Digitally native apparel merchant Andie opened its first physical store in Q4 2021, with plans to open several more in 2022, says Michelle Copelman, vice president of design at Andie.
The consumer brand manufacturer launched its online store in 2017, but since the end of 2019, Andie knew it wanted to open physical stores. Andie continued to plan for a physical store opening throughout the pandemic until eventually opening a pop-up store in West Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2021.
“Everyone’s appetite for shopping in store and having a personal experience is at an all-time high,” Copelman says.
Andie decided to go with the pop-up route—with a lease running through April 2022 and an option to renew—rather than a permanent store. That’s because the pop-up arrangement offers flexibility compared to a five- or 10-year lease. The pop-up allows Andie to see if a physical store is right for its brand before committing long term, Copelman says.
“The idea of a pop-up was super low risk with all of the upsides,” Copelman says.
Andie worked with Leap Services Inc., which specializes in operating pop-ups through services such as managing the building and staffing of the location. She declined to reveal a cost estimate to operate the store but says it was “very little” for a beautiful store.
Andie launched a loungewear line in December 2021.
The goal for the store is to increase its brand awareness and increase overall sales, including online, in that geographic area, Copelman says. “People coming in the store but maybe (they don’t) buy something, but then they convert online a week later,” she says. “There’s a lot of stores like that that are considered a billboard if you will.”
The store doesn’t have a specific sales goal for adding incremental revenue to the bottom line, but the retailer expects 20-40 consumers to shop in the store each day with a 35% conversion rate. These initial expectations, Copelman says, were too conservative and it is achieving this each day, she says.
The store carries about 90% of its online merchandise, which includes swimwear, the intimates line that Andie launched in May 2021 and its new loungewear line, which launched in December 2021.
Andie’s omnichannel strategy
Andie is among several brands that first launched online and then later expands into physical retail. Of the 176 digital native vertical brands that Digital Commerce 360 tracks in its Top 1000 and Next 1000 databases, 34 of the brands (a little less than 20%) have at least one store. Of the DNVBs with physical stores, five is the median number these brands operate.
The Andie store does not have the hallmark omnichannel service buy online pickup in store, but it is a feature that Andie could add later, Copelman says. Of DNVBs with stores, 26.5% offer buy online pickup in store, according to Digital Commerce 360 data.
The store includes what Andie calls a Lightbox—a large monitor displaying the Andieswim.com website where shoppers can take a fit quiz and order any sizes or colors that the store does not have.
Andie promotes its fit quiz as one of the ways it is different from other apparel merchants. The quiz is roughly a dozen questions long and asks shoppers about their body type and swimsuit style preference. The retailer has a database of more than 2 million data points, both quantitative and qualitative, compiled from shopper answers to its fit quiz. Andie can use those fit preferences to help inform the fit of these products, CEO Melanie Travis previously told Digital Commerce 360.
Andie differentiates itself by focusing on fit.
In the store, the brand trained the two employees to walk shoppers through the fit quiz verbally to then suggest the appropriate products.
Andie also recently raised $18.5 million in Series B funding, which will partially go toward expanding into physical stores. Marcy Venture Partners led the funding round with participation from previous investors CityRock and Gaingels, among others. Andie also plans to use the funds for international expansion and expanding into new categories, including selling beyond the products it manufacturers to wholesale other goods.
Andie is No. 1079 in the 2021 Digital Commerce 360 Next 1000.
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