Nordstrom says sales at some stores ‘below expectations’ this holiday season

FAN Editor

Nordstrom said sales at its full-price stores were “below expectations” this holiday season and because of that the department store chain is having to use more promotions to get rid of excess inventory.

The retailer said in a press release Tuesday evening that it now expects its diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2018 to fall on the low end of a prior range of $3.27 to $3.37.

Nordstrom shares were last down more than 3 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

The company said sales at its stores open for at least 12 months were up 1.3 percent overall for the nine weeks ended Jan. 5 compared with a year ago. It said off-price same-store sales were up 3.9 percent during that time-frame, on par with performance earlier in the year and in-line with expectations. Full-price same-store sales, however, were up just 0.3 percent, “reflecting softer traffic in stores,” Nordstrom said.

It said online sales were up 18 percent during the holiday period from a year ago and accounted for 36 percent of total sales.

The results from Nordstrom come just days after a handful of retailers including Macy’s and Kohl’s reported disappointing holiday sales. Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said traffic at stores fell after Black Friday and took longer than expected to pick back up. Macy’s stock suffered its worst day in history last Thursday, when it delivered that news to analysts and investors.

The dismal results have some analysts wondering just how bad department store operators have it today, as more spending moves online and foot traffic shifts away from stale shopping malls. The bankruptcies of chains like Bon-Ton, Toys R Us and Sears don’t appear to benefiting others in the industry.

“We see Bon-Ton’s filing [for bankruptcy] as a cautionary tale of what happens when department stores become too highly leveraged while falling too far behind the competitive pack,” Moody’s analyst Christina Boni said in a note to clients. “The market’s growing impatience will be putting a brighter spotlight on struggling companies like J.C. Penney during 2019.”

Nordstrom is set to report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Feb. 28.

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Deadly terror attack at Nairobi hotel

Copyright CBS Interactive, 2019. All rights reserved. <![CDATA[ .title, .evening-news .listing-full-focus-with-label .items .item>.label, .evening-news .listing-full-lead-media .items .item>.label, .evening-news .module-listing.module-basic .module-heading.title, .evening-news .module .module-heading.title { font-family: “futura-pt”,Helvetica,Roboto,sans-serif; } .mobile [data-role=”content”] > .container::before { display: none; } ]]]]> ]]> <![CDATA[ ]]> <![CDATA[ ]]> <![CDATA[ ]]> <![CDATA[ ]]> <![CDATA[ ]]> <![CDATA[ ]]> Free […]