What Traditional Retailers Can Learn From the ‘Click-to-Brick’ Movement

Data from Coresight Research tallied store closures of more than 8,000 in 2017. In 2018, there were more than 5,500 units that shuttered. And at current levels, store closures this year will exceed last year’s numbers. Yet, according to a report from David Bassuk and Joel Bines, global coleaders of the retail practice at AlixPartners LLP, digitally native brands have opened hundreds of physical stores — with more on the way. Direct-to-consumer brands that have announced additional store openings include Amazon, Casper, Adore Me, Indochino, Untuckit and Warby Parker as well as Allbirds, Outdoor Voices, Rent the Runway, Ministry of Supply and The Tie Bar, among others. “The ‘click-to-brick’ wave, as it is being called, is sweeping up not just well-established digital brands such as Warby Parker, Casper and even Amazon, but also relatively newer entrants like Brandless that are trying the concept on for size through temporary pop-up stores,” Bassuk and Bines noted in their report. “Casper only opened its first physical outlet, stocked with its popular mattresses and also pillows and bed linen, in early 2018, but already has plans to expand to 200 physical locations within the next three years.” Related retail story: Retailing Today Demands Connections to Shoppers —

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