Sales trends at both Nordstrom’s namesake and Rack businesses improved in the second quarter, Nordstrom stated, as it works to shake off the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company posted net earnings of $80 million, or 49 cents per diluted share, versus a net loss of $255 million, or $1.62 per diluted share, in the COVID-19 impacted quarter a year previous.
Nordstrom beat a Yahoo Financed-published analyst average second-quarter earnings per diluted share estimate of 28 cents. Sales surpassed a related estimate of $3.31 billion.
Net sales increased 101% from the 2020 second quarter to $3.57 billion, the company noted and decreased 6% from the period in fiscal 2019. The timing shift of Nordstrom’s annual Anniversary Sale, with roughly one week falling into the third quarter, had a negative impact of approximately 200 basis points on net sales versus the year-past period. Net revenues, including credit card input, were $3.66 billion versus $1.86 billion in the year-prior quarter.
Nordstrom department store net sales increased 127% versus the fiscal 2020 quarter to $2.42 billion and decreased 5% compared to the fiscal 2019 period, the company reported, while Nordstrom Rack net sales increased 61% versus the fiscal 2020 quarter to $1.15 billion and decreased 8% compared to the fiscal 2019 period.
Digital sales gained 30% versus the fiscal 2020 quarter and increased 24% compared to the fiscal 2019 period. The Anniversary Sale had a negative digital sales effect of about 500 basis points compared with the 2019 second quarter, Nordstrom noted. Digital revenue represented 40% of total sales during the period, the company added.
As regards merchandise segments, Nordstrom’s core categories of shoes, apparel and accessories experienced the largest sales improvements versus the first quarter. Sales in active, home and designer categories continued to gain compared to the 2019 period, the company stated.
“Our second-quarter results demonstrate the strength of our two brands, the power of our ‘closer to you’ strategy and the success of our iconic Anniversary Sale,” said Erik Nordstrom, the company CEO. “We capitalized on improving customer demand with focused execution, healthy inventory sell-through and continued expense management to deliver strong quarterly results. We remain focused on executing our strategy to win in our most important markets, broaden the reach of Nordstrom Rack and increase our digital velocity, and are well-positioned for continued progress toward our long-term strategic and financial goals as we look ahead to the second half of the year.”
