Nordstrom Introduces Text Message Shopping Service

Photo Credit: Via Forbes

With the proliferation of luxury e-commerce, the one-to-one boutique experience is quickly becoming more and more of a rarity. Luckily, department store chain Nordstrom is looking to combine the ease of online shopping with the personal touch of an attentive sales associate with TextStyle.

Nordstrom is now expanding its mobile commerce capabilities with an all-new feature that allows shopping via text message. According to Nordstrom, the new service is the first of its kind in the United States and allows for a secure, one on one shopping experience between the customer and a sales associate.

While Nordstrom launched a texting program back in 2014 called Next, this new addition to that service allows actual commerce over messages.

With TextStyle, customers will receive curated text messages directly from an actual salesperson about different products. If the customer is shown something they would like to purchase, all they need to do is reply “buy” along with their unique 10-digit code. After receiving the “buy” text, the sales associate completes the order with the customer’s account details on Nordstrom.com.

“We developed and launched Next as nearly a third of our customers told us they prefer to be contacted via text,” said Dan Evans, Jr., spokesperson for Nordstrom, Seattle. “They value the convenience, simplicity of using text messages to share ideas with their salesperson.

“We felt enabling a text to buy option was the next step forward that lets customers shop how they want.