Lord & Taylor Launches New Store to Compete with Nordstrom Rack

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Looking to compete with the Nordstrom Racks and Saks Off 5ths of the world, Lord & Taylor is launching its first off-price store, WWD reports. The new "Find @ Lord & Taylor" shops will offer a selection of women's, men's, kid's, footwear, and home products that have been marked down 70%. Lord & Taylor hopes that the sprawling 30,000 square foot stores will attract a younger audience with its lower prices.

Unlike Lord & Taylor outlet stores, which only sell leftover merchandise from the department store, Find @ Lord & Taylor will also offer merchandise from other brands at lower prices. A majority of Lord & Taylor's mostly east coast-based outlet stores will be converted to Find stores next year when four out of the six outlet locations are rebranded. "We believe we have the right mix of compelling price points, new locations and easy-to-shop store formats to target a new demographic of shoppers," says Jonathan Greller, president of outlets for Hudson's Bay Co., which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue. "Our goal is to offer our consumers an exciting merchandise mix at impressive prices."

The first Find store will open in New Jersey on November 19th with plans to launch 10 locations by the end of next year. Lord & Taylor hopes to replicate the success retailers like Nordstrom Rack have enjoyed with their lower priced offshoots. "Some of the off-price sector is hot among competitors who are experienced and know how to deliver value to the customer," Jerry Storch, Hudson's Bay Co.'s CEO, tells WWD. "This is an era where the customer is very heavily focused on value. The off-price sector screams value, and since the Great Depression there has been a very heavy customer focus on making sure they're getting a deal."