Nordstrom.com pushing ahead with fashion and shopping ease, president says
It may be a leader in fashion retailing, but Nordstrom Inc. takes nothing for granted with e-commerce and is pushing ahead with more web-store inventory integration along with expanded options to shop online, Nordstrom Direct president Jamie Nordstrom says.
“We know our customers have high expectations in how they shop, and we need to be ahead of the game,” Nordstrom tells Internet Retailer. Nordstrom Direct is the online and catalog unit of Nordstrom Inc., No. 40 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites.
That hasn’t always been the case with Nordstrom.com, he admits. “In the last year and a half, our team has been most proud of how we have done a better job of serving the Nordstrom customer online—our web site was not always focused on that,” Nordstrom says. “But we said two years ago that our web site needed to be part of a seamless shopping experience for the Nordstrom customer, and focusing on that has really paid dividends.”
Nordstrom is integrating its inventory systems across selling channels, improving the ability of both customers and employees to see on the web real-time updates of available products.
That offers an online shopping experience with images and product information aligned with what’s in stores, but Nordstrom also is providing more of the same designer fashion flair that draws many shoppers into its stores. This year it launched Designer Collections, a section that lets shoppers click into playful illustrations of designer boutiques including Roberto Cavalli, Missoni and Donna Karan.
The initial purpose of Designer Collections was to serve mostly as an online research tool to support store shoppers, and pop-up windows offered the option to communicate with a shopping assistant through live chat, e-mail or telephone and to make purchases via phone. But after hearing from Designer Collections shoppers that they’d also like to make purchases through an online shopping cart, Nordstrom introduced this week the section’s own e-commerce capability.
“We’re not resting on our laurels,” Nordstrom says. “We’re working hard to meet our customers’ expectations.”
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