Internet sales at J.C. Penney Co. Inc. rose 30% for the second quarter and 40% for the first half ended July 31, contributing to the retailer’s surging operating profits, J.C. Penney said today.
The rise in Internet sales coincided with a sharp decline in catalog sales, causing combined Q2 web and catalog sales to fall 1.6% year-to-year. By comparison, comp store sales rose 7.1%. Combined store, web and catalog sales rose 5.8% for the quarter to $3.86 billion from $3.65 billion a year ago. J.C. Penney doesn’t report sales figures separately for web, catalog and stores.
Q2 operation profit more than tripled to $156 million from $53 million a year ago, the company said, noting input from web sales. “While catalog/Internet sales decreased 1.6%, their contribution to profit continued to generate solid improvement,” said J.C. Penney, No. 13 in the Internet Retailer Top 300 Guide to online retailers.
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