E-tail giant, Boohoo has opened their first store in a nearly 4000 square foot site in New York’s suburb of SoHo earlier this month. The store was a bi-level pop up for a month.
The prices at Boohoo reflect that of Supré and Glassons and its production cycles are nearly as fast as retail giant Zara, the company is in a perfect position to take on the US market.
New items arrive on the site weekly and apparel has a life cycle of four to six weeks, with a low buying level across a vast number of styles leaving no room for discounting. The marketing team comprises of more than 70 people and the company have a smaller menswear branch that currently is represents five per cent of sales.
“If I talk about our product strategy, it’s of newness,” cofounder and chief executive officer Carol Kane told a US publication.
“We have 500 lines delivered every single week. You can’t support what we do very easily in a store environment. You can have a collection here, but it’s going out of stock as quickly as it’s going in.”
The e-tailer has already entered the markets of US, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland.
Established retailers, Zara and H&M, are currently the faces of fast fashion and have worked from bricks and mortar to online. Boohoo is working from the digital side, looking to grow in the offline world.
“We don’t see it as an assault on these players, as our strength is online and their strength is bricks and mortar,” Kane said.
A permanent physical store isn’t on the cards for the brand just yet.
“I’m asked that all the time,” she said. “My business partner has a great answer: ‘why would I open a store when I can open a country.”
The e-tailer is based in England and employs just fewer than 1000 staff.
