Nordstrom will add Tonal stores to 40 stores to increase its fitness offering

Nordstrom is looking for ways to grow its active business, while also adding more merchandise to its stores beyond dresses, shoes, handbags and makeup.

A new partner has been found in Tonal, a company that sells a training station on the wall for $ 2,995.

The department store chain announced Monday that it will add 40 Tonal mini stores to its stores, and the launch will begin later this month. The 50-square-meter stores will be located in Nordstrom’s active department, along with training clothes and other gym accessories. Customers will be able to demonstrate the Tonal device and speak with a Tonal employee.

For Tonal, the partnership will expand the reach of fitness equipment maker to new customers, at a time when many Americans have invested in high-tech devices to improve their workouts at home during the pandemic. . Currently, the company has only 16 brick manufacturing locations: six own stores and 10 in-store locations with other business partners.

Meanwhile, Nordstrom hopes to become an ideal destination for active teams and give shoppers more reason to visit their stores. Many of them are in less frequented shopping malls during the health crisis.

The Seattle-based retailer has previously said it plans to increase the amount of space devoted to active clothing and wellness products. In December, he added an active page dedicated to his website as he saw more people browsing from home to yoga mats and pants. And it is in the process of adding more than 75 new active brands, specializing in categories such as hiking, tennis and golf, online and in its stores, this year.

“We continue to prioritize being this place of discovery,” Lori Marten, Nordstrom’s active category merchandise manager, said in a telephone interview.

“We are often considered the preferred partner when it comes to working with brands, both physically and digitally,” he said. “So it was a pretty fluid opportunity, which really helps us build our authority and authenticity in a space that we’re growing aggressively.”

Marten added that talks between Nordstrom and Tonal began in November, in the middle of the holiday season, and developed rapidly from there. Collaboration is a long-term agreement, not a pop-up, he said. In the past, Nordstrom had temporarily devoted space to its stores to brands such as luggage maker Away and beauty business Glossier, with the aim of attracting younger customers inside.

Christopher Stadler, Tonal’s director of marketing, said the fitness maker spoke with a number of other potential retail partners, but Nordstrom topped their list. The typical Nordstrom buyer and Tonal’s target customer are closely aligned, he said, pointing to factors such as age, income and type of employment.

“There’s a segment of our customer base that wants to touch and feel and experience digital weights,” Stadler explained Tonal’s expansion strategy. “We want to create more distribution points and physical contact points.”

Tonal, which has sponsors such as Amazon’s Alexa Fund and NBA star Stephen Curry, is gearing up for a hotly contested home gym market, which includes other device makers like Peloton, Hydrow and Mirror. The latter was acquired by Lululemon for $ 500 million last year and is currently on display at several Lululemon retail stores. Hydrow signed an agreement with sportswear brand Fabletics, also last year, to showcase its rowing machines at various Fabletic stores and on its website.

As it bets on Tonal’s success, Nordstrom says it will continue to grow its active department, buying more fitness and outdoor products such as snow helmets, ski goggles, massage devices and jump ropes. Not just clothes and sneakers.

Nordstrom will have to report its fourth-quarter tax profits after the market closes on Tuesday. Previously, he estimated that his revenue would increase by more than 25% in fiscal 2021, as a period ends in which his brick and mortar stores were closed for two quarters due to Covid restrictions in the spring. Nordstrom also expects about half of its sales this year to come from its digital business. Last year, the department store chain accounted for about a third of its online sales.

In the long run, Nordstrom expects sales to grow at a low rate of one digit per year from 2019 levels. That year, Nordstrom recorded net sales of $ 15.1 billion, a decline of $ 2 billion. 2% over the previous year.

Analysts and investors will look for any clue as to how demand for clothing rises and how comfortable buyers in their stores feel.

Nordstrom shares have been almost flat for the past twelve months. The retailer has a market cap of $ 5.7 billion, which is lower than Kohl’s of $ 8.6 billion. But it’s bigger than Macy’s, with $ 4.7 billion.

So far, this is where Nordstrom plans to open the Tonal mini stores: