Modern Retail Earnings Recap: Highlights from the first set of 2025 calls across apparel, pet and more

“Our confidence level is high,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. 

How quickly things can change. By mid-April, Walmart, for example, still said it was forecasting sales growth of 3-4% during the first quarter, but it had also walked away from its guidance around first-quarter operating growth, citing tariffs.

The sentiment during this earnings season is that — as the weeks went on, and tariffs got steeper and steeper — retailers got more frank about how these taxes could impact their businesses. 

To help you keep track of the latest in this ever-fluctuating industry, Modern Retail has compiled a quarterly earnings recap. The following includes highlights from retail earnings calls held from January 1 to April 15, with insights broken up by industry, from apparel to food to pet.

Apparel 

• Apparel retailers started to sound the alarm more on slower first-quarter traffic as earnings season went on; depending on the retailer, many are focused on pulling different levers to combat tariffs, like focusing more on growing their international business or potentially raising prices. 
• American Eagle, for example, reported a strong fiscal fourth quarter in mid-March, with comp sales up 3%, but said the first quarter was off to a slower-than-expected start, in part due to the weather. Sales of shorts and tees were soft, while sweaters overperformed.
• Lululemon saw sales increase roughly 8% during its fourth quarter on a constant currency basis. But, executives said the company experienced slower U.S. traffic during the first quarter, and a survey it conducted with Ipsos in March showed that “consumers are spending less due to increased concerns about the inflation and economy.” 
• Levi’s, which reported earnings on April 7, reported that quarterly revenue was up 3% year-over-year. CEO Michelle Gass touted the fact that 60% of Levi’s revenue now comes from outside the U.S. as one data point that she believed would help Levi’s navigate tariff uncertainty, while the denim brand considered other levers like pricing. 

Beauty 

• The beauty industry has been able to withstand inflationary pressures over the past couple of years, but cracks are starting to show in the earnings results of some of the industry’s biggest players as they battle TikTok softness and increased competition. 
• Ulta Beauty lost market share for the first time in 2024, and its sales grew just 0.8% between 2023 and 2024. CEO Kecia Steelman unveiled an “Ulta Beauty Unleash” comeback plan, which included driving more growth to the core business through brand building, personalization and digital acceleration, and investing in newer lines of business like a marketplace. 
• E.l.f beauty remains a standout. But in February, E.l.f slightly lowered its full-year outlook after a softer start to the year, with CEO Tarang Amin citing “lower social conversation around beauty” and the fact that “consumer mindshare is focused elsewhere.”  It still expects sales to grow 27-28% this year, compared to the previous 28-30% guidance.  

Big-box 

• It’s a tale of two cities in big-box retail; for now, Walmart is still projecting a strong year, as value-conscious consumers continue to flock to the chain. And it continues to see double-digit growth in higher-margin areas like advertising and marketplace revenue, which grew by 27% and 37%, respectively, from 2023 to 2024. 
• Meanwhile, Target is looking to reclaim its “Tar-zhay” magic after sales grew an anemic 0.1% in 2024. “Owned brands are a key part of our differentiation,” EVP and CFO Jim Lee said. And Target is looking to drive sales in more discretionary categories in the coming year through collaborations in areas like food and beverage and accessories. As of early March, Target was forecasting 1% sales growth for 2025.

Club 

• Value-conscious consumers are looking to stock up and save right now, and club chains are reaping the benefits. Even though chains like Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club raised membership fees within the past year, so far, they say they aren’t seeing pushback. 
• Costco, which reported its second-quarter fiscal earnings on March 6, said sales were up 9.1% year over year. It is projecting a net year-over-year basis point headwind in the  “mid-single-digits,” to SG&A expenses after raising employee wages. 
• BJ’s Wholesale Club says it had a “record year” powered by “all-time high membership results.” During its fiscal fourth quarter, comparable club sales increased by 4% year-over-year and membership fee income increased by 7.9% year-over-year, while it also boasted a 90% tenured member renewal rate. 

Food 

• Food and beverage giants faced a number of headwinds, from inflation-weary shoppers cutting back on non-essentials to GLP-1 drugs upending people’s buying habits.
• General Mills reported that net sales during its fiscal third quarter were down 5% year-over-year, “driven largely by greater-than-expected retailer inventory headwinds and a slowdown in snacking categories.”
• Kraft Heinz reported that net sales were down 4.1% year-over-year during its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Andre Maciel, Kraft Heinz’s CFO, said one challenge the company faces is that “not all our promotions are working the same as they used to.” The CPG giant will also “ship more marketing dollars toward consumer-facing marketing as we go into 2025,” to stay more top of mind, Maciel said. 

Footwear 

• Footwear is one of the most susceptible industries to tariffs — some 99% of footwear sold in the U.S. today is imported — and a number of footwear executive spent their earnings call talking up their ability to respond to tariffs. 
• “We do believe we have the ability and have shown in the past to compensate for that [tariffs] and defend those margins,” Skechers CFO John Vandemore said during the company’s earnings call in early February. Vandemore outlined the steps Skechers would likely take — which, granted, was before Liberation Day — and included shifting production, negotiating with vendors and looking at pricing. Skechers sales were up 12.8% during its fiscal fourth quarter.
• However, challenger brands provide a bright spot: On’s sales, for example, grew 29.4% year over year, and the company was anticipating at least 27% year-over-year net sales growth in 2025. On is focused on expanding its presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, in particular, this year. 

Furniture 

• For furniture brands, tariffs provide another headwind on top of an already volatile environment, as inflation and a depressed housing cycles were also contributing challenges to the category.
• Wayfair, like others, had a rough 2024; its revenue was down 1.2% for the year. But, executives touted the fact that Wayfair works with 20,000 suppliers around the globe as one data point that will help the company withstand tariffs; it means Wayfair won’t have to take drastic steps like quickly building factories in new countries. 
• RH, meanwhile, has still been able to report double-digit growth in what CEO Gary Friedman called “the worst housing market in almost 50 years,” by “creating the most desired products presented in the most inspiring spaces in the world.” Its sales were up 18% year-over-year during its fourth-quarter earnings, reported in early April. 

Home Improvement

• Home improvement retailers, like furniture retailers, have also been challenged by the housing market, but big chains have started to show improvement.
• Home Depot reported that its comparable sales were up 1.3% year-over-year during its fourth quarter after eight straight quarters of comparable declines. Home Depot said its Pro shoppers, in particular, drove positive comps. 
• Lowe’s reported comp sales growth of 0.2% and, like Home Depot, has also bet on Pros to dive more sales in a tough housing market. In February, Lowe’s rolled out its redesigned loyalty program for Pros nationwide. 

Luxury 

• In the face of global economic volatility, luxury brands are focused on attracting the types of customers that they believe will be still willing to spend — namely, younger shoppers across geographies who are buying DTC — and not from outlets. 
• Tapestry, owner of Kate Spade, Coach and Stuart Weitzman, for example, raised its full-year outlook during its fiscal second-quarter earnings call in February. Revenue during the quarter increased 5% year-over-year. Over half of the customers it acquired during the second quarter were Gen Z and millennials, who “continue to transact at higher AUR than the balance of our customer base,” CEO Joanne Crevoiserat said.
• Ralph Lauren, which reported fiscal third-quarter earnings on February 6, said sales increased 11% year-over-year, driven by the addition of 1.9 million new customers to its DTC business. These customers also helped drive 7% growth in North America. 

Pet 

• A number of pet industry executives said there has been a “normalizing” in the sector in the past few years, after seeing record pet adoptions during the pandemic. Still, the category continues to see strong sales as pet owners are still focused on making sure they get the best for their furry friends.
• Chewy, for example, saw 14.9% year-over-year sales growth during the fourth quarter. Convenience is one of the big differentiators for Chewy, as 80.6% of its sales during the quarter came from its Autoship program. It’s also an e-commerce site that is still predominantly a destination for essentials like pet food and medicine.
• At Bark, which is known for discretionary items like toys, it’s a bit of a different story. During its fiscal third-quarter earnings, reported in February, Bark reported a 1.1% year-over-year revenue increase. Adding new wholesale partners and expanding shelf space within retail remans a top focus for the brand.