Digital storefronts are becoming increasingly common as shoppers carry their smartphones with them.
One of the oldest department store in the United States, Nordstrom, is far from staying in the past, as it has introduced digital storefronts in order to keep up with the mobile commerce expectations of smartphone carrying customers.
The store has been witness to many changes in shopping behaviors and has survived by keeping up.
According to Blake Nordstrom, the president of the company, the retailer has seen the experience that it provides as being similar to the fashion itself, saying that it is always “creating a reason for the customer to buy something new.” It intends to continue this attitude over the next three decades with considerable efforts using mobile commerce.
The company’s mobile commerce strategy is designed to integrate with its reputation for superior customer service.
The strategy at Nordstrom will be focused, for the next thirty years, on the interests of the customer. They feel that it will be up to the company to both keep up with the desires of the consumer, as well as to be able to anticipate what will happen next. This, according to Blake Nordstrom, who is the great-grandson of the company’s founder, John W. Nordstrom.
He stated that “The easiest thing to say is, it will be different.” He is currently responsible for directing the 234 different store locations found in 31 states across the country. He added that “There still will be customers who desire fresh new product. What that product is, how we satisfy the customer, that’s open.”
The intention is to work mobile commerce into many different areas of the in-store experience, including the storefront itself. There are also intentions to add smartphone friendly features to fitting rooms, so that the garments can be “tried on” digitally based on their body type, using parametric technology.
Nordstrom feels that brick and mortar stores will never lose their presence, as shoppers still want the sensory experience of touching products and seeing them in real life. However, mobile commerce will help to add to the overall options that are available to them and can allow them to make a purchase remotely so that the products can be shipped to their doors.
