Customers can now reserve online, try on in-store via Nordstrom's mobile app

Dive Brief:

Using Nordstrom's iOS and Android apps, customers can now “Reserve & Try In Store.” The new app feature allows customers near its Western Washington store locations, including its Seattle flagship, to shop on their mobile device and set aside items to try on in the store, Geekwire reports.
Customers using the app can set a preferred store, browse items available in that specific store and then select "Reserve & Try" to confirm a time to come in and try on clothing.
Nordstrom allows up to 10 items to be reserved and notifies customers within two hours (during store operating hours) via text message when the items are ready to try on. The items are held on reserve until the store closes the following day.

Dive Insight:

The development of this sort of convenience feature fits well with Nordstrom's traditional reputation for superior customer service, and adds an extra layer to the growing click-and-collect trend to ensure customers are satisfied with the fit of their products before purchase.

The launch of “Reserve & Try In Store" comes just few weeks after Ken Worzel became president of Nordstrom.com. As a retailer once relatively untouched by retail's brick-and-mortar doldrums, Nordstrom is now feeling some heat to boost its online, mobile and overall omnichannel efforts.

In April, the retailer announced the elimination of 400 jobs, and there was concern at the time how such cost-cutting could affect its reputation for smooth and supportive customer service. The new feature is one effort to extend that approach further into the digital realm.

The app's "Store Mode," which allows customers to save a store preference, is also relatively new, having just launched in June, and the new reservation option shows that Nordstrom is rapidly evolving the app and aggressively connecting the dots as it sees ways to provide new convenience capabilities.

As Nordstrom straddles the brick-and-mortar and e-commerce worlds — trying not to give up on the former while still trying not to miss out on the latter — it will be challenged to find ways to hang on to its customer service reputation. "Reserve and Try On" is a good indication it's keeping its priorities straight.