Dive Brief:
- DTC plant company The Sill, which started as an online-only brand specializing in house plants, has come full circle after closing the last of its 12 brick-and-mortar locations to focus solely on its e-commerce business. The last store closed in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on Sept. 30, per a company email.
- The company said it has been gradually closing its stores over the past year as it shifted its focus to expanding its offerings, including introducing outdoor plants and gardening products. Shifting to online only again “allows us to better support our expanding product range and reach more customers,” founder Eliza Blank said in an email.
- Blank also cited the increase of independent house plant stores around the country since 2020 as another reason for The Sill moving away from its own brick-and-mortar locations.
Dive Insight:
After growing its footprint over the past decade, The Sill is shifting its focus back to its online business.
The Sill opened its first store on the Lower East Side in 2014. By 2022 it had expanded to 12 stores in seven U.S. markets, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Following the pandemic, revenue, assets, and profit margins began to shrink for The Sill. The company experienced net losses in 2021 and 2022 of $6.9 million and $6.7 million respectively. A crowdsourced fundraising campaign via WeFunder brought in over $1.7 million in 2023.
“Brands open physical stores to offer more touchpoints and meet customers where they are,” Blank said. “We were in brick-and-mortar retail for 10 years and believed in it, but over time, it became clear that operating physical stores while growing an online business was complex. Our decision was about focus — retail has its advantages, but scaling online better aligned with our growth and customer needs.”
The store closures began in late 2022, with its Hester Street store in New York City and Los Angeles locations as the first to permanently shutter when their leases expired.
“This shift transformed us into a full online garden center, requiring the scale and flexibility that only e-commerce can offer,” Blank said. “With a growing focus on larger and more diverse products, maintaining small urban stores no longer aligned with our vision.”
While The Sill chose to return to its online roots, a large number of DTC brands are finding value in operating both online and offline as a way to expand their customer bases.
Swiss apparel and footwear brand On announced plans to open up to 100 stores over the next few years. Men’s apparel brand Mizzen + Main added to its store footprint recently, while athletic fashion brand Vuori expects to have 100 locations opened by 2026.
