Paper Plays a Critical Role in the Digital Era

The U.S. Postal Service today announced its financial results for the 2023 fiscal year ended September 30. The net loss totaled $6.5 billion, compared to net income of $56.0 billion for the prior year. The net income last year was due primarily to the one-time non-cash impact of the Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA) in April 2022 and the results this year were significantly affected by the impact of inflation on operating expenses. Results under GAAP include retiree benefits expense for the amortization of underfunded Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) plans, and workers’ compensation expenses caused by actuarial revaluation and discount rate changes, as well as the impact of the PSRA for the same period last year. The Postal Service reports its adjusted results excluding these costs. Total operating revenue was $78.2 billion for the year, a decrease of $321 million, or 0.4 percent, compared to the same period last year, as package revenue increases were offset by mail revenue declines. Revenue for the overall Shipping and Packages category increased $324 million, or 1.0 percent, on a volume decline of 175 million pieces, or 2.4 percent, compared to the same period last year. Marketing Mail revenue decreased $920 million, or 5.8 percent, on a volume decline of 7.7 billion pieces, or 11.4 percent, compared to the same period last year. Total operating expenses were $85.4 billion for the year, an increase of $5.8 billion, or 7.3 percent, compared to the same period last year.

For the second quarter, the Company reported net income of $42.0 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared to net income of $26.2 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, for last year's second quarter. For the second quarter, net sales were $558.7 million compared to $472.1 million in last year's second quarter. This 18.4% improvement primarily reflects a comparable sales increase of 19.5%, partially offset by 26 permanent net store closures since last year's second quarter. The 19.5% comparable sales improvement was driven by an increase in transaction count and higher average dollar sale.

During the holiday season, Nordstrom continued to leverage its digital and physical assets to provide a unique breadth of merchandise selection across brands, price points and styles and convenient shopping experiences for customers: *December sales across the Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack brands reflected sequential improvement from November with momentum continuing into January. *Digital sales grew 23 percent over last year and represented 54 percent of total sales compared with 34 percent from the same period in fiscal 2019. *Approximately 11 percent of Nordstrom.com orders were picked up in-store, which accelerated to more than 20 percent during the week preceding Christmas. *Approximately 9 percent of Nordstromrack.com orders were picked up in-store, which was enabled by the integration of Nordstrom Rack store and online inventory in October. *More than 30 percent of online orders were fulfilled from Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores. *As a result of expanded gifting selection, gifting items made up 67 percent of sales, an increase of 600 basis points from the prior year.