Saks Fifth Avenue once represented the pinnacle of luxury retail. The name alone conjured images of white-glove service, curated collections, and an experience worthy of the price premium. Today, the Saks website and app feel like a cautionary tale in how to squander a legacy brand through neglect, confusion, and fundamental misunderstanding of what luxury customers actually want.
But Saks can be saved. The brand still has equity, the customer base still exists, and the problems are solvable. Here’s where they went wrong and exactly how to fix it.
Where Saks Lost Its Way
The Identity Crisis
Saks suffers from a fundamental identity problem that permeates every aspect of its UX. The platform can’t decide if it’s a luxury department store, a fashion marketplace, or a discount outlet competing with everyone else.
The Evidence:
- Luxury brands sit alongside mass-market labels with no clear distinction
- The homepage looks like a visual cacophony of competing promotions
- “Sale” banners dominate the experience, training customers to never pay full price
- The brand voice oscillates between aspirational luxury and desperate bargain-hunting
- Email campaigns blast multiple times daily with subject lines screaming discounts
What This Tells Us: Saks has lost confidence in its value proposition. Instead of owning luxury and charging accordingly, they’re trying to compete on price with Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and even fast fashion sites. This is a race to the bottom that Saks cannot win.
The Technical Debt Disaster
The Saks website feels like it was built by ten different teams who never spoke to each other, then held together with duct tape and desperation.
The Problems:
- Search is abysmal, often returning irrelevant results or missing obvious matches
- Filters don’t work consistently across categories
- Product pages load slowly and sometimes display wrong information
- The shopping cart occasionally loses items or changes quantities
- Checkout flow is unnecessarily complicated with confusing loyalty program prompts
- Mobile experience feels like a shrunken desktop site, not a native mobile design
- Site performance lags, especially during sales, exactly when traffic peaks
What This Tells Us: Saks has been applying band-aids instead of fixing foundations. The underlying platform is outdated, and every new feature adds complexity without resolving core issues.
The Paradox of Too Much and Too Little
Saks simultaneously offers too much selection and too little curation.
The Contradiction:
- Thousands of products with no meaningful way to navigate them
- Every brand carries hundreds of SKUs, creating analysis paralysis
- But no editorial voice, no styling guidance, no curation that justifies the luxury positioning
- Personal shopping exists but is hidden and unclear about what it offers
- The brand that should be solving “what should I wear” instead asks customers to sift through endless inventory
What This Tells Us: Saks forgot that luxury retail’s value isn’t just access to products. It’s expertise, curation, and the confidence that comes from trusted guidance.
The Loyalty Program Confusion
SaksFirst, the loyalty program, manages to be both overly complicated and underwhelming.
The Issues:
- Multi-tier structure that few customers understand
- Points accumulation rules that vary by product category
- Redemption process that’s unclear and restrictive
- Benefits that don’t feel particularly beneficial
- Constant prompts to “activate offers” that feel more like homework than rewards
- Credit card integration that adds another layer of confusion
What This Tells Us: The program was designed around business goals (driving credit card sign-ups, increasing purchase frequency) rather than customer delight.
The Service Disconnect
Saks built its reputation on exceptional service. The digital experience offers none of that.
The Gap:
- No live chat or easy access to human help
- Virtual styling sessions exist but are buried and poorly promoted
- Product questions go unanswered or receive generic responses
- Returns are complicated compared to competitors
- No sense of relationship or recognition, even for high-value customers
- The in-store and online experiences feel completely disconnected
What This Tells Us: Saks digitized transactions but forgot to digitize the service that justified its existence.
The Recovery Plan: How to Save Saks
Step 1: Reclaim the Luxury Identity
The Strategy: Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Saks should own the luxury positioning and eliminate everything that contradicts it.
Immediate Actions:
Eliminate constant discounting. Move to a pricing strategy with fewer, more strategic sales. Luxury customers will pay full price if they trust the value.
Reduce SKU count by 40%. Carry fewer items but curate them better. If Nordstrom carries it and Macy’s carries it, Saks shouldn’t.
Create clear brand tiers. Segment the site into distinct luxury levels: ultra-luxury (Hermès, Brunello Cucinelli), contemporary luxury (The Row, Khaite), and accessible luxury (Theory, Vince). Never mix them on the same page.
Redesign the homepage to feel like entering a beautiful store, not clicking through a digital flyer. Clean, spacious, aspirational. Show one stunning hero image, one featured collection, and clear navigation. That’s it.
Develop a consistent brand voice that’s knowledgeable, sophisticated, and helpful without being pretentious. Think “trusted advisor to the successful” not “desperate seller.”
Step 2: Rebuild the Technical Foundation
The Strategy: Accept that the current platform cannot be fixed with patches. It needs fundamental reconstruction.
The Plan:
Invest in modern e-commerce infrastructure. Partner with Shopify Plus, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, or similar enterprise platforms that can scale and perform.
Rebuild search from scratch using AI-powered relevance. Partner with Algolia or Elasticsearch specialists. Search should understand “black tie wedding guest dress” and “comfortable luxury sneakers for travel.”
Implement intelligent filtering that actually helps narrow choices. Allow filtering by occasion, styling, brand tier, fit preference, and lifestyle needs, not just size and color.
Optimize for mobile-first. Over 60% of luxury browsing happens on mobile. The mobile experience should be the primary design, not an afterthought.
Invest in performance. Sub-second page loads, instant search, smooth scrolling. Luxury customers have zero tolerance for slow experiences.
Create a proper design system so every page, every component, every interaction feels cohesive and intentional.
Timeline: 12-18 months for full platform migration. Accept this cost as necessary survival investment.
Step 3: Solve Discovery Through Curation
The Strategy: Transform from a product catalog to a curated luxury experience.
The Implementation:
Hire a Chief Content Officer with fashion editorial background. This role reports to the CEO, not buried in marketing.
Build an editorial team of stylists, writers, and photographers who create daily content: styling guides, trend reports, designer interviews, seasonal capsule collections.
Create “Collections” as the primary navigation. Instead of browsing “Women’s Dresses,” customers browse “The Coastal Grandmother,” “Power Dressing 2.0,” “Quiet Luxury Essentials.” Each collection is curated by experts, photographed beautifully, and tells a story.
Implement “Complete the Look” AI that actually works. Show how to style each item three ways: conservative, fashion-forward, and unexpected. Link to the specific pieces needed.
Feature customer styling from verified purchases. Real people wearing real outfits, curated to showcase how actual customers style luxury pieces.
Launch seasonal “Saks Selects” where the buying team commits to their highest-conviction pieces. If Saks is recommending it, they stand behind it.
Step 4: Revolutionize the Loyalty Program
The Strategy: Replace SaksFirst with a program that actually makes customers feel valued.
The New Program:
Simplify to two tiers: Saks (free) and Saks Luxury (by invitation based on annual spend, approximately $5,000+).
Saks tier benefits:
- Free shipping and returns (table stakes)
- Early access to sales (24 hours)
- Birthday gift (actual product, not discount code)
- Access to virtual styling consultations
Saks Luxury tier benefits:
- Everything in Saks tier
- Dedicated personal stylist (virtual and in-store)
- Exclusive access to limited collections
- Complimentary alterations
- Private shopping events (virtual and physical)
- Concierge service for special requests
- Annual gift based on spend tier
The Key Difference: Benefits focus on experience and service, not points and discounts. Luxury customers don’t want to do math. They want to feel special.
Phase out the credit card dependency. Loyalty should be about purchasing behavior, not financing method.
Step 5: Bring Back the Service
The Strategy: Make digital service feel as personal as in-store service used to be.
The Service Infrastructure:
Launch “Ask a Stylist” chat available 10am-10pm EST, staffed by actual stylists with fashion expertise. Not customer service reading scripts, but professionals who can answer “What should I wear to my daughter’s wedding in Charleston in May?”
Implement clienteling technology so stylists (virtual and in-store) can see customer history, preferences, and past purchases. When a customer contacts Saks, the conversation should pick up where it left off.
Create video styling appointments that feel luxurious. Not awkward Zoom calls, but beautifully designed virtual appointments where stylists can share screens, create boards, and walk customers through selections.
Offer at-home try-on for high-value customers. Ship 5-10 items curated by a stylist, customer keeps what they love, returns the rest with pre-paid shipping.
Build post-purchase relationship. Three days after delivery, send a personalized note asking how items fit. If alterations are needed, arrange them. If something doesn’t work, help find the right alternative.
Connect online and offline. If a customer browses online, their local store should know. If they visit in-store, their online experience should reflect it. One customer, one relationship, multiple touchpoints.
Step 6: Fix the Fundamentals
The Tactical Improvements:
Checkout:
- One-page checkout for returning customers
- Guest checkout that’s genuinely easy
- Clear loyalty benefits displayed at checkout
- Transparent shipping options with accurate dates
- Save multiple addresses and payment methods
Product Pages:
- High-quality images (minimum 6 per product, including details and styling)
- Accurate descriptions written by people who understand fashion
- Detailed measurements and fit guidance
- “How it fits” reviews from verified customers with body type context
- Styling suggestions with shoppable links
- Designer story and craftsmanship details for luxury items
Search and Navigation:
- Natural language search that works
- “Shop by Occasion” as primary navigation
- Filters that combine (show me Brunello Cucinelli cashmere sweaters under $1000)
- Save searches and get alerts for new arrivals
- Recent searches saved and easily accessible
Email and Communications:
- Reduce frequency to maximum 3 per week unless customer opts in for more
- Personalization based on actual preferences, not just “you viewed this once”
- Beautiful design that reflects luxury positioning
- Valuable content, not just promotional noise
Returns:
- Free returns, no questions asked
- Pre-paid labels automatically included
- In-store returns for online purchases
- Clear timeline for refunds
- Learn from returns to improve recommendations
Step 7: Differentiate or Die
The Strategy: Saks needs exclusive offerings that customers can’t get anywhere else.
The Differentiation Plan:
Secure exclusive collaborations with luxury designers. Limited collections only available at Saks.
Launch “Saks Emerging Designers” program, curating the next generation of luxury talent. Give customers early access to brands before they become mainstream.
Create “Tailored by Saks,” a private label luxury line that offers Saks-quality at better value than comparable designer pieces. Position it as insider knowledge, not cheap alternative.
Offer customization and personalization services. Monogramming, bespoke alterations, made-to-measure programs in partnership with luxury brands.
Develop category expertise where Saks becomes the destination. Perhaps that’s bridal, perhaps it’s men’s tailoring, perhaps it’s luxury beauty. Own something completely.
Build content experiences that competitors can’t match. Virtual runway shows, designer talks, styling masterclasses. Make Saks the luxury education destination.
The Financial Reality
This transformation requires investment. Conservatively:
- Platform rebuild: $10-15 million
- Content and editorial team: $3-5 million annually
- Enhanced customer service: $5-7 million annually
- Technology and AI improvements: $2-3 million annually
- Marketing repositioning: $8-10 million first year
Total first-year investment: $30-40 million beyond normal operations.
Why It’s Worth It:
Luxury e-commerce is projected to reach $100 billion by 2025. Saks currently captures a tiny fraction. Competitors like Net-a-Porter, MatchesFashion, and Mytheresa have proven customers will pay full price for curated luxury experiences.
If Saks can recapture even 2-3% market share of the luxury e-commerce market, that’s $2-3 billion in annual revenue. At luxury margins, that’s $600-900 million in gross profit.
The investment pays for itself in 18-24 months.
The Implementation Timeline
Months 1-3: Foundation
- Audit current state completely
- Assemble transformation team
- Begin platform vendor selection
- Start SKU rationalization
- Redesign homepage and key pages
Months 4-6: Quick Wins
- Launch improved homepage
- Implement basic service improvements
- Begin editorial content program
- Fix critical UX issues
- Simplify loyalty program
Months 7-12: Platform Transformation
- Build new platform in parallel
- Migrate category by category
- Launch enhanced search
- Roll out styling services
- Develop exclusive content
Months 13-18: Full Experience
- Complete platform migration
- Launch full service suite
- Implement AI personalization
- Secure exclusive partnerships
- Measure and optimize
Months 19-24: Optimization
- Refine based on data
- Expand successful programs
- Build on differentiation
- Scale what works
Measuring Success
The metrics that matter:
Business Metrics:
- Average order value (should increase 25-40%)
- Customer lifetime value (should double)
- Repeat purchase rate (target 40%+)
- Full-price sell-through (target 60%+)
- Customer acquisition cost (should decrease as brand strengthens)
Experience Metrics:
- Net Promoter Score (target 50+)
- Customer satisfaction scores (target 85%+)
- Service interaction quality ratings
- Time to purchase (should decrease)
- Search success rate (target 80%+)
Brand Metrics:
- Brand perception studies
- Consideration among luxury shoppers
- Pricing power (ability to maintain margins)
- Social sentiment and share of voice
Why This Will Work
Saks has advantages competitors don’t:
Brand heritage that resonates with affluent customers who remember when Saks meant something.
Physical stores in key luxury markets that can support digital experience when properly integrated.
Existing customer base of high-value shoppers who want Saks to succeed.
Vendor relationships with luxury brands that newer competitors struggle to secure.
Category breadth that allows one-stop shopping for luxury lifestyle.
The question isn’t whether Saks can be saved. It’s whether leadership has the courage to make necessary changes instead of continuing to optimize a failing strategy.
The Alternative
If Saks continues its current path:
- Continued market share erosion to specialized luxury platforms
- Race to the bottom on pricing, destroying margins
- Loss of luxury brand partnerships as the platform devalues their products
- Acquisition by a competitor who will gut the brand for parts
- Slow death as “Saks” becomes associated with discount luxury, a contradiction in terms
The luxury customer is still spending. They’re just spending elsewhere because current Saks doesn’t give them a reason to choose it.
The Bottom Line
Saving Saks requires acknowledging hard truths: the current strategy isn’t working, the platform is inadequate, and the brand has lost its way. But the name still means something, the customer base exists, and the market opportunity is massive.
The prescription is clear: reclaim luxury positioning, rebuild technical foundations, solve discovery through curation, revolutionize loyalty, restore service, and differentiate ruthlessly.
This isn’t incremental improvement. It’s fundamental transformation. Half-measures won’t work. Saks needs the courage to be what it used to be: the definitive American luxury retailer, now for the digital age.
The alternative is watching a 100-year-old icon fade into irrelevance, outpaced by nimbler competitors who understood what luxury customers actually want: not discounts and clutter, but curation, service, and experiences worthy of their investment.
Saks can be saved. But only if someone decides it’s worth saving and commits to doing what’s necessary, not what’s easy.
The clock is ticking.