Dive Brief:

• Hudson’s Bay Co.-owned Saks Fifth Avenue Tuesday said it will unveil its first Gilt store-within-a-store at a new Saks Off 5th in midtown Manhattan in New York on March 3.

• The arrangement will maintain many aspects of Gilt’s flash-sales approach, including limited time offers as well as opportunities to shop the online Gilt site from comfortable places within the store.

• Saks is also keeping Gilt’s plans for “Gilt by appointment” and said that “in the coming months” that will include an in-person “VIP” stylist and personal shopping services.

Dive Insight:

Hudson’s Bay's purchase last month of flash-sales company Gilt Groupe solves problems for Saks and for Gilt, especially as Saks looks to compete with Nordstrom.

For Saks, Gilt is a “techquisition,” something Profitero’s Keith Anderson told Retail Dive would likely be happening a lot this year. Gilt offers Saks technology and a new online sales channel without having to build one from scratch.

For Gilt, excess inventory from Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th, and possibly other Hudson’s Bay retailers makes up for the dearth of inventory that has hobbled flash-sales sites after their initial rise to prominence during the recession. 

With Nordstrom widely seen as the department store with the best prospects, other department stores would be wise to consider what the company doing right, which appears to be what Saks is doing with its purchase of Gilt.

Nordstrom, for example, took on a flash-sales site, HauteLook, in 2011, and has incorporated it well into its robust online operations. The company unveiled a seamless and mobile-enabled online shopping experience in 2014, tying together its Nordstrom Rack and HauteLook sites. 

Shoppers can toggle between HauteLook and the Nordstrom Rack site with one login and browse and buy items for as much as 70% off with a single checkout. Purchases earn Nordstrom Rewards points, and returns from either site are possible at any Nordstrom Rack stores.

Indeed, while flash-sales began as an e-commerce innovation (if you ignore the history of brick-and-mortar traditions in the space like K-Mart’s “blue light specials") Saks Off 5th is clearly seeing Gilt as way to reach shoppers in for its stores as well as on the web.