NEW YORK – Macy's reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat Wall Street expectations as its strategy of tailoring merchandise to local markets paid off during the holiday season.

The department store chain, which also operates the upscale Bloomingdale's stores, also said Tuesday that it expects that same game plan to help increase revenue at stores open at least a year by 3.5 percent in fiscal 2013. That's on top of the increase of 3.7 percent for 2012. The measure is a key indicator of health because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations.

"Going into 2013, our team is moving ahead with new plans and actions to sharpen our approach to localized merchandise assortments and marketing," CEO Terry Lundgren said in a statement.