Online sales were up 9% for office supplies retailer Staples Inc. in the third quarter of 2014, but overall sales dropped 2.5% to $5.96 billion in Q3 from $6.11 billion a year ago. Staples, No. 3 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, does not disclose e-commerce sales in dollars.

“This is the result of the investments we’ve made to drive business customer acquisition and a better customer experience on our desktop and mobile web sites,” CEO Ron Sargent said on an earnings call transcript obtained by Seeking Alpha. “We also saw strong demand online during back-to-school.”

Staples introduced several e-commerce and mobile commerce programs during the quarter. Among them is buy online pick up in-store, which accounted for nearly 10% of the retailer’s domestic e-commerce orders. Staples also launched its first iPad app.

“We also launched the new app for the iPhone which supports Apple Pay and makes it easy for customers to shop and checkout whenever and however they want,” Sargent said.

The company is going to be relying more on its online success as its physical retail footprint continues to shrink. Staples announced it will shutter 170 retail locations by year’s end, more than the 140 store closings they had previously announced in Q2 2014.

For the third quarter ending Nov. 1, Staples reported:

• Overall sales in North American stores and online of $2.83 billion, down 5.9% from $3.01 billion during the same period last year.
• North American commercial sales of $2.16 billion, up 3.3% from $2.09 billion during the same period last year.

For first nine months of the fiscal year, Staples reported:

• Overall sales down 2.3%, to $16.84 billion in 2014 from $17.24 billion during the same period in 2013.
• North American stores and online sales down 5.5%, to $7.75 billion from $8.20 billion during the same period last year.

 

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