Define your Brand’s Purpose in Customers’ lives

Nordstrom, the luxury department store, has taken retail by a storm with overall revenue growth at 9.8 percent, at USD 3.12 billion for the Quarter. The store sales excluding new and closed stores increased  4.4 percent year on year, the strongest among the segment.

The brand’s purpose is  to provide a fabulous experience for apparel, accessories and shoes shopping by empowering customers and the employees who serve them. 

Determine your Brand’s Focus 

The persistent digitization of Nordstrom’s business has allowed the company to grow revenues by more than 50 percent in the last five years and 20 percent over the last year, according to a Fortune report.  The focus of the brand remains at growing sales with investment in technology that helps them reach the audiences where they are with the products that they want. The chunk of investment USD 1.5 billion in the next five years will be spent on technological and warehousing advancements with the purpose of reaching customers where they are, creating a one-of-a-kind customer experience.

Delineate Changes that Are Required To Attain Brand Results 

Location-based Features: Nordstrom has added location-based features to it app and recently integrated its loyalty rewards program to make it easier for customers to redeem awards from mobile devices.

e-Commerce Enablers: Nordstrom’s recent partnership with Twilio has provided Nordstrom with a platform from which the company can send merchandise images to customers via text message. Twilio is a cloud communications company.

Integrate Management Systems: Additionally, Nordstrom has focused on integrated management systems and leveraging big data and analytics capability that have helped them serve the customer better. Nordstrom.com and the Nordstrom app are integrated with the inventory management system, customers can find what they want in one place and have it delivered from somewhere else to a third place. In-store displays and employees  help customers integrate their online and off-line worlds that help them get the business results with quick check-outs on Mobile itself.

Set Aside a Budget for  Technology Changes 

Brands that have successfully upgraded technology and newer platforms are known to have ether absorbed losses to bring better customer experience or have subsidized budgets from other verticals to focus on newer initiatives.

Update Your Marketing Mix

Nordstrom tried newer concepts with brand extensions and different price points to make the products available to customers wherever they are including an offer on Instagram that lets you shop the retailer’s range directly from the Instagram feed.

Nordstrom, realizing the importance of mobile and the phenomenon of smartphone shopping  with the younger audience added clearance sale icon to the welcome screen that lets users shop th clearance sale “line” at their will. The Clearance Sale that was earlier available for select merchandise, now, features newer range of apparel, that are available at clearance sale price levels to target the younger audience.

Nordstrom Rack offering that launched last year enables customers to shop the Haute Look apparel  accessories and shoes at 30-70 percent off regular prices  over and above a limited-time, limited-inventory flash sale events powered by HauteLook. Customers are able to shop both sites through a single log-in, shopping cart and can combine items into one easy checkout.

The online sales at Nordstrom Rack and Nordstrom’s flash sales site HauteLook.com, rose 51 percent to USD 117 million, according to the Fortune report.