Coco Republic launches U.S. e-commerce site
A luxury furniture retailer from Australia is entering the U.S. online retail market.
Coco Republic is linking its new e-commerce site to its brick-and-mortar stores located in Culver City and Orange County, California. As part of this effort, the retailer recently launched “a store as a service” concept at its 100,000-sq.-ft. HD Buttercup Design Center flagship store in Culver City.
The flagship is providing flexible shop-within-shop spaces, which can be custom-designed for digitally native wholesale brands seeking a physical presence.
Coco Republic uses composable web architecture
Coco Republic built its e-commerce site on a composable architecture. In a recent exclusive interview with Chain Store Age, Jack Kiefer, CTO of Coco Republic, said the architecture serves as a “power strip” in between its Storis ERP system and other applications, with BigCommerce as its web platform.
The retailer also utilizes Salsify as its product information management (PIM) and digital asset management (DAM) platform, with Blueconic as its customer data platform and Ayden as its credit card processor. The composable architecture allows Coco Republic to plug in best-of-breed SaaS applications.
“We want to be able to subscribe to and get services to help us manage the best applications that will enable Coco Republic to accomplish our business goals,” Kiefer said in the interview. “For example, if we want to generate cash at the end of a quarter, instead of shipping complete during the current month, we'll ship open orders that may be 60% in stock or 60% complete, versus 100%. The environment we are building will give us the flexibility to accommodate those needs.”
Coco Republic shutters San Francisco store
Citing an “increasingly challenging environment” in the city’s downtown area, Coco Republic recently said it will close its 53,000-sq.-ft. location, which formerly housed Crate & Barrel, in Union Square, San Francisco, less than six months after it opened.
In shuttering the store, Coco Republic joins other retailers such as Nordstrom and Anthropologie that are exiting — or have already left — downtown San Francisco amid safety concerns and falling foot traffic as remote work has removed office workers from the scene.
"Coco Republic is excited to bring its timeless and elegant furniture to the U.S. market. We're proud to offer our customers the convenience of shopping for luxury furniture from the comfort of their own homes, while still receiving the same level of personalized service and attention to detail that Coco Republic is known for,” said Skye Westcott, CEO and president of North America, Coco Republic. "We see strong similarities between the Californian and Australian lifestyles, with a shared love of the outdoors and the way nature is incorporated into our homes. This makes California an essential market for us, where the indoor-outdoor lifestyle is deeply ingrained in the culture.”