Dive Brief:
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Columbus, OH-based footwear retailer DSW reported Q1 same-store sales increased 5% year-over-year, a nice bump up after the 3.7% decrease it reported in Q1 a year ago.
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DSW's Q1 net income increased 23% year-over-year to $47.4 million, compared to Q1 earnings of $38.6 million. Earnings per diluted share increased 26% to 53 cents, compared to last year’s Q1 EPS of 42 cents. Revenue was up 9.4% to $655 million.
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The numbers exceeded analysts’ estimates for revenues of $653 million and earnings per share of 47 cents.
Dive Insight:
Pencil in yet another win for fitness: Whether or not people are actually exercising, they are buying the apparel and footwear for it. DSW CEO Mike MacDonald credited the retailer’s healthy Q1 numbers to strong athletic footwear sales and its expanded ship-from-store services for e-commerce orders.
“Our first quarter performance was a solid start to the spring season. Athletic footwear provided the strongest sales increase, but all major categories posted solid growth. Healthy regular priced sales and lower clearance inventory than last year drove a significant improvement in our gross profit rate,” MacDonald said in a release. “The West Coast port congestion delayed some receipts, but we released pre-buy merchandise to mitigate the impact on sales.”
“We are making significant strides in expanding our customer’s access to the full breadth of our assortment throughout the chain,” he also said. “Following the successful roll out of our ship-from-store program last year, we are piloting new technology to provide in-store customers access to additional styles, colors and sizes.”