Nordstrom’s ‘glow-up’: How going private is helping the retailer thrive as Saks Global languishes |
Nordstrom’s ‘glow-up’: How going private is helping the retailer thrive as Saks Global languishes
If Pete Nordstrom has a pep in his step as he gives a tour of his family’s luxury department store flagship in Manhattan, it’s because he is starting to see signs that his executive team’s efforts to rejuvenate the 125-year-old retailer are working.
As he walks the store’s street-level floor, he proudly shows off the recent overhaul of the beauty section: While Nordstrom still offers the decades-old department store counter service, it has added a lot of the self-service, discovery-centered style favored by shoppers at Sephora and its ilk. The beauty section still stocks the luxury brands you’d expect, but has added hip, less pricey items to help Nordstrom reach a wider clientele.
“We thought, ‘Let’s create more authority,’” says Nordstrom, who serves as co-CEO with his brother Erik. “The store feeling good and feeling energetic is in large part because we’ve improved our beauty.”
There are other signs in the store of Nordstrom finding its mojo again in the nearly one year since the family and a Mexican investor took the retailer off the stock market. There is an overhauled, much larger jewelry section on the same floor, as well as a two-level, design-y brand-showcase section called “The Gift Shop at The Corner” that changes every month, prominently placed at the busy intersection of Broadway and 57th.
The glow-up at Nordstrom’s flagship, along with upgrades at many of its other 89 department stores and its resurgent discount “Rack” chain, has helped fuel the retailer’s return to form after some difficult years: In 2025, sales rose 7% to a record $15.9 billion, finally surpassing its 2019 high-water mark. Profits before income and taxes were at their highest in more than a decade.
Just a few years ago, Nordstrom was struggling to get its footing back after COVID. Its Rack chain proved unable to compete well with other discounters including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. The hard times squeezed Nordstrom and led to it compromise on some of high-end standards that had made the 125-year-old company such a beloved institution.
The American department store is by no means out of the woods—but recent agita in the sector could play out to Nordstrom’s advantage. The bankruptcy filing by Saks Global, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, has shaken the U.S. luxury market to its core—but Nordstrom stands to win market share among well-heeled department store shoppers if its strategy proves to be the correct one.
“There is this huge opportunity in the market,” says consulting firm SW Retail Advisors president Stacey Widlitz. “There is also this........