Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 2 năm tài chính 2026 của Lands' End (LE): Biên lợi nhuận mở rộng, Cập nhật dự báo cả năm

Thông tin chính

• Lands’ End đã báo cáo doanh thu quý 2 năm tài chính 2026 đạt 302 triệu USD, tăng 3% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái, nhờ mức tăng trưởng 9% của mảng thương mại điện tử tại Mỹ và 4% tại Lands’ End Outfitters.
• Lợi nhuận gộp tăng 14 triệu USD, tương đương 10%, trong khi biên lợi nhuận gộp mở rộng khoảng 320 điểm cơ bản lên 52%, chủ yếu nhờ khoản hoàn thuế quan IEEPA.
• Thu nhập ròng điều chỉnh đạt 2,7 triệu USD, tương đương 0,09 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu pha loãng. EBITDA điều chỉnh giảm 4 triệu USD xuống 11 triệu USD do khoản hoàn thuế quan bị bù trừ bởi cấu trúc tiền bản quyền liên doanh WHP Global và sự gián đoạn của hệ thống quản lý kho hàng.
• Hàng tồn kho tăng 13% lên 342 triệu USD. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết mức tồn kho này nằm trong hạn mức kế hoạch và thể hiện rõ hơn mức bình thường trong lịch sử sau khi cố ý duy trì mức tồn kho tinh gọn vào năm ngoái.
• Ban lãnh đạo hiện dự báo doanh thu năm tài chính 2026 đạt từ 1,3 tỷ USD đến 1,35 tỷ USD và EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt từ 62 triệu USD đến 70 triệu USD.
• CEO Charlie Cole chỉ ra rằng việc cá nhân hóa bằng AI, nhắm mục tiêu khách hàng và hạ tầng thương mại điện tử là yếu tố cốt lõi trong chiến lược trải nghiệm khách hàng dài hạn của Lands’ End.

Dữ liệu tài chính quan trọng

Sự cải thiện biên lợi nhuận gộp chủ yếu nhờ khoản hoàn thuế quan IEEPA, bị bù trừ một phần bởi cấu trúc tiền bản quyền mới của liên doanh và chi phí cao hơn liên quan đến hệ thống quản lý kho mới. Chi phí SG&A tăng 6 triệu USD và tăng khoảng 80 điểm cơ bản tính theo tỷ lệ phần trăm trên doanh thu, chủ yếu do đầu tư vào tiếp thị kỹ thuật số và tình trạng hoạt động chưa hiệu quả.

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

Doanh thu thương mại điện tử tại Mỹ tăng 9%, được hưởng lợi từ các đơn hàng chuyển sang sau sự gián đoạn hệ thống quản lý kho trong quý 1. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng đã được xử lý xong trong hoạt động thương mại điện tử cốt lõi tại Mỹ vào cuối quý. Nếu không tính đến ảnh hưởng về thời điểm giữa hai quý đầu năm, hoạt động kinh doanh tại Mỹ từ đầu năm đến nay được mô tả là đi ngang hoặc giảm nhẹ.

Trang phục nữ và nam, đặc biệt là đồ dệt kim, đạt kết quả tốt. Túi xách, dẫn đầu là túi tote 5 túi biểu tượng, đã hỗ trợ tăng trưởng và thu hút khách hàng mới. Doanh thu đồ bơi thương mại điện tử tại Mỹ tăng ở mức một chữ số ở khoảng cao. Số lượng khách hàng mới tại Mỹ tăng trưởng ở mức hai chữ số, phần lớn nhờ túi tote và đồ bơi.

Doanh thu từ các sàn thương mại điện tử bên thứ ba giảm khoảng 20% do Lands’ End ưu tiên bán hàng chất lượng cao hơn, biên lợi nhuận cao hơn thay vì sản lượng khuyến mãi. Biên lợi nhuận gộp của sàn thương mại điện tử trên cơ sở tương đương cải thiện hơn 500 điểm cơ bản. Nordstrom là kênh nổi bật, được hỗ trợ bởi các sản phẩm áo khoác ngoài và dòng sản phẩm Wanderweight.

Doanh thu của Lands’ End Outfitters tăng 4%. Các tài khoản khách hàng doanh nghiệp tăng hơn 15% tính từ đầu năm đến nay, dẫn đầu là các khách hàng hãng hàng không. Tuy nhiên, các sự cố về hệ thống kho bãi đã làm chậm trễ các đơn hàng đồng phục học sinh có giá trị gia tăng và đẩy lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng lên mức cao hơn đáng kể so với cùng kỳ năm trước.

Doanh số tại Châu Âu tăng 1%. Danh mục sản phẩm ưu tiên các dòng cốt lõi và việc giảm bớt hoạt động khuyến mãi đã cải thiện biên lợi nhuận sản phẩm. Gian hàng trên Amazon Đức đã ra mắt vào tháng 8.

Liên doanh sở hữu trí tuệ với WHP Global đã sửa đổi các thỏa thuận cấp phép, dự kiến sẽ tạo ra hơn 150 triệu USD giá trị tiền bản quyền đảm bảo trong dài hạn. Ban lãnh đạo lưu ý rằng các giấy phép mới cần có thời gian để đóng góp doanh thu vì trước tiên phải phát triển sản phẩm và các kênh phân phối.

Dự báo của ban lãnh đạo

Dự báo này kết hợp mức thuế quan ở các mức hiện đang áp dụng và giả định tiếp tục triển khai các biện pháp giảm thiểu. Ban lãnh đạo không kỳ vọng hệ thống quản lý kho hàng sẽ ảnh hưởng đến dự báo vượt ngoài mốc thời gian phục hồi xử lý tồn đọng tại Lands’ End Outfitters.

Rủi ro và các vấn đề cần theo dõi

• Hoạt động kho bãi đã khôi phục công suất xử lý bình thường, nhưng Lands’ End Outfitters vẫn đang giải quyết lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng đối với dịch vụ giá trị gia tăng, đặc biệt là đồng phục học sinh.
• Thuế quan vẫn là một yếu tố bất lợi về chi phí. Dự báo hiện tại đã phản ánh các mức thuế quan đang áp dụng và các hành động giảm thiểu theo kế hoạch.
• Hàng tồn kho cao hơn 13% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái, bao gồm tác động của chi phí thuế quan và sự chậm trễ trong xử lý các đơn hàng giá trị gia tăng.
• Cấu trúc tiền bản quyền liên doanh mới và chi phí hệ thống kho hàng đã bù trừ lợi ích từ khoản hoàn thuế quan trong EBITDA điều chỉnh.
• Doanh thu sàn thương mại điện tử giảm do công ty cắt giảm sản lượng khuyến mãi có biên lợi nhuận thấp hơn, tạo ra sự đánh đổi giữa doanh số ngắn hạn và khả năng sinh lời.

Điểm nổi bật trong phần Q&A với chuyên gia phân tích

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết công suất xử lý của kho hiện đã đạt hoặc vượt mức trước khi xảy ra gián đoạn, mặc dù việc giảm đơn hàng tồn đọng vẫn tiếp tục diễn ra tại Outfitters. Phần mềm kho bổ sung dự kiến triển khai vào năm tới được kỳ vọng sẽ cải thiện chất lượng dịch vụ hơn là ảnh hưởng trực tiếp đến dự báo hiện tại.

Ông Cole cho biết Lands’ End có kế hoạch xây dựng hạ tầng AI bao phủ thương mại điện tử, CRM, tiếp thị, phân đoạn danh mục và cá nhân hóa sáng tạo. Hệ thống này sẽ sử dụng lịch sử mua hàng, hành vi duyệt web, vị trí địa lý, thời tiết, hàng tồn kho và mức độ yêu thích danh mục sản phẩm để tùy chỉnh trải nghiệm khách hàng. Đây vẫn là mục tiêu quản trị hơn là một dự báo tài chính được định lượng.

Về hoạt động quốc tế, ban lãnh đạo cho biết Châu Âu sẽ duy trì một số sự khác biệt về thời trang và xu hướng, đồng thời dựa nhiều hơn vào các dòng sản phẩm cốt lõi đã khẳng định vị thế để hỗ trợ khả năng sinh lời.

Ban lãnh đạo cũng nhấn mạnh danh mục sản phẩm áo khoác ngoài đa dạng hơn cho nửa cuối năm sau khi áp dụng chiến lược tồn kho thận trọng vào năm ngoái. Danh mục này bao gồm áo khoác dày, áo nỉ, áo len và các sản phẩm phối nhiều lớp chuyển mùa.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Hello, and welcome, everyone, joining today's Lands' End Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this call is being recorded. We are standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Tom Altholz. Please go ahead.

Tom Altholz

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for a discussion of our second quarter of fiscal 2026 results, which we released this morning and can be found on our website, landsend.com. I'm Tom Altholz, Lands' End's Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis. And I'm pleased to join you today with Charlie Cole, our Chief Executive Officer; and Bernie McCracken, our Chief Financial Officer. After the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.

Please also note the information we're about to discuss includes forward-looking statements. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed on this call. Factors that could contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those items noted and included in the company's SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

The forward-looking information that is provided by the company on this call represents the company's outlook as of today, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements made by us. Subsequent events and developments may cause the company's outlook to change. During this call, we will be referring to non-GAAP measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release issued earlier today, a copy of which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at landsend.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Charlie.

Charlie Cole

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I'm honored to be joining you for my first earnings call as CEO of Lands' End. I have spent my career leading digital and e-commerce companies through customer engagement and brand transformations, and I'm excited to be utilizing that experience to help unlock the next phase of growth for this iconic American brand.

As you know, I joined the company on July 13, and I spent the past several weeks getting to know the company. Since then, I've been meeting with teams across the company, reviewing the business and listening to customers to ensure a strong foundation to evaluate and execute on the right opportunities ahead. What I found reinforces my confidence in the strength of this brand, loyalty of our customer base and a strong culture that remains a genuine competitive advantage. It's clear to me that the opportunity is significant, and we have strong strategic direction. The work now is ensuring the infrastructure is in place to support it. Put simply, Lands' End is a great business with tremendous opportunity ahead.

With that, let me take you through the highlights of the quarter. Across the business, our teams made deliberate decisions on marketing spend, on customer acquisition and on inventory, which we believe position us well for the back half of the year. The product portfolio had clear bright spots this quarter, continuing to leverage product solutions through our key franchises. Women's and men's apparel, especially knits, had a good quarter overall, and bags performance, led by our iconic 5-pocket tote, was a meaningful driver of growth and new customer acquisition. Our swim business continued to execute on owning the weather with high single-digit revenue growth in the U.S. e-commerce business in the quarter.

The areas generating real momentum are the ones I'm most energized about. For example, totes remain one of our strongest new-to-brand acquisition tools, and value-added services like embroidery and personalization make the economics even more attractive. Our U.S. new-to-file customer count grew double digits, largely driven by totes and swim, demonstrating our continued ability to use accessories to reach new demographics. Sleep is a category we're excited to develop year-round, and early indicators are positive. Initial reads on outerwear and Christmas stockings are also encouraging, give us good initial visibility into Q3 and Q4.

Beyond the product, our marketing activity in Q2 generated some real highlights. Our collaborations with T&T and Wawa and our presence in Nantucket each put Lands' End in front of new and younger audiences in a way that felt authentic to who we are, driving real engagement across social platforms and building the kind of brand equity that compounds over time, not just media conversion. We are especially pleased with our Wawa collaboration, where our iconic tote to over 2.6 billion impressions and more importantly, sold out in hours. These types of activations are driving a step change in our social media following. Of note, traffic across our social channels, including Instagram, increased over 30% year-over-year.

While it is early in my tenure, I already see a meaningful opportunity to strengthen how we reach, engage and convert customers. We have a strong data foundation and a loyal core customer base. The opportunity is to use that foundation more effectively, including through more personalized marketing, better customer targeting and greater efficiency at acquisition. We will pursue that work deliberately with the core Lands' End customer at the center of our strategy.

Turning to inventory, our inventory levels in the second quarter were higher than the prior year due to tariff uncertainty last year. Current year inventory is more representative of pre-2025 levels and is within our planned parameters, which include increases due to continued tariff headwinds and challenges processing value-added service orders with our new warehouse management system.

Our U.S. e-commerce business increased 9% compared to Q2 2025, reflecting the recovery with the rollout of our new warehouse management system across our distribution centers in the first quarter. That issue has been addressed in our core U.S. e-commerce business, and we caught up with shipments by the end of the quarter. In our third-party marketplace business, the standout was Nordstrom. The anniversary sale was a strong moment for the brand, and our franchise categories, outerwear and Wanderweight in particular, continue to resonate in that channel. Across our marketplaces, we continue to pursue a disciplined strategy that emphasizes quality and higher-margin sales over volume.

In our Europe business, we made several deliberate pivots, and the early results are encouraging. Revenue finished essentially flat, but our product margin performance was strong, reflecting the strategic choice to leverage key franchises to build the business for long-term success. This, paired with our successful efforts to reach new customers at lower cost and through more deliberately differentiated storytelling in our markets, give us confidence in the path ahead for our Europe business. In addition to the improvement in profitability this quarter, Amazon Germany went live in August, and we are excited to leverage our global experience on Amazon with an entirely new customer.

Turning to Lands' End Outfitters, our B2B business. Underlying demand was solid in the quarter, though revenue performance does not fully reflect that. Challenges in our value-added services related to our new warehouse management system and concentrated in B2B customers carried into Q2, which was not anticipated and are reflected in our results. Revenue increased approximately 4% year-over-year with strength in national accounts, partially offset by warehouse management system challenges that impacted the timing of school uniform shipments.

Within national accounts, the story is positive with the Enterprise segment up year-to-date by more than 15% versus last year, led by growth in our airline accounts. We entered a new multiyear partnership with Delta Airlines in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, and employee reception to the program was overwhelmingly positive. Today, Delta is in the wear testing phase of its distinctly Delta uniform collection with more than 1,400 frontline employees participating across the system. Feedback and insights from the wear test will be incorporated into final product refinements ahead of the planned second half 2027 rollout.

Our school uniform business was impacted by challenges within our new warehouse management system related to processing value-added service products. As a result, shipments were delayed and backlog levels were significantly higher than the prior year, reducing revenue recognition during the quarter. Improving operations at Lands' End Outfitters is a priority. We have and will continue to take action, including working to increase output capacity, improve efficiency in our production process and prioritize shipment of orders to get ahead of customer timing dynamics.

We continue to be encouraged by the early progress of our intellectual property joint venture with WHP Global. As previously disclosed, the JV amended several significant licensing agreements that are expected to generate more than $150 million of long-term guaranteed royalty value, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term growth opportunities created by the partnership. I'll now turn it over to Bernie to discuss our second quarter financial performance in more detail.

Bernard McCracken

Thank you, Charlie. For the second quarter of 2026, total revenue was $302 million, an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of last year. Our U.S. e-commerce business saw a sales increase of 9% compared to the second quarter of 2025. As Charlie discussed, the order backlog from the new warehouse management system challenges in the first quarter benefited Q2 and positively impacted results. We're confident that the warehouse management system issue has been addressed in our core U.S. e-commerce business.

Our third-party marketplace business decreased approximately 20% as we continue to prioritize profitable high-quality sales and brand integrity over lower-margin promotional volume. While we saw a decline in revenue, our like-for-like gross margin compared to last year improved by over 500 basis points year-over-year, reflecting the benefits of our disciplined strategy by individual marketplace.

Sales from Lands' End Outfitters increased 4% from the second quarter of 2025. The increase was driven by our enterprise accounts, which more than offset the impact of the warehouse management system challenges in our school uniform business processing value-added service products. Sales in Europe increased 1% year-over-year, primarily driven by a strategic shift to a franchise-first assortment that simplified the business and drove improved product margins.

Gross profit increased by $14 million or 10% compared to last year. Gross margin in the second quarter was 52%, an approximately 320 basis point improvement from the second quarter of 2025. The gross margin increase was primarily driven by the IEEPA tariff refund, partially offset by the new royalty structure associated with the JV and increased costs associated with our new warehouse management system.

SG&A expenses increased by $6 million year-over-year. As a percentage of net revenue, SG&A increased by approximately 80 basis points, primarily driven by investment in digital marketing and operational inefficiencies from the temporary disruption of the new warehouse management system. For the second quarter, we reported adjusted net income of $2.7 million or $0.09 per share. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $11 million in the second quarter, representing a year-over-year decrease of $4 million. The receipt of IEEPA tariff refunds was offset by the new royalty structure associated with the JV and the challenges in our new warehouse management system, processing value-added service products for school uniforms.

Moving to our balance sheet. Inventories at the end of the second quarter were $342 million, up 13% compared to last year. Inventory levels increased largely due to the intentionally lean inventory position we held a year ago amid tariff uncertainty. Inventory is more aligned with typical norms and our planned levels, including the impact of continued tariff headwinds. We remain confident in our holiday assortment and expect inventory to remain within typical levels.

Turning to our debt. We ended the second quarter with $60 million in ABL borrowings compared to $35 million last year. As discussed previously, we used the majority of the $300 million in cash proceeds from the WHP Global transaction to fully repay our term loan, leaving us with enhanced liquidity and significantly reduced interest payments. The remainder of the transaction consideration was used for transaction-related corporate expenses and taxes.

As a reminder, in conjunction with the April 1 closing of the WHP Global transaction, our Board authorized the repurchase of up to $100 million of common stock through March 31, 2029. During the second quarter, we repurchased approximately 900,000 shares for approximately $11 million, bringing the remaining balance of the authorization to $89 million as of the end of the quarter.

Now moving to guidance. Our guidance reflects the impacts of tariffs at current implemented rates, and we are continuing to execute mitigation measures to manage tariff headwinds for the remainder of fiscal 2026. For the third quarter of 2026, we expect net revenue of $300 million to $330 million, adjusted net income of $2 million to $6 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.07 to $0.20; adjusted EBITDA in the range of $14 million to $18 million.

For fiscal 2026, we now expect net revenue of $1.3 billion to $1.35 billion, adjusted net income of $13 million to $21 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.44 to $0.72. Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $62 million to $70 million. Full year guidance incorporates approximately $40 million in capital expenditures. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Charlie.

Charlie Cole

Thank you, Bernie. I want to close by saying how encouraged I am by what I am seeing across this business. The brand has tremendous strength, and we believe the opportunities to unlock its full potential are clear. I also want to take a moment to welcome Jimmy Ferolo, who recently joined us as Chief Digital and Technology Officer. Jimmy brings a proven track record of driving digital transformation and customer-centric innovation across leading consumer brands, most recently at Solairus Aviation and prior to that at Singer and Maui Jim. His deep expertise in scaling e-commerce capabilities and elevating the customer experience will be instrumental as we move into the next chapter of growth for Lands' End.

Martin Christopher, our former Chief Technology Officer, now reports to Jimmy, bringing strong continuity to our technological transformation. Jimmy's arrival is well timed. The focus right now is on tactical excellence to ensure we have the right infrastructure, technology and customer acquisition capabilities in place heading into the peak holiday selling season. That includes meeting customer expectations on shipping and fulfillment and deepening personalization across our offerings.

That work connects to something underappreciated about this business. Through decades of catalog and e-commerce engagement, we have built a foundation of owned customer data that few retailers can match. As we apply AI-powered capabilities across merchandising, marketing and customer retention, proprietary data combined with AI-enabled execution becomes a competitive advantage that grows more valuable over time. I look forward to meeting many of you in the months ahead. What I can tell you is that my conviction at Lands' End and in this team is only growing. With that, we look forward to your questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Dana Telsey with Telsey Group.

Phần hỏi đáp

Dana Telsey

Welcome, Charlie. Charlie, in your purview, as you think about the opportunities for Lands' End going forward and given your background, how do you see the enhanced execution, the involvement in technology, what happens with e-commerce? How does it fit the different categories, whether it's the e-commerce, international, outfitters, third party and obviously, the new relationship with WHP. What's your North Star going forward? And then I have a quick question on just the here and now.

Charlie Cole

Dana, thank you so much for the welcome. I really appreciate that, and thank you for the question. So one of the -- this question is so far reaching because it involves a lot of buzzwords, so I'm going to try to decouple them. My long-term vision for Lands' End is we are a modern AI engine that drives almost our entire customer experience. And so I want to unpack that a little bit. A modern AI engine can simultaneously evaluate so many things. And so I'll start with focusing on the e-commerce side of things, and I'll get into Lands' End Outfitters in Europe as well.

It can evaluate a customer's purchase history, their browsing behavior, the weather, the geography, the search patterns, inventory availability, full price sell-through targets, category affinity, and it could evaluate all these things at the same time. And so if you think about that just processing power and where you want to put that, you start with e-commerce front end CRM messaging, marketing targeting, including catalog segmentation and creative personalization. And so it's not an exaggeration, Dana, to say that I want an AI engine that sits at the center of our customer experience and enables an experience that our customers have really never seen before.

And if you wanted pragmatic examples, if somebody who has shopped at Lands' End has exclusively shopped outerwear, they should have a very different experience than someone who's exclusively shopped swim. That doesn't mean we don't show back and forth, but it does mean we give them a personalized experience to optimize not only conversion but lifetime value and frankly, Net Promoter Score as well. That's equally applicable to Europe. With Europe, we have to be aware of the realities of sort of the different data regulations, and so we'd be thoughtful of that as well.

And then with Lands' End Outfitters, it's actually the same answer. It's just with a different process because you think about our school business, that is fairly rhythmic. And so time becomes a very obvious kind of input where we have to reach out to customers at the right time with the right message based on their school schedule. And so that's a slight personalization that would allow us to give a much better experience. But it's not an exaggeration, Dana, to say, from a technology perspective, we are going to build an AI infrastructure that gives us an e-commerce platform that will rival the best in the industry, and that's the core goal. And so I'm happy to answer your follow-up question as well.

Dana Telsey

Great. The warehouse management system, I think, which the second quarter also had some impacts. Is that complete now? And is there anything on the shaping of third and fourth quarter and how you're seeing it, whether from a margin perspective or a top line perspective, how it differs this year from last year?

Charlie Cole

On the warehouse management system topic, we are now running at normal operations. And so it's caught up -- we are now caught up on the throughput. We are still working through a backlog, but operations are proceeding as normal at the same or higher levels than before the warehouse management system issues. It is also worth noting that there is more efficiency to unlock where we can actually put other infrastructure in place, but that will not happen until next year. But there is more efficiencies that will be unlocked as we can support the WMS with other software solutions as well. As it pertains to Q3 and Q4, we don't anticipate any effect on our guidance for the WMS with the exception of the catch-up that will come out of the Lands' End Outfitters division.

Dana Telsey

Got it. And then just the third quarter guide, anything to unpack there on the margin side in fourth quarter and remainder of expectations for tariffs?

Bernard McCracken

Yes. Dana, our guidance reflects the current levels of tariffs that are in place. And the rest of the -- there isn't really any other year-on-year differences that we'll be dealing with. We feel very good about the guidance we gave and the expectations that we will hit that.

Operator

Our next question comes from Eric Beder with SCC Research.

Eric Beder

Just a few quick questions. Let's talk about international here. What should we be thinking about? I know prior, Europe was a kind of a -- a little bit more fashion forward, a little more of a driver of trend. Is that still how you look at that? And how does that fit in terms of the JV and the other international opportunities?

Charlie Cole

For international, Eric, our focus is predominantly on our European e-commerce business. And the focus there has been to really -- our Q2 focus was on margin above everything else. And so that's driving a less promotional business, which you could qualify as a bit more fashion forward and a bit more trend focused. We actually feel really good about where our European business is. And there is some slight nuance to the trends, obviously, even within the continent between Germany, the U.K., et cetera.

But the Lands' End value proposition is the same, frankly, internationally, where we were fortunate enough in June of 2026 to be awarded with the highest rating from Forbes and their Best Brands for Value report. I directly think that spans borders, where we're going to deliver value and durability and kind of leverage our unique heritage in a way, they will have international appeal. There will be slight nuances from a merchandising perspective, trends such as weather is going to affect what people buy depending on where they live.

And so we're certainly not naive to that. But I believe that the Lands' End brand should have international appeal and ultimately have the same foundation regardless of where it is in the world. And that will be true also by channel, whether it's direct e-commerce, whether it's with our JV with WHP, whether it's with Amazon or other partners. So we're going to do everything we can to make sure the Lands' End brand is ubiquitous regardless of where it is in the world.

Bernard McCracken

And then, Eric, just to add on a little bit, and you'll notice this in our comments in the script, the Europe business, while we still consider it to be fashion forward and to drive some trends, we have pulled it back a little and have got them to be more into our franchises, which is driving a higher profitability.

Eric Beder

Okay. Let's talk about the WHP piece a little bit. When do you believe -- okay, so where are we in terms of adding new licenses? And when do you believe that those licenses will start to kick in and help drive the joint venture overall profitability, which you share in?

Bernard McCracken

Yes. Eric, our guidance reflects the royalties and licensing royalties that we will receive for the remainder of this year. As you know, any kind of licensing agreement has a long 10 years before it will benefit us going forward. There's product that needs to be made and outlets to be garnered. So right now, the basics of our guidance reflects the licenses that we had in place and a few of the new smaller licenses that we had signed prior to WHP and that they have taken on into the next level.

Eric Beder

You mentioned here about the potential next year for new software and some of the potential positive -- some of the potential rollouts, I think potential efficiencies you get from that. How big should we think of that as an opportunity in '27 and going forward?

Charlie Cole

Thanks, Eric, for all your questions. Predominantly, it's going to be infrastructure across the warehouse, and you would see the opportunity basically in service levels, more than anything else. So I wouldn't expect it to have any direct input to our guidance. But in a similar fashion to my answer to Dana on our technological infrastructure, really, it's around enabling a customer experience that will exceed expectations. So in a lot of ways, the benefits will be focused more from a lifetime value perspective, but as opposed to direct guidance.

Operator

Our next question comes from Michael Kupinski with NOBLE Capital Markets.

Michael Kupinski

And Charlie, welcome to Lands' End. The company appears to -- the quarter indicated that you have some favorable underlying revenue trends, and I kind of want to drill down on that a little bit. The Outfitters grew like 4.4% despite continued school uniform processing challenges. And I was just wondering, can you give us some color on how the order book is trending now? And what growth rate do you believe the business can sustain once operations are like fully normalized?

Charlie Cole

Michael, thank you for the warm welcome. The Outfitters business also had a real bright spot with enterprise clients as well, which we mentioned. And so the growth rate is also already aligned in our guidance, but we're remarkably bullish on that business. And I would also say, as I referenced when I responded to Dana, there is also increased opportunity by improving their customer experience through that same commerce focus. So while we are very bullish on our guidance, we're equally bullish on to improve the customer experience from a front-end perspective, from a messaging perspective and from a marketing perspective. I'm actually visiting with some Outfitters' clients next week, including Delta and American Airlines. So I'm excited to kind of get deeper involved in that business.

Michael Kupinski

Got you. And the -- in Q2, the U.S. commerce revenue increased 9%. And I think part of that was a carryover from the Q1 distribution disruption. What would have been the underlying e-commerce growth, excluding that catch-up benefit?

Bernard McCracken

The U.S. business on a year-to-date basis since the carryover was completed through the second quarter is flat for the year or flattish.

Michael Kupinski

Okay. And obviously, inventory is up a little bit, and it seems like you're saying that it's a little bit more normalized. Can you talk about specific inventory that you're leaning into the quarter as you kind of go into the holiday season here?

Bernard McCracken

Yes, Michael, I think one of the keys, right, is comparing year-on-year is that last year, we were dealing with a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and where and what countries and what products were going to be tariffed at different rates. And so we were very conservative in the types of products that we brought in and where they were being produced.

So I think you'll find, especially when we talk about owning the weather, that our outerwear is going to have a broader assortment than it did last year, where that was the place we were probably most conservative and that we really feel we'll be able to leverage that in the back half of the year, especially as the weather gets colder. But as we've talked about over the last couple of years, it's about layering for us, too, that owning the weather isn't just when -- for our heavy down coats, it's about having fleece and sweaters and owning that transition period, too. So we're very excited about this back half.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session as well as our conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.