Nordstrom Strategy Essay Example

Nordstrom Strategies

The Nordstrom Company is an American fashion retail company founded by John Nordstrom and Wallin Carl and has been headquartered in Washington. Basically, the company began its operations as a shoe retailer and expanded gradually with respect to the voluminous inventory to trade clothing, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics and fragrances among other categories of products. Similarly, there are multiple Nordstrom stores that also trade wedding and home furnishing selections. In particular, the company has an elaborate business scope comprising of about 271 stores operating across 36 states in the world. The strategic display includes about 117 full-line stores and additional 151 Nordstrom Racks. Additionally, the company has advanced technologically through the provision of high standard marketing experience of its website, Nordstrom.com. Most recently, the company also denounced an e-commerce site commonly called the nordstromrack.com and a subsequent online sales site, Hautelook (Harnish, 2012).

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Indeed, the company shares have been on the NYSE using the symbol JWN. In the short run, the company is also seeking to establish an additional six stores in Canada starting from 2014 financial year besides creating a Namesake Company in New York at 2018. At the national levels, the company engages in vigorous competition with other luxury retailers such as the Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Lord and Taylor as well as Saks Fifth Avenue among others. The company has competitors ranging from small to large store locations as well as one of the biggest geographical footprints. The company’s stores also anchor several upscale malls across the United States of America (Harnish, 2012).

Industry Analysis

The make-up industry forms up the worldwide make-up market. The beauty industry includes face, nail and even the lip make-up. These cosmetics are usually used to enhance the appearance and the odor of the human body. Most manufacturers of body cosmetics are nowadays targeting the production of a variety of products that provide similar benefits as skin care products. Application of body make-up cosmetics proposes color and luminescence to the body. These products also provide protection against ultra violet rays and help to moisturize the body. Global industry analysts indicate that the make-ups also provide anti-aging benefits to the person applying them (Nordstrom, 2013).
The make-up industry has been a profitable business to venture in the recent times. The industry has generated over $35 billion in the year 2010. This translates closely to an excess growth of about 4 % for the past four years. At the top of the highest generating income products are face cosmetics that have recorded sales revenue of about $12 billion in the year 2010. Thus, accounts for more than 35% of the total sales values in the whole market share of the make-up industry. Market predictions indicate that the growth in the market is expected to maintain the same level until the year 2015, when the revenue generated in the market will translate to a valuation of about $42 billion (Nordstrom, 2013).
Product creativity and innovation have led to the manufacture of a wider range of color cosmetics, thus, bringing up new formats and textures. The make-up industry has been characterized by consumers who are out to reduce the number of potentially harmful products to their bodies. This has made most of the customers look out for the benefits that come with natural products such as extracts from plants and vitamin E. Thus, it has made a remarkable increase in the demand for make-ups that contain organic ingredients. The sale of make-up products has been made possible through retail outlets that encompass merchandisers, retail stores, specialty retail stores and even pharmacies (Nordstrom, 2013).

Competition Analysis

Nordstrom Company has been operating in the industry with a high regard for its customers. The company’s corporate culture is service with a smile. Nordstrom is one of the largest upscale apparel and shoes product retailers trading in clothes, shoes and accessories across its 115 departmental stores with a 125 off-price stores outlet within the context of the Nordstrom Rack. This, particularly, provides the company with a distinct shopping experience that perhaps promotes its competitive capacity. Additionally, the Nordstrom Company has also been operating a couple of Jeffrey luxury boutiques, namely ‘Last Chance’ store and the online private sales site HauteLook. Similarly, the company has an easy-return policy which also entails a thank-you note for its employees. As a result, the company’s reputation has considerably increased particularly for the top-notch customer services. Indeed, the company’s family owns approximately 25 percent of the company’s overall asset base with close supervision of its supply chain. This makes the company have a sound management portfolio by loyalty (Nordstrom & Alanen, 2007).

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Neiman Marcus, a competing company provides its customers with a wide range of selections in high profile fashion and cloths for both male and female clients. Furthermore, the company also operates additional shoes accessory stores, fine jewelry as well as silver products in more than 40 stores cutting across 20 states. In addition, this company has a two Bergdorf Goodman stores within the New York City as well as an additional thirty five last call clearance outlets selling marked down commodities. The company also went private in 2013. From the analysis, Nordstrom remains relatively strong by virtue of market scope and shares with an extensive coverage and commodity differentiation relative to its competitor. However, Neiman remains a significant competitor of the Nordstrom Company within the context of clothing business activities and the extensive range of products in a wide market segment. Currently, the company is still enjoying significantly large market share comprising of about 56.66 percent of retail segment against its closest competitor Ambercrombie & Fitch Company which has a market share of 12.69 percent. Basically, the Nordstrom Company has been operating competitively in the industry with a diverse composition of the commodities and enhanced customer services (Nordstrom Inc., 2007). In particular, the company has a number of strength that makes it more competitive relative to its competitors in the industry.

Strengths

Within the context of the make-up industrial market, Nordstrom has been a major player in the industry with an elaborately huge market share relative to its competitors. In particular, the company provides its clients with an extensive value-based, quality services and selections within the context of clothing and footwear, a major contributor to its success in business. Besides, the company’s main strength lies in its value, norms as well as principles which have been consistently witnessed amidst different conditions. Furthermore, the company understands that the success of its operation is firmly anchored on the strong employees’ loyalty to their respective duties. As a result, the company respects its employees’ at their respective capacity of contribution towards the success of the company’s operations (Nordstrom & Alanen, 2007).
Additionally, the company has been recently engaged in business product diversification which has been an essential element in promoting its business scopes. In particular, most of the company’s loyal customers have been finding the diversified business prospects quite enterprising in and, therefore, a major boost to the company’s operation. The acceptance of the customers for the diverse market scope does not only add to the company’s business activities but also a growth stamina for the entire exchange processes. The diverse product supply presents a modern approach to business which achieves among other objectives, the capacity to satisfy majority of the consumers’ objectives within the business environment (Avery, 2011).
Similarly, the company also boasts of strategic and proactive managerial planning where it assumes competent planning processes and, subsequently, achieves the planned scope of operations in the long-run. In fact, the company manages to be a fortified business enterprise with a tenable social responsibility which promotes its social business context towards enhancing its ability to perform more efficiently as a major industrial player. Therefore, the success of the company is one of the products of effective planning and subsequent achievement of the lied down set of objectives in the business context. Besides, the company has more focus on the environment which encourages the sales and objectively works in recycling, chemical, deforestation and transportation areas among others. This makes the business apparently skewed towards social framework that creates concessional conviction in its clients. However, the company also has a number of weaknesses that act against business operations to distract its achievements (Nordstrom, 2013).
Another major strength of the company is its move to merge the markets with common interest groups in order to enhance product and service delivery to its client sharing common interests. Indeed, the company is propagating profiling prospects of the business activities with the need of the respective customers through reputable marketing mix. In fact, the company has been uniquely punctuated by its prospects to find out new ventures by exploring and producing products with innovative technology processes.

Weaknesses

Amidst wide range of strengths, the company is also marred by a number of weaknesses which are potential threats to its future business. For instance, it has not been a simple engagement for the business in achieving its current status while advancing on business activities through the upcoming business trends. With the expansion of business activities, particularly over a wide geographical scope has been challenging owing to the fact that the supply chain is becoming complicated consistently among other bureaucratic aspects in the management. Furthermore, the ability to diversify is also hampered by the flexibility of its employees and the need for additional taskforce with the requisite capacity to deliver consistently (Nordstrom & Alanen, 2007).
In particular, the sudden expansion and renovations of the company’s outlets to harness the scope of departmental stores is highly outrageous and acts as a major impediment to the company’s business advancement. Indeed, the long-run effect of the sudden expansion is the fateful reduction of the business growth and company’s services to its clients. The business customers’ relations are principally determined by the quality and capacity of the business services. In order to promote a self-winning business processes, any company must seek to retain high customer profile as far as its service delivery is concerned. Nordstrom’s reduced customer service delivery charter by virtue of expanded business scope is detrimental to its future success due to the sound negative impacts of the latter on the customers’ quality of services. Consequently, the ideal position held by most customers regarding the company’s quality and type of services may gradually degenerate to cause a significant drop in market share relative to its competitors who are aggressively engaged in the business at the expense of Nordstrom, the market giant (Nordstrom & Alanen, 2007).
Besides, sudden and quick expansion of the company’s business, activities may also lead to a declining employee’s output and efficiency. Similarly, this unfolding scenario may make the work of management quite complicated particularly in managing the fluctuating wave of situations. As a result, poor prospects of management would lead to the loss of potential grounds for the business market share as well as the overall output in the market. As a result, the loop hole would provide a critical opportunity for the competitors to seize the superfluous Nordstrom market taking advantage of its weakened management structure.
In addition, the Nordstrom Company can also enhance its reputation through the high social class. Such an action is very essential to the business performance of Nordstrom Company. However, to undertake such a move, the company would incur very high cost, a factor that would hinder its successful implementation. As a result, this implies that the company has to sleep persistently on its opportunity to expand through the promotion of its reputation through the high social class simply because of the cost impact that such action would produce in the business activities of the company (Avery, 2011).
Additionally, the company falls short of managerial capacity of its employs on the wide range of products, thus, introducing inefficiencies in business performance within which losses are inevitable. Additionally, the act of rapid extension of the company’s business scope is particularly detrimental to its operations. For instance, through its diversification and extension of business scope, the competitors are able to revamp their competition through specialization against the diversified scope of Nordstrom. As a result, the company’s product market is further constrained while the long-term capacity to survive cross-cutting competition further shrinks (Avery, 2011).
Finally, heavy dependency on the working of its suppliers is a major weakness of the company. Essentially, Nordstrom could be widely affected by the failure of the suppliers due to its habitual maximum dependency on the suppliers. In particular, if the suppliers reduce their supplies or increase their prices, this would produce a direct reduced sales volumes and high costs of operations respectively, thus, reducing the company’s ability to compete with its prospective competitors. In order to mitigate this challenge, the company should craft means by which it could manage its own supplies directly by establishing production line operations.
One of the most proficient Nordstrom’s business competitive strategies is product differentiation via superior customer services, quality and successive improvement. According to the company’s management, ‘fashion is what sells.’ Indeed, the company believes that by having compelling merchandise and subsequent unyielding commitments to clients, Nordstrom could be the best retail that any customer would trust. Besides, the company also has personalized sales associates who are essential pillars researching customers tastes and preferences among other aspects besides assisting clients in undertaking their real shopping activities. This promotes the business-clients relationship at large. In order to remain a competitive brand, Nordstrom must retain the latest fashion trend as well as the latest technological innovations (Harnish, 2012).

Recommendations

In order to maintain its market relevance, Nordstrom should venture into the market with a common zeal to establish and dominate the market. Besides, the company should reduce its rate of product diversification across the entire market segment. Indeed, diversification should be undertaken under well researched context and only implemented innovatively and complementary with the customer’s demands. While at it, the company should also put focus on maintaining their perennial brands coupled with sustained improvement over time. This would ensure that its competitors do not take advantage of diversification to specialize in certain markets dominated by Nordstrom, thus, reducing its influence. In particular, the company’s projection to expanding to Canada in the next two years is pivotal in expanding both the market and the product reputation. Also, in the mainstream, the company should seek to have its internally controlled supply of its business products in the next five years and avoid over dependence on the supplier dominated chain which may adversely affect the business in the event of any external crisis.