Feb 14, 2023

Share There was a brief time before the pandemic when it looked like Nordstrom Inc. would do the seemingly impossible: Thrive in spite of the Amazon effect, which put a nail in the coffin of many of its lower-priced peers. It turns out Nordstrom isn’t an exception.There’s been no nostalgic rush back into department stores after the pandemic accelerated a migration online. In the past month, Nordstrom has lowered its profit outlook for 2022 following disappointing holiday sales, and meme-stock investor Ryan Cohen has emerged as a sizeable shareholder. Nordstrom’s previous successes have made way for a struggle to redefine its identity. Still, the century-old family-run business has a fighting chance. If Bloomingdale’s is the glamorous, wealthy aunt by marriage, Nordstrom is the sensibly stylish older sister, who occasionally splurges on luxury. As the aspirational class it’s catered to frays, the retailer has some hard choices to make about who and what it is serving — exclusive luxury or mass market deals. In other words: it needs to pick a lane.Its potential meme-stockification by Chewy.com co-founder Cohen, with his loyal following of “stonks” retail investors, makes some sense in that context. In a way Nordstrom represents the heyday of upper-income department store shopping, a place where the aspiring rich could settle for $230 leather handbags from Michael Kors or $800 boots from Stuart Weitzman that say, “One day I’ll buy Prada.” For some, Nordstrom drums up nostalgia for a time when household incomes weren’t so polarized and there was some illusion of upward mobility. But that slice of almost-rich-but-not-quite shoppers has been shrinking as the middle class splinters. The American middle class has been shedding people at either end for decades, losing both to the lower- and upper-income brackets, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. In retail, you can see the effect of such divisions in the proliferation of dollar store chains across the country and the stability of European luxury designers. Nordstrom is among those chains catering more to the middle-class that has struggled. Two of its major online shopping investments — flash sale business HauteLook and a men’s wear subscription service Trunk Club —  have closed in the last few years. And its off-price Nordstrom Rack began to lose sales after the company introduced cheaper, lower-quality merchandise while it closed more than a dozen stores across its mainline fleet as the pandemic crushed in-store shopping. Advertisement Nordstrom has plenty of company. Macy’s Inc. has warned investors that its full-year results are expected to come in at the low end of its previously reported range. Capri Holdings Inc., which owns Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors, said last week that demand slowed because its typical mass market shopper is feeling stretched by inflation. With the Federal Reserve continuing to raise interest rates in response to a hot job market, that pullback among the mass affluent isn’t expected to change anytime soon. People are stretched for cash with grocery inflation, rising rents and layoffs across the high-paying tech and finance sectors. So when people buy, they want to buy. Luckily for Nordstrom, it has a chance to narrow its focus and lean on its earlier online investments. Luxury brands have turned their noses up to online shopping, preferring to double down on the in-person preferences of older generations. At the same time, the likes of Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok have made luxury more palpable for younger and younger audiences. Gen Z consumers are buying luxury goods at younger ages than their millennial counterparts, at 15 years versus 18 to 20 years, according to a Bain & Company–Altagamma Luxury Study. That gives Nordstrom the upper hand in selling curated luxury goods to a younger market of shoppers, who are swayed by Kim Kardashian wearing head-to-toe Dolce Gabbana or Kylie Jenner sporting Prada in an Instagram post. Nordstrom has previously made some investments in reaching younger luxe shoppers. It acquired a minority interest in Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands as part of a wider strategic partnership with their owner U.K. online retailer Asos Plc. While Asos is relatively affordable, it doesn’t compare with the more premium brands Nordstrom stocks. If someone is going to spend $200 on a dress, it has to feel like it cost $1,200. More recently, Nordstrom jumped into the resale market with “See You Tomorrow,” where shoppers can buy or sell gently used designer goods in exchange for a store gift card. Given how popular the resale market is with young luxury shoppers, this seems like one way for the department store to regain its relevancy. Advertisement Aspirational or mass affluent shoppers will look different in the future. It may be time for Nordstrom to pivot along with this emerging class of buyers. In a tightening economy, younger shoppers either shop luxury or closeout sales, Nordstrom needs to find and stick to its strengths. To cut off any trouble from meme stock billionaires, the department store would be wise to use Cohen’s wake-up call to narrow its focus and get back to what it’s good at — outfitting the aspiring rich.More From Bloomberg Opinion: • Adidas Needs the Last Yeezy Shoe to Drop: Andrea Felsted • TikTok’s Coming for Amazon’s Search Traffic: Leticia Miranda • Revenge Spenders Are Just Warming Up in China: Shuli Ren This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Leticia Miranda is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering consumer goods and the retail industry. She was previously a business reporter at NBC News and a retail reporter at BuzzFeed News. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.