Our second initiative is to maintain a profitable real estate portfolio as we continue to evolve our real estate stores in response to macro business and traffic trends. We were pleased with the high level of staff that returned from furlough and the retention levels that were maintained even after we put in a reorganization that eliminated a number of positions. And in addition to the actions taken to lower rent for both the short and longer term, we have been intently focused on reducing operating expenses at the store level.

We had an improvement in gross profit margin of 720 basis points compared to the prior year. This is the result of several initiatives, but there are two that are particularly important to call out. First, as previously reported, over the past several years, we have strategically positioned our retail store portfolio to have high lease optionality and flexibility. And second, following the temporary measures to furloughing associates and reducing salaries for those remaining, we completed a corporate reorganization that was planned prior to the pandemic, with reduced headcount and realigned leadership responsibilities to better support the execution of our current and longer-term strategic initiatives. For the quarter in North America on average, stores recaptured more than 100% of prior year sales following the reopening, inclusive of buy-online and ship-from-store orders while in the UK, e-commerce drove revenue at a higher pace than the brick and mortar stores. Both conversion and transaction value saw a meaningful increase. While similar to other retails, we saw declines in consumer traffic in both geographies. Looking forward, we remain cautious in regards to our expectations and we continue to prioritize digital initiatives given that uncertainty surrounding physical store operations in various communities and jurisdiction.

Our second initiative is to maintain a profitable real estate portfolio as we continue to evolve our real estate stores in response to macro business and traffic trends. We were pleased with the high level of staff that returned from furlough and the retention levels that were maintained even after we put in a reorganization that eliminated a number of positions. And in addition to the actions taken to lower rent for both the short and longer term, we have been intently focused on reducing operating expenses at the store level.

We had an improvement in gross profit margin of 720 basis points compared to the prior year. This is the result of several initiatives, but there are two that are particularly important to call out. First, as previously reported, over the past several years, we have strategically positioned our retail store portfolio to have high lease optionality and flexibility. And second, following the temporary measures to furloughing associates and reducing salaries for those remaining, we completed a corporate reorganization that was planned prior to the pandemic, with reduced headcount and realigned leadership responsibilities to better support the execution of our current and longer-term strategic initiatives. For the quarter in North America on average, stores recaptured more than 100% of prior year sales following the reopening, inclusive of buy-online and ship-from-store orders while in the UK, e-commerce drove revenue at a higher pace than the brick and mortar stores. Both conversion and transaction value saw a meaningful increase. While similar to other retails, we saw declines in consumer traffic in both geographies. Looking forward, we remain cautious in regards to our expectations and we continue to prioritize digital initiatives given that uncertainty surrounding physical store operations in various communities and jurisdiction.