Nordstrom Keeps Slashing Tech Jobs

It’s no secret that brick-and-mortar fashion retailers have been feeling the pinch from both online marketplaces and in-store fast-fashion brands alike. To stay lean enough to compete, Nordstrom just made some choices of great tech-nical difficulty.

GeekWire reported that Nordstrom has parted ways with about 120 members of its tech staff. According to spokeswoman Tara Darrow, the cuts affect the organization at multiple levels and are intended to “ensure that the organization’s operating model is best prepared to support our company’s future growth goals.” The layoffs are just the most recent in a long-term restructuring plan, Darrow explained.

“We have had people impacted at the vice president, the director and the senior director levels and other levels,” Darrow told GeekWire. “This has been a process over time, over the last seven months or so, and there have been impacts over various times.”

Nordstrom did not identify any of the employees affected by the most recent round of job cuts, but it did confirm that a number of executives have left the company in recent months. Those names include Bill Tucker, vice president of technology; John Mayfield, vice president of enterprise architecture and system development and support; and Sam Hogenson, executive vice president of selling technology. Hogenson, who retired, was the only one to leave Nordstrom on those terms.

“We believe these organizational changes position Nordstrom Technology well to deliver for the future,” Darrow told GeekWire.

The “organizational changes” come a year after Nordstrom invested nearly $300 million in innovations for its eCommerce operations, and it can’t mean stellar news when several executives part for greener pastures within 12 turns of the calendar. And, as if that weren’t enough, Nordstrom’s shares dropped 1.4 percent as a result of the news of the layoffs, which might be some small consolation to the pink-slipped workers but none at all to the retailer.