Nordstrom Third Quarter Sales Soar High And Above Struggling Competitors
The retail powerhouse that is Nordstrom continues to rise up and above its competitors and has managed consistency in profit gain over the past calendar year. Sales this quarter reportedly rose 8.9 percent to a staggering $3 billion. Flashback to one year ago and compare this to the rise from $137 million to $142 million for the same quarter and one can conclude that Nordstrom knows its clientele and how to keep them returning to any one of their 118 full-line stores across 38 states with one recent addition to the Canadian retail market.
The New York Times indicates ‘retailers with a more affluent clientele have had greater success at navigating through the tough economic climate affecting other major department store chains.’ This would most certainly explain the massive disparity between the successes achieved by Nordstrom and losses reported by other department stores such as Bloomingdale’s and Kohl’s; both retail chains which cater to more spend-conscious shoppers.
Appealing to a vast clientele, however, has proven to be paramount to Nordstrom’s latest profits as it has managed to continuously broaden its selection of popular merchandise and brands to appeal to an equally broad range of consumers. Recently, Nordstrom has added Top Shop outlets to many of its stores. Top Shop is a British-based retailer designing for a younger target market. Additionally Nordstrom also ‘acquired Trunk Show’ which is a personalized shopping service that seeks to keep young males fashionable. In doing so, Forbes boasts that “Nordstrom is leading retail the right way.”
Another manner in which this retail giant is living up to this assessment is due to their having increased the number of Rack stores across North America which appeal to those seeking to save on quality garments.
There may be, however, another side to the seemingly consistent and unending success that Nordstrom is reporting. Forbes contributor, Walter Loeb, assesses the possible downside to the recent favourable statistics.
“I am worried about Nordstrom’s (and other retailers) full line traditional department stores that have shown decreases in their comparable store sales for some time. I don’t know how many older store units are showing major decreases, but I believe that Nordstrom as well as Macy’s, J.C.Penney, Kohl’s, Dillard’s and others are concerned that some of their stores are no longer pulling their weight. That some stores may be recording increasingly large decreases in sales and is threatening to become unprofitable.”
Loeb is correct in addressing the fact that Nordstrom’s main enterprise, its core stores, are in actuality not hitting sales targets and that it is because of the implementation of extended outlets and the acquiring of Trunk Show that the profits are as exceptional as they are.
Nevertheless, Nordstrom remains a model of innovative retail strategy and undoubtedly will continue in its success.
