Victoria's Secret parent company L Brands has seen a sharp profit fall, ahead of its Australian apparel store launch.
While total sales rose 3% to $US1.58 billion for the first quarter, profit fell almost 50% to $US47.5 million.
In-store comparable store sales declined 5%.
The news comes after the brand recently announced the plans for its first brick and mortar store in Australia scheduled to open in Melbourne in late 2018.
While the physical store sales were down, the brand's digital business increased sales by 23% in Q1 up to $US353.5 million with the company highlighting its online offering as an area of focus for future investments alongside physical stores.
In a comment attached to the report, the group revealed its strategy to improve physical store sales in the coming months through a combination of growing its customer database and an improved product range.
“Our stores provide us with the opportunity to personally interact with customers during nearly 400 million visits annually.
“While our customer file is down from our historical peak, over the last 12 months, we have seen growth and continue to build back the high-spend customer segment
“While we continue to see positive signs from newer product launches, traffic levels in stores continues to be negative.
“We will continue to drive traffic, engagement and conversion with performance marketing. We are testing new ideas like the catalogue we mailed this month with early encouraging customer response.”