Nordstrom sees more e-commerce, mobile commerce in its future

The Internet is Nordstrom's fastest-growing channel and, with $1.5 billion in cash on hand, it's spending heavily to support that growth, meaning more jobs at its Seattle headquarters.

The 111-year-old company is working on new mobile shopping options and personalization features, so that visitors to its website might soon receive recommendations based on their online and in-store buying habits.

It's also testing a local same-day delivery service for a possible broader rollout, and it's expanding its merchandise assortment online to give customers more selection. "If you're listening to customers, they're telling you that their expectations around how they want to shop are evolving," Jamie Nordstrom, who oversees the company's website as president of its direct division, said in a recent interview at his corporate offices.

"Many customers today don't have several hours to shop like maybe previous generations did," he said. "They're looking to be efficient, and they're looking for help."

Why Tablet Commerce May Trump Mobile Commerce

While all eyes in the online retail space seem to be on social networks and smartphones these days, we’re seeing an emerging trend with tablets that could be the most interesting of all. Only 9% of web shoppers now have tablet devices, but here’s the big deal — most of those people already own smartphones (as well as PCs, of course), and they are saying that they actually prefer to use their tablets for shopping. Not only that, but the ownership of the tablet device itself actually increases the amount of time that people spend online. And we’re anticipating a hockey stick in tablet adoption in the next five years on top of all that.

A revolutionary new service which can provide retailers with a much needed boost has just hit the high street, allowing every customer in the UK to purchase items instantly and securely from any advert, simply by sending a text message.

The marketplace is saturated with news of new mobile phone Apps, fragmented m-commerce solutions and the latest smartphone technology, but the reality is that the ‘tried and tested’ SMS is all any retailer needs to reach over 50 million consumers in the UK.

The first service of its kind to hit the UK market, txt2buy offers retailers the chance to gain incremental sales from their existing marketing and to improve their upselling and cross selling opportunities, regardless of whether their customers have the latest smart phone and without having to download an App or waiting for web pages to load.

Retailers simply add a txt2buy call-to-action to their advertising and consumers can order instantly by sending the required keyword  to the number displayed on the advert. Following a simple one-time registration process with txt2buy (similar to setting up a Paypal account) consumers can order items of their choice in as little as  45 seconds, making txt2buy one of the quickest ways to close a sale.

Not only is this breakthrough technology a faster, simpler way for customers to order products they want, retailers can also generate more sales by closing impulse purchases at the moment of engagement with the advertising exposure. This ensures the value of their advertising results in sales with their brand directly and not their competitors.

txt2buy is already in early stage trials with some of the most established UK retail brands and is due to appear in mainstream advertising campaigns from as early as July 2011.

Marketing & Brand Director at txt2buy, Gordon Ellis-Brown, said: “txt2buy is a compelling new service that has the potential to revolutionize how retailers engage with a larger customer base, more than ever before. It is quickest way to close a sale, as consumers don’t need internet access to purchase – all they have to do is send a simple text”.

“The fact that the service works with current technology means that there is no upfront investment, expensive software or training required. As well as measuring offline marketing spend, txt2buy is able to capture that data and offer massive opportunities for up-selling and cross selling” adds Ellis-Brown.

And when it comes to integrating txt2buy into their marketing material it’s as simple as adding an additional call-to-action – one where consumers can instantly respond and buy, anytime, anywhere, 24/7...and no queuing!

Retailers are constantly looking for ways to measure return on advertising spend and strategies to successfully capture more customers and drive more sales without investing large sums of money. With txt2buy making all offline marketing instantly measurable, it seems txt2buy could well be the answer that the embattled high street has been waiting for.