Iconic Merchant L.L. Bean to Triple Number of Stores in Next Five Years: Retail Is Dead, You Say?

For over a century L.L. Bean has defined a certain kind of outdoor style popular with northern rural dwellers, students and urbanites simply trying to stay warm and dry.

Known primarily for its 'Maine Hunting Shoe,' the company specialized in catalog merchandizing and one store in Freeport, Maine, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

But Bean successfully made the transition to the net and ecommerce. So successfully, in fact, that in December it had back orders for over 100,000 pairs of the boots which took until February to fulfill.

So having parlayed its quirky charm - and sharp business skills - into a even more powerful global brand, Bean has decided to - acquire another ecommerce site? launch an app? take on Amazon? -

No, Bean is tripling the number of its retail locations. Just as expositions declaim on the post-industrial, post-racial, post-employment, post-impressionist(?) economy, we may now be seeing signs of the post digital commerce revolution.

Not that digital commerce has ended, of course, but that convergence is truly occurring in an efficient and effective way, meaning that whatever platform on which one chooses to operate at any given moment is becoming more interchangeable and interoperable. JL

The Associated Press reports:

The retail strategy makes sense in an era in which shoppers have come to expect the convenience of making purchases in stores, on phones and on computers. Some shoppers make purchases online and have them shipped to stores, while others go to stores to see products before ordering online
L.L. Bean, known for selling its trademark boots via catalog for more than a century, plans to make a bigger push into brick-and-mortar retail by more than tripling the number of domestic stores over the next five years, officials said Wednesday.
The Maine-based company, which is coming off five years of increasing revenue, will open four stores this year before accelerating growth with a goal of at least 100 by 2020, CEO Chris McCormick told workers in a memo.The retail push will include L.L. Bean Inc.’s first West Coast presence with the opening of stores in the Pacific Northwest. Bean currently has 26 full-price retail stores, along with a handful of outlets, that stretch from the Northeast to Minnesota and Colorado.
The retail strategy makes sense in an era in which shoppers have come to expect the convenience of making purchases in stores, on phones and on computers, said retail analyst Walter Loeb. Some shoppers make purchases online and have them shipped to stores, while others go to stores to see products before ordering online, he said.
“By having more stores they become more of a brick-and-mortar force,” Loeb said. “Brick-and-mortar stores will enable more customers to shop comfortably. It’s a good idea.”
The board of the family-owned company, which met Wednesday in Freeport, announced a bonus of 5 percent for its 5,300 year-round employees. That amounts to about $1,500 to $2,000 for the typical full-time hourly worker, the company said.
The company, created when Leon Leonwood Bean sold his original Maine Hunting Shoe in 1912, has been on a tear, and sales of the rubber-bottomed, leather-topped boot have been leading the way.
Demand for the boot has surged, with production of 450,000 pairs over the past year. This spring, the company is installing a second injection-molding machine to boost capacity and is hiring dozens more workers to bring the shoe-making workforce to 500.
Sales grew 3 percent to $1.6 billion in the last fiscal year.
The company is midway through a $150 million capital plan to upgrade its systems, and an additional $100 million will be spent this year on growth initiatives, McCormick said.
“We had a strategy to open more stores rapidly prior to the recession,” McCormick said. “Then the recession came and I decided to pull back on capital investments until we could get through the economic downturn. It feels like right now, in 2015, the outlook is getting brighter.”