Simon Wants To Help Startups Establish A Retail Presence In Malls

It’s a strange time for e-commerce startups. While most of the retail world is trying to figure out how to make the shift from brick and mortar to online, most e-commerce startups are trying to do the opposite and find a way to let people discover and test out products in person without breaking the bank on a retail lease. So one unlikely player is trying to help them out – Simon Malls, the largest shopping mall operator in America with over 300 shopping centers. Simon is creating a “scaleable retail platform” called The Edit that essentially functions as a pop-up space where e-commerce startups can get their products in front of customers. Of course if you picture affordable and flexible pop-up spaces for young e-commerce brands, malls are probably the last place you’d imagine. Mall spaces almost exclusively require long and expensive leases that are impossible for e-commerce startups to justify. It’s also nearly impossible to scale up or down if you need more or less room over time, since mall spaces are usually pre-divided into separate stores. Read more at TechCrunch.