Office Depot Inc. reported declines in sales to both businesses and consumers for 2016, but online sales helped cushion the fall, executives said on the quarterly earnings call this week.

Sales to business clients declined at Office Depot in 2016, but still inched closer to representing half of the office supplies company’s total sales.

Office Depot reported 2016 sales in its Business Solutions Division of $5.40 billion, down 5.4% from $5.71 billion in 2015. Business division sales accounted for 49.0% of total sales in 2016, compared with 48.7% the year before, taking share from retail sales. Sales on the retail side of the business declined 6.7% in 2016, to $5.60 billion from $6.00 billion in 2015. Retail’s slice of total sales was 50.8% in 2016 compared with 51.2% last year.

The company doesn’t break out e-commerce sales in its business or retail divisions in its earnings reports and Office Depot did not respond to a request for quarterly and annual online sales.

For the year ended Dec. 31, Office Depot, No. 42 in the 2017 B2B E-Commerce 300, reported:

• Total sales of $11.02 billion, down by 6.1% from $11.73 billion in fiscal 2015.
• Net income of $529 million, compared with net income of $8 million last year.

Net income includes $250 million received in May from Staples Inc. as the termination fee for the aborted acquisition of Office Depot. In early May the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction against the proposed acquisition, effectively blocking the sale.

For the fourth quarter Office Depot reported:

• Total sales of $2.73 billion, down 1.4% from $2.77 billion in the same period last year.
• Net income of $80 million, compared with net income of $15 million in Q4 2015.

Business division sales were $1.36 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, flat compared with the prior-year period, the company reported. Excluding approximately $56 million of sales during a 53rd week last year, sales declined 5% in constant currency, with contract channel sales down while direct channel sales were up year over year. Office Depot says direct channel sales are mostly conducted with small and mid-sized business customers online, through catalogs or by phone.

“The sales decline was principally in the contract channel and largely driven by customer attrition and fewer new customer additions during the period of business disruption related to the Staples acquisition attempt earlier in the year,” chief financial officer Stephen Hare told analysts on Office Depot’s year-end earnings call.

Contract channel sales are handled by inside and field sales reps serving businesses ranging from small to large, along with schools and local, state, and national government agencies.

“In the direct channel, sales improved mainly due to strong online sales during the holiday period, partly offset by the ongoing reduction in catalog sales and higher sales from our buy online-pick up in store and ship from store programs that are recorded in our North American retail division,” Hare said, according to a transcript of the call provided by Seeking Alpha. Hare did not disclose online sales figures on the call.

Three days into his position as CEO, Gerry Smith told analysts that the business-to-business side of Office Depot is a big advantage. “There is a B2B element that a lot of companies don’t have in retail that we have here,” Smith said. “That’s a huge asset.”

Smith was named in January to succeed Roland Smith, who retired. Prior to joining Office Depot Gerry Smith was chief operating officer and executive vice president of computer and electronics manufacturer Lenovo’s Enterprise Business Group and Personal Computing Group.

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