What: Driven by the execution of the Polaris strategy and an improved economic environment, quarterly net sales and earnings exceeded expectations.

Why it is important: Considering the results on top and bottom lines, the department store is raising its full-year 2021 guidance. Net sales are expected to reach USD 24.12 billion instead of  USD 23.55 billion. Adjusted EBITDA as a percent of sales is expected to reach 12.5% instead of 11%.

Comparable sales are up 8.9% on an owned basis, and up 8.7% on an owned-plus-licensed basis respectively, versus 2019. Digital sales increased 19% versus third quarter 2020 and grew 49% versus third quarter 2019.

Approximately 4.4 million new customers shopped the Macy's brand, a 28% increase compared to third quarter 2019, with 41% of these customers coming through the digital channel in third quarter 2021.

Categories that were solid throughout the pandemic, including home, fragrances, jewellery, watches and sleepwear, continued to see strong sales performance. Occasion-based categories, such as dresses, men’s tailored and luggage, continued to recover. Emerging categories, such as toys and pets, showed encouraging results.

Bloomingdale’s comparable sales on an owned basis were up 9.1% and on an owned-plus-licensed basis were up 11.2% compared to the third quarter of 2019.

Gross margin for the quarter was 41.0%, up from 35.6% in third quarter 2020 and up 100 basis points from third quarter 2019.

Inventory was up 19.4% from third quarter 2020 but down 15.4% from third quarter 2019.

Macy's results