Although no longer publicly traded, the Neiman Marcus Group released fiscal year 2022 business highlights and the company’s work toward its designated goal: Revolutionizing Luxury Experiences.
In April, NMG announced a partnership with Farfetch that includes re-platforming the Bergdorf Goodman website and mobile application. As a result, Bergdorf Goodman will gain upgraded capabilities that will allow the banner to introduce its digital customer experience and curated offering to customers globally while integrating with the iconic New York City flagship. Also, NMG is launching new corporate hubs in Dallas, New York and Bangalore, India, to support an integrated working philosophy, NMG|WOW. As such, the organization will operate as a network of various hubs that support employees. The company’s culture and enhanced benefit offerings contributed to better retention and expedited time-to-hire throughout a turbulent labor market, according to NMG.
“We are very pleased with the strong performance delivered in fiscal 2022, which validates our ambitious strategy and our team’s impressive execution,” said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, NMG CEO. “Our fiscal year concluded at the end of July, throughout which our teams worked diligently to achieve over 30% comparable sales versus the previous year and $495 million in Adjusted EBITDA.”
In addition, the company indicated, NMG delivered more than $5 billion in gross merchandise value and year-over-year and meaningful gross margin expansion supported by healthy 80% full-price selling leading to an 11% EBITDA margin for the 2022 fiscal year.
Van Raemdonck added that the best Neiman Marcus customers have proven to be “highly loyal” as the top 2% contributing 40%of total sales in fiscal 2022.
“Our brand partners come to us to reach our affluent customers through a premier integrated luxury retail experience,” he said. “We believe our business model positions us well as we navigate the uncertain macroeconomic environment ahead.”
NMG asserted that its high-income customers remain loyal even through challenging economic cycles, with 80% of top shoppers having at least $1 million of net worth, an average spend with the company of over $25,000 annually and a store visit frequency of over 25 times a year. The company noted that it cultivates lasting relationships, with 90% top customer retention during fiscal 2022. All that contributed to about 70% of NMG stores reaching their highest revenue in more than a decade, while digital properties grew total visits to 300 million in fiscal 2022, marking continued growth in the web-based business.
From a generational perspective, Neiman Marcus maintained that new customers are entering the market seeking NMG’s luxury, top-tier brands and curated products as loyal customers tend to be younger, spanning from Gen X to Gen Z. By providing superior levels of service as well as a curated experience online, in stores and through remote selling, Neiman Marcus declared that it has extended the reach of luxury brands in the U.S. market.
Post-pandemic, affluent customers in 2022 returned to stores while continuing to shop online, NMG contended, and added that multi-channel consumers on average spent five times more than those who shopped only one channel. Offline, the company’s stores are strategically positioned near top customers, with 70% of high-net-worth individuals in the United States living within 30 miles of a Neiman Marcus Group store.
NMG has made investments in data and technology that allow scale in personalizing luxury experiences. The company completed its acquisition of Stylyze at the beginning of fiscal 2022, which, through machine learning, offers product attribution data and curated content to power relevant customer shopping experiences, NMG pointed out. Then, NMG’s proprietary remote selling tool, Connect scaled selling staffers’ ability to connect with their clients wherever, whenever, to share styling and product recommendations. Connect allows customers to buy directly from an NMG employee, no matter their location, creating a seamless experience for the customer and increasing access to NMG’s dedicated services outside the four walls of a store.
On average, selling associates as a group send 1.5 million texts and personalized emails to customers per month, NMG pointed out. NMG’s integrated model incorporates some 3,000 selling associates, who are focused on establishing long-term relationships and emotional connections with customers to create high lifetime value potential. On average, employees have been part of the company for nearly a decade, and more than 1,000 retail staffers have successfully generated over $1 million in customer spend per year.
The company enhanced personalized shopping services in 2022 through retailtainment experiences in stores and online, with the majority of NMG’s top 20 brands doing exclusive activations with Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf Goodman including 10 immersive digitally amplified exclusive experiences. Collaborations with top brand partners included the development of exclusive collections from Loewe, Prada, Valentino, Burberry and Balmain.
