Dive Brief:

• Nordstrom broke ground this week on the construction of its third fulfillment center, in Elizabethtown, Pa., joining others in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and San Bernadino, Calif., already in operation. The 672,000-sq.-ft. building, with a 470,000-sq.-ft. mezzanine, is slated to open in summer 2015.

• Nordstrom offers free shipping and free returns for U.S. customers and has had an integrated inventory e-commerce platform between its stores and online/catalog sales since 2009.

• E-commerce is the fastest area of growth for the company, according to a spokesperson, and it has also seen significant expansion of physical stores into Canadian markets.

Dive Insight:

Nordstrom’s plans for such a large fulfillment center on the east coast shows that it is getting increasingly serious about pleasing, keeping, and adding to its e-commerce customers. A third center on the third slice of the country will enable the retailer to more easily keep up with online orders — which it calls the fastest growing segment of its business — and maintain the quicker, more efficient delivery systems that customers increasingly expect even of free shipping.