Gordmans enters the world of omnichannel

Gordmans Stores plans to open a new store next month in its hometown of Omaha in April, the first of five new units apparel and home décor retailer has planned for the year.

Gordmans launched its e-commerce site last year and opened six new stores to end the year with 102 locations while turning in a weak sales and profit performance. The addition of selling space enabled the company to increase sales 0.9% to $205.7 million while same store sales decreased 2.2% during the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30. Net income for period fell to $1.1 million, six cents a share, from $2.3 million, or 12 cents a share, the prior year.

"During fiscal 2015 we made important progress on several strategic initiatives which contributed to a meaningful improvement in our three year comp sales trend,” said Gordmans President and CEO Andy Hall. “This included successfully launching our e-commerce channel, growing our guest loyalty program to over five million members and introducing a new branding campaign.”

To build on the company’s accomplishments, Hall said Gordmans is focused on increasing customer traffic, identifying expense savings, optimizing the supply chain, implementing a new point-of-sale system and expanding the store base. However, those initiatives won’t immediately manifest themselves in the form of improved sales and profits. First quarter same store sales are expected to be flat to down 2% and gross margins will be under pressure as the company is clears inventory from last fall. An earnings per share loss of six cents to 10 cents is forecast.

"Our fourth quarter sales performance was more volatile than we expected due in part to unfavorable weather conditions in December and late January. This created a temporary inventory build at year end that we are clearing through during the first quarter,” Hall said.

Gordmans ended 2015 with total sales of $649 million, an increase of 2.3% from the prior year, while same store sales declined 1.2%. The company reported a loss of $4.3 million, or 22 cents a share, compared to a prior year loss of $3.5 million, or 18 cents a share.