Nordstrom

Nordstrom's online sales are exploding. Therefore the company is investing $1 billion over the next five years to support its e-commerce infrastructure. Nordstrom will add about 400 e-commerce employees to its direct business and flash-sale retailer HauteLook.

HauteLook will become the latest online player to use TV advertising to boost awareness and attract subscribers. Like Groupon and LivingSocial before it, the flash-sale site is using mass media to define its brand to a broad audience.

Nordstrom recently announced adjustments to its loyalty program; Barnes & Noble unveiled temporary price cuts to its Nook tablets and e-readers; and Safeway, Kroger and Stop & Shop are hoping to offset rising food prices by providing gasoline discounts to their rewards members and personalized savings for loyal shoppers.

Nordstrom has implemented mobile POS devices in all full-line stores and will continue to expand the functionality of those devices. Three quarters of traditional fixed POS capabilities can now be done on the mobile devices, helping to provide a better customer experience in terms of personalization and speed. "We've got a number of different initiatives to improve the service we're giving through mobile devices both in our stores and outside the store," said Nordstrom EVP James Nordstrom, during a recent conference call. "We're improving the speed and quality at which we can get merchandise to customers. A lot of

Nordstrom is targeting aspirational consumers through mobile banner advertisements for its Nordstrom Rack locations in the popular gaming application Words With Friends. Nordstrom is promoting a sale in its discount chain that will serve to drive consumers in-store.

Last April, Gamestop opened a store on Facebook to generate sales among the 3.5 million-plus customers who’d declared themselves “fans” of the video game retailer. Six months later, the store was quietly shuttered.

Nordstrom gave a profit forecast that missed Wall Street's expectations and said its gross profit margin would dip this year as it invests in beefing up its growing online business. Nordstrom, which now operates 117 department stores and 104 Rack outlets, plans to open another department store next month and a total of 15 new Racks this fiscal year, including 12 locations that it's identified.

Long before football fans began descending on Indianapolis in advance of Super Bowl XLVI, an installation team arrived to build the largest temporary retail store in the nation's history.

The staff at Retail Online Integration has compiled a collection of the best tweets from the BIG Show. From tips to trends to breaking news and opinions, enjoy the best of the best from the Twitterverse and the NRF show attendees and speakers.

Digital think tank L2 says that Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy's and NET-A-PORTER are the most "mobile-competent" among what it calls "prestige" brands. In L2's new study, Prestige 100 Mobile IQ, the most recognizable brands were measured across 250 parameters, including their mobile sites, apps, marketing approaches and innovation.