Nordstrom Closing All Trunk Club Stores
Nordstrom will close all six Trunk Club stores, is retiring its co-presidency, naming Erik Nordstrom its sole CEO, and will increase convenience for shoppers in 2020.
The department store retailer announced it will close the Trunk Club stores and relocate the service into its nearby department stores. It acquired the personalized clothing service in 2014. Founded in 2009, Trunk Club customers consult with a stylist who then hand-selects merchandise and ships to the customer. Customers keep what they like and return the rest for free. The service was dedicated to menswear when Nordstrom purchased it, but expanded to womenswear.
“To further leverage this capability, we are fully integrating our Trunk Club service to enable a superior experience for customers, drive more business and gain efficiencies,” said Erik Nordstrom. “We are now bringing together Nordstrom and Trunk Club capabilities across merchandise, technology, loyalty, personalization, people and physical locations.
“Our plans include relocating clubhouse styling to nearby Nordstrom stores to reach more customers while continuing to offer our core Trunk-based services. We're excited by this opportunity to bring together our styling programs, and look forward to rolling out this cohesive styling experience to customers this fall.”
The closing stores are located in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.
Erik said the company sees increased spending through engagement with its services, noting customers who use alteration or styling services spend three to five times more on average.
“This level of engagement supports our strategy to integrate Trunk Club within the Nordstrom styling ecosystem,” he said.
The company also announced that Erik Nordstrom will serve as its sole CEO, while Pete Nordstrom, who previously served as co-president alongside Erik, will become president of Nordstrom Inc. and chief brand officer.
“These titles help clarify our respective roles as we strive to maximize our impact both as individual leaders and as a team,” Erik noted.
The company also made several additional announcements for 2020:
- Nordstrom will roll out its market strategy in five additional markets: Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, Seattle, and Toronto, for a total of 10 markets, which represent more than half of the company’s sales. It will utilize its existing technology platform to give customers up to seven times more merchandise selection available for next-day orders.
- It aims to increase convenience with more Nordstrom Local neighborhood service hubs in New York and Los Angeles.
- It will offer express services, order pickup, returns and alterations at more than 50 Rack stores.
- Nordstrom is launching a dedicated e-commerce site for customers in Canada.
- Its West Coast fulfillment center is “just about to open up” which the retailer expects will help it improve delivery speed on the West Coast, which represents 40% of its customer base.
- Nordstrom expects 2020 free cash flow to increase by approximately two and a half times from 2019, with CapEx moderating from 6%-4% of sales. The retailer plans to continue to invest in digital capabilities to improve both the customer experience and operational efficiencies, with more than half of its plan allocated to technology and supply chain.