• New York Times, Tuesday, August 24, 2010 10:34 AM

You would think that department stores routinely link the inventory in their retail outlets with what they have in their online warehouses, but they don't. Nordstrom does, Stephanie Clifford reports, and that's a major reason it's having more success that its competitors.

In the 11 months since Nordstrom instituted the change, its same-store sales increased by an average of 8%, though other factors have had some impact, too. In the 11 months before the shift, they decreased an average of 11.9%.

Nordstrom added an option to shop and buy online and pick up the item in a store two years ago as a first step, according to Nordstrom Direct president Jamie Nordstrom. But it wanted to increase "multichannel shoppers" because they spend four times, on average, what a one-source shopper does, Nordstrom says. And if Nordstrom doesn't have it, "you're going to go back to Google and say, 'Who else has it?'" he points out.

Nordstrom as also updated its Web site, adding editorial features such as blogs about fashion and videos and photos of Nordstrom customers showing the clothes they chose. It has also improved the way that shoppers can search for products.

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