Nordstrom Inc. is going bigger on beauty services at its New York flagship and has tapped a leading med spa chain to do so.
In February, SkinSpirit will unveil a shop-in-shop treatment space in Nordstrom’s Beauty Haven area, which currently offers brow services, blowouts and nail services. On SkinSpirit’s treatment menu are facials, microneedling, filler and Botox, among other injectables.
“We’ve never strayed from our commitment to the customer and providing experiences and offers, whether that be through brands or services for them, that they can’t get anywhere else. That is our true differentiator,” said Debra Redmond, vice president and division merchandise manager, beauty at Nordstrom.
“There is also a trend towards services, there’s new innovation happening, and this is a continued evolution of making things more accessible to the customer. We’re filling in that gap for them,” Redmond continued.
Med spas have gained traction in recent years. Last year, the American Med Spa Association said the market had grown by over $4 billion in revenues in the preceding four years. It’s also gained interest among investors, with SkinSpirit itself having sold a minority stake to KKR in 2022.
For SkinSpirit, the concept will mark the chain’s 50th location. “We’ve been focusing on expanding our physical platform to most of the major markets in the country; we really want to be that trusted national brand,” said Lynn Heublein, cofounder and chief executive officer of SkinSpirit. “In a flagship store in New York, there is national traffic. This will help bring our visibility as a brand higher into consumers’ minds.”
Down the line, SkinSpirit will expand the partnership with Nordstrom’s store in Chicago. “That’ll be one way we enter that market,” Heublein said. “It’s a natural extension of leading luxury retail, having a leading luxury medical aesthetics brand come together.”
Change is afoot at the Seattle-based retailer, which is going private. Nordstrom isn’t expected to deviate too much from its existing strategy of driving in-store sales and the expansion of Nordstrom Rack — and beauty remains a bright spot.
“Beauty has been a consistently strong category in the industry and we have experienced that success too,” said Redmond. “We’ve had a lot of expanded distribution happening this year, as well as launching new brands and categories. It continues to be a top trip driver for Nordstrom overall.”
Fragrance is doing “extremely well,” Redmond said, and TikTok trends are boosting sales in bath and body products, as well as hair care. “Ultimately, what we learned coming out of the pandemic was to do what makes you feel good, and this [partnership with SkinSpirit] is the next evolution of making it easy and convenient for our customers.”
