Nordstrom

E-commerce retailer One Kings Lane is one of the first flash-sale sites to partner with a digital catalog company — in this case, Catalog Spree — to let shoppers browse on both the iPad and web. This is also Catalog Spree's first deal with a nontraditional retailer, the company says. Typically, the startup works with brands and retailers like Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, West Elm, Macy's, Patagonia and hundreds of others, aggregating and organizing their content into one app.

Back in May, Target announced that it would no longer be selling the Amazon Kindle. Earlier this month, Wal-Mart followed suit. While neither big-box retailer explained exactly why they've declared war on Amazon.com's tablet, the motive is clear. Every time Target or Wal-Mart sells a Kindle, they put their brick-and-mortar stores in jeopardy by providing Amazon even greater reach in its digital retail power grab. Viewed in this context, the tandem moves are direct, sharp-shooter responses aimed directly across the bow of a major competitor.

Welcome to this week's "Pin of the Week." This week's featured pin is an infographic titled "The Social Retail Competition" from Unmetric, a social media analytics provider. The infographic is based on a study by Unmetric that focuses on how retailers are battling it out in the social media space.

Staying true to its 115-year-old brand heritage while evolving to remain relevant to today's consumers is the challenge facing cross-channel retailer Filson. The company's Vice President of Direct Sales Harold Egler outlined those challenges as well as how the company embraces its history in a keynote presentation yesterday at NEMOA's directXchange conference in Groton, Conn.

In the past year, several major online-only boutiques have announced plans to open brick-and-mortar stores of one kind or another. Amazon.com has announced a forthcoming boutique in Seattle; menswear e-tailer Bonobos has inked a partnership with Nordstrom; and eyewear brand Warby Parker is currently at work on a flagship in Manhattan. One of the biggest e-tailers to make the jump, Gap's designer emporium Piperlime, is also the first to actually open its doors.

All of us that are either in or cover the retail industry for a living have undoubtedly heard the sentiment, "You must adapt your business to meet the needs of today's changing consumers." While I agree with this statement for the most part — consumers today have access to more information on your products and more avenues to buy those products than ever before — the last two words I take issue with: changing consumers. Are we really?

Here's a look at a few key takeaways (in tweet form) from Shop.org's Annual Summit, which took place last week in Denver.

Upscale department store chain Nordstrom opened its doors 111 years ago with one goal: improve the customer experience in any way possible. A lot has changed for the company in the last 111 years, but that singular focus has remained. Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct, detailed how the company is putting this philosophy into practice in his keynote address at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Denver yesterday.

Nordstrom is working on its image. Like just about every other retailer out there, the 111-year-old department store is trying to upgrade with a younger, digital-friendly twist. In the past couple years, the brand has done a bunch of things to try and make that happen: It's courted Jason Wu (straight off the smash success of his Target collab) for a younger, contemporary line and it will be launching Topshop boutiques within its stores and on its website this fall. But probably its biggest push in the young-hip-online direction has been the acquisition of flash-sale site HauteLook.

Following tests that showed mobile point of sale (POS) successfully sped up the checkout process in its Rack stores, Nordstrom will roll out approximately 1,500 of the devices to its 110 Rack units by the end of this year's third quarter. This deployment is in addition to the mobile POS technology already in use in Nordstrom's 117 full-line stores. "We are constantly adding to the functionality of our mobile point-of-sale devices and their use in our stores is increasing," said Nordstrom president Blake Nordstrom during a recent conference call discussing second-quarter financial results.