However, China led the path to recovery, first by stabilizing and then moving to growth by the end of the quarter.
As a result of the pandemic, our second quarter sales decreased 42% to $729.5 million, which consisted of a 37.8% decrease in our international businesses and a 47.3% decrease in our domestic businesses.
The primary drivers in the quarter were Asia, led by China with a 11.5% growth and our company-owned e-commerce business with sales growth of more than 400%.
While our international wholesale business decreased 29.9%, China offered a model of recovery, stabilization and then growth in the quarter.
At this time, more than 90% of the third-party SKECHERS stores around the world have reopened.
Our domestic wholesale business decreased 57.2% reflecting the majority of retail store closures during much of the quarter.
With nearly all company-owned SKECHERS stores closed for most of the quarter, our direct-to-consumer business decreased 47.1%, which includes a 428.2% increase in our e-commerce business.
Comparable same-store sales in our direct-to-consumer business decreased 45.6%, including a decrease of 35.9% in the United States and 66.9% internationally.
As of today, more than 90% of our global company-owned stores have reopened under heightened safety protocols.
Further 102 new third-party SKECHERS stores opened across 28 countries, bringing our total store count to 3,615 worldwide at quarter-end.
The progress we have made through the second quarter from a product and sales perspective couldn't have been achieved without our faster, flexible and focused business approach.
Sales in the quarter totaled $729.5 million, a decrease of $529.1 million or 42% from the prior year quarter.
On a constant currency basis, sales decreased $516.2 million or 41%.
Domestic wholesale sales declined 57.2% or $174.6 million as operations at many of our wholesale customers were closed, particularly in the first half of the second quarter.
International wholesale sales decreased 29.9% in the quarter.
Our wholly owned subsidiaries were down 43.7% and our distributor business decreased 58.1%.
However, our joint ventures were down only 6.4% as China sales grew 11.5% for the quarter led by e-commerce, which was especially strong over the 6-18 selling period.
Direct-to-consumer sales decreased 47.1%, the result of a 35.4% decrease domestically and a 66.6% decrease internationally, reflecting the impact of temporary store closures globally, partially offset by a 428.2% increase in our e-commerce business.
Gross profit was $368.6 million, down $241.2 million compared to the prior year on lower sales volumes while gross margin increased by approximately 210 basis points to 50.5%.
Total operating expenses decreased by $73 million or 14.5% to $432.1 million in the quarter, reflecting the swift actions we took during the quarter to reduce all non-essential discretionary spending.
Selling expenses decreased by $53.3 million or 46.9% to $60.2 million, primarily due to lower advertising expenses globally, partially offset by an increase in digital advertising spend.
General and administrative expenses decreased by $19.7 million or 5% to $371.9 million reflecting reductions in discretionary spending and compensation related costs and despite the inclusion of an incremental $10.2 million in bad debt expense due to the expected impact of the pandemic on wholesale customers across the globe.
Loss from operations was $61 million versus the prior year earnings from operations of $111.1 million.
Net loss was $68.1 million or $0.44 per diluted share on 154.1 million diluted shares outstanding compared to net income of $75.2 million or $0.49 per diluted share on 153.9 million diluted shares outstanding in the prior year.
Our effective income tax rate for the quarter decreased to 7.2% from 18.4% in the prior year and resulted in a net tax benefit of $4.3 million.
At June 30th, 2020, we had over $1.56 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments, which was an increase of $524.5 million or 50.9% from December 31st, 2019 reflecting the drawdown of our senior unsecured credit facility last quarter.
Importantly, this represents an increase in net cash balances over last quarter of $189.3 million, reflecting our prudent inventory, working capital and operating expense management and including $75.9 million of capital expenditures.
Trade accounts receivable at quarter-end were $478 million, a decrease of 25.9% or $167.3 million from December 31st, 2019 and a decrease of 25.5% or $163.4 million from June 30th, 2019.
Total inventory was $1.03 billion, a decrease of 3.9% or $42.1 million from December 31st, 2019, but an increase of 20.1% or $172.1 million from June 30th, 2019.
Total debt, including both current and long-term portions, was $763.3 million compared to $121.2 million at December 31st, 2019.
Capital expenditures for the second quarter were $75.9 million, of which $20.5 million related to our new China corporate office space, $13.8 million related to several new store openings worldwide, $12.4 million was associated with our new distribution center in China and $10.9 million related to the expansion of our domestic distribution center.
We now expect total capital expenditures over the remainder of the year to be between $100 million and $150 million.
We expect incremental capital expenditures related to that expansion to total between $90 million and $110 million this quarter -- this year, sorry, of which approximately $10 million has already been recorded.
We will not be providing revenue or earnings guidance at this time as the current environment remains too dynamic from which to plan results with a reasonable degree of certainty.
We experienced exceptionally strong demand for our brand in Europe, North America and South America with our e-commerce platforms growing more than 400%.
Similarly, we saw demand in Asia primarily within [Phonetic] China with a 11.5% growth, including e-commerce growth of 43%.

Summary:
However, China led the path to recovery, first by stabilizing and then moving to growth by the end of the quarter.
The primary drivers in the quarter were Asia, led by China with a 11.5% growth and our company-owned e-commerce business with sales growth of more than 400%.
At this time, more than 90% of the third-party SKECHERS stores around the world have reopened.
With nearly all company-owned SKECHERS stores closed for most of the quarter, our direct-to-consumer business decreased 47.1%, which includes a 428.2% increase in our e-commerce business.
As of today, more than 90% of our global company-owned stores have reopened under heightened safety protocols.
The progress we have made through the second quarter from a product and sales perspective couldn't have been achieved without our faster, flexible and focused business approach.
Sales in the quarter totaled $729.5 million, a decrease of $529.1 million or 42% from the prior year quarter.
However, our joint ventures were down only 6.4% as China sales grew 11.5% for the quarter led by e-commerce, which was especially strong over the 6-18 selling period.
Direct-to-consumer sales decreased 47.1%, the result of a 35.4% decrease domestically and a 66.6% decrease internationally, reflecting the impact of temporary store closures globally, partially offset by a 428.2% increase in our e-commerce business.
Net loss was $68.1 million or $0.44 per diluted share on 154.1 million diluted shares outstanding compared to net income of $75.2 million or $0.49 per diluted share on 153.9 million diluted shares outstanding in the prior year.
We expect incremental capital expenditures related to that expansion to total between $90 million and $110 million this quarter -- this year, sorry, of which approximately $10 million has already been recorded.
We will not be providing revenue or earnings guidance at this time as the current environment remains too dynamic from which to plan results with a reasonable degree of certainty.
Similarly, we saw demand in Asia primarily within [Phonetic] China with a 11.5% growth, including e-commerce growth of 43%.