B8ta Wants to Create Powerful Retail

A strange trend is brewing among direct-to-consumer digital brands — physical stores. And it’s not just some charming throwback for ye olde shoppes, according to Phillip Raub, cofounder and president of B8ta, a Macy’s-backed retail-as-a-service start-up. At WWD’s latest Digital Forum in Los Angeles last week, he explained that it’s business, not nostalgia. Citing a tidbit from an earlier session by Afterpay’s Lizzy Eisenberg, he noted that “Millennials still really like to go into physical retail spaces.” In other words, the momentum — namely of retailers rushing toward the web — is swinging the other way. “There was this huge idea that everything was moving online, and that people only shopped online. And while I think that’s happening in certain categories, still at the end of the day, physical retail is still such a very prominent space,” said Raub. “[Now] you’re seeing that so many of these, what they call, digitally native or direct-to-consumer brands have started to actually open physical retail spaces. Because they understand the importance of it.” Being wherever their consumers are is a fundamental tenet for modern retailers. But there’s more even to it than that, according to Raub. “When a brand actually opens up a physical space, they’re usually seeing about

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More...

from WWDWWD https://ift.tt/2QRwNcP