Shoe Carnival, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCVL) Q2 2023 Results Conference Call August 29, 2023 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Mark Worden - President, CEO
Carl Scibetta - Chief Merchandising Officer
Erik Gast - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Mitch Kummetz - Seaport Research
Sam Poser - Williams Trading
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Shoe Carnival's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. It is also being broadcast via webcast. Any reproduction or rebroadcast of any portion of this call is expressly prohibited. Management's remarks may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risk factors. These risk factors could cause the company's actual results to be materially different from those projected in such statements. Forward-looking statements should also be considered in conjunction with the discussion of risk factors included in the company's SEC filings and today's earnings press release.
Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. The company disclaims any obligation to update any of the risk factors or to publicly announce any revisions to the forward-looking statements discussed on today's conference call or contained in today's press release to reflect future events or developments.
I'll now turn the conference over to Mr. Mark Worden, President and CEO of Shoe Carnival, for opening remarks. Mr. Worden, you may end.
Mark Worden
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Shoe Carnival's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on today's call are Carl Scibetta, Chief Merchandising Officer; Erik Gast, Chief Financial Officer; and Steve Alexander, supporting Investor Relations.
Let me start today by saying that conditions impacting customer trends improved in Q2. As the quarter progressed, we saw encouraging signs that the impact of inflation on our customers was starting to moderate. Customer engagement in-store and online picked up, average transactions climbed to a new second quarter high, product margins were robust and customer conversion remains strong.
Based on these improving conditions, we see an opportunity to invest to increase our market share to accelerate sales growth and to grow earnings per share results compared to the soft market and results in Q1 of this year.
As such, we accelerated investments to fuel profitable brand-building activities and drive our excellent customer experience. We continued to roll out our store modernization plans and drive customer engagement with new stores in new markets to capitalize on improving conditions.