How long Target+, Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's take to review your listings

Every brand going onto a department store marketplace asks the same question once the listings are submitted: how long until we hear back?

The marketplaces don't publish an answer. So we pulled one from our own data. Osello submits listings to Target+, Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's for the fashion brands we work with, and every submission leaves a timestamp when it goes into review and another when the marketplace makes a call. Over the last three months, that's 15,531 product variants (each size and colour counts as one) that got a decision.

Here's what the wait actually looks like.

The short version

Median days from submission to the marketplace's first decision, whatever that decision was:

Marketplace	Median days to first decision	Median days to approval	Variants decided
Target+	1.4	1.4	1,869
Nordstrom	4.9	12.2	2,828
Macy's	10.0	14.2	9,130
Bloomingdale's	13.0*	14.2*	1,704

*Bloomingdale's is a floor, not a typical wait. More on that below.

The spread is wide. A Target+ listing usually hears back in about a day and a half. A Bloomingdale's listing usually waits about two weeks, and many wait longer.

Why "first decision" matters more than "approval"

Most brands plan around the approval date, because that's when products go live. But the number that actually controls your timeline is how fast you find out something is wrong.

A "changes required" response isn't the end of the road. You fix the issue, resubmit, and the clock starts again. So a marketplace that sends feedback in four days costs you far less than one that sends the same feedback in two weeks. Every round trip adds the full review time again.

That's why we're leading with time to first decision. It tells you how long each loop takes.

Marketplace by marketplace

Target+: fast, and almost always a yes

Target+ is in a league of its own. The median decision comes in 1.4 days, and 98% of the variants it decided on were approved. Only 39 of 1,869 came back with changes required, and those came back fast too (1.1 days at the median).

If you're choosing which marketplace to launch first and speed to live matters, this is the one.

Nordstrom: quick feedback, but most listings need another pass

Nordstrom responds quickly. The median first decision lands in 4.9 days. But that speed mostly reflects feedback, not approvals: 65% of decided Nordstrom variants came back as changes required, and only 25% were approved on that decision. Another 10% were rejected outright, usually within two to three days.

The approvals themselves take longer, at a median of 12.2 days. So the practical read on Nordstrom is: expect to hear back within a week, expect that the first answer is "fix this," and budget for at least one more round before products go live.

Nordstrom's reviewers are judging catalog quality and brand fit against what already sells on the site. The more of that you get right before you submit, the more of your listings skip the second loop.

Macy's: the volume channel, with a wide range

Macy's is where most of our volume went in this period, with 9,130 decided variants. The median first decision is 10 days, and 74% of decided variants were approved.

The outcomes arrive on very different clocks:

• Rejections come fast. The median is 3.6 days.
• Changes required come next. The median is 4.2 days, though the average is closer to 10, so some sit much longer.
• Approvals take the longest. The median is 14.2 days.

If a Macy's listing has a problem, you'll likely find out within the first week. If you've heard nothing after a week, the listing is more likely on the approval track, which typically takes another week or so to go live.

Bloomingdale's: the slowest, and the numbers flatter it

Bloomingdale's had the longest waits of the four. The median first decision is 13 days, and the median approval is 14.2 days. Of decided variants, 54% were approved and 46% came back with changes required. We saw no outright rejections.

But read those numbers as a best case. They only count listings that got an answer. At the time we pulled this data, another 1,557 Bloomingdale's variants were still waiting for a decision, and they'd been waiting a median of 25 days so far. That's almost as many still in the queue as were decided. Once those resolve, the true typical wait will be longer than what's shown here.

If Bloomingdale's is in your launch plan, plan for three to four weeks, not two.

What "approval" includes

On Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, an approval goes through two steps: the listing is approved, then it waits to be published on the site. Our approval times run all the way to publication, because that's when shoppers can actually buy the product. Roughly half of each approval time on those three marketplaces is that publication wait.

How to use this when planning a launch

A few practical takeaways for brands going onto these marketplaces:

1. Plan for the loop, not the single wait. On Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, close to half or more of listings needed changes on the first decision. If you plan around one review cycle, you'll probably miss your date.
2. Clean data shortens everything. In our experience, most "changes required" responses come down to missing attributes, image standards, or category-specific fields. Every issue caught before submission saves a full review cycle.
3. Stagger your channels. If you're launching on several marketplaces, starting with Target+ gets products live within days, while you work through the longer Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's reviews.
4. Read the silence. On Macy's in particular, problems tend to surface early. A listing that's quiet after a week is more likely heading toward approval than stuck.
5. Chase the stragglers on Bloomingdale's. With so many listings waiting 25+ days, it's worth checking in on anything that's been in review past three weeks.

How we measured this

This data comes from listings that Osello submitted to Target+, Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's on behalf of the fashion brands we work with. We measured each product variant from the moment it entered review to the moment the marketplace returned a decision: approved, changes required, or rejected. We looked at the three months from July 13 to early November 2026.

A few notes on what's included:

• Still-waiting variants aren't counted. Only variants that received a decision are in the medians. This mostly affects Bloomingdale's, as described above.
• Approval times include the wait to be published on Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's.
• 98 variants were left out. They were resolved before August 3, when our system recorded "rejected" and "changes required" under one status, so their outcome can't be separated.
• Medians, not averages, are the headline numbers. A handful of very slow reviews can pull averages up, so medians better reflect a typical wait.
• Results reflect the brands and categories we work with, which are all fashion and apparel. Other categories may see different times.