Nordstrom, Walmart among retailers facing future head-on
Shopping with the click of a button on a laptop, tablet or smartphone is fast becoming old school. The retail industry is on the cusp of startling new innovations that could change the way Americans shop.
The industry is bubbling with ideas and test runs, from having delivery services that head straight into the kitchen to restock customers’ fridges to apparel stores where you can buy clothes on your smartphone by tapping the glass on the display mirror.
“The real innovation is how they go to market in new ways, and in particular, combine online and offline” experiences, says Tom Robertson, interim director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “I think companies are working very hard on all of that, and in some ways, it’s a great time to be in retailing.”
Among the ideas retailers tried on for size this year:
Nordstrom. Instead of sending customers into endless racks of clothes, personal shoppers did the work at the Nordstrom Local store in West Hollywood, Calif. The personal shoppers assist patrons in picking out apparel and accessories while pampering them with extras such as manicures or a glass of beer or wine as they go through possible selections.
Walmart. The world’s largest retailer, engaged in a fierce delivery war with online giant Amazon, upped the ante by announcing it was testing a service in which a driver not only delivered groceries to a customer’s home, but toted them inside and placed them in the refrigerator. The delivery option, tested in California’s Silicon Valley, was in partnership with August Home, which produces the smartphone-controlled keyless locks necessary for the service.
MasterCard. The electronic payments company partnered with Marie
Claire magazine to open a temporary pop-up shop in Manhattan that featured Neiman Marcus stylists and mer chandise. Dressing room mirrors recog nized and displayed the clothing shop pers tried on. Instead of checking out at a counter, shoppers could simply touch the item’s image on the dressing-room mirror in order to see the dress or coa pop up in a virtual cart on their mobile device and then pay for it.
JCPenney. The department store recently launched a partnership that will allow it to offer its large-sized men’s apparel through subscription service Bombfell. Calling “special sizes ... one o several long-term growth initiatives outlined by the company,” JCPenney spokesman Joey Thomas said the part nership with Bombfell is “an all-new way of connecting with this customer.”
Not all of the innovations will work Some, like Walmart’s idea of having de livery workers enter a customer’s kitch en when they aren’t home, may not catch on, some industry watchers say.
But Walmart is working on various fronts that could lead to other new ideas through its purchase of e-commerce marketplace Jet and online menswear seller Bonobos, among other niche sites