Online-Only Retailers Get Physical At Roosevelt Field Mall

Garden City NY

30 November, 2021

2:05 PM

Description

GARDEN CITY, NY — With more malls across America closing or repurposing to remain relevant in the age of Amazon, Roosevelt Field is recruiting online-based companies as part of a broader plan to remain a prosperous top-tier shopping destination. Blue Nile was the first e-commerce-only retailer to open a physical store at Roosevelt Field in 2015, when the Simon Property Group-owned mall entered the first phase of a renovation project. The jeweler was so successful that it has since opened stores at 17 other locations in 14 states, including at three more Simon malls. Makers of custom-fitted men's shirts, UNTUCKit launched in 2010 as an online-native business that opened its first store in Manhattan five years later and at Roosevelt Field in 2017, one of its 87 brick-and-mortar locations in the United States and Canada. Other companies that originated online include Bonobos, a men's clothing line, which opened a shop at the mall in 2020, and Madison Reed, a hair dye brand that established a mini-color bar there earlier this year. "We are always looking to change up our merchandise mix," Nancy Gilbert, Simon's marketing director at Roosevelt Field, said about the mall's initiative to attract brands with e-commerce roots. "We want to keep the stores and brands that are here exciting and different to continue to drive traffic to the centers." When renovations that included a Neiman Marcus-anchored west wing began in 2015, Simon launched a Roosevelt Field-exclusive program that works with online-only businesses to open their first physical stores at the mall. Called The Edit, the platform provides a retail unit with all the fixtures, a point-of-sales system, and an experienced management team that a budding brand needs to transition successfully to a brick-and-mortar. Each online retailer in the program pilots its merchandise in the space for about three months, after which a new brand is rotated into the same space near JCPenney. Simon decides whether to negotiate a long-term lease with the company based in part on whether the brand can sustain sales, availability of space and the economics involved in building a new store. "This program gives us the opportunity to take something that customers can't find anywhere else and be able to cultivate it and help it grow," Gilbert said about the strategy behind The Edit. "It gives our customers a new product and something that's different and that's a first." Launched online in 2016, GOAT USA, a self-described "lifestyle and apparel company" whose products "promote a positive message," is the latest e-commerce brand featured in The Edit space. "We are looking at those kinds of brands and asking how we can expand them," Gilbert said. There are currently two online-only brands that opened in the mall after piloting in The Edit, and Simon is working with another company to sign a lease, Gilbert said. Clientele, an athletic shoes and apparel brand, opened in 2019, and Hope & Henry showcased its classic clothing made with organic cotton in The Edit for three months in 2018 before signing a long-term lease. The company now operates four stores at Simon malls and one more in Hawaii. CEO Matt McCauley founded Hope & Henry in 2017, originally selling his clothes for all ages on Amazon and launching the company's website the following year. McCauley said The Edit provided support with marketing, connections with local influencers and architects to help design the physical store, all of which made the transition to brick-and-mortar much easier. And while his company's digital channels, which also includes Target Plus, account for an estimated 90 percent of total revenue, the move to Simon malls has exposed the brand to many new customers. "I think a lot of people think it's either digital or it's the mall, but I believe these channels compliment each other," McCauley said. "I really like the omni-channel experience for the customer, where they can buy online and return in the store. Giving that whole in-person experience and introducing the brand to new customers is really beneficial." * This story is the first in a three-part series about Roosevelt Field and Simon Property Group.