Inside Luxury Retailers’ Bare-Knuckle Fight to Win the Holidays

For American department stores, this holiday season is shaping up to be a battle royale for shoppers’ attention and wallets.

Saks Global, which also owns Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, is still the biggest luxury multi-brand retailer in the market. But it spent the year undergoing multiple rounds of restructuring. Sales have been in decline, and relationships with brands were strained by late payments. The company even cancelled its famous holiday light show at the Saks flagship in Midtown Manhattan last year, likely as a cost saving measure.

The company says the worst is behind them, and that sales will likely improve in the holiday season as inventory levels normalise. Its famed light show will be back later this month, in hopes that the spectacle of Christmas magic will lure customers back inside.

Saks’ competitors smell blood in the water.

This holiday season is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation brawl for market share at a time of near-unprecedented upheaval in the world of American multibrand retail. In addition to Saks’ woes, online luxury retailers Ssense and LuisaViaRoma are working their way through the bankruptcy process. Onetime online luxury frontrunner Farfetch under new owner Coupang has faded, more than halving its budget for VIP events among other cutbacks.

The luxury multi-brand retailers that are in a healthier position — Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Amazon’s Shopbop and Mytheresa among them — are openly courting top customers, vendors and even the employees of their struggling competitors. They’re hosting lavish events for wealthy clients, and decking out stores with eye-catching decor and shiny amenities for all shoppers. Bloomingdale’s is even venturing into Saks’ domain in holiday theatrics this year, unveiling its own dramatic façade at its 59th street flagship Wednesday evening.

“With some of these businesses going away, there have been incredible talent and incredible customers that we’ve been able to recruit,” said Michael Mente, co-founder and co-chief executive of Revolve Group, which operates the luxury e-commerce vertical FWRD.

The broader economic backdrop isn’t exactly rosy for any luxury retailer. US consumer sentiment is near historic lows, and a slowdown in high-end spending has hit the biggest luxury brands. Tariffs are contributing to the sour mood and disrupting supply chains.

Still, going on offense is already paying off. FWRD has seen sales accelerate year-over-year for the last four quarters and its gross profit surge 37 percent in its most recent quarter. Bloomingdale’s sales were up 4.6 percent year-on-year in the quarter ending Sept. 3, while Mytheresa grew 12.2 percent year-on-year in the quarter ending Sept. 30.

In its quarter ending Aug. 2, Saks Global posted a revenue decline of 11 percent.

“We do see an appetite for multibrand and an opportunity as certain players are struggling,” said Michael Kliger, chief executive of LuxExperience, the group that owns Mytheresa. “I would argue there is no fundamental luxury slowdown.”

Wooing Top Shoppers

The cornerstone of every major luxury retailer’s holiday strategy is to shower top customers with as many exclusive offers, events, personal shopping services and other perks as possible.

Bloomingdale’s, for instance, revamped its entire clienteling platform this summer, rolling out a new customer relationship management app called Little Brown Book that shows sales associates shoppers’ online and in-store purchase histories and other data. The goal is to better serve customers ahead of the holiday season, said Rachel Abeles, senior vice president of customer and revenue growth.

Online retailers have also invested in personal shopping and some are leaders in the field. Over the last 18 months, FWRD has tripled its team of personal shoppers, according to Michael Karanikolas, co-chief executive and co-founder at Revolve Group. Sales generated from this segment have more than doubled in the first nine months of 2025.

“I see at events, in-person appointments and there’s one particular FWRD personal shopper who I see frequently out with his clients, taking them to lunch or dinner,” said Gab Waller, a high-profile fashion “sourcer” who helps clients procure hard-to-find products.

Mytheresa is known for its careful wooing of VICs — very important customers — with each getting their own personal shopper, said Kliger. Those customers’ loyalty is a major reason the company is now the leading luxury e-tailer, having acquired Yoox Net-a-Porter earlier this year. While VICs make up about 4 percent of the site’s overall shoppers, they drive 42.6 percent of its business.

“At this top level, it’s a matter of share of wallet,” Kliger said. “They are top customers of brands, and top customers of other retailers, but with better service you get the share of wallet.”

Mytheresa invests heavily in physical activations in its key markets. In 2025, the retailer will have hosted three events in the New York area alone, including a dinner co-hosted with Loewe inside an architectural museum in Connecticut.

“I’ve seen them time and time again team up with brands for an exclusive event that they invite their top clients to, and that builds loyalty with the client, and strengthens the relationship between the brand and the retailer,” Waller said.

Saks and Neiman Marcus offer personal shopping as well, of course. Saks Global unveiled a new top seller programme in October that emphasises mentorship and offers new career advancement opportunities to its employees. But the retailer has faced turnover of sales associates in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter. Many are taking their skills and relationships to competitors. Top stylist Catherine Bloom, for instance, left Neiman Marcus earlier this year and was tapped by Nordstrom to be its inaugural director of luxury styling.

“We’re at a moment in luxury where brands and retailers are doubling down on their top clients, so it’s a time when you can’t really afford to lose your store associates and stylists who have a deep and longstanding relationship with top customers,” said Sarah Willersdorf, an advisor and investor in fashion, beauty and luxury.

Executives are heading to Saks’ rivals, too. Most recently, its merchandising exec James Newell left the company for Bloomingdale’s, while chief merchandising officer Yumi Shin is going to Nordstrom, according to media reports. Neiman Marcus’ resident makeup artist Patrick Foley also left Neiman Marcus for Bloomingdale’s, in September.

“It’s two-fold,” said Catherine Cook, senior vice president and director of stores at Bloomingdale’s. “People are telling us they’re excited about our story and there are some that are concerned about what they’re experiencing with their own [companies].”

However, two Bloomingdale’s execs have recently joined Saks: Matt Dunphy was named SVP of store growth and experiences at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus after 16 years at Bloomingdales, and Christina DeGrezia became VP and general manager at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York.

“As part of [our integration plans], we determined that with a simplified leadership structure we will be able to more efficiently execute on our transformation strategy,” Saks Global said in a statement regarding its recent leadership changes.

Aligning With Vendors

Another clash is taking place over what department stores stock on their racks and their websites.

Each multi-brand retailer tries to create a distinct identity with the products they sell. Doing so is the difference between being a consumer’s first — or only — stop for holiday shopping, or being one of a dozen open tabs in their browser.

Saks’s size gave it an edge in securing the hottest brands and trendiest products. But a history of late and missing payments has caused some labels to pull out or stop sending their best merchandise. The company promised earlier this year to make vendors whole and stick to payment terms going forward. But Saks Global cited “inventory challenges” as the chief reason for soft sales in the second quarter.

Saks was not the first and likely won’t be the last multibrand retailer to stretch payment terms with its vendors. And none of its competitors has fully cemented themselves as truly unique in the eyes of shoppers

Mytheresa pitches its website as a curated approach to luxury, while Net-a-Porter has carved out a niche as a discovery platform for emerging accessible luxury brands. Nordstrom has a data-driven “test and learn” approach, where it limits its first-time purchases and orders replenishments as needed. That can appeal to new brand partners because it tends to limit end-of-season overstock and markdowns, said Erin Webb, the founder of belt brand Déhanche.

Bloomingdale’s, on the other hand, operates in the same, fairly traditional way as Saks and other department stores, but has developed a reputation in recent seasons for being efficient in its buying processes and for offering exceptional customer service, brands have said.

Keeping brands happy matters more than it did even a few years ago. Multibrand retailers offer exposure to a wider range of customers than most brands could reach on their own. But post-pandemic, many brands are faring just fine on their own — some even better without wholesale. This means retailers will have to do better when it comes to supporting their brand partners, like chipping in on marketing activations or promoting a label in marketing emails and offering other services, Webb said.

Even an Instagram post goes a long way.

“You’d be surprised at how antiquated some retailers are when it comes to that,” she said.