My Intern Experience at Nordstrom + Retail Tips
During the summer of 2019, I had the honor of interning at Nordstrom as a Buying & Planning Intern for Women’s Comfort Shoes & UGG. When I received the call that I was selected to be an intern, my heart was doing flip flops throughout my entire body. I was so excited to gain experience in fashion at a top retailer that collaborated with luxury brands. Plus, there was the benefit of interning in a completely different city away from Indianapolis.
The Nordstrom headquarters is located in downtown Seattle, near the flagship store and not too far from Nordstrom Rack. I lived in the South Lake Union area, about a 15-20 minute walk to work. I opted for comfortable walking shoes that were still a great fit with my work outfits. I loved throwing on my shiny, silver loafers or my tan Calvin Klein flats.
As an intern, I participated in merchant classes, attended buy meetings with shoe vendors, and managed merchandise information by utilizing KPI dashboards, pivot tables and database systems. Microsoft Excel was a major tool that I used to review data and pull findings. I learned how dropping the right product at the right place, right time, and the right amount paired with the best price is key.
I networked with amazing people nearly every week. Each person had such a unique background and work experience at the company. I typically would meet with the person at the Starbucks in the main lobby or at a cool coffee shop around the corner. After each conversation, I walked away with snippets of advice and a piece of direction to better my career path.
A pod (the team you sit with) consists of: Merchandise Analyst (MA), Assistant Buy Planner (ABP), Buy Planner (BP), Assistant Buyer (AB), and Buyer. Here are their typical responsibilities:
Merchandise Analyst: Completes buying office tasks to support the entire pod. Confirms item changes, submits price changes, reviews sample style outs and marketing, etc.
Assistant Buyer: Manages in-season business by analyzing performance and contributes to product selection with the use of customer and trend analysis to support the merchandise strategies of the division
Assistant Buy Planner: Drives the allocation of product and contributes to the management of the department’s inventory through an understanding of product and customer needs
Buy Planner: Manages the content and balance of the department’s inventory through a detailed understanding of product and customer needs. The Buy Planner partners with the Buyer to achieve financial objectives.
Buyer: Directs the content strategy, product selection and use of customer and trend analysis to support merchandise strategies of the division. The Buyer partners with the Buy Planner to achieve the financial objectives.
My manager was the buyer of the pod. She was humorous, a quick thinker, and full of wisdom. She was an official “shoe dog” and dominated in catering to the comfort shoe shopper. Being in a work environment with predominantly females, felt empowering. I would see women leading meetings, offering assistance to others, and motivating employees to be better every day.
I was assigned an independent impact project to present to the buying and leadership teams for Women’s Comfort Shoes & UGG at the end of the summer. I had to research assortment opportunities for stores with a heavy comfort shoe presence and stores with a lower comfort shoe presence. I pinpointed declining underperforming brands in three US regions. I then calculated the potential receipts that could be retained by the pod for reinvestment into superior shoe assortments, achieving over $1 million.
My presentation was stellar! My pod was proud of the insights I found and how I presented using an engaging slide deck created with Canva. I performed so well during my internship that I received a return job offer! Although I ended up taking a different career route, I was grateful for the opportunity.
Fun Fact:
While shopping during my lunch hour, I found a pair of square toe Fendi heels at Nordstrom Rack for a major discount. I also found a pair of chunky wooden and leather heels by Burberry. They were a beauty to take in but not meant for walking long distances. In another instance, I took advantage of my intern discount and bought a pair of Louboutins with a pointy toe and kitten heels. The perfect heels for work or a more professional setting. They came in handy for my graduation photos! :)
Want to break into the retail industry as a non-retail major?
Pull transferable skills from any and everywhere. Having a major/minor in the retail space is super beneficial but not always required. There are plenty of certifications to hop on to expand your knowledge. Experience in a retail store can also be a boost on your resume. You should also take advantage of podcasts, videos, books, and free online courses. If you don’t seem to have any of those, build a project on your own! Conduct some research on the fashion industry and answer a major question with a research project for a company.
Research. I would suggest digging deeper and build on merchandising strategy, data comprehension, retail acumen, and ability to work cross-functional teams. For merchandising strategy, the focus is to keep up with the evolving customer, industry trends, and competition. Make sure you can examine data and full findings that are supporting future decisions. Within retail acumen, expand on the art of science or retail and identify business opportunities to take the best steps of action. Learn your communication and work style to flourish when collaborating in cross-functional teams and deliver solutions that cater to the success of the business.
Network, network, network. This is crucial! You want to understand the environment of the company and know what they look for in candidates. If the person you connect with wants to vouch for you, they may even put in a referral or connect you with the hiring manager.
Go review and practice some retail math. Here are a few formulas to practice:
Markdowns
Turn
Receipt to Sales Ratio
Stock to Sales Ratio
Sell-Thru
Weeks of Supply
Average Inventory
Gross Margin Dollars
Gross Margin Rate
Gross Margin Return on Investment
Net Sales
Also, practice Microsoft Excel, especially pivot tables! Not sure where to start? Hop on YouTube and start with some basic tutorials.