Nordstrom Rack performed well in its parent company’s latest quarterly financial results. The department store operator’s expanding off-price banner has helped drive sales advances above the company’s overall comparable-store gains, and several more Rack locations are in the plan.
In its recent second-quarter financial report, Nordstrom credited its off-price operations with a net sales gain of 8.8% to $1.27 billion and a comparable sales advance of 4.1% versus fiscal 2023.
Since January, Nordstrom has announced 11 store openings, the most recent being a 26,000-square-foot location in Surprise, AZ, set to open in the fall of 2025. The new Nordstrom Racks will be geographically diverse. The first store opening announced this year, in January, was a 31,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack situated in Fort Mayers, FL. The company announced three coming stores in North Carolina, the most for any state.
Other planned Nordstrom Rack outlets, in order of announcement, included:
- A 32,000-square-foot store in Raleigh, NC, to open this fall.
- A 25,000-square foot store in Matthews, NC, to open in spring 2025.
- A 25,000-square-foot store in Geneva, IL, to open in the spring of 2025.
- A 26,000-square-foot store in Manalapan Township, NJ, to open in the spring of 2025.
- A 30,000-square-foot store in Apple Valley, MN, to open in the spring of 2025.
- A 25,000-square-foot store in Tarzana, CA, to open this fall.
- A 30,000-square-foot store in Houston to open in the spring of 2025.
- A 31,000-square-foot store in Coral Springs, FL, to open in the fall of 2025.
- A 25,000-square-foot store in Morrisville, NC, to open in the spring of 2025.
Nordstrom Rack is integral to its parent’s operations today,. In the second-quarter conference call, Eric Nordstrom, the company’s CEO, said building on Rack’s momentum in the marketplace and driving the off-pricer’s growth is one of three key initiatives underway in the business, the others being department store growth and optimizing operations. He said Nordstrom gets a mid- to high-teen internal rate of return on Rack stores.
Eric Nordstrom characterized Rack’s growing digital operations as a differentiator in an off-price segment for which e-commerce has been limited. In the conference call, CFO Cathy Smith stated Rack digital sales increased 6.2%, the fifth consecutive quarter of sequential improvement.
Nordstrom continues enhancing Rack operations. The division rolled out RFID technology to generate faster real-time inventory data and to help the company improve inventory accuracy.
