These retailers are beefing up their stores to survive a new era of shopping — and it's paying off (TGT, WMT, JWN, KSS)

There is a growing divide between retail's winners and losers — and the answer may be in the store experience.

WalmartNordstromKohl's were among the more successful retailers in the quarter.

Find out what these retailers are doing to keep up in a new era of retail:

Nordstrom

In April, Nordstrom opened a new men's store in New York that combines in-store services such as tailoring, shoe shining, and food with high-tech digital ordering and returns systems.

Customers can choose to buy items online and pick them up in-store, or reserve up to 10 items in advance on the Nordstrom app and have them ready and waiting to try on in the store's fitting room.

There is also a handy returns system by the entrance of the store that allows shoppers to nip into the store, scan their receipt, and insert the items into a box.

"The level of transparency you have for fashion — where you can buy it, where you return it — has never been greater. You're really in control as the customer. As merchants, we need to have that functionality, that capability, otherwise, literally in seconds you can go somewhere else," Blake Nordstrom, the company's co-president, told Business Insider at the store opening in April.

Target

Another service allows customers to buy products on the app and have them brought out to their car by a team member.

Walmart

Walmart is taking its competition very seriously. In the past year, Walmart has launched or tested several new technologies to keep up in its race against Amazon.

It's expanding its grocery-delivery service nationwide, developing a technology that can predict the shelf life of products, and is reportedly in the process of creating a store with no cashiers, similar to Amazon Go.

Kohl's

Kohl's is fending off the threat of Amazon by embracing it into its own business. In 2017, it partnered with Amazon to bring sales kiosks into its stores, and it started offering in-store returns for items ordered off its website.