Dive Brief:
-
Quirky fashion retailer ModCloth last week ventured into brick-and-mortar retail for the first time in a long time, with a Bonobos-style fit shop at its Los Angeles headquarters.
-
The shop, like the Bonobos “guideshops,” won’t stock merchandise, but will have clothes on hand for try-ons and staff to assist.
-
CEO Matthew Kaness, who came on in January, says the retailer is experimenting in order to determine what it’s physical stores will look like. The company is also working on bulking up its own in-house offerings; most of its merchandise now comes from third parties.
Dive Insight:
ModCloth’s CEO Matthew Kaness sure makes it sound like the vintage-y, wide-open-minded e-retailer he now helms will be going offline some time soon. In any case, it sounds like the company is looking at ways to do that. This is yet another sign that physical stores are a key part of web retail strategies, even in an increasingly e-commerce world.
"We're looking to test other formats before we make any big decisions around what the future of offline is," Kaness told Forbes. "Right now, we're still concepting it."
