Westfield Malls Will Host Physical Locations For ‘Digital Native’ Brands
Mall operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) is collaborating with Verishop, an online lifestyle shopping destination, to open pop-up or full store concepts for digitally native vertical brands (DNVBs) at several Westfield shopping centers in the U.S.
The DNVB shops have begun opening at flagship URW centers including Westfield Century City, Westfield World Trade Center, Westfield Garden State Plaza and Westfield San Francisco Centre in a phased roll-out that will continue into 2020.
“Verishop aims to help customers find cool, new brands, and the customization and flexibility of Westfield physical spaces gives another way to provide that discovery experience,” said Imran Khan, Co-Founder and CEO of Verishop in a statement. “The ability to create one-of-a-kind shops has enabled us to give shoppers an in-person experience to complement what we’ve built online.”
The first two retailers from the Verishop brand incubator program, Ghost Democracy and LETT, will be featured in the initial eight Westfield locations. Century City laid the groundwork for further openings throughout Westfield’s network of shopping destinations when it launched Verishop’s first pop-up shop for Ghost Democracy in October 2019.
This collaboration between URW and Verishop is another example of how retailers and technology companies are working to enhance the in-store experience. In October 2019, b8ta, a retail-as-a-service company, launched Ark Marketplace, a technology platform designed to enable retailers and retail landlords to better monetize the value of their square footage. B8ta is working with Tru Kids Brands to operate revamped, scaled-down versions of Toys ‘R’ Us physical locations this holiday season.