In the August 24, 2010 issue, the New York times page B1 had an article titled “The Web as a Store Window – Nordstorm Links Online Inventory to the Real World”. The article describes how customers can look for a particular product or size, check it in the closest store or get it shipped.  Under this model the web is connected to inventory at the company’s 115 stores. The impact of such inventory coordination has been a reported same stores sales increase of 8 % this year ( as compared to a 11.9 % decline the previous year).  Inventory turns are reported to be 5.41 in 209 as against 4.84 in 2005. Will such cross channel inventory coordination become the norm for the retail industry ? What would be the challenges to flawless execution of such a strategy ? Clearly attention to SKU level detailed tracking and recording would be key, as would figuring put which location gets to recognize revenues. Will this be the next big thing in retail logistics ?