The WeWork Of Retail: E-Commerce Players Absorb Excess Space For Showrooms
A new startup is making use of excess retail real estate, which is in abundance thanks to the closure of thousands of stores this year alone.
To capitalize on the glut of leasable retail space, New York-based Bulletin is striking deals with landlords suffering from rising vacancies to lease space in their malls for a shared-retail space experience, Forbes reports. Similar to WeWork’s business model for office space, Bulletin leases retail space and then turns around and rents that store space to e-commerce-only brands as showrooms for up to $2K/month.
For online players, this eliminates the need to fill the store and the back stockroom with inventory. Founders Alana Branston and Ali Kriegsman raised $2.2M in venture capital to open two Bulletin locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The company has plans to open two additional New York City locations before expanding into Los Angeles in 2018.
