expenditures to support our long-term growth. We also returned $373 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. We repurchased $288 million of stock or approximately 1.4% of shares outstanding. We also paid $85 million in dividends, a 15% increase year-over-year.

Summing up our Q1 results, we are proud of the strong execution across the business. We accelerated our top line growth, continued to improve customer service and supply chain efficiency and grew earnings per share. These results speak to the power of our operating model, but none of it would be possible without the incredible team we have here at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. I'd like to thank our team for their outstanding execution this quarter.

Now let's turn to our fiscal year '26 outlook. As Laura mentioned, we remain confident in our strategy and momentum. We are reiterating our guidance as it's still early in the year and the environment is uncertain. We expect fiscal year '26 net revenue comps to be in the range of 2% to 6%. And with total net revenue growth of 2.7% to 6.7%. We expect operating margin to be in the range of 17.5% to 18.1%. Our guidance continues to assume no material changes in the macroeconomic environment [ or ] housing turnover or interest rates. We remain focused on accelerating growth delivering world-class customer service and driving earnings.

As we discuss guidance, I'd like to address 3 topics top of mind for investors: higher oil prices, tariff refunds and tariffs. First, higher oil prices. Higher oil prices are pressuring transportation costs. With ocean freight, we believe our size and scale combined with the outstanding work of our experienced transportation team will allow us to continue to mitigate the impact. For domestic shipping expense, deal prices near today's levels are embedded in our guidance. While the direction of oil prices is difficult to predict, our guidance reflects our best estimate of the impact of higher oil prices on our business.

Second, tariff refunds. Our guidance does not contemplate recognizing any benefit from tariff refunds due to the uncertainty surrounding the timing and potential of recovery.

Finally, tariffs. Our assumptions on tariffs remains unchanged as well. As discussed last quarter, we continue to expect the impact of tariffs to be front half weighted and then moderate over the balance of the year. Our guidance continues to assume all tariffs currently in place remain in effect for the balance of the year, including the Section 232 tariffs, the current Section 301 tariffs and the Section 122 tariffs. While the Section 122 tariffs are currently set to expire in July, our guidance assumes they will be replaced with tariffs at a similar rate. With the ongoing uncertainty around tariffs, it is impossible to say where they will ultimately land and it is difficult to determine what impact they will have on our business. Our guidance reflects our best estimates based on the tariffs in place as of this call. As tariff policy changes, we may need to update our guidance.

Also today, we are providing some further inputs for modeling purposes. We expect our full year interest income to be approximately $25 million and our full year effective tax rate to be approximately 25.5%.

Turning now to capital allocation. We will continue to prioritize funding our business operations and investing in long-term growth. Our capital expenditure guidance is unchanged. We expect to spend approximately $275 million in capital expenditures for the year. About 95% of that investment will be focused on e-commerce, retail and supply chain. With regards to our investment in retail, we continue to expect our year-end store count to be essentially flat to last year, after which we anticipate 1% to 3% growth in store count each year starting in fiscal year '27. Embedded in our fiscal year '26 guidance continues to be approximately 70 basis points of non-comp growth from our investment in retail.

We remain committed to returning excess cash to shareholders through a combination of increased dividends and ongoing share repurchases. On dividends, we will continue to pay our quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share which is a 15% increase year-over-year. We are proud to say that fiscal year '26 is the 17th consecutive year of increased dividend payouts. On share repurchases, we have approximately $1.1 billion remaining under our current authorization, and we will continue to repurchase shares opportunistically as part of our disciplined approach to delivering shareholder returns. Looking beyond fiscal year '26, we are reiterating our long-term outlook for mid- to high single-digit revenue growth and operating margins in the mid- to high teens.

Wrapping up our comments, we are proud to have delivered yet another strong quarter for our shareholders. We're confident we'll continue to outperform our peers and deliver shareholder returns for these 5 reasons that remain consistent. Our ability to gain market share in the fragmented home furnishings industry, the strength of our in-house proprietary design, the competitive advantage of our digital-first but not digital-only channel strategy. The ongoing strength of our growth initiatives and the resiliency of our fortress balance sheet.

With that, I'll open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first comes from the line of Kate McShane of Goldman Sachs.

We wanted to first ask about the health of the consumer. If you saw any change in behavior during the quarter, any differences between income cohorts? And if you've seen any change in made to date?

Sure. I can't really speak for others and what they're saying, but our consumer is responding to our products, our strategies across channels and across our brands, as you can see by this morning's set of numbers. And it's from furniture to smaller items and collaborations, across the board really. I think the truth is that we have put together a pipeline of products that is very appealing and distinctive in the market and people trust us for our great prices and quality and they're coming into our stores because of our engaging store experiences and service and it seems like they are very interested in spending with us, and we believe that, that's going to continue as we look through the year because the strategies that we built through the year that are going to come, it looks like the ones we've been implementing. And so I think you're going to continue to see the momentum that we've seen in the first quarter.

And it does appear that you were able to offset a lot of the higher fuel costs with the efficiencies in the supply chain that you laid out on the call. But I was wondering if this inflationary environment were to persist, do you think you'll have to look to increasing prices at all?

I think it's too early to comment on that and remember, we don't just compete on price. We're competing on the whole, which is the product itself and [ with similar ] market versus other similar products. And we have incredible finishes and product design, exclusives, exciting stuff in the works. And that's where we see the customer being less price sensitive. That said, we're careful to make sure that they feel really good about buying from us, and we want to continue to invest in our customer and give them the best value in the market.

And I'll just add, Kate, that as I said in our opening remarks, oil prices at today's levels are embedded in our guidance. We are seeing ocean freight prices pressured. But given our size and scale, we're able to mitigate them. And then with domestic transportation, we are seeing higher costs, but our supply chain efficiencies are really offsetting them. And I want to take a moment just to acknowledge and recognize and thank our entire supply chain organization for their ongoing focus on just efficiency and driving customer service, which as everyone has seen, is really producing phenomenal results for the company.

Your next question comes from the line of Seth Sigman of Barclays.

So with comps accelerating this quarter relative to prior quarters, at a time when it seems like you've raised prices, but it seems like those pricing increases are maybe starting to stabilize. So it would imply that the composition of the business is maybe shifting, meaning more volume is improving. Is that right directionally? And if so, what do you think is changing that is driving that? And how do you think about the sustainability as you move through this year?

You are right. And so we're seeing broad-based comp lever improvement and we're very excited to see it across channels. It's based on our strategy and the execution of our strategy, which are very competitive but we could lay out a bunch of them in the last conference call and in this one and so we're thrilled to see furniture recovering, we had a good Easter, we're going to back to school. We've invested in the dorm experience, the total customer experience, in stock at retail. All these things are good for the comp levers. I always think of comp levers as the output of the strategy and not the thing to focus on, but just to tell you, it's not just for [ price ].

Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe for Jeff, on the merchandise margins, they were down this quarter, but a little bit better than, I think, expected you're going to start to lap very healthy merchandise margins, particularly in the second and third quarter. Can you just remind us how you're thinking about that? How you would expect the cadence to play out throughout the year?

Yes. So margin was down about 100 basis points in the MMU in Q1. A little better than Q4 and a little better than we expected. But we still are guiding that the impact of tariffs will be heavily front weighted and then moderate across the back half of the year simply because of the way the tariffs are flowing through on our weighted average cost accounting. Now Q1 had an easier compare because we were again, up against some timing items in last year. Q2 won't have that benefit. So Q2 will probably be peak impact to the tariffs. But after that, we expect it to moderate for the balance of the year.

Your next question comes from the line of Chuck Grom of Gordon Haskett.

Can you help us think about the underlying demand curve in the business? I mean skeptics are going to say that this is tax-refund-driven, but I don't think that's the case. And I was hoping maybe you could opine on strength in West Elm and the recovery in PB specifically. But more importantly, just getting a better sense for the demand curve, the underlying demand curve in the business.

Yes. We're thrilled with the results in West Elm. We're not entirely surprised though we've been building this foundation for growth and if you remember many [ quarters ] ago I mentioned we're starting to see newness really working [indiscernible] inventory. Now we have had that in stock, and we have confidence in building more newness both the core and also the collaborations and it is [indiscernible] we also have new categories that are really performing well for us and focusing on not just furniture, but [indiscernible] and then the combination of two things is great. I also will just say that this is not emotionally-led. We had a very, very strong [indiscernible] in West Elm[indiscernible] not emotionally-driven at all. And we believe that this is a sustainable, the brand is very well positioned versus the competition and [indiscernible] extremely exciting. As it relates to Pottery Barn, we continue to improvements based on the strategy that I laid out we're working [indiscernible] mobile key strategies and [indiscernible] results and have a lot changes especially [indiscernible] positioning and getting back to what is the traditional Pottery Barn aesthetic, which is really resonating with the customer and we've only begun to implement that strategy and so I think you're going to see continuing improvements in Pottery Barn comps as we go [indiscernible] we're confident.

Okay. Great. And then just, Jeff, on the supply chain, another 50 basis -- 50 bps of improvement there to help offset some of the merchandise margin pressure. Can you -- can you walk through some of the KPIs across the metrics that you follow to give us a sense of kind of where you are on that journey and the visibility you have to continue to gain on the supply chain side?

Absolutely, Chuck. So supply chain efficiencies continue to be a big benefit for us. And our goal remains the same. It's having a perfect order on time, damage-free every time. And those are really the key KPIs that we track is the order on time? Is it damage free? Are there no issues with it? And is the customer satisfied? And at the end of the day, it's really about making sure that customer is satisfied, and we have an incredible supply chain team that really makes a difference in terms of our customer service. And as many of you have heard me say, we don't just compete on price. We also compete on service. We compete on service in our stores with our free interior design services, which has [ helped you ] propel the strength of our retail division. And also, we compete on our in-home delivery. We made 2.4 million in-home deliveries a year. That's about 7,000 a day. And we do it better than just about anybody else out there. And we do it by focusing on making sure the customer is happy and that the order comes perfect every time. Is it on time? Did we hit the delivery? Did we have all the pieces together? Did we put it where the customer wanted it? Are they happy with it? At the end of every order, they actually have to sign and acknowledge that they're happy with it. We take pictures of the order, and we make sure that it's what they want. And that customer service is really what differentiates us. And the more we service our customer, the better our results are.

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Matuszewski of Jefferies.

My question was on the trade channel. It's promotional in the industry for consumers but it's also increasingly promotional in the industry for the trade channel. It seems like many retailers are increasingly trying to court the interior design community. It looks like your trade channel business was strong this quarter, up around 9%, I believe. So my question is what's on the horizon in terms of initiatives to maintain that momentum and neutralize maybe some of the higher promotions some competitors are doing to court those designers.

Yes. We continue to believe in our B2B business. It had another strong quarter of 14%. That was our largest quarter ever to date in B2B. Now today is an important part of it. To your point, it was up 9% in quarter and that's not really being driven in price. We're not changing anything regarding the pricing we do with the trade consumers or promotional activity [indiscernible] service and it comes down to our local stores, our own [indiscernible] community, building those relationships and really executing on all the different strategies we have around product and service and delivery. And then the place we're focused in B2B is on the contracts side which had a 22% increase in the quarter. We continue to have an incredibly robust pipeline and are making really big inroads here. I'll share that as many of [indiscernible] I manage B2B. Earlier this month, I joined our B2B team down in Las Vegas to the Hospitality Design Expo, where we won best booth which was a sign of how much attention we get in the industry. And I'll just share with you [indiscernible] I've never seen a team were motivated to drive results and so much activity in our booth with customers coming in. It left me incredibly excited about our ability to achieve our goal, which is to drive it [indiscernible].

Your next question comes from the line of Christopher Horvers of JPM.

I feel like I'm at a Pink Floyd concert right now. Can -- Laura, can you maybe talk about the West Elm acceleration a bit more. There's a lot going on at the brand you're running that PB playbook of category expansion, rooms, outdoor, kids, you have the B2B side, which I think is a big driver of the West Elm business and then you have the Emma collaboration. So as we think about that sequential improvement, could you maybe qualitatively bucket, how the drivers -- which one of these drivers have been more significant?

I'm assuming you're commenting about the echo, which we're very -- we're very sorry for. Is it any better now?

It's a little better.

I mean it's our partner, Q4, and they're working on it as we speak. But I apologize, it's distracting for us too. But I'm not so distracted. I won't tell you about the amazing business, which is driven by multiple things. We laid out the strategies, and we have been executing against them. And -- it's not one thing. Emma Chamberlain is amazing. She has got such a wonderful following and she continues to gain momentum in the world and people knowing her and -- the team started working with her a while back, and they put together a beautiful line of product that is really bringing in new customers, younger customers to the brand and bringing back that hip feeling and a surprise, I think in great retailers execute. It's not what you always expect. It's this new layer that makes you smile and that's what Emma did. All her great products from [ Pigeons to Beautiful Beds ]. I mean it's across the categories. And that's just one thing. There's a bunch of really exciting other collaborators coming. And you can imagine when you have one hit like that, and people see it. A lot of people want to work with you. So we have a wonderful opportunity to continue to feed the collaboration pipeline with really interesting names.

And then at the same time, we've been working on filling white space in the market with West Elm's unique designs, modern aesthetic and price point, and we're making progress against the categories of furniture. We've -- I would say, we've added more looks. We've seen [indiscernible] continue to do well. And then we have our core categories, textiles, and rugs and [ deca ] and tabletop and we have wins across the board. So it really isn't pointing to just one thing. But there's a lot of room to go. I mean there's still areas where we are underdeveloped versus Pottery Barn and areas where we haven't hit it, and that's what we're focused on. We're just going to keep driving it. And we're going to keep pushing for even higher comps. I think this brand has a lot of growth in it and its positioning, and we're going to go get it.

Excellent. And then, Jeff, as a follow-up, can you help us with the price cost lap? You mentioned gross margin troughs year-over-year in the second quarter. How much did 2Q '25 have the price/cost benefit? And does that $60 million of tariff costs that hung up in inventory right now essentially flow through in the second quarter?

Chris, so not all of the $60 million [ inflows ] through the second quarter but some of it does and like I said earlier, Q2 will be the [indiscernible] the front half will be heavily impacted as the tariffs [indiscernible] but as I've said this quarter and last quarter, the tariff [indiscernible] as we travel throughout the year, Q2 the tariffs are essentially still [indiscernible] we did take [indiscernible] against that. And then Q3 they were [indiscernible] the quarter and then in Q4, there no comp. So when you think about that across the year, it goes back to Q2 [indiscernible] back half. In terms of pricing overall, I think [indiscernible] we don't give out the specifics [indiscernible]

Your next question comes from the line of Peter Benedict of Baird.

I guess Jeff, so the full year guide still embeds about a 70 basis point gap between your comp brand revenue growth and your total revenue growth. The first quarter, it was a 40 basis point negative, I guess. So just help us understand the cadence and what's going to drive that as we think about over the balance of the year.

Yes. It really comes down due to our store opening schedule. As we talked about last call, we did say that Q1 would have benefited -- the 70 basis points [indiscernible] full year because [indiscernible] activities that we discussed, which includes opening 20 new stores and [indiscernible] stores while [indiscernible] so we still anticipate a full year benefit of 70 basis points to revenues from all this retail activity, and it will accelerate as we go throughout the year.

Okay. Makes sense. And then my other question is just on the shrink accrual. I kind of recall if you framed the size of that in the quarter, if that was just part of maybe one of the other buckets. But can you talk about the shrink accrual in the first quarter and if we should expect that to continue to be a good guy, I guess, over the balance of the next couple of quarters before we cycle the positive in the fourth quarter of last year.

Yes. Happy to, Peter. As you may recall [indiscernible] accrual in fiscal year '25. And for fiscal year '26, we [indiscernible] as a result, we will see benefit in Q1, Q2, Q3 and then come up against incentives we saw last year in Q4. In terms of [indiscernible] in Q1 [indiscernible] supply chain benefits and [indiscernible] you'll never know what's going to happen until you take [indiscernible] and all of this is embedded in our guidance.

Your next question comes from the line of Cristina Fernandez of Telsey Advisory Group.

I wanted to ask about the accelerating trends in D2C. Can you talk perhaps what you're doing on the advertising that's different in driving traffic to the website in that environment that has seen more promotional to us, [ not from you, from the competition ]?

Well, I'd say that we're always looking at where we can make a tweak to our mix that drives incremental traffic and conversion. And we are using our brand heat to fuel social, organic and paid and influencers are doing a great job for us. With our partners, we are continuing to invest in the high ROIC ad cost terms and programs, and we're doing a lot of testing with these groups to find what will matter in this new world and how we see the LLMs and I do have Sameer here with me, and I'm going to -- before we run out of time, use your question to turn it to him to talk a little bit more about what we're doing with AI and how we're using that to accelerate really all of our strategies. And if you don't mind, I'm just -- I'm going to give him the chance to do that now. It's relevant to your question.

Yes. Appreciate [indiscernible] about her prepared remarks about how we're accelerating in AI and the impact it's having [indiscernible] but I think I want to take a minute to talk about where all the acceleration [indiscernible] So first, we talked about [indiscernible] primary data, our priority expertise that we're bringing together with AI in a way nobody else can. Our AI [indiscernible] scale never seen before [indiscernible] and not just providing them [indiscernible] we're becoming [indiscernible].

And then as a second question, could you talk about Pottery Barn. I mean, it was good to see the improvement this quarter, but what areas are you focused on as we look at the rest of the year to even accelerate growth in that brand.

We continue to make improvements on our DTC channel and the way that the customer finds products and shops as Sameer, just told you and that is across the board, but in particular, we've been very focused in Pottery Barn and really having everyone study where we can make those improvements the fastest and also in the photography. So the photography, if you go on, you'll see -- so I think some of the best photography we've had, and it's going to get even better into the fall season. I've had the chance to look at the [ fall film ] with the new product. And I think it's going to really -- it's going to really blow everybody's socks off. I mean it's great. It is appealing. It is fresh and it's also what you would imagine when Pottery Barn -- when it's at its best, what it should look like and multiple layers of different aesthetics that are all working well together. So creatively, I'm excited about how that feeds the brand and the stores have looked great. We've done really well with the stores. And so focusing on the DTC channel is going to really help improve the performance because that has been where it's been lagging. And then from a product perspective, we are seeing, and this is competitive, so I have to be careful not to tell too much, but we're seeing some new things work, and it was what we expected, and we're going to continue to develop more into those looks across the board, both in textiles and in furniture. Those are the big pieces. There's a lot of other things, too, that we're working on in the store experience. And all that will be incremental, and we're very, very confident.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to pass the call back to Laura Alber, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

Okay. Well, thank you all for your patience on this call. I hope you could hear everything. And we appreciate your support. We're confident in our business, and we can't wait to talk to you next time.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Welcome to the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Jeremy Brooks, Chief Accounting Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining our fourth quarter earnings call. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that during this call, we will make forward-looking statements with respect to future events and financial performance, including our annual guidance for fiscal '26 and our long-term outlook. We believe these statements reflect our best estimates. However, we cannot make any assurances these statements will materialize, and actual results may differ significantly from our expectations. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after today's call.

Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures should not be considered replacements for and should be read together with our GAAP results. This call should also be considered in conjunction with our filings with the SEC. Finally, a replay of this call will be available on our Investor Relations website. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Laura Alber, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. I'm excited to talk to you today about our fourth quarter and our full year 2025 results. In 2025, we delivered sustainable profitable growth in a dynamic environment. This performance is a testament to strong consumer demand for our distinctive products and brands and our world-class team.

In Q4, our comp came in at 3.2%. We drove an operating margin of 20.3% with earnings per share of $3.04. We delivered these results despite no material changes in the macro environment and continued unpredictability around geopolitics and tariffs. Normalizing for the 53rd week last year and the tariff impact this year, we delivered substantial operating margin improvements versus last year. As we look forward to 2026 and beyond, we are confident in our competitive advantages that have allowed us to take market share, and our focus is on widening that advantage.

Just a few things on Q4 before we spend more time on the year and our outlook for 2026. In Q4 2025, we saw strength and momentum across our strong portfolio of brands and in our channels. Our retail teams drove a 4.3% comp in the quarter, and there was a continued acceleration in our gift-giving brands. Both Williams-Sonoma and our Pottery Barn Children's business outperformed, with Williams-Sonoma driving a 7.2% comp and our Children's business driving a 4% comp. And West Elm continued to pick up the pace with a 4.8% comp. Finally, our DTC channel was strong due to an improved customer experience, continued personalization and incredible service. Thank you to our teams. They continue to define leadership in our industry across product, service and disciplined execution.

Turning to the full year. We outperformed the industry with a comp of 3.5%. We delivered an operating margin of 18.1% and full year earnings per share increased 1% to a record $8.84. We beat internal and external expectations on both the top and bottom lines. And in fact, we raised our guidance twice during the year. Before we get into the year, let's talk about tariffs. The tariff landscape was uncertain and unpredictable in 2025, and we expect it will remain that way in 2026.

As we all know, policy can shift quickly. But as you saw in '25, we have proven that we are resilient and capable of mitigation. As we look to 2026, we will continue to execute our mitigation strategies, which include vendor negotiations, re-sourcing where it makes sense, supply chain efficiencies, cost improvements and select pricing actions. We will stay flexible and continue to adjust quickly as the tariff environment evolves. We entered 2025 with a focus on 3 key priorities: returning to growth, elevating our world-class customer service and driving earnings.

Let me highlight the progress we made on each of these priorities in 2025. Starting with growth. We have been focused on building growth strategies across our portfolio of brands. In 2025, we drove positive top line comps in all of our brands. And even as full price selling increased, we gained market share. We focus on newness and innovation in product and brand development. We are not just competing on price. We are really competing on and winning on authority, aspiration, quality, design, exclusivity and service.

Collaborations were also an important part of our growth strategy in 2025. These partnerships drove relevance and excitement. They continue to bring in new customers while increasing engagement with our existing customers. B2B was another standout for the year. In 2025, B2B grew 10%. We continued to win because we've paired design expertise with commercial-grade products and end-to-end service. That combination is a clear market differentiator in the B2B space.

Our emerging brands also delivered strong performance in 2025 with double-digit comps all year. We've invested in the growth of our emerging brands with expansion in categories and some new product development. Our ability to incubate and develop brands in a portfolio approach is one of our long-term advantages.

Our second priority for 2025 is customer service, and we are very proud of our progress. Our goal stayed simple: to deliver the perfect order on time and damage-free every time. Our supply chain team focused on operational excellence every day. They made industry-leading progress again on supply chain delivery and customer service metrics. Also, we are pleased with our improved customer handling by both our teams and our AI capabilities.

That brings me to our third priority, driving earnings. Our profitability in 2025 reflected strong execution across the company. We've maintained tight control on SG&A. We also stayed lean on employment with a focus on productivity. The implementation of AI helps by automating work and allowing our teams to do more with the same resources. We also extended AI more deeply across our e-commerce and operations platforms. For example, we extended personalization, deepened product discovery and ranking and increased the influence of data-driven recommendations. These enhancements are improving relevance, engagement and monetization efficiency across our brands.

AI is also embedded in friction reduction, from smarter product discovery to accelerated checkout experiences, supporting stronger conversion and a more intuitive shopping journey. Beyond digital e-commerce, AI and advanced analytics continue to improve forecasting, routing logic and customer service workflows, driving operational efficiency across our supply chain and care operations. What differentiates Williams-Sonoma is how AI amplifies our proprietary data, vertical integration and deep brand expertise. Because we control the full ecosystem, we can apply AI in tightly integrated and scalable ways. In summary, AI is delivering measurable impact today and strengthening our long-term competitive advantages.

Looking ahead, we are confident in our competitive advantages. And as I said earlier, we plan to further widen our moat. We have a powerful portfolio of brands, an in-house design team that drives exclusive product and newness, a vertically integrated sourcing and supply chain model and leading omnichannel capabilities. And underpinning all of this is our experienced leadership team who knows how to execute.

In 2026, our plan is centered on the same 3 priorities we laid out last year. We just changed the word returning to growth to accelerating growth. We're going to accelerate growth, deliver world-class customer service and drive earnings. These priorities all relate to one another. Growth creates leverage in our operating model and improved customer service drives loyal and satisfied customers. When the customer is happy, our costs go down, driving earnings.

Let's start with growth. We're focused on 4 areas: brand growth, product pipeline, brand heat and channel experience. First, brand growth. In 2026, we're focused on comp growth throughout the company, specifically accelerating the Pottery Barn comp and building on the momentum of the West Elm comp. We expect Williams-Sonoma to continue performing well, supported by premium quality, authority in the kitchen and strong seasonal storytelling. We're planning for growth in the children's business with Baby and Dorm as highlights. And our emerging brands will contribute meaningfully, led by Rejuvenation. Finally, B2B remains a major opportunity for growth.

Second, product pipeline. In 2026, our product pipeline will include an increased level of product newness. We'll increase newness by offering new collections, finishes and design details that are timely, on trend and unique. Also, we will expand into proven collections that are built around newness that performed well last year, adding SKUs to add sales. We will also lean into advantaged growth categories that expand our reach and create new reasons for customers to shop with us. A great example is West Elm Office, our new collection of modern and flexible office furniture made with high-quality materials with endless configurations. We see other outsized opportunities for growth in Dorm, Baby and certain Pottery Barn categories. And at Williams-Sonoma, we'll continue to expand our successful branded and exclusive assortment. This strategy increases differentiation and supports value and margin.

Third, brand heat. We'll continue to create excitement and buzz for our brands. First, collaborations will be a key driver with all brands delivering double-digit sales growth in collabs. Second, we will increase our social and influencer partnerships, and we will improve our storytelling across our websites, emails and catalogs.

Our fourth growth initiative is channel experience. We will continue to improve how customers discover and shop our brands, and we will build on the momentum we've seen in both DTC and retail. In DTC, our plan is to accelerate growth with elevated discovery both onsite and externally. We will also drive DTC advantage categories, and we will continue to use AI to create more personalized shopping journeys that improve engagement and conversion. In retail, we will build on our momentum by expanding Take It Home Today, scaling Design Services 3.0 and investing in new stores, repositions and relocations where the returns are compelling.

Now turning to delivering world-class customer service. We have always been a leader here and will continue to raise the bar as we keep pursuing the perfect order on time and damage-free every time. We believe we have continued opportunity from supply chain efficiencies across distribution centers, shipping costs, returns, replacements and damages. AI is a key enabler here. Our AI service initiatives are expected to further reduce call center escalations and accommodations while also improving inventory in-stocks and accuracy for customers. And we are expanding AI tools to enhance supply chain intelligence, including better visibility into inventory and shipping.

Finally, driving earnings. In addition to regular price testing, we will continue emphasizing full price selling and improving product margin by reducing markdown depth. We will also continue to drive sourcing efficiencies through vendor cost reductions, resourcing and organizational productivity. We will stay disciplined in controlling variable costs, including employment and ad spend, and we will drive AI-enabled efficiencies, including savings in engineering costs, care center payroll and creative costs.

Turning to our outlook for 2026. Our assumptions reflect what we know today. We are not building into our assumptions a meaningful housing recovery. And allowing for all the uncertainties we know are out there and that we've discussed, we are guiding comp brand revenue growth of 2% to 6% with a midpoint of 4% and an operating margin in the range of 17.5% to 18.1% with a midpoint of 17.8%. This outlook reflects our current initiatives and the tariff environment in place today.

Now let's review our brands. Pottery Barn ran a negative 2.3% comp in Q4 after delivering positive comp in each of the first 3 quarters. While Q4 was disappointing, Pottery Barn ran a positive 0.4% comp on the year and Pottery Barn's 2-year comp improved over the year. Different than other quarters, the percentage of our decorating assortment is larger in the fourth quarter, and that assortment relied heavily on last year's programs and sales did not meet our expectations. While furniture was better, it was not enough to offset the softness in non-furniture.

A highlight was our retail performance, which was strong in Pottery Barn with customers responding to our inspirational stores and the in-person shopping experience. But DTC lagged retail, hence the lower comp. As we look at 2026, we are focused on driving stronger growth in Pottery Barn, and we are working as a team on quarter-by-quarter strategy and execution. Pottery Barn is refocusing on its heritage aesthetic and strengthening its product pipeline. We are also optimizing the core assortment, rebuilding proprietary collections and creating more brand heat through collaborations, influencers, storytelling and store events. And we are investing in both digital and retail with a focus on conversion and personalization. The good news is that we are seeing better comp performance quarter-to-date.

Now I'd like to talk about our Pottery Barn Children's business, which delivered a strong fourth quarter running a positive 4% comp. For the full year, Kids and Teens delivered a positive 4.4% comp with strength across both furniture and non-furniture. Collaborations and licensing remained key drivers, led by fashion favorite LoveShackFancy and the launch of the NHL collection. Innovation was strong and holiday gifting outperformed driven by high-quality personalized gifts across life stages.

As the largest specialty retailer of home furnishings for children, we see significant growth ahead. Our pipeline of new product introductions and continued collaboration growth is strong, and we are excited to launch Dormify in late April, which expands our reach in the college and dorm market and strengthens our position with the next generation of customers.

Now let's talk about West Elm. West Elm had a positive 4.8% comp in Q4 accelerating from Q3 and delivered a positive 2.9% comp for the full year. I'm proud to say that West Elm is officially on a roll. West Elm made improvements across product, brand heat and channel excellence. New introductions in both furniture and non-furniture drove results, and the brand's mix shifted meaningfully towards new products. In Q4, the brand delivered positive comps across the board.

Retail also performed well in West Elm. When customers walked to the stores, they saw more newness and better availability, and that showed up in the results. The strength in the brand and at retail gives us confidence to return to store count growth with 5 openings planned in 2026.

Finally, collaborations have been a big part of the strategy at West Elm, and we could not be more excited than right now when we are launching our collaboration with Emma Chamberlain, a leading Gen Z voice known for authenticity and unique style. With over 14 million Instagram followers, her collaboration with West Elm marks her first venture into the home space. If you haven't seen it, be sure to check out the exciting personality-driven assortment which launched yesterday.

Now let's review the Williams-Sonoma brand. Williams-Sonoma finished 2025 strong, with a positive 7.2% comp in Q4 and a positive 6.9% comp for the year. The Williams-Sonoma brand continued to outperform across the board. 2026 marks our 70th anniversary. And at 70 years, this brand is not mature. It is gaining momentum. The core of our kitchen business is accelerating, and our pipeline of proprietary in-house design products and market exclusives continue to separate us from the competition.

In Q4, customers came to us for holiday gifting, cooking and entertaining. Also, Williams-Sonoma benefited from a strong gift assortment with products that perform, design that is distinctive, and assortments that reflect both who our customer is and who they aspire to be. 2025 was our biggest year ever for in-store events at Sonoma. We held skill series, classes on Sundays, and we hosted 120 celebrity chef and influencer book signings. Highlights from the events in Q4 included signings with Martha Stewart, Trisha Yearwood and Wishbone Kitchen. We look forward to welcoming customers into our stores throughout 2026 with even more opportunities to learn, engage and be inspired.

Now I'd like to update you on B2B. B2B had another record-breaking quarter at 13.7%, anchored by our largest contract quarter in our history. Both contract and trade delivered double-digit growth, and corporate gifting had its best quarter ever. We saw strength in our core hospitality and residential designer businesses, and we gained momentum in emerging verticals like higher education, sports and entertainment. We also delivered several marquee projects including the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the Hilton Canopy (sic) [ Canopy by Hilton ] in New York City, the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, multiple locations for WeWork and corporate gifting for several premier clients including the New York Yankees. For the full year, B2B grew 10%, and we exited the year with a strong pipeline heading into '26. We remain excited about B2B as a growth engine.

Now I'd like to update you on our emerging brands, which continue to deliver strong growth and profitability. Rejuvenation had another quarter of double-digit comp growth, exceeding both our top line and bottom line expectations. Performance is driven by momentum in cabinet hardware, bath and lighting as customers remain highly engaged in project-driven purchases. Product innovation continued to build with high-quality, design-driven products, distinctive details and customizable options. With only 13 stores and great online growth, we are thrilled with the progress in Rejuve, and we continue to believe in the potential for Rejuvenation to be our next billion-dollar brand.

Mark & Graham finished 2025 also with solid momentum driven by a record-breaking holiday season and positive comps. We entered 2026 well positioned with a focused pipeline of launches across key gifting occasions, reinforcing the brand's growth opportunity ahead. And I can't forget our newest brand, GreenRow. We're thrilled that on March 6, GreenRow opened the brand's first store in SoHo, New York. And if you're in New York, I'd encourage you to stop by and see it in person. The store truly captures the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in our company that allows us to bring new concepts to life and scale them profitably. We look forward to building the business of GreenRow in 2026 and beyond.

Finally, I'd like to talk about our global business. We continue to see strong performance across our strategic global markets, including Canada, Mexico and the U.K. due to differentiated product, omnichannel enhancements and growth in our Design and Trade businesses. We're particularly encouraged by the customer response to the launch of Pottery Barn in the U.K.

As we reflect on the year, what a year it was. We had many highlights and we had a lot of things coming our way that we didn't expect. However, at Williams-Sonoma, Inc., we delivered. We delivered a strong operating margin and record EPS. Our powerful portfolio of brands, strong channel execution and growth strategies drove our results in 2025. As we look to 2026, we are focused on accelerating this growth. We are focused on delivering world-class customer service, and we are focused on driving earnings. We are confident in our future growth strategy and our profit profile. Our company is competitively distinct with advantages that set us apart and a team that delivers.

And with that, I want to thank our teams again for their hard work and their commitment. And I also want to thank our vendors and our shareholders for their partnership and support. And with that, I will turn it over to Jeff to walk you through the numbers and our outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone. We are proud to have delivered another quarter of growth with strong earnings despite the headwinds from tariffs and anemic housing turnover. In fact, we've generated consistently strong earnings for several years. And now top line growth for 5 consecutive quarters. That execution and momentum gives us confidence as we transition into fiscal year '26.

Our ability to perform quarter after quarter reflects Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s competitive advantages in the home furnishings industry, including a powerful multi-brand portfolio, spanning categories, aesthetics and price points to meet customers where they are. Meaningful size and scale enabling us to capture market share and capitalize on attractive white space opportunities. A differentiated multichannel platform that serves customers seamlessly across e-commerce, stores and business-to-business. A relentless focus on customer service, which drives efficiency and cost savings across our supply chain. And finally, a proven operating model that consistently delivers highly profitable earnings.

Now let's turn to the numbers and see how our competitive advantages and strong execution produce results. I'll begin with our fourth quarter performance, then review our full year fiscal year '25 results and finish with our outlook for fiscal year '26. As a reminder, fiscal year '24 was a 53-week year for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. For Q4 fiscal year '25, we are reporting comps on a comparable 13-week versus 13-week basis. All other quarter-over-quarter comparisons are 13 weeks versus 14 weeks.

We estimate the additional week in Q4 fiscal year '24 contributed 510 basis points to revenue growth and 60 basis points to operating margin. Q4 net revenues finished at $2.36 billion for a positive 3.2% comp. Positive comps in both our furniture and non-furniture categories drove our results, with our furniture trends accelerating from Q3. With the industry declining in the quarter, we gained market share even as we increased our penetration of full price selling. From a channel perspective, both retail and e-commerce posted positive comps, with retail up 4.3% and e-commerce up 2.6%.

Moving down the income statement. Q4 gross margin was 46.9%, down 40 basis points versus last year. The main driver of our lower gross margin was a 170 basis point decline in merchandise margins as the impact of higher tariffs flowed through our weighted average cost of goods sold. Occupancy costs contributed another 80 basis points to the deleverage, largely related to the 53rd week. Partially offsetting these headwinds were shrink and supply chain efficiencies. Shrink added 160 basis points due to favorable year-end physical inventory results. And supply chain efficiencies added an additional 50 basis points. Our relentless focus on customer service continued to produce margin benefits from reduced returns, accommodations, damages, replacements and shipping expense.

Continuing down the income statement, Q4 SG&A was 26.6% of revenues, up 80 basis points versus last year. The main driver of the 80 basis points deleverage was general expense, which was up 120 basis points from last year. This increase was due to our lapping of an indirect tax resolution and a favorable insurance settlement in last year's results. Employment and advertising expense leverage partially offset the impact from general expense. Employment expense leveraged 30 basis points, primarily due to lower variable labor costs across our distribution and customer care centers. Advertising expense was 10 basis points lower. Our in-house marketing team optimized spend while driving a quarter-over-quarter acceleration in e-commerce comps. On the bottom line, Q4 operating margin was 20.3%, down 120 basis points versus last year. Diluted earnings per share were $3.04 per share.

Turning now to our full year fiscal year '25 results. There are 2 items in fiscal year '24 that I want to remind you about. First, in the first quarter of fiscal year '24, we recorded a $49 million out-of-period adjustment related to freight accruals from prior years. This benefited fiscal year '24 operating margin by approximately 70 basis points. Second, the 53rd week in fiscal year '24. For the full year, we are reporting comps on a comparable 52-week versus 52-week basis. All other year-over-year comparisons are 52 weeks versus 53 weeks. We estimate the additional week in fiscal year '24 contributed approximately 150 basis points to revenue growth and 20 basis points to operating margin on full year results.

Full year '25 net revenues were $7.8 billion at a positive 3.5% comp. All brands posted positive comps for the full year, driven by growth across both our furniture and non-furniture categories. From a channel perspective, both channels contributed to the strength, with retail up 6.4% and e-commerce up 2.2%. E-commerce was more than 65% of total revenues for the year.

Full year gross margin was 46.2%, a 30 basis point decline versus the prior year. The decrease was primarily driven by the 70 basis point impact from the prior year out-of-period freight adjustment, a 40 basis point reduction in merchandise margins related to tariffs, and 20 basis points of occupancy deleverage. These pressures were partially offset by 50 basis points of supply chain efficiencies and 50 basis points of benefit from favorable shrink results.

Full year SG&A expense increased 10 basis points to 28%. Advertising expense leveraged by 30 basis points, partially offset by deleverage in employment and general expense. Employment deleveraged by 20 basis points due to higher performance-based incentive compensation, while general expense deleveraged by 20 basis points as we lapped the prior year indirect tax resolution and the favorable insurance settlement mentioned previously. On the bottom line, full year operating margin finished at 18.1%, 50 basis points lower year-over-year. Diluted earnings per share achieved a record $8.84, up 1% year-over-year.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with over $1 billion in cash and no outstanding debt. Merchandise inventories were $1.5 billion, up 9.8% year-over-year. Included in year-end inventory is approximately $80 million of embedded incremental tariff costs. Excluding these tariff-related costs, inventories would have been in line with sales growth. Overall, we believe our ending inventory levels and composition are well positioned to support our fiscal year '26 guidance.

Turning to cash flow and capital expenditures. We generated over $1.3 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal year '25. We reinvested $259 million in capital expenditures to support our long-term growth and delivered an industry-leading 51.6% return on invested capital on that spend. This resulted in $1.1 billion of free cash flow, and we returned nearly $1.2 billion to shareholders in fiscal year '25. That return included share repurchases of $854 million or 4% of shares outstanding at an average price of $174.70. Additionally, we delivered $316 million in dividends to our shareholders, reflecting a 13% year-over-year increase.

Wrapping up my fiscal year '25 remarks, we are proud to have delivered growth and strong earnings for our shareholders despite the headwinds from tariff policy and anemic housing turnover. These results are a direct reflection of the exceptional talent and dedication of our team at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. I want to thank our team for their hard work and for delivering such strong performance.

Now let's turn to fiscal year '26. The macroeconomic, geopolitical and tariff environment remains uncertain. As we've demonstrated, we know how to navigate uncertainty and deliver consistently strong earnings. As we look ahead to fiscal year '26, we see significant opportunity to not only deliver strong earnings, but more importantly, accelerate top line growth. Our guidance assumes no meaningful changes in the macroeconomic environment or housing turnover and does not include any benefit from the OB3 tax legislation. Our focus remains on what we can control, accelerating growth, delivering world-class customer service and driving earnings.

We expect fiscal year '26 net revenue comps to be in the range of 2% to 6% with total net revenue growth of 2.7% to 6.7%. We expect operating margin to be in the range of 17.5% to 18.1%. On the top line, our guidance reflects our confidence in our strategies. We remain focused on accelerating growth through our compelling product lineup, continued investment in collaborations and disciplined execution across our growth initiatives, including Dorm, Rejuvenation and Business-to-Business. And if there are more favorable macro conditions, we see potential upside to that growth.

On operating margin, our guidance reflects our best estimate of the tariff impact on fiscal year '26 results based on 3 key assumptions. First, it reflects our estimate of how tariffs already paid and those we expect to pay in fiscal year '26 will flow through our weighted average cost of goods sold. As higher tariff costs are embedded in our inventory, we expect the impact on operating margin to be front half weighted and then moderate over the balance of the year.

Second, our guidance assumes that all tariff rates currently in effect remain in place for the balance of fiscal year '26. This includes the Section 232 tariffs, the current Section 301 tariffs and the Section 122 tariffs at the announced rate of 15%. While the Section 122 tariffs are currently set to expire in July, our guidance assumes they will be replaced with tariffs at a similar rate.

Third, our guidance does not contemplate any refund of IEEPA tariffs given the uncertainty around both timing and process. It's important to recognize that tariff policy has been volatile and subject to multiple revisions. Given the ongoing uncertainty, it's impossible to say where tariffs will ultimately land and difficult to determine what impact they will have on our business. Our guidance reflects our best estimates based upon the tariffs in place as of this call. As tariff policy changes, we may need to update our guidance.

Turning now to capital allocation. Our fiscal year '26 plans prioritize funding our business operations while continuing to invest in long-term growth. We expect to spend approximately $275 million in capital expenditures in fiscal year '26. About 95% of that investment will be focused on strengthening our e-commerce capabilities, optimizing our retail fleet and driving supply chain efficiency.

A key shift in the plan is a near doubling of capital investment in retail, reflecting the meaningful opportunity we see to accelerate growth through retail stores. Our stores are a competitive advantage, powerful brand billboards that drive profitable sales. Our free interior design services continue to differentiate us. More than half of retail sales involve a design appointment, helping drive the 6.4% retail comp we delivered in fiscal year '25. We will remain disciplined, continuing to close underperforming stores that don't meet our profitability thresholds. In fact, since 2019, we've closed about 18% of our fleet.

Starting in fiscal year '26, we're investing to drive more retail growth in 2 ways. First, we'll continue repositioning stores from older malls into more vibrant lifestyle centers. We expect to complete 19 repositions in fiscal year '26, more than we've done in any single prior year. Second, we expect to open 20 new stores in fiscal year '26, primarily across West Elm, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn Kids, Rejuvenation and our first 2 GreenRow locations. These expected 20 store openings represent our most openings in a decade. Every project meets our strict profitability and return on investment criteria.

We expect to end fiscal year '26 with approximately the same store count as we ended fiscal year '25 due to store closures. After fiscal year '26, we anticipate store count growth in the years that follow of approximately 1% to 3% per year. Embedded in our fiscal year '26 guidance is approximately 70 basis points of noncomp growth from this real estate activity.

Turning now to our commitment to returning excess cash to shareholders through a combination of increased dividends and ongoing share repurchases. On dividends, today we announced that our Board of Directors authorized a 15% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.76 per share. Fiscal year '26 will mark our 17th consecutive year of dividend increases, an achievement we're proud of and remain committed to sustaining. On share repurchases, we have $1.3 billion remaining under our current authorizations, and we will continue to repurchase shares opportunistically as part of our disciplined approach to delivering shareholder returns.

Looking beyond fiscal year '26, we are reiterating our long-term outlook for mid- to high single-digit revenue growth and operating margins in the mid- to high teens. It's worth noting that the high end of our '26 guidance falls within our long-term outlook. Wrapping up our comments, we are proud to have delivered strong results for our shareholders. As we look ahead, we are focused on accelerating growth, delivering world-class customer service and driving earnings. We're confident we'll continue to outperform our peers and deliver shareholder returns for these 5 reasons that remain consistent.

Our ability to gain market share in the fragmented home furnishings industry, the strength of our in-house proprietary design, the competitive advantage of our digital-first but not digital-only channel strategy, the ongoing strength of our growth initiatives and the resiliency of our fortress balance sheet. Before we open the line for questions, I'd like to mention that our 2026 investor presentation has been released and is available on our Investor Relations website. I encourage everyone to have a look. With that, I'll open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett.

Congrats on a great year. Laura, can you talk about the opportunities for store growth in 2026 and beyond, particularly as you incubate new concepts, especially Rejuvenation? Also, how are you thinking about expanding B2B over the next few years? And then, Jeff, any handholding on margins and phasing throughout the year in addition to the tariff commentary?

I love the store growth question because it's a big pivot for us. We have been talking about our optimization strategy at retail and focusing on more profitable stores and all the moves we've made, and we've been reducing our fleet. And now as we look forward, we don't see that as what our future holds. We see store growth. We actually -- this year is an inflection point and we're going to be net neutral at the end of the year. We have the most new store openings that we have had in how many years, Jeff? 3?

Over a decade.

Over a decade, so even better than that. And so we're opening this year 20 new stores, 18 repositions, net flat. And what do we see? We see growth in West Elm. We have growth in Pottery Barn. We have embedded opportunity in Rejuvenation. We shall see about GreenRow. We opened our first store, like 2 weeks. We'll see how that works. We have another one on the docket that we'll open later this year. And there's more kids stores to open now. So we're excited about that change in trend and how profitable our stores are and how good they look. It's a big deal for us in terms of our growth algorithm.

Second question on B2B. As you look at the macro and think about all the different opportunities, it is one that's continuing to be the outsized opportunity. And we had great growth last year, as you saw, and you heard in our prepared remarks. And I think it could even be better this year, frankly. I love seeing the contract outpace the trade because it's more repeat business. And the combination of all the things that we do together gives us a competitive advantage. And I just think we have the best sales team in retail selling our B2B. And I'll hand it back to Jeff on margin. If you want to make a comment on the other 2, that's great, too.

Well, I think, Laura, both Rejuvenation, retail as well as B2B, they're all good examples of how we're really focused on accelerating growth. And we see a meaningful opportunity to do so in fiscal year '26 as we've guided. And I think Laura touched on those high points. I'll say, Chuck, I'm impressed you got 3 questions in one.

Diving right into the operating margin guidance for next year, we're guiding operating margins to be in the range of 17.5% to 18.1%. And really, tariffs are the big story here. I think everyone knows that. And there's 3 things to consider when we think about how tariffs are going to impact our operating margin in '26. The first is the tariffs we've already paid that are embedded in our inventory costs. Those will take a little while to flow through into our weighted average cost. The second thing to consider is the tariffs we're going to pay at the newer rates that have been announced. And then finally, it's just the uncertainty of the environment.

So there's really 3 key assumptions that we've shared about how all these tariffs are going to flow through our operating margin. The first and most important thing to understand is it's not about a blended tariff rate. It's about how the tariffs flow through our weighted average cost of goods. And that's really a function of the cost that we ended the year with that are embedded in our inventory. And as we said on our prepared remarks, we expect the impact on our operating margin will be front half weighted, heavily front half weighted and then moderate over the balance of the year as we start to comp the impact of tariffs in last year.

And second, our guidance assumes all tariff rates currently in effect remain in place for the balance of fiscal year '26. Just to be clear, this includes the Section 232 tariffs, the current Section 301 tariffs and Section 122 at what the administration has announced is 15%. And while we know the Section 122 tariffs expire in July, our guidance assumes it will be replaced with tariffs at a similar rate when they expire.

And the third piece, and I'll just say this, I think it's a given, but our guidance reflects our best estimates of tariff impact based upon the tariffs in place as of this call. As we all know, tariffs have been subject to multiple revisions and it's impossible to say where tariffs will ultimately land and what impact they will have on our business. Taking a step back, I think what we would observe is, in '25 we demonstrated we could navigate the tariff uncertainty and deliver consistently strong earnings, and we're guiding that we believe we can do so again in fiscal year '26.

Our next question will come from the line of Peter Benedict with Baird.

So I guess one question would just be around with the pivot to retail growth. You mentioned design services, you mentioned Design Services 3.0. I was curious if you could maybe expand on that. What's changing? What's different there? That's my first question.

Yes, sure. So we've been really building our design services as a percent to our total. And we've told you how big that has been in Pottery Barn. The other brands have continued to have opportunity as a percent to total. And in addition to purchasing homes with the big pieces like furniture, we have been adding the second layer of accessories. And that was really 2.0 for us and all the accessories that go with and then all the holidays that go with.

The biggest opportunity that we see in the future for design services is how we're going to use AI and how we're going to put it in the hands of our sales associates to better decorate their homes. There's so much that we're doing with content and design services and outward and the combination of all that together with our people. And I'll let Sameer, who's here, mention a few things about that.

Yes. Thanks, Laura. It's just really exciting, the progress that we're seeing on the AI front. You heard Laura talk earlier in the prepared remarks about our strategies, and we're only starting to see it accelerate. And what's really exciting about what we're seeing with the evolution of AI and how customers are using it, how they're engaging with it, is that it really starts to play to our strengths as a business.

AI works well when you have category authority. AI works well when you have expertise. And as customers are using it to find where there is value, where there is quality, where there are designs that meet their goals, both off our sites within these LLM engines, but also now on our site as we are building these AI tools to help guide them through product discovery, to guide them through interior design.

You've probably seen what we've launched with Olive on the Williams-Sonoma site as a culinary authority to help customers with real problems and connect the dots between inspiration, between guidance and ultimately between -- and ultimately towards shopping. So we're really excited about the progress we've made on the AI front, and we're really excited about what's yet to come.

Our next question will come from the line of Oliver Wintermantel with Evercore ISI.

Could you maybe talk a little bit about quarter-to-date trends, if you've seen any disruptions from the winter storms? We heard some other retailers said that there was a disruption. But Laura, I think you said Pottery Barn is actually off to a good start quarter-to-date. So maybe some details on that, please.

So yes, of course, there's been some disruptions in the winter, but it didn't really materially impact our results. And there's always some weather someplace that always impacts us in one way or another, particularly this time of year, but it's not a big factor.

In terms of what we're seeing quarter-to-date, as you know, we don't provide a lot of quarter-to-date commentary. We're not seeing any big impacts from anything. Our consumer continues to be resilient. And it's hard to say exactly where we're going to be there. Easter is ahead of us. There's another Easter shift this year. But everything that we know today is embedded in our guidance.

Our next question comes from the line of Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs.

We wanted to ask about the real estate strategy too, just in terms of the 2 strategies of moving to more vibrant locations and the opening of 20 new doors, just what it means for your occupancy costs in 2026? And will you be able to leverage a higher occupancy cost at that 4% comp at the midpoint?

Good question. I think, as you know, we don't guide individual lines like occupancy or even gross margin and SG&A. I think the story on retail is one really about growth. And we're seeing a meaningful opportunity to drive growth through our retail stores. And look, we delivered a 6.4% comp in retail in fiscal year '25, and we did so very profitably. And that's really because of what we talked about. First, our design services are a competitive advantage, and our customers are telling us that they love it and they're responding with opening up their pocketbooks.

The second thing is the product we're delivering. We have really added the newness that we've been talking about in the past several calls to those stores, and we've improved the inventory position in those stores. They're really performing very well. And the third part of why we're delivering such strong comps and why we're confident in investing in the future is just the performance. I mean the performance they've delivered, and it's really a function of the retail repositioning strategy that we've been through.

So although this is a pivot, we're still going to be very disciplined. We'll continue to close underperforming stores that don't meet our profitability thresholds. But we do see a meaningful opportunity to expand from here. Stores that we have repositioned from tired, older indoor malls to these more vibrant, high-traffic lifestyle centers have all seen substantial top line comp improvements over their prior locations as well as bottom line improvements from less occupancy of that individual location. And that's why we're looking to do the most repositions this year that we've ever done.

And then new stores, we're seeing meaningful opportunity there as well to go into white spaces in markets we're not in for certain stores. And there's a big opportunity there for us to continue that in the years ahead. Overall, we don't think it'll have a major impact on our operating margin. It's embedded in our guidance that we've given today. But it's really a story about growth. And as we mentioned, we'll be flat at the end of this year in terms of store count. But as we look beyond '26, we're guiding that we will increase our store count by 1% to 3% per year each year.

Our next question will come from the line of Cristina Fernández with Telsey Advisory Group.

Congratulations on a good quarter and finish to the year. I have 2 questions. The first one is on Pottery Barn, as you look at the fourth quarter performance, I guess, how much of the disappointment was perhaps a lack of newness or the need to expand prices and what changed in the first quarter to turn that from negative to positive?

And then the second question is a follow-up on the tariff impact for the first half. Should we think about the fourth quarter pressure, the 170 basis points on the merchandise margin as a good guide point for the first half? Or could it be higher given the mix of sales in the first half versus the fourth quarter?

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Dana (sic) [ Cristina ]. So Pottery Barn, as you know, is a very strong profitable, loved brand. And as I said in my prepared remarks, we're really happy to see the 2-year comps improving and in particular stabilization in the furniture trends. As you all know, Q4 has a higher percentage of decor in Pottery Barn substantially than other quarters. And let's remember that post-COVID and housing slump, we were focused on decorating as a growth vehicle instead of furniture because people weren't buying much furniture, probably over-rotated a bit, to be honest with you. It reached an all-time high and saw a little bit of a giveback.

But we also -- in retrospect, we're self-critical. We're always looking for rooms -- places to improve. And we probably had too much reliance on bestsellers from last year, and we need more units. And as we go into the first quarter and into the year, obviously the complexion of the categories changes back to be more balanced and that's why we're seeing the improvement, we believe.

All right. Now transitioning to your second question on what we should think about in terms of operating margin in '26. As you know, Cristina, we don't guide the individual quarters, but I will help you with the shape of the year is that the big factor in the first half of the year is going to be the embedded tariff costs we've already paid. We're on weighted average cost accounting, so it takes a little while for that to work through with our operating margin. So as we've guided, the impact will be heavily weighted to the front half and then slowly moderate across the back half as the impact starts to wear off and we start to comp tariffs we paid last year.

Our next question will come from the line of Jonathan Matuszewski with Jefferies.

Nice quarter. Laura, last quarter you remarked that there were pockets of your assortment that remained underpriced. So how should we think about the magnitude of pricing that's embedded at the midpoint of 4% comps for the year?

Well, I don't really think about it like that. I mean I don't think about the midpoint of range for the pricing. I will comment about pricing and then, Jeff, I don't know if you want to make a comment. But on the pricing, whether it's because of tariffs or just all the time, we are constantly looking for the best price value relationship and how to give our customers the winning combination that makes them buy from us. And the best thing we can ever do is give them a design they can't resist at fair price, right? They can count on us for quality. They know that they're going to get great service. We've made such improvements in service. And we're also going to really help them put it together with everything else in their house, which is a big deal because a lot of the other players, especially the online players, it's one and done and you're not decorating. You're just buying an item, maybe for your garage.

So in terms of pricing, there are pockets always where, gosh, we put something out and it blows out and we say, oh, could have been a little higher. And think about that for next time and make adjustments. And there are some items and categories that are, we still think, undervalued. It's very competitive [ intelligence ], so I don't really want to go through them all because I don't want to give that list of things to our competition to look at. But we do see some opportunity. And at the same time, we always look at the opposite too, which is where are we sitting on the price? Did we get cost concessions? Should we drive more units and take the price down slightly? So it's a pricing testing mindset in the company, and we share it across brands and how pricing affects demand.

Yes, I would just say, Laura talked about, when we think about pricing, it's category by category, SKU by SKU, really looking at each one of those categories, each SKU and how is it compared to its competition. It's a little -- for us, it's a little divorced from how we think about growth and how we think about our guidance. And that -- from that standpoint, what we're really thinking about when we look at guidance is we're looking at our trends. And last year we delivered a 3.5% comp. And in fact, if you look at our Q4 results, our 2-year comp accelerated, which we see as a positive indicator.

And then we look at the confidence we have and momentum we have with our growth strategies. Things like our white space opportunities that you've heard us talk a lot about, which includes things like West Elm Office, which we launched in January, things like Dorm, things like Baby. We have white space opportunities that are going to be additive to our results. Then we have emerging brands. We talked a lot about Rejuvenation. This is a brand that's been double-digit comps for over 2 years and that we just see continued opportunity to grow that. We think over the long term that can be a billion-dollar brand.

We touched on B2B. It just delivered another double-digit quarter. It was up 14% comp. It had its largest quarter of contract volume to date, and we exited the quarter with a very, very strong book of business and leads going into fiscal year '26. And then there's retail. We've talked a lot on the call about retail is that it delivered a 6.4% comp in '25 and we see meaningful opportunity to expand that.

So when we think about our comp range and the midpoint of our comp guidance was a 4.0%, it's really about our strategies and how we think that we have momentum behind our business. And the fact of the matter is we are taking market share in this industry, and we see an advantage to an ability to leverage our competitive advantages and take even more market share.

Our next question will come from the line of Max Rakhlenko with TD Cowen.

So first, Laura, can you speak to the health of the consumer and their willingness to stomach tariffs in the category? And just what's your take on the industry's ability to maintain higher prices if tariff pressure does end up easing? And then, Jeff, just quickly, any more color on the shrink benefit that you saw in the quarter? Should that continue into next year and just how to think about that?

Thanks, Max. In terms of the consumer, I can only comment about what we're seeing. I'm reading and hearing that other people are seeing very different things. And you can see a lot of stepped-up promos in the competition. And so a lot of like site-wide with 20% off here and 20% off there. And that's particularly for a lot of the kind of smaller companies that are trying to be sold or that are trying to establish themselves. They're playing the stepped-up promo game. There's no sizable new entrants that we're seeing in the market.

But I can comment that our customers are responding to our aesthetic, our newness, our collabs. They love them. I don't know if you got a chance, Max, to look at what we're doing with Emma Chamberlain and West Elm. That's the kind of thing that they are delighted by. I mean she's got 14 million followers, so fun. She's such a great marketer and the products really, really easy to buy. And that's how we're making the [ weather ] happen in our brands is stuff like that. Furniture is [ stable to up ]. I said that. B2B is growing.

So we're seeing nice response from our consumers. But it's nothing to take for granted, right? Every quarter, every brand, we have strategies to improve the product line, to improve the mix, to improve our value equation, to improve our service and to drive brand heat. And that is a big part of who we are and why we continue to deliver.

And the second part of your question on shrink, it's simple. After completing physical inventory and reconciling all the inventory accounts, we had minimal shrink. And the thing is, I've been doing retail for a long time, you simply never know until you take physical inventory and reconcile everything. And we attribute the favorable shrink results to our ongoing supply chain improvements. When you have fewer returns, fewer damages, fewer replacements, less out-of-market shipping, better sightline on the inventory, and we think that's finally coming through in terms of physical inventory results. In terms of what it means for '26, it's not a material driver and any impact of shrink is embedded in our guidance.

Our next question will come from the line of Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer.

Nice quarter, congratulations. Nice year, congratulations. I have 2 questions. I guess one is kind of short term and then maybe a longer term one. So Jeff, on the short-term side, going back to the prepared comments, I mean, there seemed like there were a lot of -- if you look at gross margin, there were a lot of kind of one-off items here in the fourth quarter. So I guess the question I want to ask is, I mean, how should we think about -- as we look at that fourth quarter gross margin, is there a way to frame kind of what -- if it was a more normalized, I guess, year-over-year change? And then as we look into '26, recognizing you don't give specific guidance, but how should we think about kind of the puts and takes on the gross margin side?

Brian, it goes back to what I've been saying on the call in the prepared remarks. When we think about the drivers operating margin and flows a little bit through the gross margin, it really comes down to how the tariffs are going to impact us in '26. And like I said, there's 3 pieces here. One are the higher tariff costs we've already paid that are sitting on our balance sheet that have to work their way through our weighted average cost. And then there's the tariffs that we're going to pay in '26. And then we do comp somehow later in the year as we head into Q3, Q4, we start to comp the tariffs. When you put all that together, our guidance is that the impact of tariffs on operating margin will be heavily front half weighted and then moderate over the balance of the year as we start to comp it and the impact of the embedded tariffs work their way through our weighted average cost.

Our final question will come from the line of Zach Fadem with Wells Fargo.

So just a couple more on the gross margin line. First of all, Jeff, what is the weighted average tariff rate today and how has that changed over the last 2 quarters? And second, can you remind us how your freight contracts renew and how should we think about the impact of higher freight and oil today?

I'll take the second one first in a way higher oil costs are impacting our transportation costs. And I would just simply say it's very early, and it's a little difficult to tell how this plays out. I think we would all agree there's a lot of uncertainty about what's happening geopolitically in the world and what that means for price of oil and how it trickles through transportation. We are seeing some noise out there of higher prices. But overall, it's all what we know today is embedded in our guidance. And it's such an area of uncertainty that our estimates that we're providing today are just what we understand is going to happen. In terms of gross margin, remind me what your question was.

Tariff rate today and how that's changed over the last 2 quarters.

We're not going to provide the specific tariff rate. As everyone has heard me say, we're not going to go up and down on the basis points or specific tariff rates every single quarter simply because it's been changing so much that every time there's a change, every time there's a tweak, it's going to be virtually impossible to get back on the phone with everyone and explain the latest permutation. Our guidance assumes that the higher tariff rates that we paid in fiscal year '25 that are remaining on our balance sheet flow through our weighted average cost.

So it's -- from that standpoint, it's still pretty high because those costs are still embedded in our inventory. But they'll work their way through our weighted average cost of goods primarily in the front half of the year. And then as we said, our operating margin -- the impact on our operating margin will moderate as we get through the back half of the year.

And I'd like to just comment a little bit on the cost of the war. Again, as Jeff said, there's been no huge cost increase that we've seen as of yet. We've seen some transportation costs increase, on air, for example, and we've seen some domestic rates increase as well, but that's not material yet. We have not put in our guidance a material cost increase over the year that would come from cost of goods going up substantially or transportation going up substantially. Let's remember that we're not sailing in the Straits of Hormuz, thank God. And we haven't actually seen our shipping times affected yet. So we don't expect either supply chain delay as of yet. But as we all know, we can't predict this.

So to Jeff's point, we think we've done the best job we can putting into our guidance a reasonable estimate and yet we don't have a crystal ball on what this could mean longer term. What we're focused on, as you guys know, and wrapping this up is really how do we deliver in any environment. And you've seen us do this with the same experienced management team through COVID, post-COVID giveback and now, through all this geopolitical uncertainty and tariff chaos. And it is noisy out there, but we tend to be able to handle it better than most and be ahead of it. And so we'll take it as it comes, and we'll continue to update you.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. And I'll hand the call back over to Laura for any closing comments.

All right. Well, thank you all. I hope it's getting warmer across the country for all of you and some sunshine is out. And please go visit our stores and see what we're doing. We appreciate your support, and we can't wait to update you throughout the year. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Welcome to the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Jeremy Brooks, Chief Accounting Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call. I'm here today with Laura Laura Alber, our Chief Executive Officer; Jeff Howie, our Chief Financial Officer; and Sameer Hassan, our Chief Technology and Digital Officer. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that during this call, we will make forward-looking statements with respect to future events and financial performance, including our updated guidance for fiscal '25 and our long-term outlook.

We believe these statements reflect our best estimates. However, we cannot make any assurances these statements will materialize, and actual results may differ significantly from our expectations. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after today's call.

Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures should not be considered replacements for and should be read together with our GAAP results. This call should also be considered in conjunction with our filings with the SEC. Finally, a replay of this call will be available on our Investor Relations website.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Laura.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. I'm excited to talk to you about our third quarter. First, I'd like to take a moment to thank our team for their continued hard work. Everyone at Williams-Sonoma Inc. has been focused on our key 3 priorities this year, which are returning to growth, elevating customer service and driving earnings. And that focus continues to drive our results. .

We are proud to deliver strong results in the third quarter of 2025 with an accelerating positive top line comp and continued outperformance in our profitability. In Q3, our comp came in above expectations at 4%, driven by another quarter of positive comps across all of our brands, and we continue to deliver on the bottom line despite the substantial tariff headwinds.

Our operating margin came in at 17%, expanding 10 basis points with earnings per share of $1.96, growing 5% year-over-year. We are encouraged by our continued strong year-to-date performance through Q3 and are confident in our outlook for Q4. And therefore, we are reiterating our outlook for the full year comparable brand revenue growth to be in the range of 2% to 5%, and we are raising our bottom line guidance 40 basis points to an operating margin of 17.8% to 18.1% versus 17.4% to 17.8%. We drove this improvement in performance despite continued geopolitical uncertainty and no substantive improvement in the housing market.

And we continue to gain market share and outperform the industry, which declined again in Q3. Our continued strong results reflect the power of our operating model, industry-leading channel experiences and strong portfolio of brands. We continue to see exceptional performance in our retail channel, which ran a positive 8.5 comp in Q3. Retail continues to benefit from an improved in-store experience with more inventory availability, enhanced design services and events and the opening of 14 beautiful newly remodeled or repositioned stores so far this year with 7 more to come in Q4.

This investment is paying off with almost all of them beating the performance of the prior location. Our stores service brand billboards, and we believe a refreshed store improves customer perception of our brands. As we move into the final quarter of 2025, I want to highlight the specific progress we've made on our 3 key priorities. Starting with growth, our core brands continue to deliver strong results from positive momentum in furniture.

Our focus on innovation has driven strong and improving furniture comps. Additionally, we are focused on incremental growth categories like Pottery Barn Dorm and West Elm Kids. We're also broadening our reach through strategic collaborations. These initiatives attract new customers while keeping our brands fresh and relevant. Our B2B business also remains an important growth engine, up 9% this quarter with strength in both trade and contracts, and our emerging brands, Rejuvenation, Mark, Graham and GreenRow continue to perform exceptionally well.

Together, they delivered a double-digit comp, and we're excited to have recently opened our 13th Rejuvenation store in Salt Lake City. This year, we're also very proud of our improvements in customer service. We are committed to flawless execution delivering orders on time, damage-free every time, and we're proud that this year, we have record metrics. We're focusing on furthering our improvements through fewer split shipments and faster fulfillment.

Finally, our third key priority, driving earnings. Our focus on revenue growth, elevating customer service and maintaining cost discipline has delivered strong earnings with our year-to-date earnings per share growing 5% in a very tough tariff environment. Also in Q3, we used AI as a key business driver to accelerate our strategy. Across our portfolio, AI-powered chat experiences are now live for all brands, providing customer service, delivery support and product guidance. These agents are improving speed, consistency and satisfaction, and we are now resolving over 60% of chats without human assistance, reducing handle times from 23 minutes to just 5 minutes.

Another notable milestone this quarter was the launch of Olive, our new AI culinary and shopping companion for the Williams-Sonoma brand. Olive helps customers plan, cook and shop with confidence combining our culinary authority with cutting-edge technology to create a differentiated experience. What makes Williams-Sonoma unique is how AI can amplify our differentiated foundation with our proprietary data, our vertical integration from design to delivery, our multichannel engagement and our expertise in home design in the culinary space.

Our strong balance sheet, coupled with our tech capabilities allows us to apply AI in ways that can drive real scalable impact for our business that others cannot. Looking ahead, we see opportunity to drive down costs and drive up sales with AI, and our early results are reinforcing that confidence. We're using AI to enhance what we do best, guiding customers through shopping and design decisions. Additionally, AI is driving improvements in productivity and empowering associates with tools to amplify their creativity and expertise.

Now I'd like to update you on tariffs. Since we last spoke, there have been notable changes in tariffs, such as a new tariff on some furniture, including imported upholstery kitchen cabinets and bath vanities. And now the 20% additional China tariff are down from 30%. Net-net, these changes are a push to our current estimated impact. As we look forward to the future, predictability in the tariff environment and a reduction in the [ India ] tariff would certainly be a positive for us.

In the meantime, we continue to be actively and aggressively mitigating what we can with our previously discussed 6-point plan. To remind you, first, we are obtaining cost concessions from our vendors. Second, we are resourcing goods to get the best cost for our customers. Third, we're identifying further supply chain efficiency. Fourth, we are controlling costs. Fifth, we are expanding our Made in USA assortment, production and partnerships. And last, we are taking select price increases with a focus on maintaining competitive pricing.

Now let's review our brands. Pottery Barn ran a positive 1.3% comp in Q3. We are pleased with the improvement we saw in large ticket, including furniture, upholstery and lighting. Our Pottery Barn stores continue to outperform, led by our standout design crew services and our increased take at-home today assortment. Our strategy of focusing on improving retail inventory availability, refreshing product assortments and enhancing design services is working. We have opened 6 beautiful new remodels or repositioned Pottery Barn stores so far this year with 3 more to come in Q4.

Finally, across the brand, we continue a major change that we have made all year, which is to substantially reduce promotions in Pottery Barn. Now I'd like to talk to you about our Pottery Barn Children's business, which ran a 4.4% comp in Q3. We saw acceleration in furniture fueled by successful new product launches, continued growth in collaborations and back-to-school and Dorm was a particular highlight in the quarter. In fact, back-to-school delivered double-digit growth, an acceleration from Q2. Our brands have become a destination for high-quality study solutions, durable backpack and on-trend dorm decor.

Additionally, our enhanced dorm design tools and pickup near campus options have been important for gaining share in a very fragmented market. Now let's review West Elm. West Elm ran a positive 3.3% comp in Q3. We continue to make progress against the brand's 4 key pillars: product, brand heat, channel excellence and operational efficiency. Throughout the year, West Elm has brought in new successful collections in both furniture -- and on Furniture, where the brand was previously underdeveloped. West Elm has significantly shifted the composition of their sales towards new products and the cumulative effect of new introductions since the fall of last year continues to produce results.

Retail and West Elm was also a highlight due to improved in-stocks and more new furniture and more new fabrics displayed on the retail floor. And we've opened 2 beautiful new remodels or repositioned West Elm stores so far this year, with 1 more to come in Q4. To remind everyone, we have 119 stores in West Elm. And based on results, we are looking forward to returning to retail unit growth in this brand. As you can hear, we are quite excited by the momentum at West Elm.

Now let's review the Williams-Sonoma brand, which continues to fire on all fronts and we had a positive 7.3% comp in Q3. Williams-Sonoma remains focused on premium quality products that are expertly crafted combining style and functionality. In Q3, we celebrated many successful culinary stories from the food and flavors of Spain to authentic Indian flavors through a collaboration with Palak Patel, Founder of The Chutney Life. We also recently launched a Wicked collection featuring limited-edition, Le Creuset Dutch ovens inspired by Elphaba and Glinda.

And as we continue to connect our customers to the world's best chefs and products, we are seeing great traction with in-store events. Across the country, we hosted 42 in-store book signing events in Q3. We welcome the fans of celebrities and celebrity chefs like Neil Patrick Harris, David Burke and Melissa King into our stores for amazing cooking demos and cookbook signing.

Finally, we've opened 6 beautiful remodeled or repositioned Williams-Sonoma stores so far this year with 2 more to come in Q4. Now I'd like to update you on B2B, which grew 9% in Q3 with both trade and contract delivering strong comps. Leveraging our design expertise and commercial-grade product assortment, we've built a strong and growing client base across multiple industries. Our B2B offering remains a powerful differentiator, and we are seeing continued momentum. Our biggest success story in Q3 was an increase in commercial workspace wins, including projects with Google, WeWork, TurboTax and PayPal.

Q4 brings the ramp-up of our growing corporate gifting program, including our leading assortment of quality giftables that can be customized with logos and company branding. We're also a destination for seasonal favorites that make a perfect client and employee holiday gift, If Any of You Need Help.

Now I'd like to update you on our emerging brands. With our proven ability to incubate and scale brands in-house, we are confident in the continued growth of our concepts and their ability to deliver profitability to our results. Rejuvenation delivered strong double-digit comps in the quarter, continuing an upward trajectory fueled by product innovation and category expansion. Our high-quality product offer and proprietary designs are resonating with customers.

Both channels are performing well, and we continue to open new retail locations to drive brand awareness. This quarter, we expanded our Rejuvenation store count to 13, with the opening of 2 new storefronts 1 in Nashville and 1 in Salt Lake City. The brand also saw a strong performance from its first ever lighting collaboration. Mark and Graham delivered its best Q3 in brand history, driven by successful new categories, [ MMG Kids ] and Bark & Graham as well as continued growth in personalized corporate gifting.

As we head into the peak gifting season, the brand is well positioned with thoughtful, personalized gifts for all occasions. I'm also excited to talk about our newest brand, GreenRow, which delivered strong growth this quarter. In Q3, we launched the largest holiday collection to date with handcrafted decor and gifts made from up cycles and natural materials. The brand's colorful and unique products have had a great response and the product line is incredibly beautiful in person.

Therefore, we believe retail stores are the next leg of growth at GreenRow and are looking to test a few store locations as soon as possible. Finally, I'd like to share one highlight in our global business. In the U.K., we broadened our brand presence with the launch of Pottery Barn Online and the opening of a pop-up store in our West Elm Tottenham Court Road in London. And so far, we're quite pleased with the performance of Pottery Barn in this new market.

In summary, we're pleased with our execution and continued outperformance in Q3 marked by accelerating positive comps and strong profitability. Across the company, we remain dedicated to enhancing our channel experiences and strengthening our brands. Each and every day, we prioritize innovation, product design and exceptional customer service. These are the qualities that set us apart in a fragmented industry and position us to capture additional market share.

We see tremendous opportunity to continue to lead our industry as we execute on our vision to own the home and the places where our customers work, stay and play. As we enter the final quarter of the year, we're filled with optimism for a strong finish. This holiday season, we're ready to showcase our best across our stores and online. From all of us, we wish you and your family on joyful Thanksgiving next week and a happy holiday season.

Before I hand things over to Jeff, I want to take another minute to express our thanks to our team, our vendors and all of our partners for their ongoing dedication and contributions to our company's success. We appreciate everything they do. And with that, I will turn it over to Jeff to walk you through the numbers and our outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone. Our results this quarter reflect Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s competitive advantages in the home furnishings industry, including the following: the strength of our multi-brand portfolio across different categories, aesthetics and price points. Our size and scale, providing the ability to drive market share gains as we maximize white space opportunities. The competitive advantage of our multichannel platform, serving customers where they choose to shop online, in-store or business to business.

Our focus on customer service and full price selling, creating efficiency and cost savings across our supply chain. And finally, the power of our operating model to deliver highly profitable earnings. Our headlines for this quarter demonstrate these competitive advantages. We delivered positive comps for the fourth straight quarter. Furniture and nonfurniture categories both ran positive comps, reflecting strength across all categories of our offering.

White space opportunities, such as Dorm, West Elm Kids and Rejuvenation grew double digits. Retail, e-commerce and business-to-business all drove positive comps. Our supply chain team achieved best-ever results across nearly all customer service metrics while simultaneously improving efficiency and reducing costs. And despite the headwinds from tariffs, we drove operating margin expansion of 10 basis points to 17% and EPS growth of 5% to $1.96 per share.

Our results this quarter would not be possible without the team we have at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. I'd like to thank our talented, dedicated team for delivering these outstanding results. Now let's dive into the numbers. I'll start with our Q3 results and then update guidance for fiscal year '25. Q3 net revenue finished at $1.88 billion for a positive 4% comp. All brands delivered positive comps driven by positive comps in both our furniture and nonfurniture categories.

We gained market share in the quarter, even as we increased our penetration of full price selling. From a channel perspective, both channels delivered positive comps, with retail up 8.5% comp and e-commerce, up 1.9% comp. Moving down the income statement. Gross margin exceeded our expectations, coming in at 46.1%, 70 basis points higher than last year. Higher merchandise margins and supply chain efficiencies drove this gross margin improvement, offset by slightly higher occupancy costs.

Merchandise margins delivered 60 basis points of our gross margin improvement, exceeding our expectations. The factors contributed to this improvement in merchandise margins. First, the impact from tariffs is taking longer than anticipated to flow through to our gross margin. This is due to the delayed effective dates of the tariffs and our aggressive front-loading of inventory before tariff effective dates. Second, we are seeing margin upside from our 6-point tariff mitigation plan, including price increases, as well as strong consumer response to our full-price product offering.

And finally, lower inbound transportation costs are helping offset tariff costs. Supply chain efficiencies added 30 basis points to our gross margin. Our focus on customer service and in-stock ready to sell inventory is delivering tangible margin improvements from lower accommodations, damages, replacements and out-of-market shipping expense.

Occupancy costs were up 5.9% and were 20 basis points higher year-over-year. This was because of our retail outperformance and the higher occupancy costs in that channel. To recap, our gross margin results this quarter exceeded our expectations. Our tariff mitigation efforts more than offset the headwinds from tariffs in the third quarter.

Turning now to SG&A. Our Q3 SG&A ran at 29.1% of revenues, 60 basis points higher than last year. Employment expense deleveraged 50 basis points due to higher incentive compensation from our strong results year-to-date. We continue to manage variable employment costs across our stores, distribution centers and customer care centers in line with top line trends.

Advertising expenses were 20 basis points higher year-over-year. Our in-house marketing team continues to test and optimize into different levels of spend. During the quarter, we increased our investment in digital advertising. After testing and proprietary in-house analytics model indicated we could scale efficiently. The higher spend drove an acceleration in year-over-year site traffic and improved revenue per visit.

Our in-house marketing team's ability to test, scale and optimize across our portfolio of brands is a competitive advantage in the home furnishings industry. Finally, general expenses leveraged 10 basis points. On the bottom line, our earnings exceeded our expectations. Despite the tariff headwinds, our operating margin of 17% was 10 basis points above last year and diluted earnings per share grew 5% year-over-year to $1.96.

On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $885 million with no outstanding debt. We generated $316 million in operating cash flow during the quarter and invested $68 million in capital expenditures supporting our long-term growth. During the quarter, we returned $347 million to our shareholders. We did this through $267 million in stock repurchases and $80 million in dividends.

Merchandise inventories stood at $1.5 billion, up 9.6% from last year. Our inventory includes $48 million of incremental tariff costs recorded in inventory as well as $30 million of a strategic pull forward of receipts and lower tariff rates than in effect today. Without this incremental $78 million, our inventory level would be in line with our sales trends. Overall, our inventory levels and composition are well positioned to support our upcoming holiday season.

Summing up our Q3. We're proud to have delivered strong results, even as we navigated a challenging tariff environment and historically low housing turnover.

Now let's turn to our guidance for fiscal year '25. First, some housekeeping. In the first quarter of fiscal year '24, we recorded a $49 million out-of-period adjustment related to prior year's freight accrual. This benefited fiscal year '24 operating margin results by approximately 70 basis points. Our guidance for fiscal year '25 uses our fiscal year '24 results without the out-of-period adjustment as a comparable basis.

Additionally, fiscal year '24 was a 53-week year for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. In fiscal year '25, we will report comps on a 52-week versus 52-week comparable basis. All other year-over-year compares will be 52 weeks versus 53 weeks. On full year '24 results, the additional week contributed 150 basis points to revenue growth and 20 basis points to operating margin. The discrete impact of the additional week on just Q4 '24 was 510 basis points to revenue growth and 60 basis points to operating margin.

Now our guidance. Given our strong Q3 results and our outlook for Q4, we are updating our fiscal year '25 guidance. On the top line, we are reiterating our fiscal year '25 net revenue guidance. We expect full year '25 comps to be in the range of positive 2% to positive 5%, with total net revenues in the range of positive 0.5% to positive 3.5% due to the 53rd week impact from last year.

Our guidance continues to assume no meaningful changes in the macroeconomic environment, or interest rates or housing turnover. Our guide reflects the continued strength in our business, strong customer response to our product lineup and continued traction across our growth initiatives. On the bottom line, we are raising our full year operating margin guidance 40 basis points to a range of 17.8% to 18.1%. This means that despite the tariff headwinds, we are now guiding the midpoint of our fiscal year '25 operating margin to be approximately 20 basis points above last year when excluding the 53rd week impact.

Our higher operating margin guide reflects both the strong results we have delivered year-to-date and the expectation that tariffs will have a greater impact on our margins in Q4. Our updated guidance reflects all the tariffs in place as of this call. This includes the new Section 232 tariffs on furniture, the revised 20% additional China tariffs, the 50% India tariff, the 20% Vietnam tariff and an average 18% tariff on the rest of the world as well as the 50% steel and aluminum tariffs, and a 50% copper tariff.

In fact, our incremental tariff rate has more than doubled from 14% earlier this year to 29% today, inclusive of all the tariffs I just mentioned. We believe the strength of our operating model, combined with the 6-point mitigation plan Laura outlined enables us to mitigate a large portion of these tariffs, which is embedded in our guidance. It's important to note the tariff policy has been volatile and subject to multiple revisions.

It's hard to say where tariffs will ultimately land and what impact they will have on our business. Our guidance reflects our best estimates of the impact based upon the tariffs in place as of this call. Also today, we are providing some further inputs for modeling purposes. We now expect our full year interest income to be approximately $35 million and our full year effective tax rate to be approximately 26%.

Turning now to capital allocation. Our plans for fiscal year '25 continue to prioritize funding our business operations and investing in long-term growth. We expect to spend between $250 million and $275 million on capital expenditures in fiscal year '25. We are investing 85% of this capital spend on our e-commerce channel, retail optimization and supply chain efficiency. We remain committed to returning excess cash to our shareholders in the form of increased quarterly dividend payouts and ongoing share repurchases.

For dividends, we will continue to pay our quarterly dividend of $0.66 per share, which is a 16% increase year-over-year. We are proud today that fiscal year '25 is the 16th consecutive year of increased dividend payouts. For share repurchases, we announced today that our Board of Directors approved an additional $1 billion share repurchase authorization, bringing our total authorization to approximately $1.6 billion.

We remain committed to opportunistically repurchasing our stock to provide returns to our shareholders. As we look forward to 2026, we will balance our long-term growth potential with the tariff and macroeconomic landscape, and we will provide guidance in March. As we look further into the future beyond '26, we are reiterating our long-term guidance of mid- to high single-digit revenue growth with operating margins in the mid- to high teens.

Wrapping up Laura's and my comments, we delivered another quarter of strong results despite the headwinds from tariff policy and historically low housing turnover. Our focus remains on our 3 key priorities: returning to growth, elevating our world-class customer service and driving earnings. We are confident we will continue to outperform our peers and deliver shareholder growth for these 5 reasons.

Our ability to gain market share in the fragmented home furnishings industry, the strength of our in-house proprietary design, the competitive advantage of our digital first but not digital-only channel strategy, the ongoing strength of our growth initiatives and the resilience of our fortress balance sheet. With that, I'll open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Maks Rakhlenko from TD Cowen.

Great. Congrats on the nice quarter. So first, can you just discuss the elasticity that you're seeing in the business as you selectively increase prices and how we should think about the impact to comps from transactions versus [ ticket ] in 3Q?

Thanks, Maks. We look at prices constantly across our brands, across categories and with our competition. And you know we sell a wide range of products. And so there's not one quick answer to elasticity because in some cases, there's room to take up prices. In other cases, you need to take down prices based on what the market is doing. This is why we're so focused on innovation and bringing new innovative and exclusive products to market because that gets us better pricing power.

Also, I would say that pricing is not just about the product itself, but also the service and the experience. And we have been really, really focused, as you know, on improving our service, which has been a huge driver of our op margin, which I'm sure we'll talk a lot about today. But that's a big -- especially to come up against the holiday season. It's a big deal for customers deciding where to buy their gifts, especially large ticket. if they want to buy some gifts from people they trust, they can return things to and that they're going to stand behind their product quality, and they can get instructions about how to use that expensive espresso machine. So it's not just one metric, and it's not just one category and it's going to be -- the answer is going to be different depending on the product you asked me about.

Got it. And then, Jeff, you noted that it's taking longer for tariffs to flow through. Just how should we consider the impact of tariffs over the next several quarters as it does sound like 4Q will see a pickup? And then -- just any guideposts on modeling for the next several quarters?

Yes, let me explain why the tariffs are taking longer to flow through. I think it's important to unpack that. And first, it's really due to the delayed effective dates. For example, the August 7 reciprocal tariff, which applies in most countries like China and Vietnam, et cetera, had an exception for goods that were on the water that had to be received before [ 10/5 ]. Another example is with the India tariffs that were effective on August 27, there was an exception for goods in the water to be received before 9/17. So this means that these tariffs do not start being applied to new receipts until mid- to late third quarter. And then on top of that, we aggressively front-loaded receipts to bring in inventory at lower tariff rates than are in effect today.

So the combination of these 2 really advantaged us in Q3. As we look to Q4, we've certainly said that the tariffs will have a larger impact upon our margin and that is embedded in our guidance. As we look beyond Q4, it's a little early to talk about '26. There's a lot that could change between now and then, especially with the tariff lens. So we'll save that conversation for March.

Your next question comes from the line of Zach Fadem from Wells Fargo.

Can we start with your take on broader category performance from Q2 to Q3? And whether you saw underlying improvement there? And then just curious, stepping back to how you would frame the improvement we've seen in furnishings in your category relative to some of the broader macro and pressures that we've seen in home improvement and other bigger ticket categories?

zach, we're really pleased with our continuing improvement across quarters and brands and in particular, the West Elm's increase in comps is really exciting for us to see because we expected it to happen. And there's nothing more fulfilling when we see a strategy come to fruition. And I still think there's a lot of room left to go in West Elm as they build out certain categories and seasonal assortments. And we've been continuing to improve our in-store experiences, and that's been really helping. But in terms of the broader merchandise category, the cross brand, we have been aware, as everyone is that the housing market not covered, and that is really most correlated with furniture and to be able to improve our furniture comps without a significant improvement in housing is a really, really strong sign.

And we love that because a furniture collection that we introduced in the season this year we can build up on for next year with new [ piece types ] and also with better inventory stocking positions. And so the continuation of our furniture strength is very important to the short term and the longer term. And then in the holiday seasons, the categories that are exciting, we saw Dorm pick up from Q2 to Q3, back to school, the broader category for that, and it's a strong season and really, really a good season for us. The Halloween product categories were strong [indiscernible] Thanksgiving, also, we're not done with Thanksgiving yet obviously, but we're close. So so we've been pleased with the results there.

It's too early to comment about holiday, and we're actually on the call a week earlier than we were last year. So those of you wondering about the lack of comments there, it's just a little bit too early to comment. But based on what we've seen with the other seasonal holidays, we can see that, that's a competitive advantage for us. There's not many other people out there that have the assortment that allows customers to really decorate and entertain for the holidays. And especially at this time of the year, it's the real strength is a traffic driver for us.

Your next question comes from the line of Cristina Fernandez from Telsey Advisory Group. .

So I want to follow up a little bit on that last comment on holiday. If you look at the implied Q4 revenue guidance, it's pretty wide. So could you comment on the low end versus high end and your ability to continue this comp trend as you face a more difficult year-over-year comparison. .

Thank you, Christina. Holiday launch season and then it includes January. We are really focused on great price selling. And this has been an important part of our margin profile all year and the improvement that you've seen. And when we have amazingly -- we've had great success in our margin improvement, even with the tariffs on top of everything. And as we go into the holiday season, we continue to have opportunity from a year-over-year perspective in pulling back on promotions. And so we're focused on great price selling and hope to have less promotions than last year, hence, the wide range of comp performance. That's one piece of it. The second is when you look at the multiyear numbers we're mindful of strong holiday last year.

Your next question comes from the line of Peter Benedict from Baird.

I guess 2. One would be the market seems to be really concerned about how you're going to be able to digest these tariffs as they ultimately come through despite your ability to do so to date. I think expectations next year for operating margins to be lower in the first half of the year. But maybe, Jeff, I'm not asking for specific guidance, but just how should we think about the ability of the business to just even maintain operating margins in the face of what you know about tariffs as they sit today?

That's my first question. And then my second question would be around unit growth. Laura, it sounded like maybe a little bit more of an offensive posture there, particularly around West Elm. We know that, in aggregate, your units have been kind of coming down. Are you signaling a change there? Should we be thinking about, I'm just thinking about the magnitude of unit growth we might expect as we look out on the horizon.

Peter. So where is the operating margin going? That's a great question. But if we look beyond our current guidance, that's not really a question we're going to answer today. It's too early to start discussing '26 guidance. Our focus is on the holiday season delivering in Q4. And the real reason here is the tariff landscape has been incredibly volatile. Just look at what's happened over the past several quarters. Every quarter, there's been new tariffs, repeal tariffs, everything is changing. .

And there's a lot of uncertainty in this front. I would point out that India is one of our largest sources of goods. And where that tariff is going, which is currently at 50% is an open question. We also have the Supreme Court decision on IEEPA tariffs pending. We'll see where that goes. So it's a little hard to understand beyond our current guidance and beyond this year in Q4 where the tariff landscape is going to impact us. We believe that our 6-point mitigation plan that Laura and I have been articulating all year, combined with the power of our operating model will allow us to offset a large portion of the tariffs but the ultimate amount depends upon where the tariffs ultimately land. What we're really focused on is delivering the current quarter and everything we know about our ability to offset the current tariffs is embedded within our guidance.

In terms of your second question, Peter, where is unit growth going? Look, we've been saying all along that we have done an incredible job, and I want to complement our entire organization regarding our retail repositioning strategy. And there's been multiple legs to the strategy. There's been closing underperforming stores, which I think everyone knows, we've closed about 17% of our stores since 2019. It's about repositioning stores from some of the tired indoor malls to more vibrant lifestyle centers. And it's also been about opening new stores.

And we see opportunity for new store growth, particularly in the West Elm brand with Rejuvenation with GreenRow potentially. And there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to grow stores. In terms of where overall store count growth is growing, as we've been saying all year, it will be mid-single-digit closures this year. And I think we're not necessarily guiding '26, but I don't think we'll see a substantial change in the overall store count as we look towards '26. There's still more room to go on our repositioning strategy, but there's also a whitespace opportunity to infill. And there's some great new locations that we're working on that will come online in '26 and then '27.

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Horvers from JPMorgan. .

So 2 quick ones. So I guess playing devil's advocate on the compare in the fourth quarter, Laura, furniture pull forwards behind you, there's a lot of momentum around self-help initiatives. And obviously, there's a ticket pricing coming through here. So do you think about where we are in the cycle, particularly with housing not helpful why couldn't the growth rate just stay at the growth rate considering where we are?

And then a quick one 1 gross margin, understanding there was some shift on timing, but asking the question another way, did the drivers in terms of -- in the fourth quarter in terms of the expected tariff headwind versus the expected benefit from the mitigation strategy? Did you change those at all in your outlook?

On pull forward first, I don't see any reason to believe we've seen pull forward of anything for that matter. We absolutely could be at the same comp, if not higher. We have a wide range. I was just explaining the differences of why you might look at it and say it's a little bit lower than where you've been. It's very important that we don't play the promotional game. It's a key aspect of our strategy. At the same time, we're going to have great deals for Black Friday. We have great deals right now for early Black Friday. We bought into them.

We have vendor partnerships on them. But we're not going to have as much -- we hope we're not going to have as many needs to promote as we did last year. And so that's the only hesitation on the comp side. And then in terms of the tariff impact in Q4, it's sizably more than Q4 because of the way that the cost flows through every single quarter. And so we did a fantastic job, great success with our mitigation plan in Q3 and throughout the year, and we will continue to do that. And in fact, it's amazing to see the new opportunities that we're finding in supply chain. Supply chain has been just a tremendous positive this year in delivering op margin. And what's great about it, as you know, is it means the customer is getting their product delivered more smoothly and on time and without damage.

And that's all good for the brand. It's fantastic for the P&L. And there's still room. As we look at Q4 on the op margin side and supply chain savings, there's more to go there. We're really optimistic about our ADC, which is our new DC that came out last year. And honestly, we're doing better than we have been with that, and that could be -- that could really help us, especially because the calendar this year for Christmas similar to last year is pretty tight. So we want to ship it late and ship it perfectly and not disappoint anyone. That's why people come to us and shop online later with us like they do Amazon and others because they trust us to deliver before Christmas. So there's a lot of really good things happening. But in terms of the impact of tariffs. Please don't get ahead of us on Q4 in terms of the margin because the tariffs are going to have a greater impact, as you can see in our guidance and the implied Q4 guidance than they did in Q3.

If you look at our op margin ex tariffs, it's expanding. And so for all those that are worried about this, just realize that this goes into the base and we're done with it, and we move forward, and it's about outperforming our competition and continuing to deliver for our shareholders and most importantly, for our customers and giving them incredibly beautiful, well-designed, high-quality product at the best price in the market.

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Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Matuszewski from Jefferies.

I had 1 question and 1 follow-up. The first question was just on the consumer. You mentioned a better response to full price selling then it seems like what you planned for. So just from like a strategy perspective here, how does that minimal elasticity kind of inform your customer targeting efforts going forward? And is what you're seeing giving you more confidence to target a higher-end consumer, a higher-income consumer more in the future than in the past? And are there strategies in place to do that that's my first question.

It's a great question. We're lucky where we sit, but we love all our customers. So we're going to give them the best price, it's their apartment, first baby or [indiscernible] And we do see when we look at our [indiscernible] and owning the home that we haven't covered the real super high-end at scale yet. It's not surprising to me that Rejuvenation is doing so well. Why we have such great growth? It's expensive. It's absolutely gorgeous, high-quality products. I hope that you've all visited a store bought some products or seen it in someone's house because when you see it, you understand why we've really grown that business and why we believe so strongly to be our next $1 billion brand that sits at the high, GreenRow sits at the high end.

We haven't talked about [ indiscernible], but what we are seeing it's a new aesthetic. This very, very origin. That is not in the marketplace and it is entirely green products and people care about that. We expect customer cares about that. And so that's at the high end, and we see that we can have retail stores in that brand which tells me it's bigger than you might think. And then there's Williams-Sonoma Home, which we continue to see as an opportunity for us into the future.

But don't mistake the importance of us also covering the upper middle customer, the Pottery Barn, the West Elm and making sure that also those brands are so appealing that people trade into that. If I can decorate your house more beautifully and more affordably than the high end, why wouldn't you come to us? And by the way, we'll do the whole thing for you and we'll set it up. And I think you'll see that we can do it for a fraction of the price of what other people do and have it be super interesting and gorgeous. So we're going after all those pieces, and there's opportunity right across that TikTok to bar from what we define as our value customer, which is different than the market all the way to the high-end consumer.

Your next question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley. .

can I ask on tariffs, again, the 6-point plan seems to be beneficial. And it sounds like the elasticities aren't awful. What's the chance that we get to the fourth quarter or even the first quarter as this inventory turns that the impacts are going to be a lot more minimal than we think. And I'm just trying to size up the conviction that we haven't seen anything yet. And then if some of the [indiscernible] stuff gets, I don't know, validated, do you suspect that industry prices go back down? Or do you think retail prices, especially ones that have already changed, they're just going to hold?

First of all, I just want to say that the last thing I want you to think is that we're immune to tariffs. We've done a really great job of offsetting them so far, but the amount that they hit us in Q4 is sizably different than it was in Q3. So just that's why look at our guidance, please, and understand the impact. IEEPA, there's other tariffs I'm not focused on that. We're focused on how we give in the current tariff environment, the greatest value to our consumers. And where should we be pricing things and where should we be moving things. So I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about that. I think it's just one more thing that could change and be kind of distracting in the short term. There's also really good things that -- like if the India tariff is repealed that or reduced by half, that would be great for us. But all that is a backdrop that affects the entire industry. And once it's in and it's rolled through on a yearly basis, we're done with it. So I just -- as I said, just to recap, please don't think that we are in in Q4 and beyond. We will offset as much as we possibly can. We've done a better job than I think we even thought we could do in offsetting all of it this quarter. But we have 2 things going on in Q4 that I want to make sure, Jeff reminded you in his prepared remarks. I'll let him remind you again about the 53rd week.

Yes. I mean a couple of other things that I want to highlight, too, Simeon, is and as Laura said, don't get ahead of us there. we did have an improvement in our merchandise margins and particularly against what we expected in Q3. But it goes back to the timing factor that I talked about, I think on the first question, the effective dates were delayed for all the tariffs. So as we get to Q4, there will be a substantially larger impact to our operating margin than there was in Q3. And our guidance embeds in there our best estimates of what that impact is inclusive of all of our tariff mitigation efforts. So I can't say it any other way other than we do not expect a repeat of Q3 in Q4, which is what our guidance is. .

In terms of the 53rd week, I do want to remind everyone that this is a 53rd week for Williams-Sonoma -- we are coming up against the 53rd week for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. On the year, it was worth 150 basis points to revenue growth and 20 basis points to operating margin. But in Q4, where the 53rd week comes into play, it had a pretty big impact at 510 basis points of revenue growth and 60 basis points of operating margin growth. So just on that, the 53rd week and those 60 basis points, we would be down normally on a year-over-year 13-week -- I'm sorry, yes, 13-week to 13-week comparison.

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Zaccone from Citigroup. .

I wanted to ask on Pottery Barn because business decelerated a little bit there on the 2-year stack, and it's actually lagging the rest of the segments of the business. You referenced some pullback in promotions. Can you just talk about what's new this year because I think that's been the strategy for the past couple of years. And when you think about the performance of that business, what are you seeing from a competitive perspective. Any sort of kind of trade down from the consumer [indiscernible] and some of the earlier questions around pricing, is there anything to call out from a pricing perspective, competitive wise was?

We haven't seen that yet. Pottery Barn furniture [ has improved this year, especially on the multiyear stack, and that's been good to see. They did have more promotions to reduce out of their base than you might have expected. And so we continue to work on that and there's still opportunity.

Your next question comes from the line of Chuck Grom from Gordon Haskett. .

Just -- Laura, just bigger picture, a lot of people have asked about tariffs. I want to ask a little bit about category growth and how you see sustainability moving into 2026. Broadly speaking, a lot of your peers are doing better. Do you think that continues? And then one more near term, just cadence throughout the quarter. Some of your peers have had a lot of volatility, anything you want to highlight for us and anything you want to speak to so far in November.

Yes. We don't talk about units. I do want to talk about the excitement we have as we look forward. We have not seen a housing recovery. It's like the worst housing market in the last 4 years, as you know. And that is a big deal. Now there's really not a lot of great signs that it's getting better quickly, but there are some green shoots. And I personally am very optimistic about housing next year. That would be a big change for us if that happens because we know that when you move, you buy a lot. when you refurnish your house. And we've been very good at getting the remodeler and the redecorator to come to us, but we're excited to be ready with a much more powerful furniture supply chain than we've ever had before when those sales come to us.

And we know that when that turns and you see upside again, it's a really big deal. Some people I don't think they're going to be ready for it. But the things we've done to really improve our supply chain are so strategic. I believe and have always believed that the person that owns the furniture network is the one who wins the whole thing. And that is where we've been focused and we continue to build and have all sorts of tech projects in play to make that happen. And you can see it in our numbers this year, how much improvement year-on-year. I read through last year's script, -- and it's funny when you read it because we were talking about all the supply chain improvements then. But I think if you ask me, I wouldn't have expected that we would have this much more. And yet we still have more. And that's what's exciting when you think about the power of our operating model in this multi-brand, multichannel company and where this could go in the future as [indiscernible].

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Your next question comes from the line of Michael Lasser from UBS. .

Laura, 1 of the interpretations of your -- some of your comments over the last hour, is that Williams-Sonoma has gone through this significant change where it's reduced promotion, improved its profitability while it's been able to drive consistent sales growth. And now it may be at the point at which it can no longer lower promotional activity without it having some impact on the sales. Is that the right interpretation of what has been said on this call? And second, was the magnitude of the benefit to your margin in the third quarter from selling older, lower cost inventory at new higher prices equal to or greater than it might have been in the second quarter that we should think about these not repeating in 2026, understand that you're not providing any guidance on 2026 at this point.

In terms of your first question, I mean, you took some liberty there, Michael. I think what I'm saying is that key strategies for our company continue to work. And it has been a focus on innovative product design, high quality, high service and a regular price business, investing in our brands, investing in our tech stack, our supply chain to deliver great operating margins. But I will remind you, our key -- our first initiative this year was return to growth. I kept joking it's 1, 2 and 3 return to growth. We are obsessed with where we can grow, what brand it is, which categories it is and how we outperform. So do not mistake that, that is where we're headed and what we're driving towards. On the second question, I'll hand over to Jeff.

Yes, Michael, honestly, I'm not tracking with you on the question because actually, our margin expansion year-over-year in Q2 was -- gross margin was 220 basis points. It was only 70 basis points in Q3 with the difference, of course, being the impact of the tariffs. So I'm not sure I understood your question, but there was a greater impact of the tariffs in Q3.

And while certainly, we have our mitigation efforts, the tariff impact will increase sequentially quarter-over-quarter every year this year. And as we've said on the call, it will have an impact on us in Q4 in a much more substantial way than it did in prior quarters this year.

Your next question, and this will be the final question comes from the line of Oliver Wintermantel from Evercore ISI.

And yes, I think the message on gross margin in 4Q came across. I just wanted to focus on SG&A.. You guys had lower general expenses for the last several quarters. And especially in 4Q, I think there was 80 basis points in incentive comp headwind and advertising was also up a headwind of 30 basis points in the fourth quarter. So maybe could you talk a little bit about SG&A moving parts into the fourth quarter? How you expect that to shake out?

Yes. I mean, as you know, we don't guide to specific lines. We guide the top line and the bottom line is it gives us the flexibility to pull different levers as we see results come in. In Q3, our higher employment expense was really almost entirely attributable to higher incentive compensation due to our strong performance year-to-date. And then as I explained in our prepared remarks, advertising deleveraged about 20 basis points because we saw some opportunities during Q3 to spend some additional advertising in the digital space.

and one of our competitive advantages is our in-house marketing team that has ability across our portfolio of brands to test scale and optimize our spend. And they saw some opportunity to spend in Q3 that gave us great returns, drove incremental traffic to the web and higher revenue per visit. And so we leaned into that. So as we think about Q4, we don't guide to specific lines, but our approach is always the same as we're looking to control our SG&A. But where we see opportunities that are going to give us good return on investment, we will, of course, lean into those. But it all depends upon the overall macro.

And I thought that it might be worth spending another minute even though we're a couple of minutes past the hour, talking about our SG&A reductions due to our AI initiatives. because you're joking earlier that we have a 6-point mitigation plan for tariffs, but I think maybe we should launch our 7 as AI because we're seeing some really exciting results, both on the sales side and also on the margin side. I'll let Sameer make a few comments about that before we close the call.

Sure. Thank you, Laura. Like Laura mentioned earlier, in Q3, we are seeing really, really impactful results. She shared a couple of the data points around our customer service automation. She shared our launch of Olive, our AI agent that's customer-facing. if you haven't used that, I really encourage you to go on the Williams-Sonoma site today, super helpful for planning for the holidays and is driving sales, driving engagement, driving loyalty, it's really exciting.

And we're already -- just on the topic of SG&A, we're already seeing reduced payroll costs where automation absorbs -- AI automation absorbs repeatable work, reduced vendor costs, when we streamline external spend. And we're also seeing the same tech grow the top line. In supply chain, we're cutting out of market shipments, improving routes, lowering damages, replacements, trimming shipping costs, inventory, we're using AI to raise in-stock rates on key items, all the stuff supports conversion. It's driving down costs, but it's also driving the top line, digital guided journeys, better content coverage. All of this is driving SG&A leverage, all of it's driving reduced costs, but it's also driving demand leverage, which is really exciting to see it impact both on the cost side as well as the top line side. So we really see this compounding benefit as we head into 2026. I'm really excited about the continued impact we're seeing from our AI road map.

And we have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Laura Alber for closing remarks. .

Yes. Thank you all for joining us today. As I said earlier, I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving with your families. Hopefully, you get a chance to stop by our stores and do some shopping. Look forward to talking to you in the new year. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.