American Upscale Fashion Retailers: Nordstrom

As stated before Nordstrom. is an American upscale fashion retailer which began as a shoe retailer and has now expanded their inventory with 261 stores operating in 35 states. (Nordstrom.com) Nationally, Nordstrom competes with luxury retailers Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue. And of those competitors, Nordstrom has both the largest number of store locations and the largest geographic footprint. As of 2011, Nordstrom achieved an all-time record for total net sales at $10.5 billion while as of 2013 net sales were still up 16% to $95 million. (Nordstrom.com)

Even though Nordstrom has both the largest number of store locations and the largest geographic footprint here in the US in comparison to its competitors, it would be very strategic to enter a new market and expand. Competition here in the US is only growing, and though Nordstrom has very loyal customers that love and appreciate their amazing customer service and products, in the last quarter forbes.com stated that “Nordstrom reported net earnings of $137 million, down 6.2% from the same period last year. At $2.8 billion revenue, however, was below the $2.9 billion consensus estimate.” (Sharf, 2014) Therefore even though they are a company that constantly exceeds in profits, competition is affecting their earnings, so internationalizing specifically to the UK would be in their best interest to expand their company and profits. Since Nordstrom is such a well-established company with exceptional earnings entering the UK market as wholly owned subsidiary would be their best option even though as Sternquist has explained seems to be the most expensive. Opening a wholly owned subsidiary means that the “manufacturer (Nordstrom) sets up a facility i...

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...l Stability Report' says that the number of banks who see cyber-attacks as a key risk to UK financial stability has more than doubled between the first and second halves of this year, rising to around 14 percent of banks.” (Ring & Morbin, 2013) The report also accepts the UK banking sector is particularly open to the cyber risk because of its inter-dependent nature and ageing technology: “The financial system has a number of potential vulnerabilities to cyber-attack, reflecting its high degree of interconnectedness, its reliance on centralized market infrastructure, and its sometimes complex legacy IT systems.” (Ring & Morbin, 2013) Therefore right now is a bit of a hard time in the UK with banks and people feeling uneasy about the situation, Nordstrom would need to find a way to make customers feel secure with online shopping on their site and the banking system.