Nordstrom has acquired two leading retail technology companies, BevyUp, the innovators behind a digital selling tool, and MessageYes, a platform rooted in conversational commerce. The two deals are a part of the the chain’s efforts to create a seamless shopping experience for customers.
“The retail environment is changing faster than ever, but the value of service, speed, convenience and newness remain constant,” states Brian Gill, technology senior vice president at Nordstrom. “To continue to be successful into the future, we need to invest in technologies that will enable us to deliver on those qualities and better serve customers in a digitally-connected world.” Gill adds, “We’re investing in providing our salespeople with a mobile suite of capabilities that enables them to be relevant, informative and accessible to our customers.”
BevyUp’s digital selling platform will be incorporated into a new, integrated mobile Nordstrom employee app that will be rolled out in the coming year. “BevyUp was founded on the simple idea that retailers could develop meaningful connections with their customers,” says Mauricio Cuevas, founder and CEO. “We’ve helped revolutionize the customer experience by extending a salesperson’s relationships beyond the confines of brick-and-mortar stores. Becoming a part of the Nordstrom team gives us the opportunity to take our combined efforts even farther.”
Gill says MessageYes adds to Nordstrom’s existing depth of talent and experience in engineering, data science and machine learning—all skills that are essential to its future growth. “We share the same vision for the future of retail, and their team will accelerate our efforts to deliver a meaningful, personalized experience for our customers,” Gill says.
“Personalized shopping has long been our focus, and it’s something that’s been core to Nordstrom since they were founded back in 1901,” states Dave Cotter, founder and CEO of MessageYes. “Nordstrom has succeeded in building emotional relationships with their customers—creating connections that go well beyond a transaction. When we started MessageYes, that’s exactly what we wanted to do. Joining Nordstrom enables us to take a lot of our concepts and integrate them across all of the channels Nordstrom uses to serve customers.”
