Nordstrom's opening Friday will deliver a new shopping experience for Hawai'i consumers, but also likely will cut into sales at other upscale stores competing for the same customers — at Ala Moana Center and possibly across O'ahu.

"This is going to be huge," said local retail analyst Stephany Sofos. "It's going to be an interesting year with Nordstrom."

She predicted Nordstrom will pull most of its sales from other fashion retailers on O'ahu. "You can go to one place and get it all," she said.

Dwight Yoshimura, Ala Moana Center general manager, said Nordstrom is the biggest change at the state's largest shopping center since Neiman Marcus opened in 1998. "It's another new quality standard. (Other retailers) have to rise to the occasion."

The three-story, 210,000-square-foot store is expected to put pressure largely on small fashion retailers — especially those selling shoes — but also will compete with high-end offerings at Macy's and the low end at luxury department store Neiman Marcus.

Nordstrom emphasizes mid-priced to luxury designer fashions, particularly shoes, and exceptional customer service. About 75 percent of its customers are women.

Pamela Lopez Perret, Nordstrom's director of fashion communications, said the company aims to provide three levels of quality merchandise — from moderate-priced items ($20 rubber slippers) to more pricey inventory ($200 skirts) to couture fare ($2,000 handbags).

"We really feel we are uniquely positioned," she said.

Richard Jaffe, a retail analyst with the New York office of St. Louis-based investment banking firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc., said Nordstrom crosses into the territory of Macy's more than it does Neiman Marcus, but mostly stands alone among department stores.

"Nordstrom has no rivals," he said. "They have a very unique business model."

Jaffe said the company has perfected a business operation and culture that make it one of the most coveted tenants for shopping centers across the country.

"Every market in the U.S. wants one," he said. Nordstrom operates just 102 full-line department stores in 26 states.

The retailer has been very patient with what dragged out to be a 20-year effort to establish a full-line store in Hawai'i.

Nordstrom's search first resulted in a 1996 agreement to open a store at Ala Moana as early as 1999. After repeated delays that pushed back the highly anticipated opening by three years for undisclosed reasons, it became public that local department store chain Liberty House objected to and eventually sued to block Nordstrom's entry.

After canceling the Ala Moana deal because of Liberty House's move, Nordstrom in 2001 announced plans to open a department store at Kaka'ako retail complex Ward Centers possibly as early as 2005. But that plan was canceled when Ala Moana owner General Growth Properties bought Ward Centers in 2002.

In 2004, Nordstrom re-signed with Ala Moana following a purchase of Liberty House by Macy's.

Ala Moana's ultimate success in landing Nordstrom is expected to deliver a mutual payoff for the retailer and mall.

Jaffe estimates that Nordstrom department stores produce annual sales of about $370 per square foot, which would translate to nearly $78 million for the Hawai'i store. Sofos, the local retail analyst, notes that many Hawai'i stores of national chains routinely exceed typical store sale averages.

At $100 million in annual sales, the store would come close to representing 10 percent of sales at Ala Moana, which reportedly produces around $1 billion in annual sales with roughly 300 tenants.

Adding Nordstrom also led Ala Moana to build space for 30 new retailers to connect the department store fronting Kapi'olani Boulevard with the mall over Kona Street.

Nordstrom's addition also establishes a mauka retail face for the mall fronting busy Kapi'olani that will serve as a more inviting pedestrian entrance.

Roger Lyons, Hawai'i retail services vice president with commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Inc., agreed that Nordstrom represents a big change in the local retail market. But he also predicted the store won't alter well-established regional shopping patterns.

"Ala Moana enjoys unprecedented customer traffic, so I don't think we're going to see any major increases in traffic overall," he said. "It'll just give (consumers) another reason to stay longer and spend more money there."

To be sure, there have been bigger impacts on the recent history of Hawai'i retailing.

One of the biggest changes was Ala Moana's opening in 1959, which pulled the core of retailing out of Downtown Honolulu.

An incoming wave of national big-box discount retailers began in 1988 with Costco opening in the Bougainville Industrial Park near Aloha Stadium followed by Kmart, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sports Authority, Best Buy and others.

A tourism and investment boom from Japan in the mid-1980s caused a major shift by shopping centers, retail areas such as Waikiki and even stores like Liberty House that began heavily catering to high-spending visitors with luxury fashion offerings.

On the horizon now is Target, which plans to open two stores on O'ahu and one on the Big Island starting with one in Kapolei and one at the former Bougainville Costco site early next year.

Some observers view the opening of Target as a bigger event for local consumers and retail competitors compared with Nordstrom because of Target's broader middle-class appeal and multiple locations.

Still, Nordstrom is causing quite a stir. "I'm super, super excited," said Kathryn Acorda, a construction company business development manager in Honolulu. "I can't even wait."

Acorda, who grew up in the Pacific Northwest where Nordstrom was the local department store chain, said the retailer is on the cutting edge with fashion and exceptional service.

"I think it's a great fit for Hawai'i," she said. "It fits a niche. You have Macy's and Neiman Marcus, and now you have Nordstrom."

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.