Online Brands Get Physical

Convergence. As big retailers try to use the net to bolster sales at their physical stores, online companies are creating their own stores to showcase products primarily available digitally. JL

Khadeeja Safdar reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Warby Parker and Bonobos are among several online companies that have been expanding into the brick-and-mortar space to boost online sales. Both are using physical locations as showrooms for their products. Online startups enjoy the advantage of not having legacy systems, surplus stores and excess inventory. Bonobos has opened more than two dozen “guideshops” designed to help customers try on clothes and get them mailed to their doorsteps.
The chief executives of Warby Parker and Bonobos—two of the largest e-commerce-driven retail brands in the U.S.—say they would consider building store footprints comparable to those of some traditional retailers.
Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal said he could envision a future with 800 to 1,000 physical stores, while Bonobos founder Andy Dunn said he plans to have 100 stores by 2020.
“As new companies grow, they start to look more like the incumbents,” Mr. Blumenthal said Wednesday evening in a Wall Street Journal interview at an event in New York hosted by consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Warby Parker and Bonobos are among several online companies that have been expanding into the brick-and-mortar space to boost online sales. Mr. Dunn said he expects a “tidal wave” of e-commerce companies to make a similar leap.
The expansion of online brands into physical locations comes when foot traffic to many brick-and-mortar retailers is declining. Traditional retailers have been spending aggressively to beef up their digital capabilities to compete with Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.26 % and other online retailers. On Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT -0.95 % executives said they would slow new store openings to focus spending on e-commerce efforts such as its purchase of Jet.com.
Both Warby Parker and Bonobos are using physical locations as showrooms for their products. Mr. Dunn said online startups enjoy the advantage of not having legacy systems, surplus stores and excess inventory. “I don’t know what I could do if I had 1,000 stores.”
Bonobos, which sells men’s clothing, has opened more than two dozen “guideshops” designed mainly to help customers try on clothes and get them mailed to their doorsteps. The company, which started in 2007, began opening the locations in 2011.
Warby Parker, which sells eyeglasses, opened its first retail shop in 2013 and so far has 37 locations with features such as full-length mirrors, vintage arcade games and photo booths. It plans to have 50 by year’s end, Mr. Blumenthal said.
Mr. Blumenthal’s first foray into physical retail was at his own apartment, using his co-founder’s laptop as a checkout counter in Warby Parker’s earliest days, he said. “Our naiveté in retail actually helped us build a better store.”