Nordstrom joining bridal business

CHICAGO – While most Americans are getting ready for a turkey feast, followed by a day of shopping this holiday weekend, Nordstrom Inc. is preparing for the flood of engagements that happen this time of year.

The Seattle-based specialty department store is stepping into the bridal business for the first time in the company’s 109-year history, quietly opening on Wednesday an in-store bridal boutique at its Midwestern flagship in Chicago.

While not a big season for weddings, the holidays are one of the most popular times of the year to get engaged. And Nordstrom is positioning itself as a one-stop shop for wedding parties, unveiling 14 bridal salons at stores nationwide over the next six weeks.

In a pilot test at nine stores in March, Nordstrom experienced a 30 percent boost in new customers to the store, said company spokeswoman Brooke White.

The expansion comes as a new generation of cost-conscious brides, influenced by the Great Recession, looks for ways to keep wedding budgets from escalating out of control. The bridal salons also provide Nordstrom an added revenue stream at a time when consumers are shopping less.

“This is a great way to meet new customers and show them what we can do and earn their business for life,” White said.

Nordstrom opened a wedding shop online in March. A marketing campaign begins in January.

Nordstrom joins a rash of mainline retailers getting into the bridal business. J. Crew was among the first of the chain stores to spot an opportunity to sell bridesmaid dresses, introducing its collection online in 2004. Last year, J. Crew opened its first free-standing bridal boutique in Manhattan.

White House/Black Market, a unit of Chico’s FAS Inc., opened its first bridal salon on Oak Street in Chicago this summer. Urban Outfitters plans to unveil its wedding concept online on Valentine’s Day, followed by a bricks-and-mortar store in the third quarter of 2011.

“Companies are looking to find new segments to get into when overall (industry) growth is relatively flat,” said Steven Dennis, president of SageBerry Consulting LLC and a former Neiman Marcus strategy executive.

Department stores, for the most part, conceded the bridal salon business to specialty stores and independent retailers over the last two decades. Most department stores had a hard time justifying the bridal salon when more profitable businesses were waiting for floor space.

J.C. Penney Co. closed its last bridal salon in 1999. Macy’s Inc. operates bridal salons in only 10 of its more than 850 stores. And in 2009, Saks Fifth Avenue shut down 16 of its 18 bridal salons to make room for more productive businesses.

“It is a business, to a large degree, that department stores really abdicated going back to the 1980s,” said Anne Brouwer, a senior partner at Chicago-based retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle. “Department stores were the bridal centers. You went to the department stores first. That’s where people started.”

If Nordstrom has its way, brides will rediscover the appeal of a full-service department store without the high cost of a designer salon. The retailer aims to stand out from the crowd by marrying affordable and stylish bridal and bridesmaid dresses with high-end service. Nordstrom weathered the recession better than most high-end retailers by lowering the price range on merchandise, and it plans to do the same with its bridal boutique.

As for the industry concern about eating up valuable floor space, Nordstrom has addressed that problem by carving into its stock rooms. Thanks to improvements in its inventory-management process, White said, the retailer needs less storage space at its stores.