Macy’s revises its forecasts upwards ahead of festive season

Macy’s raised its annual earnings forecast on Wednesday, signalling a strong holiday shopping season ahead, as the department store chain builds on a recovery strategy that focuses on its well-performing stores and expanding online.

Macy’s, which has closed more than 100 stores and cut thousands of jobs since 2015, also reported much better than expected profit for the third quarter, ended November 3, thanks largely to doubledigit growth from its online shopping service.

Like other major US retailers, Macy’s has face plummeting mall traffic and a defection of customers to a new range of online and fast-fashion stores.

In response, the 160-yearold company has invested heavily in its off-price Backstage stores, loyalty programme, mobile app and website, while also improving brick-andmortar stores by equipping them with mobile checkouts and new shop layouts.

Even with all of the upbeat numbers in Wednesday’s release, shares in the company rose 1% at opening. They are up about 40% in 2018, but still worth only half what they were at a peak in 2015.

Sales from Macy’s stores and third-party licensees open for more than 12 months rose for the fourth straight quarter to 3.3%. That topped analysts’ average estimate of a 2.82% increase, according to the latest IBES data from Refinitiv.