What: Experts consider that the Saks and HBC split move, which were not understood at the time, might become the norm on the market.

Why it is important: This is a financially-backed approach which could reflect the lack of faith in stores on the long-range, but would also propel the e-commerce part of the business into a new territory, where giant companies are already operating.

Retail Dive looks at the reasons why some US department stores decided to split their e-commerce activities from their overall business, and why this could become at the same time a general trend, but also a dangerous action to carry for the other companies.

Saks 5th Avenue and the Hudson Bay Company have already taken the jump, mainly, according to Retail Dive, more for financial reasons than operational ones.

Since March, Saks Fifth Avenue split into Saks.com and SFA with a fleet of 40 stores. Such a move required to designed 150 transition agreements and 150 operating agreements to govern the new relationship between the 2 sister companies. This led into significant communication difficulties between them, creating frictions and issues.

However, in spite of that, the move allowed to pocket a significant amount of cash in the case of Saks, USD 500m from new investors in Saks.com, and more might be coming in if the valuation of USD 6b when going public became real. The catch is that Saks.com keeps the merchandising, buying and marketing capabilities, as well as IP, which are rented to SFA, while SFA rents its BOPÏS, return and alterations capabilities. In other words, the e-commerce company has the full power and might spell doom for stores in the mid to long range.

Analysts think that Macy’s and Kohl’s might be next. However, not all think that this might be the best move ever for department stores, which, with such a split, might trade a difficult market to another one, much more competitive.

Why are department stores a target for e-commerce spinoffs?