Samantha Dodson's Blog

One of my favourite stores to shop at is Nordstroms,  an upscale department chain store located in the United States. Nordstroms is a one-stop store and sells clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories for women, men, teenagers, and children.  This store has always been my favourite because of one of its departments: the shoe department. The shoe department is run efficiently and has great customer service. There is a floor manager who circulates throughout the department and is connected by headsets with the many sales associates who are working.  Once summoned by the manager, someone arrives quickly to assist the customer. Nordstroms focuses on having quality service throughout its departments since its targeted customers are usually people who are expecting more customer service throughout their shopping experience.

As a result of being an upscale store, the department store has seen a decrease in sales because of the poor economy in the United States. Consequently, Nordstroms has been looking to expand its chain into Vancouver since Canada’s economy has not been as affected. Scouters for Nordstroms have been searching for a location in the downtown Vancouver area that could accommodate the store’s normal size, which is a lot bigger than most stores currently located downtown. Unfortunately, for that reason, the chain will probably not come to Vancouver for a few years as it wants to find the perfect location for its store.

Nevertheless, I am still excited for the department store to head north and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

I was reading Debbie Yeh’s blog which featured a post about Groupon, a company that sells discounted items/services over the internet in a form of a certificate. Both my mother and I are Groupon addicts; we are constantly looking for deals that the site has to offer. The website is especially attractive to consumers these days because of the recession, since everyone is trying to find more value for their dollar.

Groupon is particularly successful when it is able to sell discounted products or services that have a well-known name. This is because they are expenditures that individuals are more likely to pursue whether they buy the Groupon or not, which makes the item more appealing. For instance, Groupon’s Vera’s Burger Shack and Quizno’s Sub deals both sold out quickly whereas Groupon’s Verace Pizzeria deal took a longer time to sell out. This also has to do with brand awareness; individuals that aren’t able to recognize a brand as easily are more hesitant to purchase the product or service because they are unsure of how much value it has to them.

Furthermore, Groupon is able to help businesses as well as consumers. Businesses that are not as distinguished are able to showcase their name through the website and, consequently, are given the chance to gain loyal customers.

All in all, Groupon has been able to successfully utilizes technology and social media sites (ie. Facebook) in order to target its market. Groupon has acknowledged the fact that the internet is becoming more and more of our everyday lives and is using it to their advantage to gain sales.

Groupon UK Commercial:

Groupon Website