Myer Holding Limited has this morning released a positive sales figure for its department store assets for the first quarter of the 2013 financial year.

For the 13 weeks to 27 October 2012, Myer recorded $668 million in sales, up 1 per cent on the same period last year, and up 0.8 per cent on a comparable stores basis.

Myer identified clothing and cosmetics as the best performing categories and said Western Australia and Queensland were the best performing states.

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Despite this uplift in sales, albeit slight, CEO Bernie Brookes remained tempered in his optimism.

“While we welcomed the October interest rate cut there are a myriad of factors (sic) currently in the mix and influencing discretionary spend, so we continue to be cautious about the trading environment,” he said.

“We are looking forward to our business time of the year during the Christmas and stocktake trading period.”

Brookes also referenced Myer’s online sales in what is fast becoming an obligatory section in the reports of publicly listed retailers.

“We are making good progress on improving our website and there remains a strong pipeline of future improvements. We are confident that we are continuing to make good progress on improving our customer service, as well as enhancing our loyalty program for our 4.9 million Myer One members.”