Mango anticipates its brand-new flagship in New York City will become one of its most profitable locations globally.
Spread across three floors of the Grande Dame building on Fifth Avenue, the 23,000-square-foot store offers women’s, men’s and children’s wear alongside perks like onsite tailoring, upgraded fitting rooms, a designated place to donate clothing for recycling and five NFT experiences.
“We believe [stores are] a privileged place to meet our customer,” said Toni Ruiz, Mango CEO.
The flagship follows the “New Med” design Mango unveiled at it’s Barcelona flagship earlier this year, with terrazzo floors, arched mirrors and entryways, and muted ceramics that mimic the look and feel of a Mediterranean home. The design also reinforces the steps Mango is taking to reduce its use of virgin materials in fashion. Up to 70 percent of the flagship’s “existing structure has been respected” and a “second life” has been given to the wooden floors, ceilings, lighting and other installations.
During the store’s first 11 days, the location will house the physical works of acclaimed artists Miró, Tàpies and Barceló together with screens displaying the NFTs their artwork inspired. Mango garments currently available in the store are featured in the NFTs.
At an opening day press conference Wednesday, Ruiz described the store as a “unique moment” for the company and the starting point for its expansion in the U.S., which it entered in 2006 with a store in New York City’s Soho neighborhood. Though the U.S. is currently one of Mango’s top 10 markets in sales out of 110 worldwide, the company expects the U.S. to land in its top five by 2024.
New stores across the sunbelt—five in Florida, one in Atlanta, three in Texas—followed by stores in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Southern California within the next 10 months will help Mango reach its goal. The Spanish fast-fashion retailer is aiming for a total of 40 new stores in shopping centers and standalone formats by 2024. Ruiz added that Mango will also launch a new loyalty program in June and adapt its communication strategy for the market.
“It’s true that nowadays we are facing times of uncertainty, but our aim is to continue progressing on the implementation of our strategy,” Ruiz said. “Mango is in an optimal position to face the future by promoting our brand and our products. To give some context, Mango closed 2021 with the highest results in almost one decade. In terms of turnover, we achieve more than 2.2 billion euros.”
Data collected from its 2019 e-commerce launch in the U.S. has informed the expansion strategy. “This has given us a huge amount of data of where our customer base is mostly located in America, and this has been the foundation of our [expansion] strategy in America,” said Daniel López, Mango director of expansion and franchise.
The flagship will be serviced twice a week by the 180,000-square-foot logistics facility about 60 milesp outside the city that manages Mango’s stateside e-commerce orders. “Timing in New York is pretty much the same for the consumer as the timing in Barcelona, London, Paris or Amsterdam,” Ruiz said. To maintain a steady flow of new products, however, the company moved some production from China to Mediterranean countries.
“It allows us to have flexibility—to have the product and to have it more frequently,” he said.