Dive Brief:
- Home textile brand Parachute plans to close a total of 19 stores by the end of this year, according to information the company shared with Retail Dive. The brand began shuttering locations earlier this year.
- The company will be left with seven open stores as it shifts its strategy to focus “on markets where we already have strong community traction,” CEO Mehdi Ait Oufkir said in an emailed statement.
- Ait Oufkir said the brand plans to deepen partnerships with Nordstrom and Target, where an exclusive collection launched in April.
Dive Insight:
Parachute’s minimized store footprint demonstrates a pullback from its former growth strategy.
“Over the last year, we’ve taken a hard look at our retail footprint and made some difficult decisions,” Ait Oufkir said. “We went through a huge expansion period a few years ago during which we opened stores that were too large or in regions where brand awareness wasn’t what it needed to be.”
“We don’t need massive storefronts to convince people to try them,” he said. “When the product is right, the brand speaks for itself.”
The brand intends to refocus on its core product categories, which include bedding and bath.
This follows the company’s venture into home furnishings, which started in 2021 with bed frames. Parachute then debuted living room furniture, including sofas, in October of 2022. However, the company no longer sells these products on its website.
Earlier this year, the company launched an exclusive Target collection with over 200 bedding and bath linens at lower price points compared to its direct-to-consumer website. The new collaboration is part of Target’s larger merchandise revamp efforts and helps Parachute reach more customers online and in stores.
It wasn’t the brand’s first foray into mass retail, though. In 2021, Parachute launched an exclusive collection with Crate and Barrel for a limited six-month run. The company opened a pop-up with Nordstrom the following year.
The strategic shift to focus on partnerships and minimize its store footprint is a stark change for the brand, which had a goal to open its 30th store by the end of 2022. It announced the opening of its 26th physical location in May of 2023 with a 3,400-square-foot flagship store in the Flatiron District of New York City.
At the time, founder Ariel Kaye said “we see Parachute stores as an integral part of the overall customer experience as well as the long-term success of the brand.”
In April, a customer service representative confirmed via live chat that the Flatiron location would close.