Macy’s, the largest department store in the United States, saw slightly improved sales during the holiday season, but it and other retailers have warned of a rocky year ahead as tariffs push up prices and sow uncertainty for shoppers.
Macy’s said comparable sales across all of its stores, which include Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, rose 0.2 percent last quarter, its best result in nearly three years.
Although a modest improvement, the result was welcomed as the retailer faces many challenges, including consumers squeezed by inflation, shrinking margins and a bizarre accounting error. Macy’s is in the midst of a turnaround plan that includes closing underperforming locations: It has closed more than 60 of 150 planned stores so far.
Like other retailers, Macy’s gave a cautious outlook for this year. It expects to bring in less revenue, in part because of the store closures, and for comparable sales to fall as much as 2 percent. The company’s shares, which have fallen about 20 percent this year, seesawed in early trading on Thursday.
Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail consulting firm GlobalData, said that this year would be a “choppy one” for Macy’s, but that it was “now at least headed in the right direction.”
Its plans may be derailed by a sweeping round of tariffs recently imposed by President Trump on imports from Canada, Mexico and China — the country’s three largest trading partners — which are looming over retailers.
Tony Spring, the chief executive of Macy’s, told investors in a call on Thursday that because the company’s inventories were in “good shape,” there would be no effect this quarter from tariffs. “As we look at the remainder of the year, we’re taking a case-by-case basis and trying to react in real time,” he said.
Target noted on Tuesday that tariffs were a factor that could prompt customers to hold back on spending. Corie Barry, the chief executive of Best Buy, said that price increases for American consumers were “highly likely” as they expected vendors to “pass along some level of tariff costs to retailers.”
Some retailers noted that they had already worked to reduce their possible exposure to tariffs, reducing their potential impact.
Steve Miller, the chief financial officer of Warby Parker, said last week that the company had diversified its suppliers over the past five years in order to reduce tariff exposure, noting that China represents 20 percent of its goods costs. “We have multiple levers in place to manage a dynamic tariff environment,” he said.
TJX, the owner of TJ Maxx and Marshalls, noted last week that it expected a “small negative impact” from tariffs in the first half of the year. “We have seen tariffs before, and we are confident we can navigate our way through the current China tariff environment on our future buys,” said John Klinger, the retailer’s finance chief.
Other brands have highlighted their ability to adapt, while also acknowledging the uncertainty that Mr. Trump’s tariffs have generated, which can dampen business activity.
John M. Vandemore, the chief financial officer of Skechers, joked with investors on Tuesday that “between when I left my hotel room and I came down, I had to check and make sure there were no new tariffs” before taking their questions. Still, he noted that the footwear company had a “pretty solid path” to absorbing the costs.
David Swartz, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said that while retailers were concerned about tariffs, it was not necessarily a new threat, since some of the tariffs on China date back to Mr. Trump’s first term.
If investors thought the latest round of tariffs were the start of a prolonged trade war, “you’d see stocks getting crushed all over the place,” he said. Ultimately, he added, “it doesn’t make any sense” for Mr. Trump “to actually cause a recession which would make people very angry with him.”
