Department store group Nordstrom posted a 1.7% increase in net profit to $236m (£147m) for its fourth quarter ended January 28. Net sales rose 12.5% to $3.17bin (£1.97bn) and rose 7.1% on a like-for-like basis. Online sales soared 35% during the quarter.

Top-performing categories included handbags, designer and cosmetics. For the full year, Nordstrom achieved record net sales of $10.5bn (£6.54bn), representing two consecutive years of approximately 13% annual growth. Net profit rose 11.4% to $683m (£425.8m) while like-for-like sales improved 7.2%.

In 2012, Nordstrom plans to continue to invest in increasing top-line revenue and anticipates like-for-like increases of between 4% and 6%.