J. Crew to sell women's apparel via Nordstrom

Dive Brief:

After a successful partnership with Nordstrom spotlighting its Madewell brand, J. Crew announced Monday that as of Sept. 12 its flagship label will also sell a special assortment of women's apparel and accessories through some of the Seattle-based department store chain's brick-and-mortar locations as well as its website.
Madewell, which has been available at Nordstrom since 2015, has expanded to 76 Nordstrom locations and Nordstrom.com.
The new deal means that Nordstrom is the only retailer to sell J.Crew and Madewell products outside of J. Crew's own retail stores in the United States, the companies said.

Dive Insight:

Brands like Coach and Ralph Lauren are actively scaling back their department store sales in an effort to cut down on heavy discounting, but J. Crew is swimming in the other direction.

For years, wholesale partnerships through department stores have been a fairly smooth way to reach customers loyal to brands as well as those discovering items while shopping for other things. But as department stores have struggled and increased reliance on promotions to boost traffic, many brands have soured on the channel.

But expanding into Nordstrom stores was “an easy decision,” J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler said.

“Nordstrom is the perfect partner because we both share the same high standards of customer service and store experience,” he said in a statement. “Additionally, we are known for exceptional design, quality and style, which we know will appeal to the Nordstrom customer.”

J. Crew has been battling seven straight quarters of sinking same-store sales, and ebbing customer loyalty amid quality issues. For the retailer, partnering with the department store could be a cost-effective way to regain their footing, according to Noel Hebert, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

“Anything [J. Crew] can do to broaden their distribution and reducing their reliance on capital-intensive stores — that’s a good thing for creditors,” Hebert told Bloomberg. “They’ve definitely got to find new ways to continue to grow the business.”