Dive Brief:

• Express Inc.'s Q4 net sales increased to $725.8 million from $715.9 million last year, an increase of 1%. Fourth quarter same-store sales, including e-commerce sales, decreased 2%, down from a Q4 1% increase last year, the retailer said Thursday.

• E-commerce sales rose 4% to $144.3 million compared to last year's fourth quarter.

• Express Inc. this year continues its outlet-store-based growth strategy, and will add 30 or more stores this year after adding 41 outlet stores in 2014. 

Dive Insight:

The apparel retailer focused on young adults runs 600 stores in the U.S. and is facing many of the same challenges as other mall-based apparel retailers, including decreased traffic and increased competition from fast-fashion. But its strategy to bulk up on e-commerce and outlet stores has appeared to pay off, starting earlier last year.

“Together [outlet stores] generated approximately $55 million of incremental revenue, far surpassing our initial estimate,” said Express SVP-CFO Paul Dascoli.