Nordstrom Hopes To Win Over Shoppers With Text And Buy Program

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Innovation resulted in e-commerce texting app.

Earlier this year, Nordstrom reimagined its innovation center, moving technologists from the lab to business groups throughout the company, and the result was a new e-commerce texting app that allows shoppers to “text and buy,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

When Nordstrom opened its innovation lab in 2010, it was with the goal of jumpstarting projects that would change the way their customers shopped. Now, Nordstrom has hired senior executives in sales and other areas with a mix of technology and customer service backgrounds, taking technology beyond the confines of the innovation lab and making it more viable through the entire company.

The app, called TextStyle, allows customers to chat and share images with a Nordstrom’s salesperson, and then to purchase products by texting a unique code to Nordstrom, without having to input personal or financial information already on file. 

Nordstrom CIO Dan Little told the WSJ that the service is part of the initiative to use technology in order to preserve the close relationships cultivated between sales associates and customers at the department store.

The app was launched at Nordstrom’s 116 U.S. department stores in late May, and it uses the store’s NEXT technology.  As the National Retail Federation  reported, NEXT is “an opt-in, secure, one-to-one service for Nordstrom customers who prefer texting to communicate with sales associates. TextStyle leverages the security, privacy, and capabilities built into the Nordstrom texting service.”

"TextStyle is an important step forward in our continued efforts to develop ways to serve customers on their terms," said Jamie Nordstrom, president of stores. "For customers who prefer text messaging, TextStyle is a way for our salespeople to provide a personalized styling experience and for customers to view and buy seamlessly with the convenience and simplicity of a text message, wherever and whenever they like."

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