Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Kimberly Greenberger from Citigroup.
Kimberly Greenberger - Citigroup
My question is for John -- John, the gross margin was well above where we had expected it. I think probably we hadn’t factored in the magnitude of the initial markup improvement. I am wondering if you can just help us understand the magnitude of the IMU improvement versus let’s say the markdowns and the occupancy deleverage. Thanks.
John E. Kyees
Well, Kimberly the margin -- the initial margin improvement was comparable to the markdown excess and we would expect that to have a good opportunity to continue. It’s a product of better buying and sourcing mix from our third-party brands to our own brands.
Kimberly Greenberger - Citigroup
John, just so I --
John E. Kyees
Sorry?
Glen T. Senk
Next question.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Ms. Dana Telsey from Telsey Advisory Group.
Dana Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group
Good afternoon, everyone. Glen, can you talk a little bit about as you look at Anthropologie and the Urban Outfitters business, how you are looking at the product assortment and pricing initiatives going forward and how do you see the mix changing? Thank you.
Glen T. Senk
Thanks, Dana. You know, we’ve been pretty consistent in our views really all spring long and by that I mean if -- what we’ve said is if we have fashion, there’s really not a lot of price elasticity. On the more basic product there is price elasticity and what we’ve said pretty consistently is we are going to let the customer tell us where she wants the AUR and as you can see from our results, it’s slightly down, just less than a percentage point down from a year ago. So in general, they are pretty happy with kind of flattish pricing. And I don’t expect that to change but we’ll let the customer tell us.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Christine Chen from Needham & Company.
Christine Chen - Needham & Company
Thank you and congratulations on a very solid quarter -- impressive margins. I was wondering if you could give us an update on potential opportunities in Asia. I know that you’ve been approached in the past -- just wondering what you are thinking about that and timing and what options might be.
Glen T. Senk
Yes, Christine -- Ted and Matt [Kanast], our head of strategy and new business development and I were just in Asia a few weeks ago for several weeks doing a fair amount of research. I think it’s too early for us to talk about any timing. We have a board meeting next week where Ted, Matt and I will present our findings. My hunch is that it is likely we will do something at some point but it is just too early for us to talk about timing at this point.
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