Amid a rather gloomy fiscal fourth-quarter recap, Macy’s CFO Karen M. Hoguet offered a light at the end of the tunnel: Digital customer engagement.
Fourth-quarter sales slipped 5.3%, to $8.9 billion.
“We’ve talked about overall weakness in our sales and particular weakness in the cold weather businesses, but we did have some categories that performed quite well in the quarter: Cosmetics, fragrances, furniture, and mattresses, as well as active,” Hoguet said during the Feb. 23 conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. “Geographically, our business was strongest in the West where weather was less of a factor. This was true both in-store and online. Overall, our digital business continued on a very strong pace. Digital continues to grow rapidly for purchasing, but it is also becoming even more important for browsing and researching. Best of all for us as an omnichannel retailer, customers are increasingly going back and forth between digital devices and stores. We continued to make progress this year on improving our mobile technology as well as optimizing fulfillment capabilities in the stores, including utilizing our BOPS, or Buying Online Pickup in Store, as a great way to satisfy demand.”
Bloomingdale’s had a more challenging quarter than Macy’s, Hoguet added, largely due to the geographic mix of locations with even heavier concentrations of tourist stores. But, she added that digital growth was strong for Bloomingdale’s as well.
Net income attributable to Macy’s in the quarter was $544 million or $659 million, excluding store closing and restructuring costs. This contrasts last year’s $793 million or $857 million, excluding similar charges and last year’s make-whole premium for the early retirement of debt.