Nordstrom to close Trunk Club locations, integrate into in-store styling service

By

Robin Driver

Published
Mar 12, 2020

Seattle-based department store operator Nordstrom, Inc. announced on Tuesday that it is shuttering its six Trunk Club locations and folding them into the personal styling service of nearby branches of its namesake stores.

 
Announced by the retailer’s CEO Erik Nordstrom during an earnings call, the move will see clubhouse styling relocated to Nordstrom stores near current Trunk Club locations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC. Trunk-based services will also be maintained.
 
According to the CEO, the integration is intended to “enable a superior experience for customers, drive more business and gain efficiencies.”

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As the service is integrated into Nordstrom’s “styling ecosystem,” it’s still unclear as to whether Trunk Club will survive as a brand.
 
“In terms of the Trunk Club brand itself, we’re still working through details of what this evolved styling will look like for our customers, and that includes branding,” a Nordstrom spokesperson told The Chicago Tribune on Wednesday.
 
Founded in 2009, Trunk Club was acquired by Nordstrom in 2014. The department store operator rapidly opened the hitherto menswear-only styling service up to female shoppers, and sales at the brand increased 35% in fiscal 2018.
 
For the fourth quarter of 2019, Nordstrom reported net earnings of $193 million on sales of $4.4 billion, while full-year revenues and earnings totaled $15.1 billion and $496 million, respectively.
 
The retailer did not report Trunk Club’s 2019 revenues individually, but full-price retail sales, which include those made by the styling service, fell 3.5% over the course of the year.
 
In Q4 the company incurred charges of $32 million related to the integration of Trunk Club.