Los Angeles | With just 122 stores in Canada and the USA, Aritzia is not a fashion giant, but the affordable luxury brand is considered a trendsetter in instore shopping experience. Lounge mirrors, artsy signage, and a lot of ambience with a local touch. Anyone who predicts the demise of brick-and-mortar retail has not yet been to an Aritzia store.
Brick-and-mortar retail is having a hard time, especially in Los Angeles, where many stores in shopping malls are empty. Not to mention Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA), which has been struggling with store vacancies and homelessness for decades. However, new retail and digital signage hotspots are emerging, particularly in the arts and fashion districts and in Row DTLA, an old wholesale terminal turned open-air shopping mall.
But in better-positioned shopping malls, in proximity to Apple and Alo Yoga, locals and visitors can usually find a Aritzia store. The Canadian women fashion retailer is positioned above Zara & Co in the affordable luxury market. And yet parallels to Inditex can be seen: Stationary stores play a very important role – not only as a showcase for eCommerce but as a profitable sales channel.
At Aritzia, each store must be self-sustaining, with an average investment of $3 million recouped within 12 to 18 months. With annual sales exceeding $10,000 per square meter, Aritzia’s space productivity is well above the fashion industry average. A typical 750-square-meter store generates $8 million in annual sales.
Aritzia stores are remarkable for their consistent focus on experiences. The store design is inviting, modern, regionally adapted, with a special approach to changing rooms and digital signage. In the changing rooms themselves, there are no mirrors, only in the lounge outside, which is intended to become a community space.
For digital signage, the women’s fashion brand from Vancouver uses LCD screens integrated into picture frames and angled slightly on wall shelves, making them an integral part of the stores. Aritzia relies on regional art, which is distributed throughout the stores to create the typical atmosphere. Audio speakers are integrated into the wall, which, unlike in retail, show their membranes visibly. The in-store music is developed in-house and does not include top 40 songs. With this apporach, Aritzia has been highly successful. The brand’s $148 pants are considered a must-have item for office workers in North America, as are the Super Puff down jackets.
