You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Molly Langenstein, our CEO and president, also joins me today.
You should not unduly rely on these statements.
Our first-quarter results underscore the tremendous progress we are making in our turnaround strategy and the power of our three unique brands and being a digital-first, customer-led company.
The strong Q1 performance across all three brands was fueled by our significant improvement in product and marketing.
Our momentum started in Q4 2019, temporarily stalled by the pandemic, is now back on track to deliver meaningful growth in the years to come.
Total first-quarter sales grew 38% over last year, spurred by Soma's extraordinary sales growth of 65%, as well as fantastic customer response to Chico's and White House Black Market, which drove 31% growth in our apparel brand.
We delivered meaningful year-over-year gross margin and SG&A rates improvement, and our balance sheet is strong with ample cash and liquidity and strategically lean inventories.
We drove a much higher gross margin by dramatically reducing the number of promotional days.
Not only did Soma post a 65% sales growth over last year's first quarter, but comparable sales also grew a remarkable 39% over the first quarter of 2019.
Soma is well on its way to delivering an incremental 100 million in sales this year.
According to NPD research data, Soma outpaced the market leader in growth in bras, panties, and sleepwear, excluding sports bras, for the last 12 months.
These powerful results give us confidence that Soma will continue to take a meaningful share of the U.S. intimate apparel market and explode into a billion-dollar brand by 2025.
The business strategy put in place in Soma around inventory, products, marketing, and digital is working, and we have every confidence applying the same strategy as Chico's and White House Black Market will continue the apparel sales momentum.
Exciting things are happening at Chico's and White House Black Market and in the first quarter, the apparel brands posted faster sell-through rates and higher maintains margins than in 2019.
This is proof that our marketing efforts are increasingly more compelling and that our elevated products and styling are truly resonating with our customers.
Our first-quarter results underscore the tremendous progress we are making on the five strategic priorities that I shared last quarter.
Let me take a few minutes to update you on each.
Number one, continuing our ongoing digital transformation.
Over the last two years, we have successfully transformed into a seamless digital-first, customer-led model for all three of our brands, making major strategic investments in talent and technology.
These efforts are paying off as year-over-year first-quarter digital sales grew a very healthy 13.4%.
All three brands and digital sales grew year over year.
Customers using our proprietary digital tools, Style Connect and My Closet, are more engaged and have our highest conversion rate.
These tools fuel 10% sequential multi-channel customer growth, and these customers spend more than three times a single-channel customer.
Number two, further refining products through styling, fabric, and innovation.
At each of our brands, we are laser-focused on our customer and on continually elevating our product in order to increase our market share and drive results.
Innovation and creating comfortable beautiful solutions are core in the Soma brand.
Our products serve our customers' lifestyles and promote health, including a great night's sleep.
Aloe-infused Restore and Cool Nights are two great examples.
We continually innovate and introduce three new bras during the corner -- quarter, exceeding sales expectations.
In both our apparel brands, we've changed the styling of the products to more closely aligned with the customer.
We embrace the comfort culture and develop innovative fabrics and technology to provide comfort features, shifting her from sweat to fabric with ease.
We are very encouraged by what we are seeing.
At Chico's, she loves our core franchise bottom, woven, and knit top in new fabrics.
At White House Black Market, new elevated casual in denim and tops are popular as she is buying coordinating outfits.
And dresses are once again at the top of her list for both apparel brands.
Number three, driving a significant increase in customer engagement through digital storytelling.
Our enhanced marketing is driving brand awareness, generating traffic, and acquiring new customers through social media engagement and creative storytelling.
Newly acquired customers are being retained at a meaningfully higher rate than in fiscal 2019.
The year-over-year average age of new customers dropped 10 years at Chico's.
At Soma, the average age dropped eight years.
And at White House Black Market, the average age dropped slightly.
These stats reinforce the runway for all three brands.
At Soma, we are growing the customer base.
One in three new customers is under 34, resulting from our more inclusive branding and evolved product assortment.
Our brands use digital storytelling.
The use of social influencers, and building upon our organic social efforts, and wider-by communications are some of the ways we are working to elevate our marketing and reach new customers.
Our weekly Facebook Live events, for example, are driving significant engagement compared to industry benchmarks.
Number four, maintaining our operating and cost discipline.
Our biggest Q1 accomplishment was the strength in full-price sales and corresponding reduced promotions.
Our on-hand inventories are strategically lean, and receipts are disciplined.
On-hand inventory levels, which were down 29% versus last year's first quarter and down 21% compared to the first quarter of 2019, drove more full-price sales and generated a solid gross margin in the first quarter.
The density of products, improved products, and social proofing are driving a sense of urgency for customer purchasing.
These factors should continue to strengthen gross margin performance.
And number five, delivering higher productivity in our real estate portfolio.
Stores continue to be an integral part of our strategy because data shows that digital sales are higher in the markets where we have a retail presence.
We also will support store growth where the investments deliver profitable returns.
Soma is a great example of that.
We have successfully opened 30 Soma shop-in-shops inside Chico's stores.
These started opening in February, and we will have 47 open by mid-June.
These shop-in-shops are exceeding plan, driving brand awareness, and generating both store and digital sales in markets where Soma is not represented.
At the same time, we continue to rationalize and tighten our real estate portfolio for higher store profitability standards.
We will continue to shrink our store base to align with these standards, primarily as leases come due, lease kickouts are available, or buyouts make economic sense.
We have lease flexibility with nearly 60% of our leases coming up for renewal or kickout available over the next three years.
We anticipate closing 13% to 16% of our remaining store fleet over the next three years, with 40 to 45 of those closures occurring in fiscal '21.
Our stand-alone boutiques outperform those in regional enclosed malls by about seven percentage points.
Accordingly, the vast majority of closures are expected to be mall-based with the SKU toward Chico's and White House Black Market stores.
First-quarter net sales totaled $388 million, compared to $280 million last year.
This 38.4% increase reflects a 13.4% increase in digital sales, and recovery, and store sales, as our stores were temporally closed last year.
Looking at the first quarter compared to 2019, comparable sales decline 22%, with Soma up 39%, and the apparel brands down 33%.
Total company on-hand inventories for the first quarter compared to 2019 were down 21%, with Soma up 13% and the apparel brands down 35.3%, illustrating these strategic investments in Soma's growth and our turnaround strategy in apparel.
We reported a net loss of $8.9 billion, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $178 million, or $1.55 per diluted share last year, which included the $35 million, or $1.17 per diluted share and significant after-tax noncash charges.
Our gross margin was 32.7%, compared to negative 4% last year.
The prior-year margin included the impact of significant noncash inventory write-offs and store asset impairments.
This year, we meaningfully expanded our margin rate as a result of disciplined inventory control, strategically reduced promotions, and more full-price selling.
SG&A expenses for the first quarter total $134 million, just a modest uptick from the first quarter last year but our stores were closed for approximately half of the quarter.
We have continued our cost discipline and reduction initiatives, generating lower SG&A expense dollars and rate than the first quarter of fiscal '19 and a sequential improvement in both dollars and rate over the fourth quarter of fiscal '20.
Our balance sheet remains very solid.
We ended the first quarter with over $102 million in cash and marketable securities.
And borrowings on our $300 million credit facility remain unchanged from the fiscal year at $149 million.
Our financial position liquidity continued to be bolstered by strong digital performance across all brands, improving retail store sales, and a significant leaner expense structure that better aligns cost with sales.
In addition, our balance sheet reflects a federal income tax receivable of approximately $55 million that we expect to realize in the summer of fiscal '21.
We anticipate building cash throughout fiscal '21.
Regarding first-quarter cash flows, cash used in operating activities was $4.4 million.
This use reflects the impact of more than $15 million in outflows or residual rental settlements for the fiscal '20 real estate rent abatement and reduction initiatives, as well as reductions in extended supply or payment terms implemented last year.
On a real estate front, in March, we launched phase two of our lease renegotiation process with A&G Real Estate Partners.
We have secured commitments from landlords of approximately $10 million of additional rent abatements and reductions.
The majority of which will be realized in fiscal '21.
This is an addition to the $65 million abatements and reductions negotiated last year.
On a cash basis, approximately $20 million of those savings are expected to be realized this year.
We expect to close up to a total of 330 stores from the beginning of fiscal '19 through the end of fiscal '23.
In the first quarter of fiscal '21, we closed nine stores and we ended the quarter with 1,293 boutiques.
Now, let me turn to our outlook.
We expect continued improving demand throughout the year for Chico's FAS, and we also realized there is economic uncertainty as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.
We do, however, believe it is appropriate to provide some high-level public expectations for fiscal 2021.
We expect a consolidated year-over-year net sales improvement in the 28% to 34% range, gross margin rate improvement of 18 to 20 percentage points over last year.
SG&A as a percent of sales down 500 to 600 basis points year over year and income tax expense of approximately $500,000.
We are committed to making all appropriate actions to improve performance and drive shareholder value, and we look forward to continuing to engage with our shareholders to discuss our progress.
Our turnaround is on track, and we are uniquely positioned to build on our first-quarter momentum, improve our operating performance, and generate shareholder value over the long term.
We have an exciting future ahead.
We will not be making further comments on the contents of their income statement or our shareholder conversations at this time.
With that, we can open up the call for Q&A.

user
compname says q1 loss per share $0.08.
q1 loss per share $0.08.
q1 sales $388 million versus $280.3 million.
not providing specific fiscal 2021 guidance at this time.
expects 2021 consolidated year-over-year net sales improvement between 28% to 34%.

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