Retail sales may have been down for Macy’s, but shed no tears for the department retailer: Customers beat a pixilated path to its online sites during the most recent fourth quarter and full fiscal year.
The Web-based sales gains almost offset Macy’s retail losses. For the fourth quarter, the company racked up $7.85 billion in sales, down from $7.93 billion a year earlier. The company turned a $4.77 billion net loss a year ago into $466 million during the most recent quarter. Granted, fourth-quarter 2008 included a $5.38 billion goodwill impairment charge.
But the company also managed to tamp down cost of sales from 60.7% of revenue in fourth-quarter 2008 to 58.3%, and trimmed selling, general and administrative expenses to 28.2% of sales from 28.4%.
Within its channels, fourth-quarter same-store retail sales were down 0.8% from the previous year. But the company’s online sales jumped 26.6% between fourth-quarter 2008 and fourth-quarter 2009.
For the full year, same-store retail sales fell 5.3%, while online sales rose 19.6%. While the company didn’t break out sales by channel for either the quarter or the year, full-year sales amounted to $23.49 billion, down from $24.89 billion.
The Grinch’s Take: New York City’s finances may take a toll on the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, according to an Associated Press report. As of April 1, all parade organizers will be required to shorten their events by 25%, and keep ‘em under five hours, as part of a municipal cost-saving effort. Bah, humbug!
