Cabela's 2011 Annual Report Download - page 24

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Our comparable store sales will fluctuate and may not be a meaningful indicator of future performance.
Changes in our comparable store sales results could affect the price of our common stock. A number of
factors have historically affected, and will continue to affect, our comparable store sales results, including:
• competition;
• new store openings;
• general regional and national economic conditions;
• actions taken by our competitors;
• consumer trends and preferences;
• new product introductions and changes in our product mix;
• timing and effectiveness of promotional events; and
• weather conditions.
Our comparable store sales may vary from quarter to quarter, and an unanticipated decline in revenues or
comparable store sales may cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate significantly.
If we fail to maintain the strength and value of our brand, our revenue is likely to decline.
Our success depends on the value and strength of the Cabela’s brand. The Cabela’s name is integral to our
business as well as to the implementation of our strategies for expanding our business. Maintaining, promoting,
and positioning our brand will depend largely on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts and our
ability to provide high quality merchandise and a consistent, high quality customer experience. Our brand could be
adversely affected if we fail to achieve these objectives or if our public image or reputation were to be tarnished by
negative publicity. Any of these events could result in decreases in revenue.
Disruptions in our information technology systems could have a material adverse impact on our
operating results.
Our Retail, Direct, and Financial Services businesses are dependent upon the integrity, security, and
consistent operations of our information technology systems. We rely heavily on our information technology
systems to manage and replenish inventory, to take customer orders, to deliver products to our customers in an
efficient manner, to collect cash from our customers, and to provide accurate financial data and reporting for our
business. Any disruption to or failure of our information technology systems may have a material adverse effect on
our business or results of operations. We also expect to continue to make significant technology investments in the
coming years, which are key to our business. There are inherent risks associated with these system changes, and
we may be unable to successfully implement these system changes. Our failure to successfully implement these
system changes could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. Additionally, there is
no assurance that successful implementation of these system changes will deliver value to us.
We are subject to security breaches and cybersecurity risks which could damage our reputation and
increase our costs in an effort to protect against such breaches and cybersecurity risks.
Our business necessarily depends upon the operation and security of our website. Additionally, the nature of
our business requires that we collect and maintain personal information about our customers. We use third-party
systems, software, and tools in order to protect the customer data we obtain through the course of our business,
which data includes financial and credit card information about our customers. Although we maintain security
measures to protect such customer information, security breaches, computer viruses, cyber attacks, acts of
vandalism, human error, or other similar events may result in the unauthorized disclosure of confidential customer
information. Such a security breach could damage our reputation with our customers, expose us to the risk of
litigation, and increase costs in order to combat and prevent such breaches.