Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s online sales are strong

While Macy's Inc. is reporting comp-store sales dropped 9.2% in March, online sales for Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com combined were up 17.9% in March and 17.1% year to date.

With online sales outpacing catalog sales in recent years, Macy’s Inc. made the decision last year to focus more of its efforts online, a decision that appears to be paying off.

Last year, Macy’s said it would discontinue the Bloomingdale’s By Mail catalog in early 2009 so that it could shift focus of the brand’s direct-to-consumer business to the Bloomingdales.com Web site. Advertising catalogs produced by Bloomingdale's' marketing were unaffected.

The retailer said at the time that it planned to implement various enhancements to the Web experience.