Within direct-to-consumer, we accelerated our shift to digital step changing profitability by over 1,000 basis points, as we added new connected retail capabilities and drove quality of sales.
With approximately two-thirds of our products now in lead times of six months or less, two years ahead of our goal to reach 50% and compared to just 20% five years ago.
Some of our key campaigns this year included our Ralph Lauren Bitmoji Collection on Snapchat, with over 1 billion try-ons to date.
Our Spring '21 Collection featuring a live performance from Janelle Monae, with over 36 million video views and more than 8 billion total impressions.
Our limited edition Polo collaboration with Edison Chen's CLOT brand, ahead of the Lunar New Year, which sold out in less than two minutes on our WeChat mini-program in China, and with over 6 billion total impressions.
In all, we added approximately 4 million new consumers through our direct-to-consumer platforms alone this past fiscal year.
And our total social media followers exceeded 45 million led by Instagram, TikTok, Kakao and Snapchat.
And we were proud to deliver significant acceleration in digital performance across each of our regions, with total digital ecosystem growth of more than 60% this quarter.
In the fourth quarter, we also rolled out digital ID tagging to 50% of our total products, and are on track to reach a 100% by end of fiscal '22.
The third and final stage of our fiscal '21 strategic realignment plan was our announcement last week to sell Club Monaco, expected to close in Q1.
This year, we donated hundreds of thousands of PPE to frontline workers, 3 million products to frontline workers and families in need, doubling our initial commitment, and $10 million in COVID-19 relief from the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation to support our employees, communities and charitable partners.
Consistent with the five pillars of our Next Great Chapter plan, we expect top line growth over the next year to be driven by a combination of continuing to scale digital, which now represents more than 25% of our total sales, expanding our key city ecosystems led by fast-growing markets like China, in addition to our under-penetrated areas in North America and Europe, accelerating marketing investments, including new consumer acquisition, targeting and personalization, and continuing on our brand elevation journey more broadly across our distribution and product assortments, driving further AUR growth, coupled with unit growth.
Hubert Joly, will step into the role of Lead Independent Director, previously held by Frank Bennack, while Frank will continue to serve our Board.
Even excluding the one-time mix benefits of COVID, our underlying gross margin for fiscal '21 was about 64.2%.
And as Patrice mentioned, we announced the final stage of our strategic realignment plan with the sale of Club Monaco, contributing about 40 basis points to 50 basis points to operating margins this year.
Total revenues increased 1% compared to an 18% decline in the third quarter.
Global wholesale revenues increased 1% and direct-to-consumer revenues were up 4%.
Total digital ecosystem sales accelerated to more than 60% with double-digit growth in every region, up from mid-single-digits in the first nine months of the year.
And we delivered digital margins that were accretive within every region, and to our total Company rate, expanding more than a 1,000 basis points in the fourth quarter and full year.
Total Company adjusted gross margin was 62.9% in the fourth quarter, up 380 basis points to last year.
Around 80 basis points of fourth quarter and 150 basis points of full year gross margin expansion was driven by unusual mix shifts due to COVID.
Fourth quarter AUR growth of 30% represented our 16th consecutive quarter of AUR gains, as we continue on our brand elevation journey.
Underlying AUR growth of about 20% was driven by a combination of reduced promotional activity, improved full-price selling on our new Spring collections and strategic price increases.
Operating expenses declined 4% to last year, driven by reductions in compensation, rent and other expenses as we started to realize the early benefits of our fiscal '21 restructuring.
Adjusted operating margins for the fourth quarter was 3.4%, up 680 basis points to last year.
Marketing in the fourth quarter accelerated to 44% growth as we reactivated in-person activities, continue to drive high-impact digital campaigns and personalization, and shifted certain investments from the first three quarters of the year due to COVID lockdowns.
For the full year, marketing increased to 6% of sales, up from 4.5% the prior year.
Fourth quarter revenue decreased 10% to last year, but continued to improve on a sequential basis, including an earlier-than-expected return to positive retail comps, up 3%.
Comps in our owned digital commerce business were up 25% this quarter, accelerating from 9% in Q3.
Underlying sales to domestic consumers accelerated to over 50% up, from high-teens in Q3, while the sales to international daigou consumers declined double digits to last year, as planned.
We reduced our sitewide promotions by 50 days, compared to the prior year, as we continue to elevate our digital experience driving AUR up more than 40% and gross margins up more than 700 basis points to last year in the channel.
At the same time, we continue to invest in new consumer acquisition, up 78% in the fourth quarter and 45% for the full year.
These new consumers are transacting at higher gross margin rates and larger basket sizes, and represent a higher penetration of consumers under 35.
Stronger sales of new Spring '21 product offering, along with continued investments in connected retailing helped deliver a significant increase in our full-price sales this quarter, which grew more than a 150% to last year.
Brick-and-mortar comps improved sequentially to down 2% in the quarter, with meaningful improvements in AUR, basket size and conversion.
Traffic was down 23%, but inflected to positive growth in the last three weeks of March as we started to lap COVID shutdowns, while foreign tourist sales were down about 75%.
In North America wholesale, fourth quarter revenue declined 22%, as we continue to manage our sell-in carefully through the Spring season.
Our inventories in the marketplace were clean and well positioned at year-end, declining nearly 30% at North America wholesale.
Our sales to off-price were down double-digits as planned, reducing our penetration to the channel by about 450 basis points for the full year.
We ended fiscal 2021 with North America brick-and-mortar full price wholesale penetration at about 10% of total Company revenues, down from mid-teens last year, as we continue to accelerate our wholesale.com, direct-to-consumer and international expansion.
Fourth quarter revenue increased 5% on a reported basis, and was down 4% in constant currency.
Europe retail comps were down 45%, with 65% decline in brick-and-mortar stores, partially offset by continued acceleration in our own digital commerce, up 79%.
About 80% of our stores in the region are now fully open versus a little over 50% at the end of Q4.
Strong momentum in our own digital commerce comps was driven by new consumer acquisition and personalization, up 75%.
Europe wholesale revenue increased 29% in constant currency.
Revenue increased 35% on a reported basis, and 28% in constant currency in the fourth quarter.
Our Asian retail comps increased 23% with brick-and-mortar stores up 21%, and digital up, 59%.
All of our key markets reported positive growth, led by the Chinese mainland, which was up 145% in constant currency and more than 70% to LLY.
Korea also accelerated to 50% growth.
This was supported by a successful Lunar New Year campaign with sales up 75% to LLY.
Strong momentum in our new digital flagships in China, Japan and Hong Kong, and powerful partnerships like Kakao and Tmall's Luxury Pavilion, where we became the Number 1 menswear brand this quarter.
And we still see significant long-term growth opportunities in the region, and particularly in China, which now represents about 6% of total Company revenues, nearly double the penetration from a year ago.
We ended the year with $2.8 billion in cash and investments, and $1.6 billion in total debt, which compares to $2.1 billion in cash and investments and $1.2 billion in total debt last year.
Net inventory increased 3% to support future growth, compared to depressed levels of down 10% at the end of last year as COVID hit.
For fiscal '22, we expect constant currency revenues to increase approximately 20% to 25% to last year on a 52-week comparable basis.
We estimate the 53rd week will contribute an additional 140 basis points to this year's revenue growth.
We expect gross margins to contract 40 basis points to 60 basis points as we lap last year's unusual geographic and channel mix benefits due to COVID closures.
This implies about a 100 basis point expansion to last year's underlying gross margin ex-COVID.
As a result, we expect operating margins of about 11%, expanding approximately 620 basis points to last year, and exceeding our pre-pandemic levels.
These include, transitioning Chaps from an owned to a fully licensed model, exiting more than 200 US department store doors, significantly reducing our off-price business, and shrinking our exposure to international daigou sales on our ralphlauren.com site in North America.
Combined with the sale of Club Monaco, expected to close in the first quarter, these strategic actions represent a little more than $700 million in revenues compared to fiscal '20.
For the first quarter, which still includes the operational results of Club Monaco, we expect revenues to increase approximately 140% to 150% in constant currency.
We expect gross margins to decline approximately 575 basis points, as we lap last year's one-time COVID mix benefits due to store closures and from higher freight headwinds in the quarter.
We expect operating margin of 7% to 7.5% with gross margin contraction more than offset by significant operating expense leverage.
We expect to end fiscal '22 with inventories up 12% with higher growth in the first half of the year, as we continue to build back into demand.
We expect capital expenditures of approximately $250 million to $275 million, in line with our pre-pandemic targets, as we continue to focus on building out our key city ecosystems and digital infrastructure.

Summary:
The third and final stage of our fiscal '21 strategic realignment plan was our announcement last week to sell Club Monaco, expected to close in Q1.
Hubert Joly, will step into the role of Lead Independent Director, previously held by Frank Bennack, while Frank will continue to serve our Board.
Total digital ecosystem sales accelerated to more than 60% with double-digit growth in every region, up from mid-single-digits in the first nine months of the year.
We ended fiscal 2021 with North America brick-and-mortar full price wholesale penetration at about 10% of total Company revenues, down from mid-teens last year, as we continue to accelerate our wholesale.com, direct-to-consumer and international expansion.
Fourth quarter revenue increased 5% on a reported basis, and was down 4% in constant currency.
Revenue increased 35% on a reported basis, and 28% in constant currency in the fourth quarter.
Net inventory increased 3% to support future growth, compared to depressed levels of down 10% at the end of last year as COVID hit.
For fiscal '22, we expect constant currency revenues to increase approximately 20% to 25% to last year on a 52-week comparable basis.
For the first quarter, which still includes the operational results of Club Monaco, we expect revenues to increase approximately 140% to 150% in constant currency.
We expect capital expenditures of approximately $250 million to $275 million, in line with our pre-pandemic targets, as we continue to focus on building out our key city ecosystems and digital infrastructure.