Gilly Hicks first launched in and five years later closed all of its over-two dozen stores. The rollout for Gilly Hicks stores over the last two years has been slow, but now the four new pop-up stores join two other standalone locations. One new location of note is a BrandBox in Tysons, Virginia. This offshoot of the real estate developer Macerich gives predominately digitally native brands a physical space to experiment with in-store experiences in their malls.
But Hollister is turning this strategy on its head with the Gilly Hicks pop-ups. Instead of being a scrappy online startup testing out physical retail, the year-old retailer is aligning itself with a burgeoning slate of DTC companies as a way to give itself a new kind of brand cachet. For both Macerich and Hollister, new programming is integral to staying culturally relevant. Macerich, on the other hand, is trying to stay nimble as malls evolve.
Traditional retailers have seen flagging sales and increased store closures, as Glossy recently reported , and real estate companies in turn have had to figure out ways to reinvent their spaces for the next wave of retail businesses. According to Melissa Gonzalez, chief pop-up architect of the consultancy the Lionesque Group, these new Hollister pop-ups are a smart way to approach the brand relaunch.
Small pop-up spaces provide the opportunity to do new sorts of branding and programming. It will launch online and in all stores worldwide on that day. The best version of this is Westfield London, White City as it is getting a whole new redesign to coincide with this relaunch. The remaining 12 carveout locations read more below in Hollister stores are expected to be redesigned this autumn. When we reintroduced Gilly Hicks in , it was as part of the Hollister brand. We love that connection because they are both part of Gen Z.
The nice thing for Gilly is that we have product categories that are not at Hollister. There are stores see full list below globally for Hollister, and Gilly Hicks is a part of all of those. Normally, we have these side-by-side locations. So, when you look at those side-by-side Gilly stores they do feel like their own standalone, they have their own Gilly sign, but they connect in the middle to a Hollister, so it allows the customer to travel through.
So as we invest in the standalone, if it does really well in Ohio, we have plans to open more in the future globally. That is a test to see how bringing all the new and redesigned store elements to life works.
We have redesigned them across the globe. We have 30 store experiences in the UK, and our redesigned side by side is at the store at Westfield London in White City. That one really brings the redesign to life in the biggest way. A lot of elements are really bringing the new branding to life. We have also redesigned our online store experience, by launching our own standalone Gilly Hicks site on 15 July. Before we were part of the Hollister website. That redesign comes to the website.
Gilly Hicks wants in on all the action. At one point it had more than two dozen U. The company said the brand's look had been inspired by the laid-back lifestyle in Sydney, Australia.
Hollister is a nod to Southern California, while Abercrombie is going for "authentic American. But all 28 Gilly Hicks stores went dark in , with the company warning at the time that spending among younger shoppers was "weak," forcing it to rethink its business strategy. Abercrombie reverted to selling Gilly Hicks merchandise online and in some Hollister shops. Inventory wasn't always restocked in stores, however, and so the brand eventually faded away almost entirely.
Then, Gilly Hicks was resurrected in "due to customer demand," the company said. The brand's bras, underwear, swim and lounge wear for teens and tweens was put back into Hollister stores and online. It had a similar look, but the company said it planned to design more pieces for young women's "on-the-go, busy" lifestyles and add more casual wear.
In the fiscal third quarter of , Abercrombie finally returned to same-store sales growth, following more than a year of declines. It had shifted investments toward Hollister, which was finding new momentum. The namesake Abercrombie brand was stuck in its own slump, reporting falling quarterly sales since Still, it's been rocky for Abercrombie even after the Gilly Hicks relaunch.
Analysts aren't convinced it can keep sales growing at the more than locations it operates globally. To do so, it needs to attract young-adult shoppers who are presented with endless options for clothing on the internet.
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