• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 5, 2012

Between balmy weather and an early Easter, the country’s largest retailers posted solid sales results in March, with luxury stores turning in especially strong performances. 

Nordstrom, for example, says its comparable-store sales jumped 8.6% in March, and at Saks, sales climbed 6.3%, fueled by a strong demand for women’s apparel; fine jewelry; handbags; and men’s accessories, shoes, and clothing. But consumers were shopping hard on the other end of the spectrum, too, with Target reporting a 7.3% increase in same-store results, which the Minneapolis-based chain described as “well above expectations.”

Macy’s also bested estimates with a 7.3% gain. "March sales exceeded our expectations beyond the benefits we anticipated from an earlier Easter and a shift in a cosmetics event from April last year to March this year. Once again, our strength in performance was balanced across Macy's and Bloomingdale's, stores and online, geographies and families of business," CEO Terry J. Lundgren says in its release. 

Sales also improved at the Gap, in an early indication that consumers are responding to some of its merchandising changes. Overall, same-store sales increased 8%, with sales rising 9% at its Gap North America stores, 5% at Banana Republic, and 11% at Old Navy. Limited Brands saw a gain of 8%, and at Kohl’s, sales rose 3.1%.

Overall, U.S. chain-store sales rose by 4.1% on a year-over-year basis, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.  

And in what may be an even more promising sign for retailers, Deutsche Bank, which calculates a monthly Discount Tracker at specialty apparel chains to measure how many stores are cutting prices, and by how much, reports that the total number of apparel promotions declined an average of 10% in March. (The average discount on those items, however, rose to 42% off full price, steeper than the 40% off offered in March of last year.)

“All in all, while apparel retailers still rely on discounting to drive traffic, for the near term, we believe the industry is benefitting for the first time in many seasons from a trifecta of relatively clean inventories,  seasonal demand, and decent full-price selling.” 

Meanwhile, while JCPenney announced last month that it would not report monthly sales results as it undergoes its massive overhaul, it did axe 15% of the workforce at its Plano, Tex.-based headquarters, or about 600 people.

"We are transitioning from a culture based on management to one based on leadership," CEO Ron Johnson says in the release announcing the restructuring. "We are going to operate like a start-up. We are going to extend the reach and span of control of our very best talent. We are going to be nimble, quick to learn, quicker to react and totally committed to realizing our vision to become America's favorite store.”

ICSC expects that April sales will increase between 3 and 4%.