Retailers adapt to growth in online sales

Article Excerpt

These three “brick-and-mortar” retailers face several long-term challenges. The most serious is the consumer shift to online shopping. In response, they are expanding their own e-commerce operations and closing unprofitable stores. Two of them have enhanced their long-term prospects through international expansion. That’s one of the reasons we prefer Nordstrom for new buying. Its focus on upscale merchandise and customer service also gives it an advantage over mid-market stores. MACY’S INC. $36 (New York symbol M, Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 308.5 million; Market cap: $11.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.macysinc.com) operates 880 Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s department stores and sells goods online. Consumers increasingly shop online instead of at traditional stores. In response, Macy’s plans to close 100 more of its locations by early 2017. The company expects to pay $249 million in severance and related costs. Meantime, Macy’s sales in its fiscal 2017 second quarter, which ended July 30, 2016, fell 3.9%, to $5.9…