News

Nordstrom to spend $1B to grow e-commerce

February 24, 2012

Nordstrom's online sales are exploding, and the company is investing $1 billion over the next five years to support its e-commerce infrastructure, according to a story on powerretail.com.

Nordstrom will add about 400 e-commerce employees to its direct business and flash-sale retailer HauteLook. Nordstrom CFO Michael Koppel told Wall Street analysts that sales for HauteLook grew nearly 60 percent for the year ended January 28. Direct sales increased about 30 percent, while total sales increased 12.8 percent to $10.50 billion from $9.31 billion in 2010.

Same-store sales grew 7.2 percent year on year. Direct sales accounted for about 8.7 percent of total sales compared with 7.6 percent in 2010. In the last quarter, direct sales increased about 35 percent.

"In 2012, we plan to spend over $140 million in e-commerce, representing approximately 30 percent of our capital expenditures, compared to a spend of almost $100 million or approximately 20 percent last year," Koppel told analysts on the company's recent year-end earnings call.

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