Question

Answer the following in up to 350 words each.

Explain how Nordstrom could make use of participatory planning for continuous improvements in areas such as product purchasing, floor displays, and sales associates’ job satisfaction.

Answer 1

Detail attention and well-laid plans. The fourth generation of Nordstrom family members has brought the time-honored and successful retail methods of the store into a fresh age. "It seems that Nordstrom is that rarity in American company: a business run by a founding family that hasn't destroyed it," claims one business writer. The business offers a quality customer experience through personalized service, a convincing offering of merchandise, an enjoyable shopping atmosphere, and increasingly better inventory management. The secret of Success The secret of the achievement of this company lies in its strategic planning initiatives and its leadership team's capacity to set wide, extensive and long-term directions for action, all concentrated on customer experience. Instead of relying on one-day sales, coupon blitzes, or marking up entire product lines, Nordstrom only discounts certain products. The software "Markdown Optimization" helps to plan more lucrative selling rates. According to Patricia Edwards, a retail analyst, this enables Nordstrom to calculate what will sell better at various discounts and predict which products should be marked down. The business can send it off to its Nordstrom Rack outlet shops if a style is no longer in demand. It's all component of the long-term efficiency investment by Nordstrom. "If we can identify what is not being performed and push it out to bring in new merchandise," tells Pete Nordstrom, "this is a choice we want to create." Inventory Planning Although inventory fluctuates naturally, Nordstrom associates can readily find any item in another shop or check when it returns to stock. Customers on their intelligent devices and colleagues behind sales counters see the same thing — the entire Nordstrom store stock is displayed as one choice, referred to by the business as a permanent stock. An instant hit has been the upgraded inventory management system. At the launch day, Nordstrom discovered that the proportion of clients who bought products increased after looking for an item on the website. It has also discovered that multi-channel clients — those who shop more than one way from Nordstrom — spend four times more than one-source clients on average. This profit more than offsets the expense of employing extra shipping staff from each shop for wrapping and mailing products.

These are the planning of Nordstrom for continuous improvements in areas such as product purchasing, floor displays, and sales associates’ job satisfaction.