A BELOVED home brand retailer is set to close 19 locations in a storefront slaughter, and only seven spots will remain.
The chain is planning to focus its efforts on partnerships, as it tries to capitalize on places with a “strong community traction”.
A beloved home brand retailer is set to close 19 locations in a storefront slaughter, and only seven spots will remain[/caption]
The home textile brand Parachute will close a total of 19 stores by the end of the year, leaving seven storefronts still operational.
Parachute is now focusing on its partnerships with major US retailers like Target.
It marks a notable pullback from it’s previously stated growth strategy.
The CEO of parachute has now criticized that expansion, claiming that it took the wrong steps and opened in the wrong places.
CEO Mehdi Ait Oufkir told Retail Dive: “Over the last year, we’ve taken a hard look at our retail footprint and made some difficult decisions.
“We went through a huge expansion period a few years ago during which we opened stores that were too large or in regions where brand awareness wasn’t what it needed to be.
“We don’t need massive storefronts to convince people to try them.
“When the product is right, the brand speaks for itself.”
FORAY INTO FURNITURE
Parachute had gone through a major product expansion in recent years, but has now scrapped them completely.
In 2021, Parachute started selling bed frames on its website, and then expanded into living room furniture in 2022.
Now, Parachute intends to focus on its core product categories, like bedding and bath.
Commenting on the foray into furniture, Oufkir told Business of Home: “We learned a lot in our first attempt at furniture.
“We were optimistic about that category and invested in large retail footprints to support it, but our consumer wasn’t looking to us for furniture, or at least not on the timeline we expected.
“It was still a worthy challenge to pursue.”
US braces for ‘45,000 store closures’
Some 45,000 bricks-and-mortar stores could close in the next five years, experts have warned.
Several major retailers have announced store closures or gone out of business altogether in recent years.
In 2023, chains such as Foot Locker announced plans to close up to 400 outlets by 2026.
While, other well-known retailers like Tuesday Morning and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Bed Bath & Beyond has closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores and is now an online-only retailer.
The most affected retailers have been clothing, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobby, book, music, and home furnishing stores since the start of 2019.
UBS has predicted the total number of retail stores will drop by 45k from 958k to 913k.
Despite that, the report says that certain stores should thrive while others decline.
It said retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and Target, could be among the winners.
NEW DIRECTION
One of Parachute’s most notable current partnerships is with Target, as it launched an exclusive collection with over 200 bedding and bath linens at lower price points.
The collaboration is part of Target‘s move to revamp merchandise efforts, and will help Parachute reach more consumers.
Parachute has partnered with huge brands before, too, as it joined forced with Crate and Barrel back in 2021 for a six-month run.
The company has also worked with the likes of Nordstrom, opening a pop-up with them in 2022.
Before this strategic shift, Parachute had been making solid progress with its expansion.
The company had planned to opened its 30th store by the end of 2022.
In May 2023, it announced a new flagship location, a 34,000 square foot store in the Flatiron District of New York City.
At the time, founder Ariel Kaye said: “We see Parachute stores as an integral part of the overall customer experience as well as the long-term success of the brand.”
This was Parachute’s 26 physical location, but it has now been confirmed to close by a customer service rep.
Parachute is now focusing on its partnerships with major US retailers like Target[/caption]
