Fabletics, the online activewear and accessories line co-founded by actress Kate Hudson, will open its first retail stores at Christiana Mall and four other shopping centers owned by General Growth Properties.
Store openings are slated for this fall.
Launched in 2013, Fabletics offers premium fashion-forward activewear for women, and recently launched an athletic wear line for men, FL2, a release stated. Hudson is active in the business and serves as a model for some of the online apparel.
“Adding Fabletics stores to our mall portfolio will give shoppers more access to an innovative activewear brand that is already making waves online,” Alan Barocas, executive vice president of leasing at General Growth stated in a release. “More and more, we are seeing pure-play retailers like Fabletics see the value of adding physical locations to enhance sales and brand visibility. In fact, 90 percent of all U.S. retail sales occur at physical stores, and when a pure-play retailer opens a physical store, they see online sales increase three to five times in the same trade area.”
Other GGP Fabletics locations opening this fall include: Bridgewater Commons (Bridgewater, N.J.); Kenwood Towne Centre (Cincinnati); The Mall in Columbia (Columbia, Md.) and Saint Louis Galleria (St. Louis).
The stores will feature mobile points of sale, free shipping from warehouses for out-of-stock items, in-store fitting appointments, buy online and pick-up in store well as a virtual shopping cart to help customers complete their shopping online after their in-store visit.
“We are excited to be opening our first retail locations with GGP,” said Gregg Throgmartin, president of retail, Fabletics. “As an e-commerce leader that is expanding into brick-and-mortar retail, it was key that we partner with an innovative shopping center owner that has introduced cutting-edge retail concepts to fashion-forward and stylish customers.”
Christiana Mall is ranked as one of the nation’s top malls in terms of sales per square foot of retail space.
Vacancies are few at Christiana, although retailers sometimes go bankrupt, downsize their stores or lose their lease because sales do not meet that goals.
That creates a chance for General Growth to add stores with a “wow factor” that might come from a fast-growing apparel line or other retail concept.
