Dive Brief:
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Nancy Mair, who arrived at Nordstrom Rack almost exactly two years ago as senior vice president of Rack merchandising, announced on LinkedIn that she is leaving.
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Traveling from New York to Seattle for a week each month made her rethink her priorities “as a mom, a wife, a friend,” she said in the post.
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Nordstrom confirmed Mair’s departure and stated a search is on for her replacement.
Dive Insight:
When Mair arrived in 2022, Nordstrom was shaking up the leadership of its off-price business amid sales struggles and merchandising misses.
Nordstrom merchandising veteran Kelley Wotton-Gantner and supply chain veteran Stacy Lippa joined Rack at the same time as Mair, and shortly after the company announced that Rack President Geevy Thomas was leaving after 39 years at the company. Gemma Lionello, who had been senior vice president and regional manager of Nordstrom’s Northeast region, was named president of Nordstrom Rack in September last year.
The department store has been expanding its off-price business for years despite weakness there, and a wrong turn in 2021 toward more value-oriented merchandise. In her post on Friday, Mair said that the past two years have been the hardest yet most rewarding of her career. Before joining Rack, she spent 26 years at off-price specialist Burlington and later worked as a consultant in the space.
“I joined Nordstrom Rack as the [general merchandising manager] at a time where the Rack business needed to change direction,” she said in the post. “We worked on a new strategy, getting back to what we always did best. We built a best in class off price merchandising team, delivered great brands at great prices and changed the trajectory of the business and created momentum and I couldn’t be more proud!”
In its most recent quarter, the company said that Rack net sales rose 14.6%, compared to a 3% decline at its full-line business, and that even more Rack stores would open this year than in 2023. However, some analysts are wary of Rack’s volatility, and Evercore ISI analysts led by Michael Binetti earlier this month noted that new Rack stores may not be contributing quite as much as expected. Other observers warn that the business will inevitably encroach on the sales and branding of Nordstrom’s full-line stores.
However, CEO Erik Nordstrom called Rack stores “a growth engine for our company.”
“They are our largest source of new customer acquisition, accounting for over 40%,” he said. “Growing our store count also supports long-term customer retention. In fact, roughly a quarter of retained Rack customers migrate to the Nordstrom banner within four years.”
