When online costume jeweler BaubleBar announced in June that it would be making its offline debut at the Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, New York, it was yet another confirmation that brick-and-mortar still matters. This, in a nutshell, sums up why hipster haven Urban Outfitters plans to open four new locations in North America this year—despite its e-commerce and catalog sales outperforming its physical stores.
Speaking to analysts during a fourth-quarter earnings call in March, Urban Outfitters Group CEO Tedford Marlow said he believed investing in such brick-and-mortar experiences as Brooklyn’s Space Ninety 8 (an indie-minded concept store) and the 57,000-square-foot flagship in Manhattan’s Herald Square (featuring a hair salon and a coffee shop) was the ticket to improving sales.
Read more at Sourcing Journal.
