Lands' End sales are growing more at the chain's freestanding stores than at the Lands' End Shop at Sears boutiques, which operate inside Sears stores, executives said on a second-quarter earnings call.
“We remain committed to developing our own retail footprint,” said President and CEO Jerome Griffith. “Our new stores make it easier for customers to find our products in person, in an inviting, brand-appropriate setting. New stores should also drive greater brand awareness.”
During the second quarter, Lands' End opened stores in Kildeer, Ill., and in Burlington, Mass. And already in this quarter, the company has opened stores in Staten Island, N.Y., and in Bridgewater, N.J. “We're learning a lot about customer preferences, and we're using that data to test which products from our whole assortment are best represented in-store, versus [being] available through in-store electronic kiosks,” Griffith said. “Our company-operated stores performed better than the Lands' End shops at Sears, and we expect performance to improve as more customers discover our attractive, well-merchandised locations.”
Lands' End is on track to open its fifteenth store by the end of this year, in Paramus, N.J.
The Land's End store at Chimney Rock Crossing, in Bridgewater, N.J.
The company's same-store sales on the whole decreased by 5.8 percent for the second quarter, with the Lands' End shops at Sears declining by 6.7 percent overall and company-operated stores off by slightly less than 1 percent. Griffith blamed the soft sales on a one-off supply-chain problem that left many of the company's stores with an insufficient volume of products at key selling times.
During the second quarter, Land’s End shut 57 of its Sears-based stores, to close the quarter with 147 shops at Sears stores. “We expect to begin the holiday with no more than 109 shops at Sears," said Griffith, "approximately half of which have leases that expire at year-end.”
By Brannon Boswell
Executive Editor, Commerce + Communities Today
