The One Brand Rushing Into The Mall While Others Flee

The mall has not been a friendly place to brands this year. There’s a long list of them, including Wet Seal and The Limited, that have closed many or all of their stores in the mall, and we’ve talked at length about why. Low customer energy around malls and a loss of “anchor stores” results in less foot traffic, which, obviously, means less sales. So then why is made-to-measure suit brand Indochino putting forth a bold and ambitious growth plan that centers around the American mall? It’s like watching The Blair Witch Project and then planning a camping trip — it defies good sense. But the failures of other brands isn’t stopping Indochino, which hopes to bring its total number of retail locations to 18 by the end of the year (there are currently 10 Indochino “showrooms,” as the brand calls them), Glossy reports. Sure, that’s reasonable enough, but phase two of Indochino’s strategy is what will really make your jaw drop. The suit brand aims to open a total of 150 stores by the year 2020. If Indochino start with 21 locations in 2018, it’ll need to open 132 over the subsequent two years to hit this total. Read more at Racked.