Online eyewear seller Coastal Contacts’ foray into brick-and-mortar stores with its Clearly Contacts brand is clearly paying off, given sales numbers that the company released this morning (September 17).
The retailer (TSX:COA; Nasdaq:COA) revealed that its Robson Street store is generating more than $2,000 per square foot per month – success that, according to one retail website, puts it in league with some of the top grossing retailers in the world.
The company now plans to expand its Robson Street store to a larger, permanent location at 961 Robson Street beside the newly opened Victoria’s Secret at the corner of Burrard and Robson streets.
“If Clearly Contacts is doing $2,000 per square foot in sales, that’s pretty darn good,” the retail analyst and anonymous blogger Retail Insider told Business in Vancouver.
He then pointed to data from consulting firm Retail Sails, which charts the U.S.’s highest selling retailers per square foot.
Retail Sails pins Apple Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL) as having US$6,050, which is double the next highest retailer for sales per square foot. No. 2 is Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) with US$3,017 per square foot, followed by Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica Inc. (TSX:LLL; Nasdaq:LULU) with US$1,936 per square foot.
The Clearly Contacts store on Robson opened March 13.
Success then spurred company CEO Roger Hardy to open a second retail store, at 2152 West 4th Avenue earlier this month.
“Although the online shopping experience is growing in popularity, many shoppers are using multiple channels to shop and still value the ability to interact with the product,” said Hardy.
“We accredit strong sales to the adoption of the omni-channel model and the importance we’ve placed on developing our business to serve our customers in a way that is convenient for them.”
