Nordstrom to Roll Out Digital Marketplace, Enhanced Search Feature

Nordstrom will roll out a new digital marketplace on its website, Nordstrom.com, along with an enhanced search feature.

The marketplace will provide the luxury retailer’s customers with a wider selection of products, brands and sizes, while allowing its brand partners to showcase more of their products, Nordstrom said in a Monday (April 29) blog post.

“Nordstrom’s digital marketplace represents one way we are expanding our online assortment beyond traditional wholesale partnerships,” Miguel Almeida, president of digital and customer experience at Nordstrom, said in the post. “This unowned inventory model allows us to offer the full expression of our best brands and expands the depth of products and sizes we offer to our customers.”

The marketplace will enhance the retailer’s existing assortment, service customers across more occasions with new and relevant brands, and accelerate the expansion of its assortment to support young customers, according to the post.

Customers shopping the new marketplace will see a seamless experience in which they have access to the same level of service, loyalty benefits and customer care support they have with any other Nordstrom purchase, the post said.

Together with the marketplace, Nordstrom will add personalized recommendations and curation to its online shopping experience to help them shop for their favorite brands and discover new ones, per the post.

“We are transforming how customers discover and connect with products, brand and content,” Almeida said in the post. “We have enhanced our search feature for seamless navigation, surfacing relevant product and brand recommendations based on past customer engagement and targeting customers with relevant inspirational trend and styling content.”

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that about 80% of consumers express high levels of satisfaction when shopping from an online marketplace.

Consumers perceive online marketplaces as offering better online features compared to brand websites and retailer sites, including fast delivery, free shipping and a broad product variety, according to “The Online Features Driving Consumers to Shop With Brands, Retailers or Marketplaces,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Adobe collaboration.

Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom told analysts during a March 5 earnings call that the launch of the digital marketplace will enable the retailer to meet consumers’ demand for greater choice without increasing its investment in owned inventory.