Luxury Retail and Digital Management, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8Logistics Adapted to a Digital Culture

The limit between order and disorder lies in coordination.

–Sun Tzu¹

What strikes one the most about digital innovations are the new services they offer to customers. When Nordstrom opened its first East Coast store in New York in September 2018, it provided its customers with two new services:

• If a customer in New York wished to buy a tie, or a suitcase, in the middle of the night, for example at 3 a.m., all they had to do was choose it and pay for it online, then go to the new department store on 57th Street, where a Nordstrom employee would be waiting outside the door with the item they had just bought.
• If another customer bought a pair of shoes the previous day and they were not happy with them, the customer could also bring the shoes back at any time of the day or night, scan them at the digital kiosk and place them in the locker or bin. The amount paid for the product would be credited to the customer's bank account the same day.

From an omnichannel perspective, these services are just a normal outcome of the smooth interaction between physical sales and digital commerce: everything should be possible at any time, and physical and digital services have to complement each other to offer customers services that are the most comprehensive possible. However, this seamless interaction requires comprehensive and positive flexibility on the part of employees and partners of the brand, and logistics that are flawless and efficient. ...