Macy’s jewelry sales help drive best quarter in four years
Jewelry helped Macy’s post a 3.0% comparable-sales gain, its best first-quarter rise in four years, as fine jewelry and lab-grown diamonds kept shoppers spending.
Jewelry did more than sparkle in Macy’s first quarter, it helped the department store post a 3.0% comparable-sales gain, its strongest first-quarter performance in four years. In a market where shoppers are choosier about every discretionary dollar, that is a meaningful read-through for diamond jewelry, especially the mix of fine jewelry and lab-grown pieces Macy’s has been flagging as standouts.
Macy’s said net sales rose 1.8% to $4.7 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share came in at $0.13. Comparable sales were positive at every nameplate, with Macy’s up 1.6%, Bloomingdale’s up 10.2% and Bluemercury up 6.4%; Bloomingdale’s also delivered record first-quarter sales. Tony Spring said customers were responding to the company’s Bold New Chapter strategy, which is built around strengthening the Macy’s nameplate, accelerating luxury growth and modernizing operations.
The jewelry read-through is more specific than a simple sales beat. Macy’s had already called out fine jewelry, lab-grown diamonds and watches as standouts in the prior quarter, and in the latest period it again said fine jewelry, men’s apparel, shoes, tabletop and watches outperformed. That points to a mix of real demand and strategic merchandising, with jewelry benefiting from its ability to be both giftable and margin-rich. In a department-store floor plan, that usually means the cases closest to entry-level luxury are pulling traffic, while higher-ticket pieces still help define the brand’s image.
The broader strategy matters too. Macy’s is focusing resources on about 350 go-forward locations, and the company’s luxury push at Bloomingdale’s reinforces the same message from the upper end of the market. Macy’s raised full-year sales guidance to $21.5 billion to $21.75 billion after the quarter, underscoring that jewelry is not a side story in the turnaround, but one of the categories most capable of proving the customer is still willing to spend.
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