Myer has suffered a horror start to the all-important Christmas trading period, revealing that sales in the first two weeks of December were down 5 per cent on last year.
In a second-quarter trading update released on Thursday, the department store said November trade had also been worse than expected, despite heavy investment in marketing and other measures to increase foot traffic.
Total sales in November were down 2.3 per cent compared with the same period in 2016, and down 1.8 per cent on a same-store basis.
Myer's shares plunged on the announcement, finishing the day down 9.6 per cent at 65?? - their lowest price since the company floated at $4.10 in 2009. The stock has shed 53 per cent of its value since January.
The poor result follows months of open warfare with Myer's largest shareholder, Solomon Lew's Premier Investments, which has been scathing of the company's management and strategy.
But Premier's billionaire chairman was uncharacteristically quiet on Thursday. A spokeswoman reiterated Mr Lew's cryptic warning made at Premier's AGM this month that "summer is coming" for Myer and that "the numbers won't lie".
"Clearly there is worse to come," she added.
Myer chief executive Richard Umbers said trading during the past two weeks had been significantly below expectations, which he claimed reflected subdued consumer sentiment.
The latest Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of consumer confidence, released on Wednesday, shot to its highest point in four years after lifting steadily in recent months.
He said it could also have been influenced by Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, meaning there was an extra day of weekend shopping before December 25 which could shunt sales later into the month.
"It's certainly disappointing to have sales down like that and so significantly off the run rate," Mr Umbers said.
"We've put out this release because clearly something has happened which is very different from the trend."
Myer said it now expected first-half profit to be materially below last year's, but would not give guidance because of "sales volatility" and the magnitude of trade it expected before Christmas.
Brian Walker, from consultancy The Retail Doctor, said Myer's 5 per cent drop would be worse than the market at large because department stores faced structural headwinds globally.
"Myer has been in the gun-barrel of so much of the change in retail, from every independent online start up fashion retailer, through to the large Uniqlos and Zaras and H&Ms of this world, coupled with the growth just in general online and pre-research online, and finally with the introduction of businesses like Amazon," he said.
The "thousand cuts" Myer had sustained became more pronounced during the Christmas sales period because of the high sales volumes and activity, Mr Walker said.
December can account for almost 16 cent of a department store's annual sales and up to 38 per cent of annual profit, Citi said in research released this week.
Mr Umbers said Myer had decided on its strategy for Christmas and would not change it in light of the poor performance so far.
"We've made good plans and I think we should stick to making sure Christmas is the very best that we can make it," Mr Umbers said.
He said online sales had grown 62 per cent in the first four months of the financial year, showing it was investing in the right areas.
Myer's new chairman, Garry Hounsell, said the past two weeks had been disappointing, but doubled down on the commitments made at a recent strategy day to focus on "omni-channel" retailing and productivity.
Mr Hounselll said he would spend the next three months reviewing all aspects of the Myer business and would "update shareholders on any additional steps that are required to drive performance progressively during this period".
