Dive Brief:
- Fulfilling its promise to enhance its e-commerce business, Nordstrom is introducing a new digital marketplace on its website, the department store announced Monday.
- The retailer is showcasing a broader selection of products, sizes and brands through the marketplace. Among its marketplace partners are Mulberry, Adore Me, Cynthia Rowley and DXL, according to the announcement.
- Shoppers using the Nordstrom marketplace can still earn loyalty incentives and access perks such as styling and alterations.
Dive Insight:
Nordstrom’s marketplace launch comes after the retailer last month said it planned to lean into its e-commerce business. CEO Erik Nordstrom said during a Q4 earnings call that the retailer is enhancing its online personalization features.
In recent years, other major retailers, including Macy’s, Walmart and Michaels, have created third-party marketplaces. However, instead of opening its site to a wide swath of sellers, the company carefully selected its marketplace brand partners “to ensure that our marketplace experience drives the relevance and inspiration that Nordstrom customers expect from us,” according to Miguel Almeida, Nordstrom’s president of digital and customer experience.
“Nordstrom.com is our largest flagship store and gives us the opportunity to offer new and existing customers more choices for more occasions,” Almeida said in a statement. “Our goal isn’t to be the everything store, but to offer customers more breadth, depth and newness in the categories that they come to us for, from some of the most coveted brands in the market.”
Meanwhile, as the retailer tries to draw new customers, Nordstrom’s net sales have fluctuated in recent quarters. In its third quarter 2023 earnings report, net sales dipped by 6.8% to $3.2 billion, but its Q4 net sales increased 2.2% year over year to $4.3 billion. The company’s full-year fiscal 2023 revenue fell 5.4%.
Beyond its e-commerce push, Nordstrom also plans to concentrate more on its off-price business. Erik Nordstrom told analysts that the company opened 19 new Nordstrom Rack locations last year and plans to open an additional 22 Rack stores this year.
