Seattle-based large-format multi-brand retailer Nordstrom has removed most of its men’s luxury brands from the retailer’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre store in Toronto. Formerly, brands such as Balenciaga and Valentino were available in the store.
Burberry and Comme des Garçons continue to be carried at the Yorkdale Nordstrom location, with Burberry occupying an area with a dedicated wall space.
Nordstrom also pulled most men’s luxury brands from its CF Toronto Eaton Centre store as well — the Vancouver flagship Nordstrom store is now the only one in Canada with a substantial roster of high-end men’s ready-to-wear. The Vancouver Nordstrom store is said to be the top performing location in Canada by far for the retailer.
Yorkdale’s Holt Renfrew store continues to carry a very robust assortment of men’s luxury brands including a mix of wholesale offerings as well as concession spaces for brands such as Fendi, Dior, Gucci and others.
This surprises me considering Yorkdale is such a luxury powerhouse with massive revenue. I wonder if men simply prefer to purchase from the mono-brand boutiques or from Holt Renfrew and Harry Rosen? Nordstrom is obviously still carrying women’s luxury designers, meaning luxury minded customers still visit the store. Do the men in these women’s lives not venture to the men’s floor? Or are they not present with their wives/girlfriends when they shop at Nordstrom? Or are men not drawn to Nordstrom for a particular reason? If it were the brands themselves pulling out of Nordstrom to focus on direct-to-consumer (especially with so many boutiques present in the mall), I might understand better. But for Nordstrom to lead this change at Yorkdale and Eaton Centre surprises me. Its not like women are the only ones with money to spend. I’m in Vancouver, and as this article mentions, Nordstrom Vancouver is teeming with men’s luxury fashion.
I’ve been wondering some of the same. Nordstrom Yorkdale has not performed nearly as well as Holt Renfrew in the mall for a few reasons. I’m also noticing fewer women’s brands at Nordstrom Yorkdale — the Akris boutique shut last year, a Celine fashion boutique shut recently and the Dries Van Noten boutique has almost on stock as of last Friday. I’m wondering if Nordstrom’s strategy of building stores at the end of a hallway is a bad one — even I find I bypass the store when I’m in the mall unless I have a reason to specifically check it out. I also don’t think Nordstrom resonates with Torontonians the same way it does in Vancouver and Toronto has a LOT of competition including 3 Holt Renfrew stores, 2 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, several pretty decent Bay stores (the only city in Canada that can boast that) and many standalone fashion stores.
Nordstrom currently has 3 full-line stores in Toronto which is probably too many, and (incredibly) the original plans were for 5 Nordstrom stores in the GTA before plans were scaled back.
Although the Yorkdale location is considered by general public as the most premier location in the GTA, the in-store numbers are just not there anymore.
More modern in-store sales team that embraces private social sales network buildings, like Holts team in Vancouver are posting unreachable sales numbers by other “premier” locations.