As the online space gets increasingly crowded, it becomes difficult for brands to stand out. Having a physical store makes it easier to be discoverable. Branching out from an online store to brick-and-mortar is new territory for many brands,ut Shopify is helping their merchants reach their customers elsewhere. Shopify is lowering barrier for merchants by launching a new partnership with showfields to offer seven native brands the opportunity to sell their products in a store.
Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce platform that powers thousands of brands’ online stores, partnered with Showfields to give seven DTC brands the chance to experiment with physical retail in a low-risk environment. Shopify curated the brands from its massive list of brand partners, sponsoring a small space for each of them.
Showfields has a newly opened multi-brand storefront in New York City’s NoHo neighborhood, and the second floor is filled with seven miniature storefronts of small DTC brands that run the gamut of fashion to beauty to homeware. They range from brands that just launched a few months ago to brands that are already sold in hundreds of stores. They are exclusively offering Shopify merchants a retail space to tell their stories and meet customers face-to-face. It’s a great opportunity for these Shopify store owners to learn & grow in the evolving retail landscape. Showfields is providing necessities and services including store design, security, and tech for purchase transactions to the merchants. The leases for brands range from $2000 – $6000 per month.
Shopify will help rising merchants who represent some fastest growing categories including home, fashion, and wellness. These merchants include:
– Aelfie: An artisanal home decor brand, that is handmade in Brooklyn.
– Baby Tress: A brand offering hair styling tools.
– Best Self Co: A stationary brand offering journals, planners etc.
– Coco and Breezy: Handcrafted eyewear.
– Hudson Wilder: Makes high quality, affordable modern dining wear for the effortless home.
– Meso Goods: Works with local artisans and creates artisanal home decor.
– Wild One: Offers essentials for pets.
Shopify’s partnership with Showfields is bringing together two companies with similar goals but from different worlds. Showfields’ goal, is to give smaller brands without the resources for large-scale operations the chance to have their own physical storefront. Shopify looks to do the same thing in the online world.
For the brands involved, it is a huge opportunity. Physical retail is not only difficult but also cost-prohibitive, particularly for smaller brands. Setting up a physical store in a place like New York, which has the most valuable retail market is unimaginable for them but Shopify & Showfields have come together to make it possible for some of those brands.
For smaller brands like Baby Tress, discovery is what they need most. On the other hand, having a physical store will help brands like Coco and Breezy, that sells eyewear to collect data. The brand has a requirement to collect data for their sizing to figure out whether to produce smaller sizes or bigger sizes. Having a physical definitely adds value to the brand and makes it more established. This, in turn, will lead to more sales and recognition from the customers.
Ultimately, physical retail seems inevitable for many DTC brands. It’s just so common now that when brands reach a certain size and scale online and are looking for growth, you can find that most easily in a physical store. The merging of online and in-person selling has never been a more exciting dynamic opportunity for smaller direct-to-consumer brands. This partnership between Shopify and Showfields is expected to help businesses of all sizes take full advantage of what retail has to offer. We will definitely see more of such partnerships between the online and offline platforms in the future.
