Nordstrom Is Interested In Opening HauteLook Stores

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Nordstrom has been betting big on its two discounter properties: Rack, its popular outlet offshoot, and HauteLook.com, its flash sale acquisition. More than 80 new Rack stores are slated to open in the US and Nordstrom execs are investing in a dedicated online presence for the discounter, rack.com. It will launch in May.

In a speech, Pete Nordstrom, EVP of Nordstrom merchandising, also revealed that online-only sale site HauteLook will soon get companion brick-and-mortar stores. "The idea is, if you're a pure play online, in order to grow, you need a physical presence," he said.

The two businesses, Rack and HauteLook, have increasingly overlapped. Nordstrom has encouraged this by allowing HauteLook customers to return unwanted goods at Rack stores. Synergy! "When we enabled HauteLook returns to go to any Rack store, we saw that 50 percent of the customers are new. That's the success," said Nordstrom. "We have HauteLook customers who aren't Nordstrom customers."
· Nordstrom, Saks Seek Growth in Off-Price [WWD, sub req]
· Nordstrom Rack Gets a Digital Home on Hautelook [Racked]
· Saks Off 5th Outlets Hitting Wisconsin, Mississippi, Ohio, MORE [Racked]