Upmarket retailer David Jones has increased its sales in the three months to January 25 by almost five per cent to $618 million.

David Jones says that while total sales lifted 4.7 per cent, its online sales grew by 150 per cent in the quarter.

Key sales in clothing, beauty and homewares grew while poorly performing categories including CDs and DVDs and outdoor furniture were scrapped.

Total sales revenue for the first half of the 2014 financial year was more than $1 billion, up 3.6 per cent on the same period in the previous financial year.

David Jones has gone through turbulent times during the period, with the resignation announcement of chief executive Paul Zahra and, more recently, the resignations of its chairman Peter Mason and two directors.

Mr Zahra on Thursday presented a positive picture of the group’s performance.

“We were pleased to see growth in both foot traffic and basket size this quarter which enabled us to return to positive LFL (like for like) sales growth,” he said in a statement.

“Whilst the sales growth experienced by the company in 2Q14 was pleasing we did experience aggressive discounting in the market pre-Christmas, in particular in womenswear.

“We expect this aggressive discounting to continue in 2H14.”