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Strong online sales lead to same-store sales growth
Macy's Inc. (Cincinnati) reported fourth quarter sales for 2009 totaled $7.8 billion, a decrease of 1.1 percent, compared with sales of $7.9 billion in the same period last year. Same-store sales were down 0.8 percent, beating company's guidance for sales to be down between 1 and 2 percent. Total sales for the 52 weeks of fiscal 2009 were down 5.6 percent to $23.4 billion, while same-store sales declined 5.3 percent.
Online sales remained robust with sales growing 26.6 percent in the fourth quarter and 19.6 percent for fiscal 2009. Since online sales are included in Macy’s same-store sales tallies, this growth positively impacted the company's same-store sales by 0.7 percentage points in the fourth quarter and 0.6 percentage points in fiscal 2009.
"Our company initiated unprecedented change in 2009 as we adopted a unified organization structure and rolled out our My Macy's localization strategy amid the worst economic environment in decades,” says Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and ceo of Macy's Inc. “Despite these obstacles, we improved our profitability over the previous year through better-than-expected sales, improved gross margins and reduced expenses.”
In fiscal 2009, five new Macy's stores opened in the Dallas, Fresno, Kansas City, Phoenix and Visalia, Calif., markets. In addition, two hurricane-damaged Macy's stores were reopened in Houston, and a replacement Macy's store debuted in Nampa, Idaho. Five stores were closed in the fourth quarter of 2009.
For 2010, the department store retailer expects same-store sales growth in the range of 1 to 2 percent. The company plans to open a new Bloomingdale's store in Santa Monica, Calif., as well as Bloomingdale's Outlet stores in Miami and Sunrise, Fla., Paramus, N.J. and Woodbridge, Va. Macy's operates about 850 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the Macy's and Bloomingdale's nameplates.
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