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DILLARD’S, INC. (DDS) Business

DILLARD’S, INC. Business

The company's own words from the Business item of each annual report, in the filing's order. Some sections could not be read exactly.

  • 2026: Section Item 1. Business; Text Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964 (and was reincorporated in Texas in 2025). As of January 31, 2026, we operated 271 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store at dillards.com offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.; Document 10-K.
  • 2025: Section Item 1. Business; Text Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 1, 2025, we operated 272 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store at dillards.com offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.; Document 10-K.
  • 2024: Section Item 1. Business; Text Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 3, 2024, we operated 273 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store at dillards.com offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.; Document 10-K.
  • 2023: Section Item 1. Business; Text Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 28, 2023, we operated 277 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.; Document 10-K.

Business, as filed

The company's own words from the Business item of each annual report, verbatim and in the filing's order, split at the filing's own headings. Nothing is summarised or reworded. Tables and images are not shown; the document has them.

Fiscal yearSectionTextDocument
2026Item 1. Business

Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964 (and was reincorporated in Texas in 2025). As of January 31, 2026, we operated 271 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store at dillards.com offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2025 Fiscal 2024 Fiscal 2023 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 16 % 16 % 16 % Ladies' apparel 20 20 20 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 14 14 14 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 9 9 Men's apparel and accessories 19 19 19 Shoes 14 14 14 Home and furniture 4 4 4 96 96 96 Construction segment 4 4 4 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” in Item 8 hereof.

Customers may visit us in person at any of our retail stores located primarily in shopping malls and open-air centers throughout the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Our customers may also visit us online at our e-Commerce site, dillards.com, gaining company-wide access to in-store merchandise selections across 30 states as well as in our fulfillment and distribution centers. Customers also have the option to buy online and pickup in store or have their orders shipped directly to their desired location. Dillards.com also serves as a key customer engagement tool with continually updated style and trend content to both educate and inspire our customers.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard’s and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company’s high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

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We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard’s trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard’s holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) previously owned and managed Dillard’s private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance (“Wells Fargo Alliance”). In January 2024, the Company announced that it entered into a new agreement with Citibank, N.A. (“Citi”) to provide the private label credit card program for Dillard’s customers under a new alliance (“Citibank Alliance”), replacing the existing credit card program under the Wells Fargo Alliance upon its termination in September 2024. The new program launched on August 19, 2024 for new Dillard’s credit applicants. Existing accounts transferred from Wells Fargo to Citi on September 16, 2024. The term of the new Citi agreement is 10 years with automatic extensions for successive two-year terms unless the agreement is terminated by either party in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement.

Under the Citibank Alliance, Citi establishes, owns and manages Dillard’s private label credit cards, including a new co-branded Mastercard Incorporated card (“Mastercard,” collectively, the “private label cards”). The new co-branded Mastercard replaced the previous co-branded card. Citi retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the private label card accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts.

Pursuant to the Citibank Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Citi based upon the portfolio’s earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions.

We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. Citi supports certain Dillard’s marketing and loyalty program activities related to the new program. We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to encourage customers to make applications for new accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores or online. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered advance notice of sale events.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal year 2025 ended on January 31, 2026 and contained 52 weeks. Fiscal year 2024 ended on February 1, 2025 and contained 52 weeks. Fiscal year 2023 ended on February 3, 2024 and contained 53 weeks.

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Human Capital

As of December 20, 2025, the Company employed approximately 29,100 associates. Approximately 20,400 were full-time associates (greater than 35 hours per week), 6,400 were part-time associates (20-35 hours per week) and 2,300 were limited status associates (less than 20 hours per week).1 None of our associates are represented by a union.

As a department store chain, the Company employs a wide range of associates, including sales associates, management professionals, maintenance professionals, call center associates, distribution center associates, buyers, advertising and back office personnel. Given the breadth of our employee base, we tailor our human capital management efforts with a view to specific associate populations.

Of the Company’s full-time associates, approximately 87% work in the retail stores. We focus on attracting and retaining excellent associates at the store level by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market.

Training and talent development. The Company develops talent by investing in formalized classroom training, specialized training for our sales management team, ongoing mentorship programs and on-the-job experience. We seek to create an engaged workforce through open door policies and promotion opportunities. The Company’s philosophy is to develop talent and promote from within our organization, thus providing a better customer service model due to a deeper understanding of the overall business and our customers’ expectations. Career paths and opportunities for promotion are discussed with associates from the first day of training and on an ongoing basis. In order to ensure that qualified candidates are aware of store promotion opportunities, each store is directed to post promotion opportunities for supervisory positions.

As of December 20, 2025, approximately 75% of the salaried managers at our stores were promoted from hourly store positions.

Available Information

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard’s, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com. Copies may also be obtained through the SEC’s EDGAR website: sec.gov.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

1 For purposes of this section, all figures are based on calendar year 2025.

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10-K
2025Item 1. Business

Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 1, 2025, we operated 272 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store at dillards.com offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2024 Fiscal 2023 Fiscal 2022 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 16 % 16 % 15 % Ladies' apparel 20 20 21 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 14 14 14 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 9 9 Men's apparel and accessories 19 19 20 Shoes 14 14 15 Home and furniture 4 4 4 96 96 98 Construction segment 4 4 2 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” in Item 8 hereof.

Customers may visit us in person at any of our retail stores located primarily in shopping malls and open-air centers throughout the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Our customers may also visit us online at our e-Commerce site, dillards.com, gaining company-wide access to in-store merchandise selections across 30 states as well as in our fulfillment and distribution centers. Customers also have the option to buy online and pickup in store or have their orders shipped directly to their desired location. Dillards.com also serves as a key customer engagement tool with continually updated style and trend content to both educate and inspire our customers.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard’s and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company’s high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

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We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard’s trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard’s holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) previously owned and managed Dillard’s private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance (“Wells Fargo Alliance”). In January 2024, the Company announced that it entered into a new agreement with Citibank, N.A. (“Citi”) to provide the private label credit card program for Dillard’s customers under a new alliance (“Citibank Alliance”), replacing the existing credit card program under the Wells Fargo Alliance upon its termination in September 2024. The new program launched on August 19, 2024 for new Dillard’s credit applicants. Existing accounts transferred from Wells Fargo to Citi on September 16, 2024. The term of the new Citi agreement is 10 years with automatic extensions for successive two-year terms unless the agreement is terminated by either party in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement.

Under the Citibank Alliance, Citi establishes, owns and manages Dillard’s private label credit cards, including a new co-branded Mastercard Incorporated card (“Mastercard,” collectively, the “private label cards”). The new co-branded Mastercard replaced the previous co-branded card. Citi retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the private label card accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts.

Pursuant to the Citibank Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Citi based upon the portfolio’s earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions.

We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. Citi supports certain Dillard’s marketing and loyalty program activities related to the new program. We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to encourage customers to make applications for new accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores or online. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered advance notice of sale events.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal year 2024 ended on February 1, 2025 and contained 52 weeks. Fiscal year 2023 ended on February 3, 2024 and contained 53 weeks. Fiscal year 2022 ended on January 28, 2023 and contained 52 weeks.

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Human Capital

As of December 23, 2024, the Company employed approximately 28,800 associates. Approximately 20,100 were full-time associates (greater than 35 hours per week), 6,300 were part-time associates (20-35 hours per week) and 2,400 were limited status associates (less than 20 hours per week).1 None of our associates are represented by a union.

As a department store chain, the Company employs a wide range of associates, including sales associates, management professionals, maintenance professionals, call center associates, distribution center associates, buyers, advertising and back office personnel. Given the breadth of our employee base, we tailor our human capital management efforts with a view to specific associate populations.

Of the Company’s full-time associates, approximately 87% work in the retail stores. We focus on attracting and retaining excellent associates at the store level by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market.

Training and talent development. The Company develops talent by investing in formalized classroom training, specialized training for our sales management team, ongoing mentorship programs and on-the-job experience. We seek to create an engaged workforce through open door policies and promotion opportunities. The Company’s philosophy is to develop talent and promote from within our organization, thus providing a better customer service model due to a deeper understanding of the overall business and our customers’ expectations. Career paths and opportunities for promotion are discussed with associates from the first day of training and on an ongoing basis. In order to ensure that qualified candidates are aware of store promotion opportunities, each store is directed to post promotion opportunities for supervisory positions.

As of December 23, 2024, approximately 75% of the salaried managers at our stores were promoted from hourly store positions.

Available Information

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard’s, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com. Copies may also be obtained through the SEC’s EDGAR website: sec.gov.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

1 For purposes of this section, all figures are based on calendar year 2024.

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10-K
2024Item 1. Business

Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 3, 2024, we operated 273 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store at dillards.com offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2023 Fiscal 2022 Fiscal 2021 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 16 % 15 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 20 21 21 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 14 14 15 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 9 10 Men's apparel and accessories 19 20 19 Shoes 14 15 15 Home and furniture 4 4 4 96 98 98 Construction segment 4 2 2 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” in Item 8 hereof.

Customers may visit us in person at any of our retail stores located primarily in shopping malls and open-air centers throughout the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Our customers may also visit us online at our e-Commerce site, dillards.com, gaining company-wide access to in-store merchandise selections across 30 states as well as in our fulfillment and distribution centers. Customers also have the option to buy online and pickup in store or have their orders shipped directly to their desired location. Dillards.com also serves as a key customer engagement tool with continually updated style and trend content to both educate and inspire our customers.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard’s and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company’s high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

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We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard’s trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard’s holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) owns and manages Dillard’s private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively “private label cards”) under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance (“Wells Fargo Alliance”). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio’s earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores or online. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

In January 2024, the Company announced that it entered into a new agreement with Citibank, N.A. (“Citi”) to provide a credit card program for Dillard’s customers, replacing the existing Wells Fargo Alliance. The Dillard’s credit card program offered by Citi will include a new co-branded Mastercard Incorporated card (“Mastercard”) as well as a private label credit card. The new co-branded Mastercard will replace the existing co-branded card. Additionally, Citi will provide customer service functions and support certain Dillard’s marketing and loyalty program activities related to the new program. The companies expect to launch the new program in late summer 2024 for new Dillard’s credit applicants. The transfer of existing accounts to Citi is expected in the fall of 2024. The term of the agreement is 10 years with automatic extensions for successive two-year terms unless the agreement is terminated by a party in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal year 2023 ended on February 3, 2024 and contained 53 weeks, and fiscal years 2022 and 2021 ended on January 28, 2023 and January 29, 2022, respectively, and each contained 52 weeks.

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Human Capital

As of December 25, 2023, the Company employed approximately 29,600 associates. Approximately 20,200 were full-time associates (greater than 35 hours per week), 7,100 were part-time associates (20-35 hours per week) and 2,300 were limited status associates (less than 20 hours per week).1 None of our associates are represented by a union.

As a department store chain, the Company employs a wide range of associates, including sales associates, management professionals, maintenance professionals, call center associates, distribution center associates, buyers, advertising and back office personnel. Given the breadth of our employee base, we tailor our human capital management efforts with a view to specific associate populations.

Of the Company’s full-time associates, approximately 86% work in the retail stores. We focus on attracting and retaining excellent associates at the store level by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market.

Training and talent development. The Company develops talent by investing in both formalized classroom training, specialized training for our sales management team, ongoing mentorship programs and on-the-job experience. We seek to create an engaged workforce through open door policies and promotion opportunities. The Company’s philosophy is to develop talent and promote from within our organization, thus providing a better customer service model due to a deeper understanding of the overall business and our customers’ expectations. Career paths and opportunities for promotion are discussed with associates from the first day of training and on an ongoing basis. As of December 25, 2023, approximately 73% of the salaried managers at our stores were promoted from hourly store positions.

Diversity and inclusion. The Company has a diverse customer base and seeks to achieve that same diversity in its workforce. As of December 25, 2023, approximately 74% of our store associates were women, and approximately 55% of our store associates were non-white.

In its efforts to promote diversity within our store positions, the Company has developed and made available to store level hiring managers a Diversity and Inclusion training curriculum. In addition, in order to ensure that all qualified candidates are aware of store promotion opportunities, each store posts promotion opportunities for supervisory positions.

Available Information

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard’s, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com. Copies may also be obtained through the SEC’s EDGAR website: sec.gov.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

1 For purposes of this section, all figures are based on calendar year 2023.

Table of Contents

10-K
2023Item 1. Business

Dillard’s, Inc. (“Dillard’s”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 28, 2023, we operated 277 Dillard’s stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC (“CDI”), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2022 Fiscal 2021 Fiscal 2020 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 14 % 15 % Ladies' apparel 21 21 18 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 14 15 17 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 10 9 Men's apparel and accessories 20 19 18 Shoes 15 15 15 Home and furniture 4 4 5 98 98 97 Construction segment 2 2 3 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments and the impact of COVID-19 on each of the foregoing, can be found in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” in Item 8 hereof.

Customers may visit us in person at any of our retail stores located primarily in shopping malls and open-air centers throughout the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Our customers may also visit us online at our e-Commerce site, dillards.com, gaining company-wide access to in-store merchandise selections across 29 states as well as in our fulfillment and distribution centers. Customers also have the option to buy online and pickup in store or have their orders shipped directly to their desired location. Dillards.com also serves as a key customer engagement tool with continually updated style and trend content to both educate and inspire our customers.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard’s and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company’s high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

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We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard’s trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard’s holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) owns and manages Dillard’s private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively “private label cards”) under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance (“Wells Fargo Alliance”). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio’s earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in November 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores or online. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020 ended on January 28, 2023, January 29, 2022 and January 30, 2021, respectively, and contained 52 weeks each.

Human Capital

As of December 24, 2022, the Company employed approximately 29,900 associates. Approximately 19,600 were full-time (greater than 35 hours per week) associates, 8,200 were part-time (20-35 hours per week) associates and 2,100 were limited status associates (less than 20 hours per week).1 None of our associates are represented by a union.

As a department store chain, the Company employs a wide range of associates, including sales associates, management professionals, maintenance professionals, call center associates, distribution center associates, buyers,

1 For purposes of this section, all figures are based on calendar year 2022.

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advertising and back office personnel. Given the breadth of our employee base, we tailor our human capital management efforts with a view to specific associate populations.

Of the Company’s full-time associates, approximately 86% work in the retail stores. We focus on attracting and retaining excellent associates at the store level by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market.

Training and talent development. The Company develops talent by investing in both formalized classroom training, specialized training for our sales management team, ongoing mentorship programs and on-the-job experience. We seek to create an engaged workforce through open door policies and promotion opportunities. The Company’s philosophy is to develop talent and promote from within our organization, thus providing a better customer service model due to a deeper understanding of the overall business and our customers’ expectations. Career paths and opportunities for promotion are discussed with associates from the first day of training and on an ongoing basis. As of December 24, 2022, approximately 72% of the salaried managers at our stores were promoted from hourly store positions.

Diversity and inclusion. The Company has a diverse customer base and seeks to achieve that same diversity in its workforce. As of December 24, 2022, approximately 75% of our store associates were women, and approximately 54% of our store associates were non-white.

In its efforts to promote diversity within our store positions, the Company has developed and made available to store level hiring managers a Diversity and Inclusion training curriculum. In addition, in order to ensure that all qualified candidates are aware of store promotion opportunities, each store posts promotion opportunities for supervisory positions.

Available Information

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard’s, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com. Copies may also be obtained through the SEC’s EDGAR website: sec.gov.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

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10-K
2022Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 29, 2022, we operated 280 Dillard's stores, including 30 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2021 Fiscal 2020 Fiscal 2019 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 15 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 21 18 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 15 17 15 Juniors' and children's apparel 10 9 9 Men's apparel and accessories 19 18 18 Shoes 15 15 15 Home and furniture 4 5 4 98 97 97 Construction segment 2 3 3 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments and the impact of COVID-19 on each of the foregoing, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

Customers may visit us in person at any of our retail stores located primarily in shopping malls and open-air centers throughout the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Our customers may also visit us online at our e-Commerce site, dillards.com, gaining company-wide access to in-store merchandise selections across 29 states as well as in our fulfillment and distribution centers. Customers also have the option to buy online and pickup in store or have their orders shipped directly to their desired location. Dillards.com also serves as a key customer engagement tool with continually updated style and trend content to both educate and inspire our customers.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

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Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") owns and manages Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in November 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores or online. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal 2021, 2020 and 2019 ended on January 29, 2022, January 30, 2021 and February 1, 2020, respectively, and contained 52 weeks each.

Human Capital

As of December 25, 2021, the Company employed approximately 30,500 associates. Approximately 20,100 were full-time (greater than 35 hours per week) associates, 9,200 were part-time (20-35 hours per week) associates and 1,300 were limited status associates (less than 20 hours per week).1 None of our associates are represented by a union.

As a department store chain, the Company employs a wide range of associates, including sales associates, management professionals, maintenance professionals, call center associates, distribution center associates, buyers, advertising and back office personnel. Given the breadth of our employee base, we tailor our human capital management efforts with a view to specific associate populations.

Of the Company’s full-time associates, approximately 91% work in the retail stores. We focus on attracting and retaining excellent associates at the store level by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market.

Training and talent development. The Company develops talent by investing in both formalized classroom training, specialized training for our sales management team, ongoing mentorship programs and on-the-job experience. We seek to create an engaged workforce through open door policies and promotion opportunities. The Company’s philosophy is to develop talent and promote from within our organization, thus providing a better customer service model due to a deeper understanding of the overall business and our customers’ expectations. Career paths and opportunities for promotion are discussed with associates from the first day of training and on an ongoing basis. As of December 25, 2021, approximately 71% of the salaried managers at our stores were promoted from hourly store positions (increased from 63% as of the end of calendar 2020).

1 For purposes of this section, all figures are based on calendar year 2021.

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Diversity and inclusion. The Company has a diverse customer base and seeks to achieve that same diversity in its workforce. As of December 25, 2021, approximately 75% of our store associates were women, and approximately 55% of our store associates were non-white.

In its efforts to promote diversity within our store positions, the Company has developed and made available to store level hiring managers a Diversity and Inclusion training curriculum. In addition, in order to ensure that all qualified candidates are aware of store promotion opportunities, each store posts promotion opportunities for supervisory positions.

Available Information

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com. Copies may also be obtained through the SEC's EDGAR website: sec.gov.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

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10-K
2021Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 30, 2021, we operated 282 Dillard's stores, including 32 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2020 Fiscal 2019 Fiscal 2018 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 14 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 18 22 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 17 15 15 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 9 9 Men's apparel and accessories 18 18 17 Shoes 15 15 15 Home and furniture 5 4 4 97 97 96 Construction segment 3 3 4 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments and the impact of COVID-19 on each of the foregoing, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise online at our website, dillards.com, which features online gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines. The principal licensed department was an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. By the end of July 2020, our agreement with this principal licensed department had been terminated. We expect future leased department income to be minimal.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") owns and manages Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in November 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores or online. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2020, 2019 and 2018 ended on January 30, 2021, February 1, 2020 and February 2, 2019, respectively, and contained 52 weeks each.

Human Capital

As of December 26, 2020, the Company employed approximately 29,000 associates. Approximately 19,000 were full-time (greater than 35 hours per week) associates, 8,000 were part-time (20-35 hours per week) associates and 2,000 were limited status associates (less than 20 hours per week).1 None of our associates are represented by a union.

As a department store chain, the Company employs a wide range of associates, including sales associates, management professionals, maintenance professionals, call center associates, distribution center associates, buyers, advertising and back office personnel. Given the breadth of our employee base, we tailor our human capital management efforts with a view to specific associate populations.

Of the Company’s full-time associates, approximately 90% work in the retail stores. We focus on attracting and retaining excellent associates at the store level by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market.

Training and talent development. The Company develops talent by investing in both formalized classroom training, specialized training for our sales management team, ongoing mentorship programs and on-the-job experience. We seek to create an engaged workforce through open door policies and promotion opportunities. The Company’s philosophy is to develop talent and promote from within our organization, thus providing a better customer service model due to a deeper understanding of the overall business and our customers’ expectations. Career paths and opportunities for promotion are

1 For purposes of this section, all figures are based on calendar year 2020.

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discussed with associates from the first day of training and on an ongoing basis. As of December 26, 2020, over 60% of the salaried managers at our stores were promoted from hourly store positions.

Diversity and inclusion. The Company has a diverse customer base and seeks to achieve that same diversity in its workforce. As of December 26, 2020, approximately 75% of our store associates were women, and approximately 53% of our store associates were non-white.

In its efforts to promote diversity within our store positions, the Company has developed and made available to store level hiring managers a Diversity and Inclusion training curriculum. In addition, in order to ensure that all qualified candidates are aware of store promotion opportunities, each store posts promotion opportunities for supervisory positions.

Available Information

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

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10-K
2020Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 1, 2020, we operated 285 Dillard's stores, including 28 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2019 Fiscal 2018 Fiscal 2017 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 14 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 22 22 23 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 15 15 16 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 9 8 Men's apparel and accessories 18 17 17 Shoes 15 15 16 Home and furniture 4 4 4 97 96 98 Construction segment 3 4 2 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise online at our website, www.dillards.com, which features online gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") owns and manages Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in fiscal 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

As of February 1, 2020, we employed approximately 38,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 40% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, with increases occurring during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2019 and 2018 ended on February 1, 2020 and February 2, 2019, respectively, and contained 52 weeks each, and fiscal year 2017 ended on February 3, 2018 and contained 53 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. investor relations website: investor.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our investor relations website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report, our most recent report on climate change mitigation efforts and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

Table of Contents

10-K
2019Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 2, 2019, we operated 291 Dillard's stores, including 26 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2018 Fiscal 2017 Fiscal 2016 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 14 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 22 23 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 15 16 16 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 8 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 15 16 16 Home and furniture 4 4 4 96 98 97 Construction segment 4 2 3 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise online at our website, www.dillards.com, which features online gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") owns and manages Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation received from the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards, which includes the cost of customer reward programs. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in fiscal 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales. Additionally, working capital requirements fluctuate during the year, increasing during the second half of the year in anticipation of the holiday season.

As of February 2, 2019, we employed approximately 39,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 41% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, with increases occurring during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal year 2018 ended on February 2, 2019 and contained 52 weeks, fiscal year 2017 ended on February 3, 2018 and contained 53 weeks, and fiscal year 2016 ended on January 28, 2017 and contained 52 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

Table of Contents

10-K
2018Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 3, 2018, we operated 292 Dillard's stores, including 24 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2017 Fiscal 2016 Fiscal 2015 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 14 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 23 22 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 16 16 16 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 8 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 16 16 Home and furniture 4 4 4 98 97 97 Construction segment 2 3 3 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise online at our website, www.dillards.com, which features online gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

Synchrony Financial ("Synchrony"; formerly GE Consumer Finance) owned and managed Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards"), under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Synchrony Alliance") that expired in November 2014. Following this scheduled expiration, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") purchased the Dillard's private label card portfolio from Synchrony and began managing Dillard's private label cards under a new 10-year agreement ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards and accept payments on the private label cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in fiscal 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of February 3, 2018, we employed approximately 40,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 43% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, with increases occurring during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal year 2017 ended on February 3, 2018 and contained 53 weeks, and fiscal years 2016 and 2015 ended on January 28, 2017 and January 30, 2016, respectively, and each contained 52 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our Annual Report, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

Table of Contents

10-K
2017Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 28, 2017, we operated 293 Dillard's stores, including 25 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2016 Fiscal 2015 Fiscal 2014 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 14 % 14 % Ladies' apparel 22 22 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 16 16 16 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 8 9 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 16 16 Home and furniture 4 4 4 97 97 98 Construction segment 3 3 2 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise online at our website, www.dillards.com, which features online gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of online merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

Synchrony Financial ("Synchrony"; formerly GE Consumer Finance) owned and managed Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards"), under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Synchrony Alliance") that expired in November 2014. Following this scheduled expiration, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") purchased the Dillard's private label card portfolio from Synchrony and began managing Dillard's private label cards under a new 10-year agreement ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards and accept payments on the private label cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in fiscal 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo administers the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of January 28, 2017, we employed approximately 40,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 46% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, with increases occurring during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2016, 2015 and 2014 ended January 28, 2017, January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015, respectively, and each contained 52 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Annual Report. Our Annual Report, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

Table of Contents

10-K
2016Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 30, 2016, we operated 297 Dillard's stores, including 24 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2015 Fiscal 2014 Fiscal 2013 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 14 % 15 % Ladies' apparel 22 22 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 16 16 16 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 9 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 16 16 Home and furniture 4 4 5 97 98 99 Construction segment 3 2 1 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

Synchrony Financial ("Synchrony"; formerly GE Consumer Finance) owned and managed Dillard's private label credit cards, including credit cards co-branded with American Express (collectively "private label cards"), under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Synchrony Alliance") that expired in November 2014. Following this scheduled expiration, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") purchased the Dillard's private label card portfolio from Synchrony and began managing Dillard's private label cards under a new 10-year agreement ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards and accept payments on the private label cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in fiscal 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo maintains the loyalty program that rewards customers for private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of January 30, 2016, we employed approximately 40,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 47% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, but we consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2015, 2014 and 2013 ended January 30, 2016, January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014, respectively, and each contained 52 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "Annual Report") and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a), 15(d) or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), as applicable, are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

Table of Contents

10-K
2015Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 31, 2015, we operated 297 Dillard's stores, including 20 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2014 Fiscal 2013 Fiscal 2012 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 14 % 15 % 15 % Ladies' apparel 22 22 22 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 16 16 15 Juniors' and children's apparel 9 8 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 16 16 Home and furniture 4 5 5 98 99 98 Construction segment 2 1 2 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 of "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, our lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Our exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Our private label merchandise program allows us to ensure the Company's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

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We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

Synchrony Financial ("Synchrony"; formerly GE Consumer Finance) owned and managed Dillard's private label credit cards under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Synchrony Alliance") that expired in November 2014. Following this scheduled expiration, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") purchased the Dillard's private label card portfolio from Synchrony and began managing Dillard's private label cards under a new 10-year agreement ("Wells Fargo Alliance"). Under the Wells Fargo Alliance, Wells Fargo establishes and owns private label card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Wells Fargo Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from Wells Fargo based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. We participate in the marketing of the private label cards and accept payments on the private label cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo Alliance expires in fiscal 2024.

We seek to expand the number and use of the private label cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Private label card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. Wells Fargo has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of private label card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of January 31, 2015, we employed approximately 40,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 46% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers and consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2014 and 2013 ended January 31, 2015 and February 1, 2014, respectively, and each contained 52 weeks. Fiscal year 2012 ended February 2, 2013 and contained 53 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

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10-K
2014Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 1, 2014, we operated 296 Dillard's stores, including 18 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. ("CDI"), a portion of whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal 2013 Fiscal 2012 Fiscal 2011 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 15 % 15 % Ladies' apparel 22 22 23 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 16 15 14 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 8 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 16 16 Home and furniture 5 5 6 99 98 99 Construction segment 1 2 1 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 of "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, Dillard's lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, GB, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Dillard's exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Dillard's private label merchandise program allows us to ensure Dillard's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

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Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

GE Consumer Finance ("GE") owns and manages Dillard's proprietary credit cards ("proprietary cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Alliance"). GE establishes and owns proprietary card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from GE based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. Furthermore, pursuant to this agreement, we have no continuing involvement other than to honor the proprietary cards in our stores. Although not obligated to a specific level of marketing commitment, we participate in the marketing of the proprietary cards and accept payments on the proprietary cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to GE.

The Alliance expires in late fiscal 2014. The Company is currently considering its options concerning the future ownership and management of the credit card business.

We seek to expand the number and use of the proprietary cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Proprietary card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. GE has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of proprietary card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of February 1, 2014, we employed approximately 40,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 46% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers and consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2013 and 2011 ended February 1, 2014 and January 28, 2012, respectively, and each contained 52 weeks. Fiscal year 2012 ended February 2, 2013 and contained 53 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and Form 5 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

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Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

10-K
2013Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of February 2, 2013, we operated 302 Dillard's stores, including 18 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. ("CDI"), whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 15 % 15 % Ladies' apparel 22 23 23 Ladies' accessories and lingerie 15 14 14 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 8 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 16 15 Home and furniture 5 6 6 98 99 98 Construction segment 2 1 2 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 of "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

We operate retail department stores in 29 states, primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Customers may also purchase our merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services.

Our retail merchandise business is conducted under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, merchandise assortment, advertising, price, quality, operating efficiency, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, Dillard's lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Dillard's exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national

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brands. Dillard's private label merchandise program allows us to ensure Dillard's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit merchandise assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines.

GE Consumer Finance ("GE") owns and manages Dillard's proprietary credit cards ("proprietary cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Alliance") that expires in fiscal 2014. GE establishes and owns proprietary card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from GE based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. Furthermore, pursuant to this agreement, we have no continuing involvement other than to honor the proprietary cards in our stores. Although not obligated to a specific level of marketing commitment, we participate in the marketing of the proprietary cards and accept payments on the proprietary cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to GE.

We seek to expand the number and use of the proprietary cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Proprietary card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. GE has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of proprietary card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of February 2, 2013, we employed approximately 38,000 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 27% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

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We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers and consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal year 2012 ended on February 2, 2013 and included 53 weeks, and fiscal years 2011 and 2010 ended on January 28, 2012 and January 29, 2011, respectively, and each included 52 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy, our most recent Social Accountability Report and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

10-K
2012Item 1. Business

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest fashion apparel, cosmetics and home furnishing retailers. The Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 28, 2012, we operated 304 Dillard's stores, including 16 clearance centers, and an Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. The Company also operates a general contracting construction company, CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. ("CDI"), whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 15 % 15 % Ladies' apparel and accessories 37 37 36 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 8 8 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 17 Shoes 16 15 14 Home and furniture 6 6 7 99 98 97 Construction segment 1 2 3 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Additional information regarding our business, results of operations and financial condition, including information pertaining to our reporting segments, can be found in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 hereof and in Note 2 of "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Our customers may also purchase merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services. We operate retail department stores located primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. Our stores are located in 29 states.

We conduct our retail merchandise business under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, assortment, advertising, price, quality, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, Dillard's lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Dillard's exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national

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brands. Dillard's private label merchandise program allows us to ensure Dillard's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control, manufacturing process and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines. The licensee for the fine jewelry department ceased operation of all licensed outlets during fiscal 2009.

GE Consumer Finance ("GE") owns and manages Dillard's proprietary credit cards ("proprietary cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Alliance") that expires in fiscal 2014. GE establishes and owns proprietary card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from GE based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. Furthermore, pursuant to this agreement, we have no continuing involvement other than to honor the proprietary cards in our stores. Although not obligated to a specific level of marketing commitment, we participate in the marketing of the proprietary cards and accept payments on the proprietary cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to GE.

We seek to expand the number and use of the proprietary cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Proprietary card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. GE has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of proprietary card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of January 28, 2012, we employed approximately 38,900 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 23% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

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We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers and consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2011, 2010, and 2009 ended on January 28, 2012, January 29, 2011 and January 30, 2010, respectively, and each included 52 weeks.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website: www.dillards.com.

We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

10-K
2011Item 1. Business

General

Dillard's, Inc. ("Dillard's", the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest apparel and home furnishing retailers. Our Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 29, 2011, we operated 308 Dillard's stores, including 14 clearance centers, and one Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. On August 29, 2008, the Company purchased the remaining interest in CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. ("CDI"), a former 50% equity method joint venture investment of the Company. CDI is a general contractor whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company.

In January 2011, the Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary that will seek to operate as a real estate investment trust ("REIT") and a wholly-owned captive insurance subsidiary ("Captive"). We believe the formation of a REIT may enhance our ability to access debt or preferred stock and thereby enhance our liquidity. Operating subsidiaries of Dillard's have transferred certain real estate interests to the REIT. Under the Captive, the following policies were in place as of January 29, 2011: (1) Workers' Compensation & General Liability—includes claims for self-insured workers' compensation (with a self-insured retention of $4 million per claim) and general liability (with a self-insured retention of $1 million per claim and a one-time $1 million corridor) and (2) Accident & Health—includes certain claims for self-insured medical, health, salary and related expenses with a minimum attachment that varies and a specific limit of $300 thousand per plan participant. Additional types of coverage will be contemplated for future inclusion in the Captive.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 15 % 15 % Ladies' apparel and accessories 37 36 37 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 8 9 Men's apparel and accessories 17 17 18 Shoes 15 14 13 Home and furniture 6 7 7 98 97 99 Construction segment 2 3 1 Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Our customers may also purchase merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services. We operate retail department stores located primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. The stores are located in 29 states.

We conduct our retail merchandise business under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, assortment, advertising,

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price, quality, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, Dillard's lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Dillard's exclusive brands/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Dillard's private label merchandise program allows us to ensure Dillard's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control, manufacturing process and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's holds the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions for the Company, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide their own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines. The licensee for the fine jewelry department ceased operation of all licensed outlets during fiscal 2009.

GE Consumer Finance ("GE") owns and manages Dillard's proprietary credit cards ("proprietary cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Alliance") that expires in fiscal 2014. GE establishes and owns proprietary card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from GE based upon the portfolio's earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. Further pursuant to this agreement, we have no continuing involvement other than to honor the proprietary cards in our stores. Although not obligated to a specific level of marketing commitment, we participate in the marketing of the proprietary cards and accept payments on the proprietary cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to GE.

We seek to expand the number and use of the proprietary cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Proprietary card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail

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catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. GE has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of proprietary card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of January 29, 2011, we employed approximately 38,900 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 24% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers and consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2010, 2009 and 2008 ended on January 29, 2011, January 30, 2010 and January 31, 2009, respectively, and each included 52 weeks.

For additional information with respect to our business, reference is made to information contained under the descriptions "Net sales," "Net income (loss)" and "Total assets" under Item 6 hereof and to information contained in Note 2 of "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" in Item 8 hereof.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website:

www.dillards.com

We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

10-K
2010Item 1. Business

General

Dillard's, Inc. (the "Company", "we", "us", "our" or "Registrant") ranks among the nation's largest apparel and home furnishing retailers. Our Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 30, 2010, we operated 309 Dillard's stores, including 12 clearance centers, and one Internet store offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. On August 29, 2008, the Company purchased the remaining interest in CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. ("CDI"), a former 50% equity method joint venture investment of the Company, for a cash purchase price of $9.8 million. CDI is a general contractor whose business includes constructing and remodeling stores for the Company. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, CDI represented approximately 2% of the total assets of the consolidated Company at January 30, 2010.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 15 % 15 % Ladies' apparel and accessories 36 37 37 Juniors' and children's apparel 8 9 9 Men's apparel and accessories 17 18 18 Shoes 14 13 13 Home and furniture 7 7 8 97 99 100 Construction segment 3 1 — Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Most of our stores are located in suburban shopping malls and open-air centers. Our customers may also purchase merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services. We operate retail department stores located primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. The stores are located in 29 states.

We conduct our retail merchandise business under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount, and Internet retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, assortment, advertising, price, quality, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, Dillard's lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Dillard's exclusive brand/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard's and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national

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brands. Dillard's private label merchandise program allows us to ensure Dillard's high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

Dillard's exclusive brands/private label merchandise program allows us to maintain consistency of merchandise quality across seasons and product lines. Such reliability of brand assures customers that when they buy our exclusive brands, they are purchasing high quality, fashionable merchandise at a reasonable price. We feel such perception furthers our reputation as an upscale department store.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control, manufacturing process and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard's trademark registrations are maintained for as long as Dillard's maintains the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions for the Company, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are also centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed department is an upscale women's apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and to provide its own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines. The licensee for the fine jewelry department ceased operation of all licensed outlets during fiscal 2009.

GE Consumer Finance ("GE") owns and manages Dillard's proprietary credit cards ("proprietary cards") under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance ("Alliance") that expires in fiscal 2014. GE establishes and owns proprietary card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from GE based upon the portfolio earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. Further pursuant to this agreement, we have no continuing involvement other than to honor the proprietary cards in our stores. Although not obligated to a specific level of marketing commitment, we participate in the marketing of the proprietary cards and accept payments on the proprietary cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by paying online or mailing their payments to GE.

We seek to expand the number and use of the proprietary cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with discounts on future purchases. Proprietary card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. GE has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of proprietary card usage.

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Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

As of January 30, 2010, we employed approximately 41,300 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 29% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many sources and do not believe that we are dependent on any one supplier. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers and consider our relationships to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2009, 2008 and 2007 ended on January 30, 2010, January 31, 2009 and February 2, 2008, respectively. Fiscal years 2009, 2008 and 2007 included 52 weeks.

For additional information with respect to our business, reference is made to information contained under the descriptions "Net sales," "Net income (loss)" and "Total assets" under Item 6 hereof.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard's, Inc. website:

www.dillards.com

We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

10-K
2009Item 1. Business

General

Dillard’s, Inc. (the “Company”, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Registrant”) ranks among the nation’s largest apparel and home furnishing retailers. Our Company, originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, was incorporated in Delaware in 1964. As of January 31, 2009, we operated 315 Dillard’s stores offering a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. On August 29, 2008, the Company purchased the remaining interest in CDI Contractors, LLC and CDI Contractors, Inc. (“CDI”), a former 50% equity method joint venture investment of the Company, for a cash purchase price of $9.8 million. CDI is a general contractor that also constructs stores for the Company. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, CDI represented approximately 2% of the total assets of the consolidated Company at January 31, 2009. This purchase resulted in a new reportable segment.

The following table summarizes the percentage of net sales by segment and major product line:

Percentage of Net Sales Fiscal2008 Fiscal2007 Fiscal2006 Retail operations segment: Cosmetics 15 % 15 % 15 % Ladies’ apparel and accessories 37 37 36 Juniors’ and children’s apparel 9 9 10 Men’s apparel and accessories 18 18 18 Shoes 13 13 13 Home and furniture 7 8 8 99 100 100 Construction segment 1 — — Total 100 % 100 % 100 %

Our store base is diversified, with the character and culture of the community served determining the size of facility and, to a large extent, the merchandise mix presented. Most stores are located in suburban shopping malls. Our customers may also purchase merchandise on-line at our website, www.dillards.com, which features on-line gift registries and a variety of other services. We operate retail department stores located primarily in the southwest, southeast and midwest regions of the United States. The stores are located in 29 states, with 51 stores located in the western region, 119 stores in the eastern region and 145 stores in the central region.

We conduct our retail merchandise business under highly competitive conditions. Although we are a large regional department store, we have numerous competitors at the national and local level that compete with our individual stores, including specialty, off-price, discount, internet and mail-order retailers. Competition is characterized by many factors including location, reputation, assortment, advertising, price, quality, service and credit availability. We believe that our stores are in a strong competitive position with regard to each of these factors. Other retailers may compete for customers on some or all of these factors, or on other factors, and may be perceived by some potential customers as being better aligned with their particular preferences.

Our merchandise selections include, but are not limited to, Dillard’s lines of exclusive brand merchandise such as Antonio Melani, Gianni Bini, Roundtree & Yorke and Daniel Cremieux. Dillard’s exclusive brand/private label merchandise program provides benefits for Dillard’s and our customers. Our customers receive fashionable, higher quality product often at a savings compared to national brands. Dillard’s private label merchandise program allows us to ensure Dillard’s high standards are achieved, while minimizing costs and differentiating our merchandise offerings from other retailers.

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Index to Financial Statements

Dillard’s exclusive brands/private label merchandise program allows us to control quality and consistency of merchandise across seasons and items such that consumers know when they buy our exclusive brands that they are purchasing high quality, consistent, fashionable merchandise at a reasonable price. Such perception clearly furthers our reputation as an upscale department store.

We have made a significant investment in our trademark and license portfolio, in terms of design function, advertising, quality control, manufacturing process and quick response to market trends in a quality manufacturing environment. Dillard’s trademark registrations are maintained for so long as Dillard’s maintains the exclusive right to use the trademarks on the listed products.

Our merchandising, sales promotion and store operating support functions are conducted primarily at our corporate headquarters. Our back office sales support functions for the Company, such as accounting, product development, store planning and information technology, are centralized.

We have developed a knowledge of each of our trade areas and customer bases for our stores. This knowledge is enhanced through regular store visits by senior management and merchandising personnel and through the use of on-line merchandise information and is supported by our regional merchandising offices. We will continue to use existing technology and research to edit assortments by store to meet the specific preference, taste and size requirements of each local operating area.

Certain departments in our stores are licensed to independent companies in order to provide high quality service and merchandise where specialization, focus and expertise are critical. The licensed departments vary by store to complement our own merchandising departments. The principal licensed departments are fine jewelry and an upscale women’s apparel vendor in certain stores. The terms of the license agreements typically range between three and five years with one year renewals and require the licensee to pay for fixtures and provide its own employees. We regularly evaluate the performance of the licensed departments and require compliance with established customer service guidelines. The licensee for the fine jewelry department recently announced their intention to cease operation of all licensed outlets in 2009.

GE Consumer Finance (“GE”) owns and manages Dillard’s proprietary credit cards (“proprietary cards”) under a long-term marketing and servicing alliance (“Alliance”) that expires in fiscal 2014. GE establishes and owns proprietary card accounts for our customers, retains the benefits and risks associated with the ownership of the accounts, provides key customer service functions, including new account openings, transaction authorization, billing adjustments and customer inquiries, receives the finance charge income and incurs the bad debts associated with those accounts. Pursuant to the Alliance, we receive on-going cash compensation from GE based upon the portfolio earnings. The compensation earned on the portfolio is determined monthly and has no recourse provisions. Further pursuant to this agreement, we have no continuing involvement other than to honor the proprietary cards in our stores. Although not obligated to a specific level of marketing commitment, we participate in the marketing of the proprietary cards and accept payments on the proprietary cards in our stores as a convenience to customers who prefer to pay in person rather than by mailing their payments to GE.

We seek to expand the number and use of the proprietary cards by, among other things, providing incentives to sales associates to open new credit accounts, which generally can be opened while a customer is visiting one of our stores. Customers who open accounts are rewarded with certificates for discounts on later purchases. Proprietary card customers are sometimes offered private shopping nights, direct mail catalogs, special discounts and advance notice of sale events. GE has created various loyalty programs that reward customers for frequency and volume of proprietary card usage.

Our earnings depend to a significant extent on the results of operations for the last quarter of our fiscal year. Due to holiday buying patterns, sales for that period average approximately one-third of annual sales.

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Index to Financial Statements

As of January 31, 2009, we employed approximately 49,900 full-time and part-time associates, of which approximately 33% were part-time. The number of associates varies during the year, especially during peak seasonal selling periods.

We purchase merchandise from many suppliers, none of which accounted for more than 5% of our net purchases during 2008. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, and we do not believe we are dependent on any one supplier. We consider our relationships with our suppliers to be strong and mutually beneficial.

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 of each year. Fiscal years 2008, 2007 and 2006 ended on January 31, 2009, February 2, 2008 and February 3, 2007, respectively. Fiscal years 2008 and 2007 included 52 weeks, and fiscal year 2006 included 53 weeks.

For additional information with respect to our business, reference is made to information contained under the descriptions “Net sales,” “Net (loss) income,” and “Total assets” under Item 6 hereof.

The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part of this Form 10-K. Our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, statements of changes in beneficial ownership of securities on Form 4 and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge (as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC) on the Dillard’s, Inc. website:

www.dillards.com

We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Corporate Governance Guidelines, as required by the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules of the SEC. We have posted on our website our Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Social Accountability Policy and committee charters for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the Stock Option and Executive Compensation Committee.

Our corporate offices are located at 1600 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone: 501-376-5200.

10-K