NARS at Nordstrom Americana at Brand
The beauty department at Nordstrom is getting a makeover. Feeling competition from Sephora, e-commerce and revamped offerings from other department stores such as Macy’s, Nordstrom is breaking away from the traditional cosmetics selling model and letting shoppers explore the latest trends and releases. The concept debuted at the Nordstrom location in Los Angeles at the Americana at Brand shopping center and in Orange County at the Shops at Mission Viejo. Nordstrom plan on expanding the idea to 10 more locations by January, giving the entire country a chance to shop the new layout.
Gemma Lionello
“Our main objective is to heighten and enhance our service experience for our customers and really give the customers the opportunity to shop beauty on their own terms,” said Gemma Lionello, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of cosmetics at Nordstrom. “We worked with our customers and actually took their advice about what they would like to see in a perfect beauty environment and also brought in our salespeople to the [mock-up at the] customer-experience center, so we had them work together with the customers. We’ve taken the best from both worlds and tried to roll it out into this new concept.”
The new model at Nordstrom takes the traditional beauty counter idea and meshes it with the customer-driven shopping experience at Sephora. Instead of having the beauty department separated by brand, which is how you find it set up in most department stores, the new Nordstrom beauty department has brought the focus to the product instead of the brand. Shoppers will find a few new things, such as a beauty concierge and displays focusing on categories instead of brands (the best mascaras, the latest rollerball perfumes, etc.). There will also be new Trend Zones, which focus on the season’s latest beauty trends in nails, lips and more.
Nordstrom Beauty Concierge
“The best ingredient to success is to be reflective of what the customers are interested in. Customers evolve and change over time, not only in regards to the product, but how they like to be served,” Pete Nordstrom, president of merchandising for Nordstrom, said to WWD. “In the beauty segment, there is an opportunity to serve the customer in a different and a better way. We have to allow our stores to be able to evolve to be able to appeal to customers, not just to legacy customers, but to our new customers.”
Another new area is the mini must-haves section, which lets customers try smaller sized products instead of commiting to full sized, more expensive options. The mini must-haves are expeved to be updated once a month, and at the Orange County location, we spied new releases from Dior, Clarins and Clinique that ran the gamut from high-tech serums to mini bottles of perfume. This is where Nordstrom will introduce the newest and latest releases from brands. The mini must-haves area as well as the trend zone allow customers to explore the items on their own, without the pressure of an employee behind the counter. The self-exploration will also extend to other areas of the beauty department, which has been laid out to eliminate different barriers that would keep shoppers from the items that they’re looking for.
Nordstrom Beauty Trend Zone
The trend zone brings products from several brands together to illustrate looks that shoppers might have seen in a magazine or on the runway, making it easy for women to try a new trend without having to traverse the entire beauty department. Examples such as the Bordeaux Lip and the Graphic Eye are already on display and we expect that these special trend zones will be updated seasonally, if not more often, giving shoppers a one-stop shop for the looks that are at the forefront of their minds.
And if it all sounds like just a little too much, Beauty Concierges are available to help guide shoppers to counters and areas so that they can find exactly what they’re looking for. Of course, Nordstrom’s legendary customer service will come standard no matter what you’re shopping for or which location you happen to be visiting. So whether you’re the kind of shopper that likes to linger and explore or you prefer the help of an expert, Nordstrom has everything covered so that you’re sure to come out looking great.
Images courtesy WWD
