Senior executives at Macy’s, which reported a 45 percent drop in first-quarter revenues last week to $3 billion, told analysts that it’s taking a conservative approach to the back half of 2020 due to the “high degree of uncertainty” in the market.

“Because we are modeling a slow recovery, we’ve talked about the fact that we may not get back to our normal environment until the end of 2021, possibly entering in 2022,” interim CFO Felicia Williams said.

Before the latest rise in COVID-19 cases across the U.S., Macy’s was experiencing slower store openings among its urban and flagship doors; a “virtual disappearance” of international tourism spending at its locations; and a rise in purchases from younger, more diverse consumers that have slightly lower incomes than the banner’s core customers.

Going forward, Macy’s is anticipating further gains in digital sales penetration, more customers opting for curbside pick-up this fall to remain socially distant and some compression of key product categories due to the ongoing pandemic.

“When you look at the apparel categories, what’s interesting is [that] active and casual, those are stronger than they’ve been historically,” said Chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette. “And when you look at the emerging categories… we’ve got lots of vendor-direct categories that are new, that we’re going to expand and have a brick-and-mortar presence in.”

Macy’s is currently forecasting a “high teens” increase in fall digital sales as more of its customers shift to online shopping due to COVID-19 concerns. The banner’s annual digital sales should jump in the low- to mid-teens. Stores are projected to fulfill approximately 30 percent of all digital orders in the fourth quarter. Macy’s executives are currently developing strategies “to reduce pressure points on big volume days” and perhaps shift some consumer demand to earlier days, perhaps as early as Halloween.