Isetan Mitsukoshi's domestic sales rise 7% in July, as overseas-customer spending surges 32%

Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings' domestic department-store business posted July sales up 7.0 per cent year on year, the company said in its monthly sales report, as spending by overseas customers climbed 32.1 per cent — more than four and a half times the pace of the group's overall domestic growth.

Among merchandise categories, jewellery and precious metals led, up 29.1 per cent, as continued yen weakness kept pulling in visitors chasing high-value goods, according to the company. Watches, luxury handbags and women's apparel also contributed to the gain, the report said.

The flagship split

The group's three central Tokyo flagships showed how unevenly that growth landed. Isetan Shinjuku's overall sales rose 15.5 per cent, with tax-free sales up 47.2 per cent. Mitsukoshi Nihombashi grew 7.9 per cent overall, but its tax-free sales rose 53.1 per cent, the fastest of the three. Ginza Mitsukoshi's overall sales rose 11.3 per cent, while its tax-free sales grew a comparatively modest 9.1 per cent, according to the company's figures.

The pattern across the three flagships fits what has become this cycle's defining split for Tokyo's department stores: solid but unspectacular growth from the domestic till, and a far larger gain concentrated in tax-free spending as the weak yen keeps Japan cheap for visiting shoppers. Ginza Mitsukoshi's comparatively modest tax-free growth next to Shinjuku's and Nihombashi's is the detail worth watching, though this month's figures alone do not show whether that reflects a store still leaning more on domestic regulars or one that has simply not recaptured the inbound share it once had.