In a holiday season when retailers crawled back from last year’s record decline, three U.S. clothing chains stood out as winners.
Aeropostale Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. promoted lower prices on specific merchandise and managed inventory to outpace industry sales in November. They will probably say next week those gains continued in December, according to Liz Dunn, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC in New York.
“They all did execute pretty well in response to the slowing consumer,” said David Abella, a portfolio manager with Rochdale Investment Management LLC in New York who holds shares of Aeropostale and Nordstrom. “If retail sales pick up broadly, they should get outsized gains at the expense of competitors.”
Teen retailer Aeropostale boosted sales by offering $10 hooded sweatshirts for two hours on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. By contrast, Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s main holiday promotion was a $25 gift card on $100 in purchases, more than customers were willing to spend, said Thomas Weisel’s Dunn. Nordstrom made fewer cuts to inventory to capture more revenue than Saks Inc., the luxury retailer that reported a 26 percent drop in November same-store sales.
Consumer confidence improved for a second month in December, from a record low in February after unemployment and cratering home values led to a freeze in spending. Retailers’ sales may increase as much as 3.5 percent next year, the International Council of Shopping Centers forecast Tuesday.
