Department stores such as Macy's, Nordstrom and Saks are showing signs of recovery after the economic slump. 'Nordstrom is expected to post earnings of 79 cents per share for the quarter, more than doubling the 31 cents it posted in the year-ago period' (Cardona 2010). Nordstrom, Saks and Barneys are direct competitors as they cater to high-end clients whereas macy's is more in the middle-priced-ranged market like JC Penny. Nordstrom had the advantage of its robust online selling and a chain of Nordstrom Rack outlets to enjoy increasing sales even during recession. Saks was hardly hit when the luxury market fell and was not able to rebound as quickly as Nordstrom. Although Macy's is slowly getting back to its knees, it's still tough for middle-priced-ranged department stores because shoppers prefer either high-end products or those at value-oriented stores. Market segmentation involves the segregation of consumers into subsets of clients with the same needs. Example of market segmentation in the department stores is having sections for kids, women's, juniors, ethnic, plus sizes, to name a few. All the 3 department stores cover this kind of market segmentation. 'When in recession, people opt to buy either high-end brands or super discounted products' (WiseGeek). And that's where Nordstrom and Saks capitalize to rejuvenate sales. Recovery measures such as lowering prices, inventory adjustment and online selling were implemented to initiate rebound. The kind of website design techniques that Nordstrom and Saks use is both classy and informative. Macy's utilizes the search online option for easy access to their products lines. Macy's uses its American Express card,...

While both Nordstrom and Saks accept Discover, American Express, Visa and Mastercard. Macy's.com offers free shipping standard while Nordstrom has shipping charges ranging from $8 to $35 depending on how it is delivered.
Saks offers free shipment for orders more than $150.

The widespread of globalization has made the use of the internet inevitable because it provides easy access to websites thus opening doors for global opportunities. 'There are five criteria to a good website design and that include navigation, design, content, other marketing considerations and legal stuff/re-assurance/legitimization' (Cumbrowski 2008). To prove the thesis, three department store websites are critically analyzed before concluding.

A good website design must have navigation. Navigation is the link that gives concise guide as to where the text will lead. It should have depth or the utmost number of clicks needed to land to the page. The clickable items must be obvious that they are clickable and should have a quick response of 0.1 seconds after a click has been made. The colors used in the design must be color coordinated to make it aesthetically appealing to the visitors. The choice of colors should be high enough in contrast for better viewing of both the normal-vision and the colorblind. The fonts should be easy to read and the standard text size must be readable even to those who do not know how to adjust the browsers.

As to the website content, it should be concise but helpful. The copywriting must adhere to the purpose of the site and must communicate properly…