On Wednesday, Macy’s, Inc. posted its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2025. The department store giant and owner of Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury reported a 1.5% growth in comparable sales to $21.8 billion for 2025.
Looking ahead to 2026, however, the company is projecting annual sales to reach $21.4 billion to $21.65 billion, representing a 0.5% drop to 0.5% increase compared to 2025. The company will continue its plans to close 65 Macy’s nameplate stores, as part of a previously announced 150 store closures, and will look to artificial intelligence to improve operations throughout the fleet.
“We believe there is significant opportunity to leverage AI throughout the organization, including supply chain, merchandising, marketing and call centers, as well as in customer-facing and omnichannel areas,” said Macy’s CFO Tom Edwards on Wednesday’s earnings call.
“AI for us is an opportunity to combine the improvements in technology and data science with humanity and deliver a relationship-oriented business that is focused on the consumer,” said Macy’s CEO Tony Spring.
While Macy’s nameplate stores saw 0.4% comparable sales growth in 2025, Bloomingdale’s posted the largest growth. The department store chain reported a 7.4% increase in comparable sales for the full year of 2025 and an 8.5% growth in net sales for the fourth quarter.
At beauty retail chain Bluemercury, the company reported a 1.6% growth in comparable annual sales in 2025, with growth driven by fragrance and dermatological skin-care brands such as Skinceuticals, Sisley Paris and Parfums De Marley. Looking ahead, the retailer will also continue to integrate artificial intelligence into its operations. “The team has walked me through over 35 different [AI] use cases, all of which are designed to support how customers shop and how our colleagues serve them,” said Spring.
Events will be a key pillar for the year ahead. 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which reached a record 34 million viewers and generated over 3 billion earned social media impressions in 2025. Throughout the year, Macy’s will introduce both large-scale and localized events as part of its “Celebration Starts at Macy’s” plan for 2026.
Macy’s reported that its customer base at nameplate stores is skewing toward the middle- and upper-income tiers. The company will continue to invest in its revamped “Reimagine” locations, introducing those updates to an additional 75 locations, bringing the total “Reimagine” fleet to 200 stores.
But while higher-income customers may be more resilient than lower-income consumers, the company anticipates that macroeconomic factors may make consumers more cautious.
“As we look ahead, there are many macroeconomic and geopolitical factors that could influence discretionary spend. While we remain confident in our strategy and believe we are well-positioned to build on our recent momentum, we are taking a prudent approach to guidance for our first quarter and fiscal year 2026,” said Spring.
