Costco’s January sales get a boost from early Lunar New Year

Costco says net sales for the retail month of January increased 15.5% year over year, helped in part by an early Lunar New Year.

The warehouse club operator reported net sales of US$15.76 billion for the four-week period ended Jan. 30, up from $13.64 billion last year.

Costco said it benefitted from an early to start to Lunar New Year on Feb. 1. The festival, which is tied to the lunar Chinese calendar, was 11 days earlier than last year.

“The shift favorably impacted January’s Other International and Total Company sales by approximately 4% and 0.5%, respectively,” the company said in a press release.

In Canada, same-store sales for the 12-week period ended Nov. 21 increased 17.8% year over year, while comparable sales–excluding the impact of gasoline sales and foreign currency fluctuations--increased 13.9%.

Online sales for the warehouse club operator were also strong. Costco, which operates e-commerce sites in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia, reported an online sales increase of 9%