给百货商店唱挽歌？还早着呢

    对于仇视零售业的人来说，打击百货公司是他们最喜爱的消遣。然而，尽管百货公司因其陈旧的业务模式、缺乏生气的店面和高龄化的客户群而备受诟病，但美国百货公司在过去两年中东山再起，可以说一扫长期以来的颓势。

    让我们来看看华尔街对预计下周出炉的零售商可比较销售业绩（开店至少一年的店面的销售业绩，外加电子商务）报告所做的预测：汤森路透（Thomson Reuters）的数据显示，梅西百货（Macy's）下周三有望公布4%的业绩增长，而下周四零售公司彭尼（J.C. Penney）应该能亮出5.8%的好成绩，诺德斯特龙（Nordstrom）则为3.2%。即便是长期举步维艰的西尔斯（Sears）也有望斩获1%的可比较销售业绩增长。（Bon Ton Stores和Dillard的第二季度比较销售业绩也有望获得较大幅度攀升。）

    对于这种很多人声称注定要消失的零售业态来说，以上不失为是个好消息。

    当然，参照美国商务部（U.S. Department of Commerce）的数据，百货公司总体销售业绩要远低于2000年2,325亿美元的峰值。相比之下，2012年的业绩为1,797亿美元，而且去年一整年的销售业绩业已出炉。（几年前曾出现了多起大型连锁商店破产事件，其中包括Mervyns，而这也在很大程度上说明了当时零售业的不景气。）美国商务部发现，百货公司2014年第二季度销售业绩同比下滑了0.5%。

    但是很多供应商重新发现，梅西百货的井喷式增长以及彭尼从去年窘境的回归说明，幸存下来的百货公司正变得生机盎然。

    以Coach为例。这家高档手包制造商在美国渐渐失宠于消费者，促使它今年决定关闭20%的专卖店，逆转了近年来该公司一直大张旗鼓开新店的趋势。Coach转而将更为依赖梅西和诺德斯特龙这样的百货公司，利用它们所吸引的客流量。Coach并非只关注高端的比如梅西在曼哈顿的大型旗舰店，Coach在此的店中店由荷兰建筑师勒姆•科尔哈斯设计），配备了Coach的销售专员，随着它对12个顶级北美市场翻倍下注，在市场收窄的情况下，Coach也将利用810家梅西品牌连锁店来接触消费者。

    在最近的采访中，Coach首席执行官维克多•路易斯对《财富》说：“美国百货商店还是有市场的。在百货店，消费者穿梭于不同店面时无需远距离步行，而且对比货品也很方便。因此，能否在百货店中脱颖而出，热情服务、靓丽店面都将最终成为品牌生命力的试金石。”

    梅西已成为一些小品牌首选的零售商，因为这些品牌需要的是拥有庞大销售网络的合伙人：体育商品连锁店Finish Line和运动队商品销售商Lids去年与梅西结成了合作伙伴，在数十家梅西店面开设了其小型精品店。一直以来，这类合作关系在帮助梅西招揽更多的客户方面发挥了重要的作用。

    梅西还曾以某种方式成功地增加了其在多家知名供应商心目中的分量，即便后者正在扩张自家门店。拉尔夫•劳伦（Ralph Lauren）品牌去年12%的销售业绩（8.75亿美元）都是由梅西贡献的，而两年前为10%。而PVH旗下Tommy Hilfiger品牌在美国所有的批发销售几乎都被梅西包揽。

    Beating up on department stores is a favorite pastime of retail haters. And yet, despite accusations of having a passé business model, dusty stores and an aging customer base, U.S. department stores have staged a comeback in the last two years—and are arguably more vital than they have been in a long time.

    Just look at the Wall Street forecasts for the retailers’ comparable sales (sales at stores open at least a year plus e-commerce) reports expected in the next week: Macy’s , is expected to report a 4% jump on Wednesday, while J.C. Penney should post a 5.8% increase and Nordstrom a 3.2% rise on Thursday, according to Thomson Reuters data. Even the perennially struggling Sears’ U.S. namesake stores are seen posting a 1% comparable sales increase. (Bon Ton Stores and Dillard are also expected to report comparable sales jumps for the second quarter.)

    Not bad for a part of retail many have claimed is doomed to disappear.

    To be sure, overall department store sales are way below their 2000 peak of $232.5 billion, according to U.S. Department of Commerce figures, compared to $179.7 billion in 2012, the last full year for which data are available. (There was a spate of bankruptcies a few years ago that claimed chains like Mervyns, explaining a big part of the dip.) The Commerce Department found department sales were down 0.5% in the second quarter of 2014 compared to a year earlier.

    But as Macy’s explosive growth, and Penney’s return from the brink in the last year show, there is life among the department store survivors, as many vendors are re-discovering.

    Take Coach . The upscale handbag maker has fallen out of favor with U.S. customers, prompting it to decide this year to close 20% of its stores and essentially reverse a big push toward in recent years to have its own store fleet. To make up the difference, Coach will rely more on department stores like Macy’s and Nordstrom, tapping the shopper traffic those locations draw. Coach isn’t just focusing on high-profile stores like Macy’s massive flagship in Manhattan where it will soon staff shop-in-shops with Coach staff (and where its space was designed by Dutch starchitect Rem Koolhaas). Macy’s 810-store fleet will be how Coach reaches customers in smaller markets as it doubles down on its 12 top North American markets for its own stores.

    “There is place for the American department store,” Coach CEO Victor Luis told Fortune in a recent interview. “Consumers at a department store don’t have to go very far to cross-shop and in essence, compare and contrast. And so, at the end of the day, engaging well with the consumer at a department store, looking good, winning in a department store is a good test of a brand’s vitality.”

    And Macy’s has become the go-to retailer for some smaller brands needing a partner with a big footprint: Finish Line and sports team merchandise seller Lids last year struck partnerships with Macy’s to operate small boutiques at dozens of its stores. Those partnerships have been key to helping Macy’s get more shoppers into its stores.

    Macy’s has also somehow managed to become more crucial for several established vendors, even as they open up more of their own stores. Macy’s generated 12% of Ralph Lauren sales last year ($875 million), compared to 10% two years earlier. The department store accounts for almost all of PVH’s Tommy Hilfiger’s U.S. sales at wholesale.