As the internet turns fashion retail upside down, Nordstrom is going big on brick-and-mortar stores in New York City. Will the century-old family-run company succeed?
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Forged in the Pacific Northwest, Nordstrom now operates 366 stores in 40 states, including 122 full-line stores, 232 Nordstrom Rack stores and seven Trunk Club “clubhouses.” But it has never before had a marquee store in New York City. The company’s decision to build in Manhattan’s saturated retail market presents a concerted risk. New Yorkers are inundated with apparel options, including a new Neiman Marcus that is rising in the Hudson Yards, so success will require stealing market share in an environment of fierce competition. Male shoppers are particularly sought after as one of the fastest-growing segments in apparel.
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Nordstrom has been building its arsenal with an enviable client base. With an average age of 43, Nordstrom shoppers are a decade or so younger than the norm for U.S. department stores. Nearly 40 percent are the heavily pursued age group under 45 years old. And among Americans with household incomes of $300,000 or more, 62 percent shop at Nordstrom, the company says. Armed with those demographics, Nordstrom is hoping to storm the city with its 47,000-square-foot, three-floor men’s store this April, followed by a 320,000-square-foot women’s store across the street in 2019.
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At the men’s store, windows will open directly onto the sales floor, which will be bathed by day in natural light, in a dramatic departure from the traditional elaborate displays. Instead of siloing high fashion away in upper-floor shop-in-shops, Nordstrom will eschew hard partitions, using see-through floor-to-ceiling lengths of industrial chain mail to separate brands. Plans for a storewide liquor license will enable shoppers to roam with a tumbler of single malt from a second-floor bar called Clubhouse. VIP dressing rooms will be available for those who wish to linger, while those in a rush can order goods online through a concept called “Reserve & Try In Store” and find them waiting in a dressing room located conveniently near an exit.
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he New York stores are the linchpin in a strategy that Nordstrom has been testing in Seattle, Vancouver and Los Angeles. In 2017, 26 percent of Nordstrom sales were online—a number the company expects to increase to 50 percent in just a few years. What’s more, Nordstrom’s single biggest online sales area in the U.S. and Canada is New York
