Cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh Q4 FY2026 của Stitch Fix (SFIX): RPAC kỷ lục, triển vọng FY2027 thận trọng

Điểm tin chính

• Stitch Fix (NASDAQ: SFIX) đã báo cáo doanh thu quý 4 năm tài chính 2026 đạt 324,4 triệu USD, tăng 4,2% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái và đánh dấu quý thứ sáu liên tiếp đạt mức tăng trưởng doanh thu dương so với cùng kỳ.
• Doanh thu cả năm tăng 6,4% lên 1,35 tỷ USD. Biên EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt 4%, trong khi dòng tiền tự do ghi nhận dương 19,8 triệu USD.
• Doanh thu trên mỗi khách hàng hoạt động (RPAC) tăng 7,8% lên mức kỷ lục 592 USD. Điều này giúp bù đắp cho mức giảm 1,4% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái về số lượng khách hàng hoạt động, xuống còn 2,277 triệu.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự báo doanh thu năm tài chính 2027 đạt từ 1,31 tỷ USD đến 1,36 tỷ USD và EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt từ 27 triệu USD đến 42 triệu USD, phản ánh chi phí thu hút khách hàng tăng cao và chi tiêu không thiết yếu suy yếu.
• Sản lượng gói hàng Fix trong quý 1 năm tài chính 2027 đang chịu ảnh hưởng bởi hai yếu tố tạm thời: thời điểm giao hàng khiến một phần sản lượng được chuyển sang quý 4 năm tài chính 2026 và sự cố sau khi thanh toán vào tháng 8 làm giảm các yêu cầu gửi Fix lặp lại. Công ty cho biết cả hai vấn đề đều đã được giải quyết.
• Stitch Fix có kế hoạch tăng chi phí quảng cáo lên mức 10%-11% doanh thu năm tài chính 2027 và đầu tư thêm vào công nghệ cùng AI, bao gồm cả Stitch Fix Vision.

Dữ liệu tài chính cốt lõi

Kết quả kinh doanh và vận hành

Mức tăng trưởng trong quý 4 chủ yếu được thúc đẩy bởi giá trị đơn hàng trung bình của gói Fix cao hơn. Stitch Fix ghi nhận tám quý liên tiếp tăng trưởng ở cả số lượng sản phẩm trên mỗi gói Fix và giá bán lẻ trung bình mỗi đơn vị sản phẩm, nhờ các gói Fix lớn hơn và danh mục sản phẩm đa dạng hơn thay vì tăng giá trên diện rộng.

Doanh thu từ gói Fix cho cả nữ và nam đều tăng so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái. Mảng đồ nam đạt mức tăng trưởng hai chữ số trong quý thứ năm liên tiếp. Các thương hiệu riêng vẫn giữ vai trò quan trọng, đồng thời công ty đã bổ sung hơn 80 thương hiệu thị trường trong năm tài chính 2026, bao gồm Rhone, Birkenstock, Outdoor Voices và Malbon Golf.

Việc mở rộng sang các phân khúc còn nhiều tiềm năng khai thác tiếp tục hỗ trợ đà tăng trưởng. Doanh thu trang phục thể thao và thời trang thể thao thường nhật (athleisure) tăng 21% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái trong quý 4, trong khi mảng giày dép tăng 14%. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết mảng phụ kiện cũng tăng trưởng nhanh hơn doanh thu tổng thể.

Tỷ lệ giữ chân khách hàng đã cải thiện so với quý trước trong quý thứ tám liên tiếp và đạt mức cao kỷ lục quý thứ ba liên tiếp trong gần bốn năm. Tuy nhiên, chi phí thu hút tăng cao đã hạn chế việc thu hút khách hàng mới và kích hoạt lại khách hàng cũ. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết mảng kinh doanh gói Fix định kỳ cốt lõi vẫn duy trì sự ổn định, trong khi mua sắm Freestyle và các gói Fix do khách hàng tự yêu cầu chịu ảnh hưởng nhiều hơn từ việc chi tiêu không thiết yếu suy yếu.

Stitch Fix cũng nhấn mạnh nhu cầu từ những khách hàng có sự thay đổi về vóc dáng và kích thước cơ thể liên quan đến việc sử dụng thuốc GLP-1. Khoảng 20% khách hàng mới đây đã cho biết trong quá trình đăng ký tài khoản rằng họ đang tìm kiếm sự hỗ trợ tư vấn phong cách khi cơ thể họ thay đổi.

AI tiếp tục đóng vai trò trung tâm trong chiến lược vận hành và sản phẩm của công ty. Stitch Fix đã cung cấp hơn 22 triệu hình ảnh thông qua Stitch Fix Vision và cho biết những người dùng tương tác với nền tảng này tiếp tục cho thấy mức chi tiêu Freestyle trong 90 ngày tăng đáng kể. AI cũng đang được sử dụng cho các gợi ý của chuyên gia tạo mẫu, lập kế hoạch nhân sự cho khâu xử lý đơn hàng và dịch vụ khách hàng. Tỷ lệ các cuộc trò chuyện được giải quyết mà không cần hỗ trợ thêm đã tăng hơn gấp đôi.

Dự báo của Ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết triển vọng năm tài chính 2027 phản ánh chi phí thu hút khách hàng gia tăng và tâm lý chi tiêu không thiết yếu thận trọng hơn từ các khách hàng hiện hữu ngoài các gói Fix định kỳ.

Triển vọng EBITDA điều chỉnh thấp hơn chủ yếu phản ánh việc chủ động tái đầu tư. Chi phí quảng cáo dự kiến sẽ tăng từ 9%-10% doanh thu trong năm tài chính 2026 lên 10%-11% trong năm tài chính 2027, cùng với các khoản chi tiêu bổ sung cho AI. Nếu không tính các khoản đầu tư này, ban lãnh đạo cho biết biên EBITDA điều chỉnh suy ra sẽ gần hơn với mức 4% của năm tài chính 2026.

Đối với quý 1, thời điểm giao hàng đã chuyển một phần sản lượng Fix từ năm tài chính 2027 sang quý 4 năm tài chính 2026. Một vấn đề thử nghiệm riêng biệt sau khi thanh toán đã làm giảm số lượng khách hàng nhận được lời đề nghị gửi Fix lặp lại ngay lập tức trong tháng 8. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết nhu cầu đã phục hồi sau khi sự cố được khắc phục và dự kiến không có ảnh hưởng nào sau quý 1.

Rủi ro và các yếu tố cần theo dõi

• Chi phí truyền thông và chi phí thu hút khách hàng cao hơn đang gây áp lực lên sự tăng trưởng khách hàng mới và việc kích hoạt lại khách hàng cũ.
• Ban lãnh đạo đã dẫn ra tình trạng lạm phát, giá xăng tăng, lãi suất thế chấp tăng và tâm lý người tiêu dùng yếu là những áp lực lên chi tiêu không thiết yếu.
• Số lượng khách hàng hoạt động giảm 1,4% trong quý 4, tạo ra điểm xuất phát thấp hơn cho mức tăng trưởng doanh thu năm tài chính 2027.
• Chi tiêu ngoài các gói Fix định kỳ, bao gồm mua sắm Freestyle và các gói Fix do khách hàng tự yêu cầu, cho thấy sự nhạy cảm lớn hơn với môi trường tiêu dùng.
• Đầu tư nhiều hơn vào quảng cáo và AI sẽ làm giảm EBITDA điều chỉnh trong ngắn hạn mặc dù cơ cấu chi phí của công ty đã được cải thiện.
• Việc tăng giá cước nhà vận chuyển và thuế quan vẫn là những yếu tố chi phí cần cân nhắc, mặc dù biên lợi nhuận gộp năm tài chính 2026 vẫn nằm trong phạm vi mục tiêu.

Điểm nổi bật trong phần Hỏi & Đáp với chuyên gia phân tích

Chi phí thu hút khách hàng và quảng cáo: Ban lãnh đạo cho biết chi phí thu hút bắt đầu tăng trong quý 4 và tiếp tục ở mức cao trong quý 1. Stitch Fix vẫn đánh giá giá trị vòng đời khách hàng so với chi phí thu hút là nằm trong ngưỡng tỷ suất sinh lời của công ty, hỗ trợ cho việc tăng đầu tư vào quảng cáo.

Tiềm năng tăng trưởng RPAC: Ban lãnh đạo cho rằng RPAC đạt mức kỷ lục là nhờ các gói Fix lớn hơn và việc mở rộng danh mục sản phẩm, đặc biệt là trang phục thể thao, giày dép và phụ kiện. Dựa trên phân tích nội bộ từ dữ liệu của Circana, ban lãnh đạo tin rằng mức chi tiêu của khách hàng với Stitch Fix có thể tăng từ ba đến bốn lần trước khi đạt đến ngưỡng trần tiềm năng.

Kết quả hoạt động cốt lõi quý 1: Nếu điều chỉnh theo thời điểm giao hàng và sự cố sau khi thanh toán, ban lãnh đạo cho biết mức tăng trưởng doanh thu quý 4 năm tài chính 2026 sẽ đạt khoảng 2%-3%. Công ty dự kiến mức so sánh doanh thu của tháng 10 sẽ gần hơn với tốc độ tăng trưởng suy ra cho phần còn lại của năm tài chính 2027.

Triển vọng khách hàng hoạt động: Ban lãnh đạo vẫn duy trì sự tự tin vào khả năng quay trở lại đà tăng trưởng khách hàng hoạt động, nhờ tỷ lệ giữ chân tốt hơn và giá trị vòng đời cao ở những khách hàng đã thu hút được. Tuy nhiên, áp lực kinh tế vĩ mô và chi phí thu hút gia tăng vẫn là những rào cản chính.

AI và vị thế cạnh tranh: Ban lãnh đạo mô tả dữ liệu khách hàng độc quyền, các thuật toán và đội ngũ chuyên gia tạo mẫu là những lợi thế cạnh tranh. Stitch Fix kỳ vọng Vision sẽ trở thành một nền tảng rộng lớn hơn bao gồm quá trình hướng dẫn ban đầu, Xem trước Fix (Fix Preview), Freestyle và các tương tác sau khi mua hàng, đồng thời vẫn giữ dịch vụ tạo mẫu bởi con người như một yếu tố tạo sự biệt lập.

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, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Stitch Fix Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Cherryl Valenzuela, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Cherryl Valenzuela

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today for the Stitch Fix Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. With me on the call are Matt Baer, Chief Executive Officer; and David Aufderhaar, Chief Financial Officer. We have posted complete fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2026 financial results in a press release on the Quarterly Results section of our website, investors.stitchfix.com. A link to the webcast of today's conference call can also be found on our site.

We'd like to remind everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements on this call, which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by our forward-looking statements. Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Please review our filings with the SEC for a discussion of the factors that could cause the results to differ, in particular, our press release issued and filed today as well as our annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2026, which we expect to file later this week.

Also note that the forward-looking statements on this call are based on information available to us as of today's date. We disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Please note that fiscal 2024 was a 53-week year due to an extra week in the fourth quarter. As such, references to consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth rates on this call are based on an adjusted 52-week basis, removing the impact of the extra week to provide a comparison that we believe more accurately reflects our performance.

During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial results are provided in the press release on our Investor Relations website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results. Finally, this call in its entirety is being webcast on our Investor Relations website, and a replay of this call will be available on the website shortly.

And now let me turn the call over to Matt.

Matt Baer

Thank you, Cherryl, and good afternoon, everyone. Fiscal 2026 was a pivotal year for Stitch Fix. We advanced our strategy and closed the year as a stronger, healthier business with a more resilient operating foundation and a reimagined client experience. Full year revenue grew 6.4% to $1.35 billion. Active client trends continued to improve with Q4 marking our ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement in the growth rate. Contribution margin remained above 30% for the full year, while disciplined execution across the business drove adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin above our expectations.

Q4 revenue was $324.4 million, representing 4.2% year-over-year growth, our sixth consecutive quarter of positive revenue comps. Stitch Fix again outperformed the total U.S. apparel, footwear and accessories market, which, according to the latest Circana data, was approximately flat over the same period. Full year revenue also outperformed the total U.S. market with growth of 6.4% compared to 1% for the market.

Revenue per active client, or RPAC, set another record for the third consecutive quarter, reaching $592 in Q4. Q4 adjusted EBITDA was also better than expected at $10.8 million or a 3.3% margin. As a result of our transformation, we have significantly evolved our client experience with a focus on four pillars: creating new engagement opportunities, deepening client and stylist relationships, introducing enhanced fix flexibility and strengthening our assortment.

The enhanced flexibility, particularly the larger fixes we now offer and our broader, more relevant assortment were key drivers of the performance we have delivered over that period. Together, larger fixes and our improved assortment have supported 8 consecutive quarters of growth in both items per fix and average unit retail or AUR. Larger fixes enable clients to address more of their styling needs in a single fix, while our more trend-right assortment across market and private brands, including expanded categories, drove AUR growth through a favorable mix shift instead of broad-based price increases.

These sustained gains translated into strong fix AOV in Q4, which was the primary driver of revenue growth. Both our women's and men's fix businesses grew year-over-year during the quarter with men's delivering double-digit growth for the fifth consecutive quarter. Our multi-brand portfolio combines differentiated private brands with a curated selection of market brands. Together, they give us the ability to serve a broad range of wardrobe needs.

In Q4, our private brands continue to resonate with our clients. In women's, Market & Spruce, 41 Hawthorn and Montgomery Post were our top 3 brands by revenue for the second consecutive quarter. In men's, 3 of our top 5 brands in the quarter were private brands, specifically 01.Algo, Hawker Rye and Alesbury. We continue to invest in these brands and are regularly launching collections to meet individual client segment needs.

For example, in August, we launched a 41 Hawthorn capsule collection for teachers informed by the thousands of teaching-related requests we have received from clients. We are also focused on bringing clients a portfolio of brands that is best in the industry by offering market brands, clients covet and introducing others we believe they'll be excited to discover. Since the start of fiscal '26, we have added more than 80 new brands, including Rhone, Birkenstock, Outdoor Voices and Malbon Golf. More recent additions include FARM Rio, Baggu, Merrell, Jordan Brand, Nike Golf and Mitchell & Ness NFL licensed apparel.

Within our market brand assortment, we launched exclusive back-to-school collaborations with Favorite Daughter, Alex Mill and Z Supply in early August. The collections were designed for moms who have told us that they often feel overlooked during the season and early performance across all 3 launches has been encouraging.

Category expansion remains a significant opportunity for Stitch Fix, and we continue to build our assortment in areas where we have traditionally been underpenetrated, including activewear and athleisure, footwear and accessories. These categories support our ambition to meet all of our clients' wardrobe needs, and we're seeing strong growth. For example, across women's and men's, activewear and athleisure grew 21% year-over-year and footwear grew 14% in Q4.

Turning to active clients. We ended the quarter with 2.277 million active clients. New clients and men's active clients grew year-over-year in FY '26, while the trajectory of women's active clients also improved year-over-year. Client retention rate improved sequentially for the eighth consecutive quarter, and Q4 marked our third straight high in nearly 4 years. These trends reflect the strength and resilience of our current client base, our disciplined focus on acquiring higher LTV clients and organic growth through family accounts, which helps us serve the entire household.

Another element of our strategy is reaching client segments with highly specific styling needs that we are uniquely positioned to serve. One example is clients navigating the body and sizing changes associated with GLP-1 medications. All of our stylists are trained to support clients going through body transformation journeys, and we now offer a themed fix with styles for every stage of the transformation.

The opportunity is evident both in the broader market and in what we are hearing from new Stitch Fix clients. 20% of our new clients recently told us during onboarding that they are seeking styling guidance as their bodies change, nearly double the penetration of the U.S. population on GLP-1 medications according to a recent Gallup poll, which underscores the particular relevance of Stitch Fix for this need.

As always, technology remains at the core of our ability to serve our clients. AI is a powerful accelerator of our strategy and our 15 years of applying proprietary data and algorithms paired with the expertise of our stylists gives us a differentiated foundation for incorporating AI across both the client experience and our operations. Stitch Fix Vision is one client-facing example. We have integrated our style visualization platform more broadly throughout the client experience and are building toward a future where clients can see themselves reflected at every step of their shopping journey.

By combining AI with our deep understanding of each client's preferences, Vision provides personalized style inspiration. We continue to see a significant lift in 90-day freestyle spend from clients who engage with it. AI is also helping us operate more efficiently. In styling, we are using generative AI tools to support stylists in the item recommendations for fixes so they can focus more of their time on client service.

In our fulfillment centers, AI improves daily labor planning and real-time staff scheduling. And in customer service, AI agents handle more routine requests, helping us resolve inquiries more quickly and enabling our team to focus on outreach that needs a higher touch. As a result, we have more than doubled the share of chats resolved without requiring additional support. Together, these applications improve productivity and lower our cost to serve.

As we continue to advance our transformation strategy and efforts to deliver the most personalized and client-centric shopping experience, we recently welcomed Sree Sreedhararaj as our Chief Product and Technology Officer. Sree brings extensive product and technology leadership experience, including in AI integration across prominent retail and consumer brands. We're thrilled to have him on the team.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, our outlook reflects a more challenging consumer environment. David will speak in more detail to our outlook, including a reduction in fix volume that will only impact Q1. While these conditions affect our near-term outlook, they do not change our strategy or the opportunity ahead. When clients are more intentional about what they buy, the value of a personalized service that makes each purchase more relevant becomes even clearer.

Over the past 2 years, we have built the capabilities to deliver on that promise, a more flexible fix experience, more compelling assortment and personalization powered by proprietary client data, AI and the expertise of our stylists. We are actively addressing near-term headwinds through the levers within our control. While we are encouraged by the early performance of many of our recent innovations such as Stitch Fix Vision, family accounts and more flexible fix offerings, there's still ample runway to increase their impact as we continue to enhance these experiences, build awareness and drive penetration, we believe they can support stronger organic revenue and client growth. The financial progress we have made underpins our ability to invest behind these growth initiatives.

In closing, fiscal 2026 demonstrated the strength of the business we have built. We significantly improved our client experience and assortment, strengthened client economics and returned to year-over-year revenue growth, all while operating with discipline. The work now is to scale that stronger model, serving more existing and new clients and turning that foundation into sustainable, profitable long-term growth. A special thank you to our entire Stitch Fix Team for your continued dedication and execution.

Now I'll pass it to David for a discussion of our financial results and outlook.

David Aufderhaar

Thanks, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. Fiscal '26 demonstrated significant improvement in our financial model. We expanded adjusted EBITDA margin, maintained contribution margins above 30% in each quarter, generated positive free cash flow and ended the year with a strong balance sheet. We also resumed our share repurchase program and returned capital to shareholders.

Net revenue for the year reached $1.35 billion, up 6.4% year-over-year. Gross margin was 43.7%, well within our target range of 43% to 44% as our teams did a great job navigating transportation carrier rate increases and tariffs. Overall, SG&A spend was 45.3% of revenue, over 220 basis points lower than last year. As a result, we exceeded our outlook for adjusted EBITDA and expanded our adjusted EBITDA margin year-over-year to 4%. Stock-based compensation was 3.4% of revenue compared with 4.5% last year.

Our net loss for the year narrowed to $12.6 million or a loss of $0.09 per share. We generated $19.8 million of free cash flow in fiscal 2026 and ended the year with $220.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments and no debt.

Turning to Q4. Revenue reached $324.4 million, up 4.2% year-over-year. Active clients were down 1.4%, both year-over-year and sequentially. In addition to seasonality, active clients were softer than expected due to higher client acquisition costs that were a headwind to acquiring and reengaging clients in the quarter. RPAC grew 7.8% to $592, while AOV grew 4.9% year-over-year.

Gross margin was 43.6%, flat year-over-year. We offset increases in transportation costs and investments in new merchandise categories with strong inventory management. Advertising was 9.9% of revenue in Q4. Q4 adjusted EBITDA was $10.8 million or a 3.3% margin, up 50 basis points year-over-year. It exceeded our guidance largely due to lower fixed operating expenses.

We continued our share repurchases in Q4, buying back 2.7 million shares for $11.3 million. For the year, we bought back 7.2 million shares for $26.4 million. This leaves $93.6 million remaining under our existing authorization.

Now turning to our outlook for Q1 and fiscal 2027. For full year FY '27, we expect total revenue to be between $1.31 billion and $1.36 billion. We expect total adjusted EBITDA for the year to be between $27 million and $42 million. And for Q1, we expect total revenue to be between $323 million and $328 million. We expect Q1 adjusted EBITDA to be between $3 million and $6 million. We expect full year gross margin to remain between 43% to 44%, and we expect to generate stronger positive free cash flow for FY '27 compared to last year.

As Matt noted, our revenue outlook reflects two factors associated with a more challenging consumer environment. First, as I called out earlier, we saw higher client acquisition costs in Q4, and that has continued into Q1. Those higher costs are a headwind to client growth in FY '27, which we expect will temper revenue growth. And second, existing clients are being more intentional about discretionary purchases outside of their recurring fixes.

For Q1 specifically, our outlook also reflects lower expected fix volume from two temporary factors. First, a decision to adjust the timing of some fix shipments in the fourth quarter, which shifted fix volume from the first quarter of fiscal 2027 into the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. And second, an unintended change made to our post-checkout offer flow in August that limited the number of clients eligible to request another fix, which has been corrected and will not affect results beyond the first quarter.

Lastly, our adjusted EBITDA outlook for fiscal 2027 reflects planned investments in advertising and technology, including AI to support long-term growth. We will remain disciplined and judicious in how we make these investments. The stronger foundation we have built through our transformation gives us confidence in our ability to execute against our priorities and invest strategically behind our highest return opportunities. We are proud of our improved cost structure that gives us the optionality to make such investments while still delivering EBITDA profitability, maintaining a strong balance sheet and generating positive free cash flow.

With that, operator, we can open the line for Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Dylan Carden with William Blair.

Phần hỏi đáp

Dylan Carden

I'm just trying to square the comments on higher CAC and investments this year in advertising. Can you kind of unpack that a little bit? Is that it sounds like two separate things? Or is it just that you are still spending on higher CAC and it's more of a margin drag?

David Aufderhaar

Yes. Thanks for the question, Dylan. With CAC, I think we called this out on the last call that we started seeing some headwinds in client acquisition costs in Q4, and that sort of continued throughout the quarter and into Q1. With regard to incremental advertising spend, even within that CAC LTVs with CACs going up, we still feel very comfortable that we're within sort of our guardrails from an advertising perspective.

And so with the headwinds that we're seeing from an overall market perspective, we feel pretty comfortable leaning in and still staying within our guardrails and still being able to get the right ROI and bring in healthy active clients.

Dylan Carden

Got it. And then any guidance you can give on kind of between the two drivers, how we should think about the shape of the year? And I guess, some pockets of growth within the active client number, but what's still sort of the lingering drag there?

David Aufderhaar

For the two drivers for FY '27?

Dylan Carden

Yes.

David Aufderhaar

Yes. There are a couple of factors there. First is what we called out that was specific around Q1. I think we touched on this in the prepared remarks, but just to give a little bit more color around what we saw in Q1, there were two main factors there. First, our decision to change shipping dates from some customers ended up increasing fix volume in Q4 '26 and decreased volume in Q1 '27. What that really is about is with the longer visibility into the lead times for our recurring fix business, we sometimes move shipments around between weeks for a variety of reasons. This time, though, the impact occurred across the 2 quarters and was just a little bit more significant than what we see on average. So we just wanted to call that out.

And then on the second factor, there was an unintended change that was made to the client experience during new feature testing and that disrupted an existing feature. And really, what that is, is some clients receive an offer for an immediate fix after they check out. The unintended change actually reduced the number of clients that received the offer, and that suppressed the number of fixes that were requested in August. Our team identified the issue, and we saw demand rebound, and we're confident that, that impact was isolated to Q1.

And we even see that in our monthly comps for Q1, and we expect October comps to be more in line with the implied guide for the rest of the year. And so those were the factors that were the drags on Q1. Adjusting for those factors, Q4 '26 revenue comps would have been roughly in the 2% to 3% range and our Q1 '27 revenue guide would have been a little bit more in line with the implied guide for the rest of the year. And so that's really the drag for Q1.

And then from an overall perspective, I think we called out in the prepared remarks, the other drag is sort of the full year is we have seen increased macro pressures on the consumer, increasing gas prices, higher overall inflation, mortgage rates increasing again and the incredibly low consumer sentiment all point to a challenged consumer with increased pressure on their discretionary spend, and we're definitely seeing some of those impacts as well. I think we called that out around active client headwinds that we saw in Q4 that we were just talking about around sort of that acquisition costs. We saw that continue in Q1. Those softer clients have a compounding effect on revenue for the full year.

And then we're also seeing some impacts to our existing client activity outside of the core recurring fix business, areas like Freestyle and manual fix demand. With that said, I think we've called this out before, and it's still very true. We do continue to see resilience in our core recurring fix business. We know when we get clients into the experience, they see the value, and you can see that in the RPAC metric, again, sort of at an all-time high.

And those are really all of the factors that are included in the guide. I know that was a lot, but I want to make sure we called out sort of what those assumptions were both for Q1 and the full year. And we're actively addressing these growth headwinds through initiatives and investments in technology, merchandising, marketing. We're going to continue to focus on driving healthy new clients, engaging our existing clients in new and creative ways and aggressively capture market share like especially in the challenging environment we're in.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Owen Rickert with Northland Capital Markets.

Owen Rickert

Firstly, on the RPAC durability, with active clients declining in the quarter, RPAC, I'm assuming carried the revenue story. I guess how much of this growth in RPAC is being driven by accessories and footwear penetration versus larger fix sizes? And do you see a ceiling on RPAC expansion if there are some headwinds in the active client base going forward?

Matt Baer

Owen, I appreciate the question. It's Matt. As we initiated this transformation about 3 years ago, and we worked to really ensure that we're strengthening the foundation of our business and then rebuilding such that we could deliver profitable and sustainable growth, we saw a very real opportunity in order to increase the revenue per active client that we have or to acquire more wallet share with our existing clients. We had an opportunity to do a better job outfitting them head to toe to meet or exceed their expectations for all of the different use cases in which they came to us.

Larger fixes plays a critical role for us in meeting or exceeding our clients' expectations there. We also heard loud and clear from our clients that they wanted to be outfitted head to toe, which required us to really intentionally move into categories that were underpenetrated for us, namely athletic wear and athleisure, footwear and accessories. And if you looked at what our market share was in tops and bottoms at that time and applied that same market share across those other three categories, we saw $1 billion fair share opportunity.

And we do continue to drive outsized gains or outsized growth in those categories. As we shared in our prepared remarks, athletic wear and athleisure were up 21% for us in the quarter. Footwear was up 14% for us in the quarter. Accessories also outperformed the overall revenue comp for us in the quarter. Our merchants have done a phenomenal job assorting into those categories, adding leading brands as well as developing our private brands into them.

And we've done a great job both in terms of our algorithmic recommendations as well as our stylist training to make sure that we're delivering those items to clients' homes ultimately.

From a ceiling perspective, what gives us extreme confidence in our business overall is that opportunity remains a huge one for us. When you look at the Circana data that tells us our implied wallet share for our clients. We have roughly twice the amount of wallet share as the next retailer for our clients, but still an opportunity to increase that client spend with us up to 3 to 4x before we've capped out what that opportunity is. It's why we've been able to deliver -- it's one of the reasons why we've been able to deliver 6 consecutive quarters of revenue growth before we inflect to positive active client growth. And we remain confident in that as one of the perpetual growth drivers that we have at our disposal for years to come, and we intend to continue to lean into that meaningfully going forward.

Owen Rickert

Got it. Got it. Super helpful. And then secondly for me, Stitch Fix Vision was a big topic on the last call. It sounded like active users were spending 100% plus or more on Freestyle following their first use. I guess, can you just share since last -- like last quarter, how broadly Vision has been adopted across the active client base? Maybe what percentage of Freestyle revenue is now influenced by Vision interactions? And what's the road map? What's that looking like for further capability expansion throughout fiscal '27?

Matt Baer

Vision remains a critical priority for us. When we launched Vision initially, we always intended not just for that to be the final client experience, but that to actually become a platform upon which we continue to build an end-to-end client journey, whereby the client can see themselves realize head-to-toe in Stitch Fix apparel and accessories all the way from onboarding to fix preview to when they're shopping within Freestyle into the post-purchase or checkout experience as well. And we continue to build more and more of these experiences and bring them to life.

Since we spoke most recently, we've launched what we call See It On Me, which is now an opportunity for clients as they're browsing our outfit inspirations to actually click on any of them and see those outfits come to life on their likeness. The adoption of Vision continues to be -- exceed our expectations, candidly. The launch of See It On Me helped considerably in terms of further expansion.

The increase in Freestyle spend that we are seeing from those clients that have interacted with Vision continues to remain consistent, which is really encouraging. And maybe I'll be -- I'll share with you at this point now since we've launched, we've shared over 22 million Vision images with our client base. So a lot more to come, a lot more development in the works, but we're really encouraged by what we've seen so far.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group.

Dana Telsey

As you think about the current consumer landscape and the cadence shift from last quarter to this quarter, was it in categories? Was it in regions besides how you're thinking about the upcoming first quarter? And with the mix shifts that you talked about, can you expand on that and what that means? And just lastly, with the CAC costs, any different cadence throughout this upcoming fiscal year in terms of how you're thinking about the CAC?

Matt Baer

Dana, I'll take a stab at the first question and keep me honest if I understood the thesis of the question correctly. In terms of what we saw in the 2 factors that David walked us through, those 2 factors are time-bound, and both of those 2 factors are behind us. And what we see is building on the success of the transformation that we had and the strong results that we were able to deliver in our fiscal '26 with over 6% revenue growth and capping the year with 6 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, improved profitability through our business, the reimagined client experience, and an overhauled assortment of both our private brands and market brand portfolios that we believe will position us to be best-in-class in the industry overall.

And all of those factors is ultimately what has enabled us to deliver a record revenue per active client for a third consecutive quarter at nearly $600 with an opportunity to drive that even further. And as we're operating within our -- the last quarter of Q4 and our current quarter of Q1, our focus is returning to that revenue growth. And we remain confident in our ability to deliver revenue growth over the balance of the year and into the future. So that's where the focus remains and how we're thinking about the business overall.

From a CAC perspective and the cadence in which we're seeing that, just to reiterate what David answered previously, as we were operating in real time in Q4 and into the first quarter of fiscal '27, as we saw elevated media impression and customer acquisition costs that we believe to be impacting the industry in aggregate, a macro effect of a tougher consumer environment, we continued with our methodical approach to customer acquisition.

But what we've also realized to be true is that because of the success of the clients that we bring into the experience, the high revenue per active client, the high customer lifetime value that we continue to deliver, and because of the improvements in the experience and the improvements in the assortment, that gives us the license to go out and be a little bit more aggressive in terms of our advertising spend and to ensure that we're capturing, kind of, that fair share of consumer demand to bring them into our experience.

And tangentially, something that has continued to work exceptionally well for us, as an example, is our focus on consumers on a GLP-1 medication. We've -- I believe that we were early to market in terms of seeing what that opportunity was. We leaned into it from a marketing and customer acquisition perspective. We leaned into it in terms of building dedicated experiences for them. And now we have a little bit more proof points to back that up as our onboarding more definitively is able to identify when a client comes in, in the midst of a body transformation, and it's an optional component of onboarding. But even though it's optional, we're still seeing about 20% of all new clients likely on a GLP-1 medication.

That's nearly double what we understand to be the overall U.S. population of people on the GLP-1 medication. So we believe that's another great opportunity for us to continue to lean into to continue to invest because of the superiority of our service and our ability to uniquely serve those clients as their bodies are changing.

David Aufderhaar

And I think related to that spend, Dana, I think because of that, what just Matt called out, and I think we called this out in some of our prepared remarks as well, that we are leaning in a little bit to marketing. Just from a size perspective, if we're thinking about FY '27, we're probably going to be spending a little bit more in the 10% to 11% range versus the 9% to 10% range that we had in FY '26. And from a quarterly spend perspective, we will have similar seasonality where Q1 and Q3 tend to be stronger acquisition quarters for us, and we lean into marketing spend then. But we're definitely going to be more opportunistic of leaning in, in sort of the positive times that we see it and pulling back when we might see headwinds.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jay Sole with UBS.

Jay Sole

Can you just help us with the first quarter revenue bridge? You called out 2 discrete impacts to Q1, the Fix volume shifting to Q4 due to shipment timing and the August post-checkout issue that limited repeat Fix requests. Can you quantify the revenue impact from each and clarify the underlying Q1 growth rate, excluding both?

David Aufderhaar

Yes. Thanks, Jay. For the 2 different items, when we had talked about a little bit earlier, when you adjust for those factors, Q4 '26 revenue comp would have been roughly in the 2% to 3% range. And the Q1 '27 revenue guide would have been a little bit more in line with the implied guide for the rest of the year. And so that should really help you back into specific numbers there.

Jay Sole

Got it. Okay. And then maybe just to elaborate a little bit on the fiscal '27 EBITDA guidance. The forecast is sort of stepping down from where you were in '26. How much of that reflects deliberate investment versus some of the underlying cost pressures that you're talking about?

David Aufderhaar

Yes. Thanks. It really is about the conscious decision to reinvest in the business. I think we called out the 2 things. The larger of the 2 is the advertising spend that we just talked about. If you think about sort of the midpoint of that 10% to 11% range, that's still almost 100 basis points more than we spent this year. And that is absolutely something that we feel very comfortable leaning into. And then we also called out that there are some incremental AI investments to help drive growth. And so those were 2 conscious decisions we made to invest some of our EBITDA in growth. If you exclude those additional investments, the EBITDA margin guide would have been much more consistent with last year's margin at the 4% range.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jessica Chenyi Tian with AB Bernstein.

Chenyi Tian

I have 2. So first one is, last quarter, you reiterated your goal of returning to year-over-year active client growth in fiscal 2027. Today, you've described higher acquisition costs as a headwind to client growth and referenced a lower active client starting point in the 2027 outlook. Has your confidence in returning to year-over-year active client growth during the year changed at all? And what would need to happen for you to achieve that objective?

Matt Baer

Yes. Chenyi, I appreciate the question. As David shared previously, one of the things that we have called out is that the macroeconomic pressures that our consumers are facing, I spoke to that as well in the Q&A. And for us, one of the primary influences of that is actually in our ability to acquire new clients. And we actually believe that had those consumer headwinds not continued to elevate over the course of the last 6 months, we would have already returned to active client growth. So we remain equally convicted in terms of our ability to return to active client growth. We're going to continue to stay focused on everything within our control in order to ensure that we're most cost-effectively acquiring as many new clients as we can.

And we are continuing to -- as David just noted as well, we're continuing to invest because of the high LTVs that we're able to see from those clients that we bring in. As we also shared in our prepared remarks, our existing client retention continues to perform exceptionally well for us. So we feel really good about the overall health of our active clients, and we remain confident in terms of our ability to return to active client growth in the future.

Chenyi Tian

And then one more for me. Can you walk us through how underlying demand progressed through the quarter and also the exit rate coming out of the quarter, excluding the shipment timing shift and also post-checkout offer issue? Q1 to date revenues currently tracking in line with the 2027 sales guide? Or is there some conservatism baked into the outlook?

Matt Baer

I think -- Chenyi, maybe to answer that with brevity, the easiest way to think about Q1 performance, as David noted, is that if you look at the quarter, we anticipate our October revenue comp being much more closely aligned to what the implied revenue comp is in Q2 to Q4. And as noted as well, the 2 factors that David walked through, those are time-bound and they're behind us. So they are no longer impacting performance in the quarter.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Bellinger with Mizuho.

David Bellinger

I want to unpack the more challenged consumer commentary a little bit more. It seems a bit more pronounced than the last few quarters. Could you just tell us when you started to see that turn happen, sort of that role in consumer spending? And even going forward, if you pull out some of these transitory timing issues, can you talk about the underlying engagement from the active client base, whether that's in terms of the website, the app? Just anything that could help us for any type of rebound into Q1 and the rest of the year?

David Aufderhaar

Yes. I can start with the first part of that, Dave, and then I'm sure Matt can jump in as well. We definitely started to see this in Q4. It's actually something that we called out on the earnings call last time that we had started to see some headwinds from a client acquisition standpoint, and that was impacting new client acquisition and reengagement. And we really saw that through Q4 and then continuing into Q1. And then late in Q4, we started to see some of the other impacts that I had called out that are in those areas that are a little bit more susceptible to macro like Freestyle or someone asking for a Fix outside of the recurring Fix cycle. And so those are some of the headwinds we started to see at the end of the quarter, and they continued into Q1. And both of those are sort of included in our full year FY '27 outlook.

Matt Baer

What I'd add to that, too, and we've talked about this previously, is the Stitch Fix service is one that positions us really well to outperform when the consumer environment gets tough. At the same time, we're not immune when the consumer environment gets exceptionally tough. The reason why our service performed so well is because of the deep and enduring relationship that our clients have with their Stylists. It gives them the opportunity to have frank discussions about what changes there might be in their budget. They have the ability to change the cadence of their Fix shipments, and we're able to meet them where they are at any given time.

We obviously stay exceptionally close to our clients. And we hear loud and clear from them that times are getting tougher. But encouragingly, they're actually signaling a desire to spend even more of their wallets with us going forward. It's why we see that resilience. It's why our core client does remain exceptionally resilient. It's why our core sales channel does remain resilient. And encouragingly, that resilience remains for all household income segments that we're able to track within our business. It's also the reason why for 6 consecutive quarters, we've outperformed the overall market and continue to gain market share. And we're confident that going forward, we'll continue to serve those clients exceptionally well and gain market share along the way.

David Bellinger

Got it. And then a second question, mainly on a longer-term horizon. I know you've talked about some of these artificial intelligence investments, talking about Stitch Fix Vision. How should we think about the positioning of the business with things like the rise of Meta's Muse app and just a different consumer discoverability going forward? How do we think about Stitch Fix's positioning, whether that's good, bad or neutral, just with things like Meta's Muse coming out?

Matt Baer

Yes, David. We believe that we're really well positioned to continue to lead within this environment. In the DNA of Stitch Fix is innovation, is our ability to lean into AI, is the quality, depth, and breadth of the data that we have. At the end of the day, an AI experience, generative or agentic, the quality of that output is premised on the quality of the data that you put into it. What we know about our clients and what we know about the overall market continues to be a competitive advantage for us. So as we're building our proprietary experiences, we're able to uniquely serve clients and serve them in ways that's superior to what others are able to because of how well we know them. Stitch Fix Vision and as we continue to expand it are great examples of that.

We're also confident in our ability to play -- to participate appropriately with the rise of agentic shoppers as well. We'll have the ability, whether it's a human client or an agentic shopper, in order to serve them equally well. That being said, we also continue to believe that there are certain categories where agentic shopping are probably better served. If I want to ensure my pantry is perpetually replenished with paper towels, that's something I would happily outsource to my agentic shopper. If I want to ensure that I'm dressing style and trend appropriate with clothes that fit me that align to my budget and that will give me confidence when I walk out the door, there's a lot more nuance in that. And that's where our human Stylists give us a competitive advantage.

That's where the ability to build those deep and enduring relationships, we think, will continue to be a competitive moat for us going forward. And as more and more interactions for all consumers generally are taking place by AI, it is actually human connection becomes the scarce resource. And we are the only retailer out there that has continued to invest in this human connection in a meaningful way such that we can serve our clients uniquely, and we believe that will become an even greater competitive advantage for us in the future.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Matthew Baer for closing remarks.

Matt Baer

Thank you all for taking the time to join us today. As we look back on fiscal '26, I just want to reiterate how proud I am of what the team has accomplished. Growing revenue each quarter and revenue up 6.4% for the entirety of the year, expanding our adjusted EBITDA margin and generating positive free cash flow while also continuing to outperform the broader U.S. apparel, footwear, and accessories market.

The structural improvements that we've made through our transformation have created a more resilient business model than we had 2 years ago. And as we discussed and while our FY '27 guidance reflects a more challenging consumer backdrop, our strategy and our conviction in the opportunity ahead remains unchanged. As I mentioned earlier, our focus for the year ahead is clear. It's to strengthen our position in the market by growing our active clients, it's to capture a greater share of our clients' spend, and it's to invest in the long-term growth with our continued financial discipline, and we remain confident in our ability to navigate near-term headwinds and build on the capabilities that we've established to deliver sustainable, profitable growth over the long term. And we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. Thank you so much.

Operator

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