We are catching up on a presentation by Genesco executives at the ICR Conference earlier this month.
Genesco is the parent company of Journeys, our industry’s largest footwear customer, UK-based Schuh, also an industry customer, and the dressier Johnston & Murphy.
During the holidays, Journeys reported a 4% decline in total comps (stores plus online), which was better than expected due to stronger sales in stores than forecasted.
On the trend front, casual styles continue to gain steam while fashion athletic, which has driven sales for quite some time, has slowed. Boot sales have been strong.
Schuh reported strong holiday sales, with comps (stores plus online) rising 29%.
One of the biggest surprises from the presentation was how under penetrated Journeys e-commerce business was prior to the pandemic.
Pre-pandemic, e-commerce accounted for less than 10% of Journeys sales.
Schuh, by contrast, has the company’s most developed online business – e-commerce accounted for 25% of sales pre-pandemic.
Those figures have grown, of course, since then.
Last year, companywide, e-commerce accounted for 13% of Genesco’s sales. Now, the company expects that figure to grow to 15% to 20%.
