Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

(April 2007) posted on Mon Apr 02, 2007

Nordstrom’s new emphasis is on designer brands and shops

By Anne DiNardo

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Among all the specialty department stores, few have been as consistent as Nordstrom.

For more than a century, this shoe store-turned-high-end specialty apparel retailer has based its shopping environment on a few simple precepts: outstanding customer amenities; live piano music near the escalator wells; wide aisleways and clean, open sightlines; merchandise areas uncluttered by vendor props and signage; lifestyle merchandising; and, of course, unwavering customer service. There’s a reason it has come to be called “the Nordstrom way.”

So when the Seattle-based company calls its Topanga Mall store “the latest evolution of that Nordstrom experience,” it deserves some notice. “Our goal is to constantly improve with every evolution on as many things as we can,” says Dave Lindsey, Nordstrom’s vp, store planning and architecture.

So what’s in store at Topanga (a Westfield property in Canoga Park, Calif.)? To start off, the 200,000-square-foot, three-level space is roughly 30 percent larger than Nordstrom’s original Topanga mall location. (That store moved when the mall owners undertook a $330 million expansion and upgrade.)

Nordstrom has taken advantage of that extra square footage to bring together its most comprehensive designer offering to date. For example, consider the expanded Gucci presence in the store. Shoppers can find not only Gucci sunglasses, but also Gucci shoes, handbags, fragrances and apparel throughout the store. And it’s not just Gucci. Other designers include Badgley Mischka, Blumarine, Chloé, Lanvin, Marni, Vera Wang and others.

In the past, Lindsey says, Nordstrom did not have much synergy in its designer merchandise across categories. “But here, all of our lead merchants have come together and said we’re going to bring the best to market that we can.”

The retailer began refining that message at its Dallas’ NorthPark Center store, which opened a year ago. “But this store is where it really came together,” Lindsey says. “It’s the culmination of all our efforts with our merchants.”

The increased designer offering also means shoppers will find more designer hard shops inside the Nordstrom environment, something the retailer has traditionally kept to a minimum. The company began including these hard shops into its retail mix several years ago after renovating its Seattle flagship. But Topanga houses its greatest offering to date, with Gucci and Chanel ready-to-wear and accessories and Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Dior handbag shops.