My Experience Working at Nordstrom, What It's Like and Tips For Sales Success as a Sales Associate!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my channel. My name is Tor. I hope you are all well. In today's video, I have an iced latte. My Nespresso products arrived safe and sound, so that is incredible for me after only a month of waiting. But that is not the topic of this video. This video, I wanted to go over my experience working at Nordstrom and what I think about it, if it's a good place to work, do I recommend it. And sort of pros and cons of working there. There will be sort of five little parts to this video. Basically the interview process, pros and cons, sort of the pay structure, the company culture and sort of how the work is. I moved to Vancouver in June of 2017, and I didn't have a job, I had some money left over from working at The Gap in Montreal, that will be another video. And I was just like, what do I do with all this time? So I started working out and then I started going downtown. And in Montreal, we don't have Nordstrom. We didn't have Nordstrom, I don't live there anymore. But there was no Nordstrom there, so I was like, what is this crazy department store? I walk in, and it's just beautiful. Like it's shiny, it's warm, it's bright, there's a bunch of cool stuff. And I'm just walking around and I'm like really feeling it, like I really like it. And I was like, I want to work here, like why not? Like I'm done with Gap, I'm done with that sort of retail, I want to get the experience where I can make some sort of commission and I've always been interested in designer items. So I was like, why not work around it? So basically, I purchased one item, it was the grey Comte Garcon shirt with the heart. And I was like feeling myself, I was like, oh my god, I'm so bougie. And then I go home, I go on their website, I find a women's wear sales position, I think, and I just like click apply. I'm like, let's ******* cross our fingers, let's hope. So I get a callback for an interview, it's a phone interview first. I do the phone interview and they're like, okay, great, we want to speak to you in person. I go in, I go downtown, it's 8am I think, right before the store opens, I'm sitting at this table with a bunch of other people who are also going to be interviewed, and then we sort of just get called in. This position was for women's wear, but I ended up being interviewed by the designer handbag manager, and they were going to put me in that sort of area. So then I like do my interview, I'm really nervous, and I like go after I leave, I'm not like really sure how it went, so I go to the bay. While I'm shopping around at the bay, this guy, the manager, was like, hey, do you need a job? And I was like, yeah, because like I was already like dressed up for an interview, he was like, do you need a job? And I was like, yeah. So then he like offered me a job, which was weird, and it was just after I came from Nordstrom. I was like, this is bizarro, but I'll do like a short video on the bay because I was only there for two months. It was not a good experience, don't recommend, but lo and behold, back to the Nordstrom story. So, I go home, I'm like, come on, like, did I get it, did I get it, did I get it? And then I get a call back, and they're like, sorry, you didn't get it. And I was like, whatever, c'est la vie. They were initially hiring, I believe, for the anniversary sale, which is the largest sale of the year for them in the summer. And it's sort of all new fall product that comes in discounted, and then it sells at a discounted rate. A lot of it is exclusive to Nordstrom. And then after a specific date, it's like sometime in August, it goes up to regular price. So it's a really good sale if you're looking for fall stuff that nobody else has, definitely check it out. But that's what they're hiring for. So then, didn't get it, not discouraged. I was working at the bay, I was working on a commission basis because I didn't have any commission experience before that, and Nordstrom was experienced and it's like high end, so you needed something. Like, you needed a little bit more experience than what I had. So I started working at the bay on a commission basis, selling sort of premium denim. It was decent, like I literally only worked there for two months, I think, I didn't even make it out of, like, probation. I applied again to Nordstrom, this time it was again for womenswear, because womenswear, especially designer womenswear, is much more interesting than, so I go in for the interview, and this time, it's not just me, it is me and this other kid, and we're like duking it out for this spot, and I'm like pulling out all the stops, it's literally like a drag race lip sync for my life, like I need this job. And Shante, I stayed. So I got the job, and they were like, oh, would you think about doing men's accessories? And I was like, why not, like, I like men's accessories, sure. So then they're like, okay, you're gonna come back for another interview with the department manager. So in Nordstrom, there's a lot of different departments, because the department stores are usually big. Especially Vancouver, Vancouver is huge, there's three floors, there's like beauty, there's designer departments, designer shoes, regular shoes, designer accessories, and then like regular accessories, I don't know, there's a lot. So each department is sort of its own little entity, and it's managed by a department manager and assistant department manager, and then all the people. I was like, okay, great, like, yeah, like, let's go. So I get called in, I meet what was my manager for the department, and you do like a little walk around, you meet the people, she asks you a few things, or he asks you a few things. A lot of the managers at Nordstrom were female. One of the questions that she asked me, I'm not sure if this is standard, but she was like, sell me this item. So basically, she just picked an item, and I had to sell it. I was so nervous, because I was like, I don't know how to sell something if I have to think about selling it. I can sell it if I don't think about selling it, but if I'm like, how do I sell this item? And I was like, it was a blue wallet, and I was like, oh, it's like a blue wallet. And then she started laughing, and I guess that worked. So then after that, they send you home, and they're like, okay, if they like you, they call you back in to meet the store manager. So essentially, when I was doing it, it was a four-step interview process, which is, for a salesperson, that's like a lot. But then if you think about it, you're not just selling, like, Gap clothing. You're selling, like, Balenciaga, and Loewe, and there was a Louis Vuitton pop-up once, Gucci. Like, I don't know. You're selling, like, this ----. You're selling the brands. So you need to have a certain level of professionalism, and a certain level of tenacity, I guess. You have to, you gotta fight for it. You gotta show that you want it, because there's so many people that want it. And girl, it better be you. So basically, I come in to meet the store manager, and she really liked me. I come back, and then the training is three days full. Like full-day training. And I remember, it was my first semester, and it was like the middle of the week. It was like a Tuesday, a Wednesday, and like a Thursday. And I was like, I have classes! But luckily, it was the first week, so there was like nothing to miss anyways. So then I just go for the training. If you don't go to the training, you basically can't work there. Like it's mandatory. So I go to the training. It was really good training. They teach you everything. Sort of like POS systems, as well as like a lot of role-playing, a lot of product knowledge as well, because you need to know the product. There's so many different brands at Nordstrom, like you gotta know what you're selling. And like that was that. The next point I want to go over is work slash company culture. So Nordstrom is a family business. It's very family-run, but there's like a lot of Kool-Aid, if you know what I mean. Everyone loves to drink the Kool-Aid. Those that drink the Kool-Aid move the fastest, and that is that. It's a very fun place to work. I really enjoyed my time there of all of the places that I've worked. I would have to say it was my favorite. It was just, for working there part-time as a student, it was really fun. Like, I got to work a lot, make a lot of money, pay for all of my tuition, pay for my lifestyle, while also not working full-time and not having to work multiple different jobs. It was very, very fun. I really enjoyed it. There's like a lot of perks, so you can go to product knowledge sessions, where it's basically you just sit in on a meeting with like a vendor or a brand, and then they tell you about a product or their brand as a whole, and often you get little goodie bags or gratis, which are free items. There's also really good gratis structure for multiple brands, where if you sell a certain amount you can get something. So I've gotten like $300 earrings, which I ended up giving to my aunt. I got a bunch of perfumes. Lo and behold, great place to work. The one thing is, every Friday, I think, like Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, is this thing called a rally. It is what it sounds like, basically everyone gathers in a circle, they read out the numbers for the day, the highlights, like who sold the most, who did the best, customer service letters. During my time, I got two customer service excellent letters, honey, people loved me. So they read them out, if people really liked your service. So then they're like, what did this person do that you can also incorporate into your selling style, your work style, to make you an excellent seller as well. And then it would also do these things like have an all-star. So an all-star in the company is basically the highest sort of achievement a salesperson can get before being promoted to either like a department manager or something like that. Basically means you got so many customer service letters, and your sales are so good that the company is recognizing you as basically the employee of the month. Like that's what it is. And you get 33% off of everything for a year. You get like a $100 gift card, you get some flowers, your family comes in, you get a free lunch and breakfast, like it's the whole deal. Like they really treat you well. And it was great. Another thing is they do these quarterly meetings, so Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, everything. They're early in the morning and they're company-wide. So they're not mandatory for everyone to go, but if you're already working early that day, basically, you can go and get free breakfast and coffee and everything, pay structure. So basically how Nordstrom works if you're a salesperson, it's a commission-only basis. And what this means is basically you have to sell enough to make commission. If you don't sell a certain amount, you get like your hourly rate, which depends on where you live, will be different. Basically if you sell $2,500 a day, your hourly rate in Canada is around $20 per hour, which is what you'd want. It would be like a lot, a decent amount, and $2,500 a day at Nordstrom is fairly doable most of the time, if you know what you're doing and if you have clients. This leads me to my next thing. I worked there for over two years, I made a pretty steady amount. There are certain times where there are ebbs and flows for sure, like December at Christmas time you make insane amounts of money. I think I made five grand in my very first Christmas there. So all of December, $5,000. But they get ya. In January, February, Nordstrom has that infamous return policy. You don't like it, bring it back. And you know, it gets taken off your commission for a year. So if someone buys something in December 2016 and they return it in December 2017, you sold it, you were working there, it still gets taken off your commission. That is one of the cons I would say. Getting it taken off of your commission up to a year I think is too long. It should be like three months. A year, you've done your job, you've sold the garment, that person has had the garment. If they return it, you shouldn't get penalized for that, and that happened to me quite a bit. Shady people taking advantage of Nordstrom's generous return policy and just screwing you over. I made a lot of money, well like relatively a lot. I was a part-time student and I was making, like I think in 2018, I made around $30,000. Granted I was still living at home, like I was living at home, I was only working part-time, and I made around $30,000 before taxes, so like I think after taxes around $25,000. I managed to pay my tuition and literally like everything else and save a little bit too. It was a really good part-time job. If you're looking for a part-time job where you don't have to work a lot, but you can make a really decent amount of money for your efforts, definitely go into commission sales and designer items, trust me, it's worth it. So in terms of the pay structure, that's how it works. Commission basis, I wish there was almost a base plus commission, that would almost make it a lot easier and a little bit more fair to these salespeople, but why they do it on a commission basis is because they're really like pushing you to sell. As they say with commission, your earning potential is infinite, but that's only earning potential. The realistic earning amount, it's hard, like you really have to build up that client base for when things get bad and that leads me to my next point where if you're really good at social interactions, you will have no problem getting clients. So I didn't have clients for like the first year and a half I would say, because I wasn't too keen on it, like clients really demand quite a bit from you, like I often had to work on days when I wasn't scheduled, I would go in occasionally after hours or stay longer just to help my clients or you get texts when you're off, so it's like you're always sort of working because you want to keep that relationship because you want to sell items and you want to make money and you want to do all these things. You gotta just keep working at it and keep the relationships going regardless of the time or if you're working or not. I only started to get clients towards the end, I had a few pretty good clients, they would come in and just spend lots of money and it was good because it's like there are slow days, having your client come in can save your day and like you spend a few hours with them, you make all this money and then you're sort of either just chilling or not worried about the rest of the day, so clients can really save your ass. Get clients, try your best, build that relationship. How to do it? Get their phone number, text them, say like thank you for your purchase, I really appreciate you coming in or here's this item that we have which I think you would like, like let me know. You do have to be pushy if you want to get the result. Okay so my next point is pros and cons. In terms of pros, I made a lot of money in a short amount of time, I didn't really have to do that much work, I really enjoyed the work environment. The one thing is there's a fairly high turnover because a lot of people just can't take the stress of having to reach your KPIs all the time, having to sell a certain amount, having to sell a certain amount of units, having to have a certain amount of customer retention. Like there are a lot of KPIs that go into Nordstrom which is why it's been so successful but there are a lot of people that can't just keep up and if you don't sell enough, if you slack off, like you will get fired. I would love to go back to Nordstrom sometime, not as a salesperson role in some sort of other capacity in a corporate level because I just really like the company. And some cons, you know, the commission structure, it's kind of stressful, they put a lot of pressure on you as a salesperson to hit results, hit your targets. The commission structure and with the return policy is terrible, having it get taken off your commission up to a year is just unfair. And then also, you know, the discount is not that good. If you go to like Holt Renfrew, you get like 50 so, you know, there are some places that give you a lot of discounts, there are others that don't, Nordstrom's discount is not that good after tax and everything, in Vancouver you only save around 8% so it's, eh. But there are other things, like the certain designer sales and they would do employee Overall in terms of final thoughts, would I recommend working there? Yes, I would 1000% recommend working at Nordstrom, I think it's a really great organization to work for, especially if you're a student. Could I work there full time now? As a salesperson, definitely not, I just, I really can't. Like ugh, standing on my feet all day, 8 hours a day, with like a smile on my face every day like, buy this item. It's not me anymore and like that's okay. For some people, they really like doing that and they're professional sales people and that's great, they can make a lot of money. Like if you're in personal styling at Nordstrom, girl, there's this one lady, she sold like 8 million dollars in a year, it's insane. So the earning potential is there, I definitely recommend it if you're interested. If you don't get hired the first round, it's okay, just keep applying and I'm sure you'll get in. There are two times of the year where they do seasonal hiring, there's seasonal hiring at Christmas, so you can either be a seasonal salesperson or a seasonal sales support, which is, I loved having sales support, oh my god, they help you fold boxes, they help you run stock because one thing at Nordstrom, basically if you start a room, oh my god, did y'all see that? Basically if you start a room, if you grab things for your client, you have to put it all away. There are some people that don't put their ---- away and girl, best believe I tattletailed, I told everybody, I was like, that person didn't put that ---- away because you gotta be held accountable, I'm not putting your ---- away, someone's gotta put it away and if it's, you take it out, girl, you gotta put it away. But when there's sales support, they put it away. So honestly I love sales support, they're like having a little assistance, it's great. So two times you get hired, Christmas, anniversary sale. Anniversary sale is one of their largest sales, they ramp it up for months, it's like this ginormous thing, they need sales support because there's so much stock to go out and like people buy Christmas gifts at this time usually. If you don't get in on a regular season, try for these two sales seasons, you'll for sure get in in some sort of capacity. If you get in the sales support, often times if you express that you want to move up to salesperson, they make that happen for you if there's space, so. That is my video, I hope you all enjoyed it and I am going to be doing other videos like this on my experience working at Gabba, working at the Bay, maybe even why not working at Tim Hortons even though I only worked there for like two months when I was 15, and then also when I worked at Burberry, so. Thank you for watching, I'll see you all next time, bye!