Department Store Sales Trends in 4 Charts

Strong economic headwinds are reshaping the department store sector, let's look at sales trends in this troubled segment. (Chart 1) Most striking of course is the rapid and unending decline in sales for Sears Holdings. Other trends aren't quite as obvious in this picture, so let's focus on revenue growth rather than total revenue. (Chart 2) Now, we can clearly see the impact of the great recession in 2008 and 2009, and how Kohl's substantially outperformed its competitors during this time. The tenure of ex-CEO Ron Johnson at J.C. Penney is almost comically obvious, but let's focus in on just J.C. Penney for a minute. (Chart 3) The recovery from the Ron Johnson era has been nearly as impressive as the collapse itself. Finally, let's focus on two ends of the department store spectrum in Nordstrom and Kohl's. (Chart 4) As one would expect, Nordstrom took a bigger hit during the Great Recession, but as the economy stabilized and improved, it has been Nordstrom leading the way in revenue growth among department stores. Kohl's which performed so well during the bleak economic years has seen its revenue growth turn negative. With cheap oil, and an improving economy, these two trends seem likely to continue in 2015.