Nordstrom Opens New Flagship Store In Manhattan -10/24/19

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing.

Introduction

With your E-Commerce Retail Briefing for today, Thursday, October 24th, I'm Vincent Phamvan.

Nordstrom has opened a new flagship store in Manhattan, but the big unveil comes at a shaky time for New York retail.

First, here are some retail headlines.

Amazon Adding More Locations to Hub Counter Program

Amazon is adding more package pick-up locations through its Amazon Hub Counter program. The latest retailers to partner with the e-commerce giant are Stage Stores, GNC, and Health Mart. Amazon has been testing pick-up counters at those locations for a few months now according to a press release. The company says it now has thousands of Hub Counter locations across the country and has brought tens of thousands of Amazon customers into partnering retailers’ stores.

REI Exapnding Rental and Used-Gear Business

REI is expanding its rental and used-gear business. The company is piloting a used gear buyback program. Members may receive REI gift cards when they trade in gently-used outdoor items for resale. The move comes as REI is rethinking its core business model in favor of more mindful consumption. The company is also debuting a seasonal ski-rental offering for kids and adults, along with testing a new online rental reservations system that it plans to roll out more broadly in 2020.

LEGO Open to Product Rental

Tim Brooks, Vice President for sustainability at LEGO, said that the company would be open to the idea of product rental. If LEGO could introduce a rental plan, other toymakers would likely follow suit. Much like children’s clothing, a rental model is ideal for the toy industry. Kids apparel and toys are often passed down, but a well-priced service from an iconic company like LEGO could change the industry as a whole. The sheer number of pieces in a LEGO set and children’s tendency to lose parts could make a rental model difficult for the company. But the move is likely to attract sustainability-focused parents who are working to eliminate single-use plastics from their households.

Nordstrom Opens New Flagship Store In Manhattan

Nordstrom opened its first flagship store in Manhattan. The store, which took over $500 million of investment capital to complete, will feature a wide range of brands. Nordstrom, in a bid to keep customers curious, has established itself as a destination for not only the classics, such as Burberry trench coats and Fendi bags, but also the up and comers. In the new store, there will be a pop-up space for Everlane, a trendy women’s and men’s apparel brand that started on the internet and only has a handful of stores in the U.S. Customers will also find Birdies ballet flats, jewelry from Kendra Scott, and dresses from Reformation. The approach of including up-and-comer brands is seen as giving Nordstrom a leg up on the competition, at a time when department store chains are undoubtedly struggling to draw people into stores.

This Nordstrom store has been in the works for seven years. The company says New York City is its largest market for e-commerce but has taken time to find the right location. Co-president Erik Nordstrom said, “This is a big, exciting moment for us. Everything that comes to New York has to be at a standard that’s our best ever. This building we think is super relevant to customers and how they want to be served today,”.

Still, Nordstrom’s big unveil comes at a shaky time for New York retail. The fate of Barneys New York is still uncertain, Lord & Taylor’s famed Fifth Avenue store closed earlier this year, and Saks Fifth Avenue shut its women’s store downtown to focus on its flagship in Midtown.

Closing

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Thanks for listening to the latest episode of the Retail E-Commerce Briefing. See you tomorrow.