U.S. luxury department store Nordstrom launched its online marketplace at the end of April.
The marketplace aims to make the shopping experience at Nordstrom even more appealing through a multifaceted strategy, offering an expanded assortment of products, brands, and sizes that customers are looking for. It will also improve the online shopping experience, making it easier for customers to shop at their favorite brands through personalized recommendations and painstaking curation and providing opportunities to find new brands that fit their preferences.
Commenting on the launch, Miguel Almeida, the company’s President of Digital & Customer Experience, said in a statement below.
“Nordstrom’s digital marketplace represents one way we are expanding our online assortment beyond traditional wholesale partnerships. This unowned inventory model allows us to offer the full expression of our best brands and expands the depth of products and sizes we offer to our customers. Nordstrom.com is our largest flagship store and gives us the opportunity to offer new and existing customers more choices for more occasions.”
“Our goal isn’t to be the everything store, but to offer customers more breadth, depth and newness in the categories that they come to us for, from some of the most coveted brands in the market.”
Almeida also said that the company carefully selected its marketplace brand partners instead of opening the site to a wide range of sellers.
“Our marketplace brand partners are thoughtfully selected by my team in partnership with our merchants as part of our broader merchandising strategy and to ensure that our marketplace experience drives the relevance and inspiration that Nordstrom customers expect from us.”
The 16 partner brands Nordstrom is offering through their marketplace this year include Mulberry, Adore Me, Cynthia Rowley, and Natori.
Another feature of the marketplace is a seamless shopping experience. Customers will be able to use this marketplace in the same way they shop at Nordstrom, including loyalty benefits and customer care support. In addition, everything from styling and alterations to fast and easy returns, to earning Nordstrom Notes are all tied to the services the company has introduced in its physical stores and online.
During Nordstrom’s Q4 earnings call, CEO Erik Nordstrom stated that the company is “enhancing its online personalization features” and revealed plans to further focus on its off-price business in addition to further promoting e-commerce in the future. He also said the company opened 19 new Nordstrom Rack stores last year and plans to open an additional 22 Rack stores this year.
In recent years, major retailers Macy’s, Walmart, and Michaels have also opened third-party marketplaces.