Nordstrom

As if the recent holiday season in the wake of the payroll tax increase and government shutdown hasn't already made 2014 a disappointment for retail, then the rest of the year may require a stiff upper lip in girding for the rest of the iceberg.

Nordstrom is a 123-year young company. Its management is innovative and looking for future growth. While many competitors speak about omnichannel, this company has done it for many years. At Nordstrom it is called multichannel, and I recall how years ago sales associates would use the telephone and try to find the correct size of a garment in other Nordstrom stores, that was innovative at the time. Multichannel selling allows the company to use its fulfillment warehouses as well as its inventories on the selling floor to make a sale to

With digital commerce attracting a lot of attention, it's sometimes easy to forget just how valuable physical retail remains. While tech gurus like Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen may predict the impending doom of offline stores, there's no evidence that, in the highly tactile fashion industry, sales at physical retail stores won't continue to dominate as a proportion of total sales volume. 

In 2014, technology investments will account for more than 30 percent of Nordstrom's CapEx investment plan, up from roughly 20 percent in previous years. The retailer is also refreshing stores more efficiently by letting the customer experience — rather than the age of the store — drive the process. To keep pace with the ongoing evolution of retail, Nordstrom is also adjusting its investments to better support its multichannel growth strategy and achieve greater mobile execution. It's very clear that advancements in technology, specifically in e-commerce and mobile, are redefining the customer experience across all channels.

For a boutique apparel and accessories retailer such as Apricot Lane Peoria (ALP), building a community of fans, and ultimately converting those fans into customers, is a top challenge. With a limited brick-and-mortar presence and a modest digital advertising budget, getting brand recognition was a concern for ALP. Enter Facebook.

This past January, as I've done for the past five years or so, I trekked into New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center for the National Retail Federation's (NRF) Big Show. I was met, as I was in past years as well, by retailers from around the world. I spent time at this year's conference attending presentations and press conferences; meeting and interviewing retail industry execs in the press room; and walking the vast exhibit hall floors trying to find the "next big things" in retail technology. Here are a few of my takeaways

Revenue growth may have slowed last year at Apple's retail stores, but the division remains one of the world's strongest and a key strategic focus of the tech giant's future. With revenue exceeding $20 billion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 28, Apple's brick-and-mortar unit exceeded the total annual revenue at big-name retailers such as Nordstrom, Gap and AutoNation. The stores are practically hallowed ground for entrepreneurs who supply accoutrements for Apple's "iOSphere." They say the cache and cash flow at Apple's retail outlets combine to make it a unique and unrivaled platform for introducing their products.

Don't call it a comeback, brick-and-mortar retail has been here for years. Yet it's on the verge of a "rebirth," according to Rick Caruso, founder and CEO of real estate company Caruso Affiliated. In a keynote speech to more than 4,000 retail professionals at the National Retail Federation's Big Show on Sunday, Caruso explained that the brick-and-mortar store should no longer just be a destination, but an experience.

Big-box department store Nordstrom has decided that if you can't beat online retailers, you should join 'em. It's renting out space in its stores to the Seattle-based online bridal jewelry company Blue Nile in hopes that it can seize upon the practice of showrooming. So new it was only given a name about two years ago, showrooming refers to the practice of shoppers looking at an item in-store and then using their mobile device to comparison shop for it elsewhere. 

The holiday shopping season is here. And I'm not just talking about those obnoxious pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decorations. I'm talking about your customers, who are flocking to the visual web (see Pinterest and Instagram) to prep holiday season wish lists and find gift inspiration. Have you made your list of how to best optimize your digital efforts for those customers, but not yet checked it twice? Don't worry, there's still time! Here are three ways retailers can visually ensure their products are at the top of consumers’ wish lists during this holiday season: