We have seen that everyone in the industry, who runs a retail business, is considering the switch to e-commerce stores as soon as possible. Now, we know that there is a lot of research that goes into these decisions too. Such as assessing if the closure of retail stores will be beneficial for the company as well as strategy to get similar sales on their online counterparts. For this reason, we have seen that most of the companies have adopted the idea of running retail brick-and-mortar stores along with online stores.
Since we know that maintenance of online stores is minimal, the companies can manage to invest from their retail business as long as the costs don’t get too high. Now, a report from the Middle East reveals that the famous Chalhoub Group is also thinking about its brick-and-mortar stores.
For those who are unaware, Chalhoub Group is a luxury distributor which has a strong presence in the Middle Eastern markets. It is known that the group already has “12 e-commerce websites for its brands in the Middle East, including Level Shoes, Sephora Middle East and L’Occitane”.
Now, a new report claims that the Group is thinking of adding even more sites to its already-prolific portfolio by launching three new websites. The CEO of Chalhoub Group, Patrick Chalhoub, said that
“In the coming 3 months, we will have two or three major sites which we will be opening. I will not unveil them because we will unveil them in due course, but you will be quite astonished over some of the brands that are coming online. So we’re coming online but also reassessing our brick and mortar, closing some stores or reinvesting.”
Adding to this, he says that “Bad retail is dead so either we invest in what we have, or we better close it. There is no more space for mediocracy… there are new malls coming, new community areas… there is more retail space available in good locations.
