6
business
Joe’s Jeans Moves N.Y.
Flagship to 83 Mercer Street
● The store will feature an
angel-wing mural by L.A.-based
artist Colette Miller.
By Lisa Lockwood
In an effort to offer something more
experiential, Los Angeles-based Joe’s Jeans
is set to reopen a New York flagship at
A rendering of the new
Joe’s Jeans flagship.
business
Ron Johnson Bets on Elevated Service With Enjoy.com
● A service for tech products
is seen as being applicable
to other categories.
By Sharon Edelson
Retail veteran Ron Johnson is iterating
on the on-demand economy.
Johnson, who spent the better part
of his career in the brick-and-mortar
trenches, developing Target Corp.’s
design muscle through collections such
as Michael Graves’ home line, creating
Apple’s retail concept and overseeing its
growth to 400 units, and serving a brief
and disastrous tenure as chief executive
officer of J.C. Penney, has a new gig — and
it has nothing to do with physical retail.
Enjoy.com provides last-mile delivery
by trained tech experts for brands such
as Google, Sonos, AT&T and Magic Leap.
Johnson launched Enjoy.com with chief
creative officer Tom Suiter, whom he met
at Apple in the early Aughts. “We worked
together on a variety of projects through
the years,” Johnson said. “I went to him
when I first had the idea for Enjoy and
asked him to help frame the idea.”
While retailers and e-tailers rush to
speed delivery time from days to the same-
day to hours, Johnson believes it’s a race to
the bottom.
“In a world that started digital and has
gone mobile, the question I ask is why
not bring the store through the door,”
he said. “Everything is delivered to the
door, including groceries. An on-demand
economy gets you to the doorstep really
fast. We’re the one that creates the value
83 Mercer Street on Feb. 1. Its previous
flagship at 77 Mercer Street closed about
nine months ago.
While the new 1,500-square-foot store
features less square footage than the
previous 3,000-square-foot location, the
plan is to offer a more tailored selection
of women’s and men’s products, said
Suzy Biszantz, president and chief
going through the door.”
Each of Enjoy’s 1,500 experts receives
more than 160 hours of training before they
can schedule an appointment to deliver
products such as Magic Leap One’s virtual
reality headset or Sonos speakers and teach
consumers how to use or set-up the devices.
The service is now limited to tech
products, but Johnson said, “In the near
future, we’ll be broadening to other
categories.” Sources said that could include
luxury apparel, where a consumer’s home
would be their fitting room and Enjoy
fashion experts or stylists would deliver
various looks, returning unwanted items
to a retail or brand partner. The luxury
industry, which has been slow to move
online, could take advantage of Enjoy’s
delivery infrastructure.
Sources said the same scenario could
apply to beauty, where aestheticians
would introduce consumers to brands in
a convenient and more intimate way than
department store beauty departments
where makeovers and sampling are
done in full view of other shoppers. If
it sounds like Avon or Mary Kay, the
difference is that Enjoy doesn’t sell its
own products. Orders are placed through
manufacturers’ web sites, which offer
Enjoy’s free expert delivery during the
online checkout process. Brands pay for
the service.
“We cover 51 zip codes, that’s more than
the Apple stores,” Johnson said, adding,
“We’ll be at scale in the U.K. this year.”
The company plans to launch in Canada
and be up and running in continental
executive officer of Joe’s Jeans. “That’s
what we wanted for the New York
market,” she said.
As part of the store’s design, the brand
has commissioned L.A.-based artist
Colette Miller of Global Angel Wings
Project to paint one of her well-known
angel-wing murals, in denim hues on a
wall in the new space. She plans to start
Europe beginning in 2020.
To attract the best experts, the positions
are full-time, salaried and with full
benefits. They work four 10-hour days
a week; however, the service is staffed
seven days a week. The ever image-
conscious Johnson set a dress code for
experts: Lacoste shirts, Kit and Ace pants
and Allbirds shoes. They drive company-
owned silver Chevy Equinox SUVs, and
trail Rimowa rolling suitcases with product
orders on one side and ancillary items for
up-selling on the other.
“This on-demand mobile store is
a very innovative model,” Johnson
said. “We’ve raised $200 million and
built out all the capabilities. You need
high-volume products like the iPhone,
[which is sold through Enjoy’s carrier
partnership with AT&T]. The reason the
economics work is the orders go through
Enjoy.com trains experts
who deliver tech
products to consumers.
january 23, 2019
painting the mural next week.
Miller’s wing murals in downtown
L.A. — which she painted in 2012 — have
become fixtures on social media with
people traveling to take photos posing
with her art. Miller has painted wings
globally — in Kenya, Australia, Taiwan,
France, Cuba and Mexico, along with
many in the U.S. Biszantz said the angel
wings are symbolic of L.A. and it becomes
a human-sized interactive installation,
which takes up an entire wall. The brand
seeks to draw in customers with this
installation, which she said is part of an
evolving retail strategy to offer something
more experiential.
When Joe’s Jeans moved out of its
previous location, which the company
had for eight years, it had the intention of
finding another spot. Since it’s on the same
block, there’s a built-in shopper base and
neighborhood customer, said Biszantz.
“The store will have a clear aesthetic
and fluid design. It will allow us to change
floor sets more frequently,” she said,
referring to the layout of various fits and
washes of denim. She anticipates the store
will generate about $800 to $1,000 per
square foot.
According to Biszantz, the SoHo location
has always been a “really strong” men’s
market for the company, and she expects
that to continue. It also features a lot of
the newer fits, and is more contemporary-
focused. She said the store is aimed at the
Gen X customer who’s a city dweller.
Biszantz described business as “good.”
“Denim continues to be a saturated
market, we’ve created some great fabrics
that are differentiated. Our performance
fabrics have been really good. Our male
consumer wants something that looks and
feels like real denim, but has properties
that perform,” she said.
The Mercer Street location is the brand’s
13th store and will set the tone for future
retail locations.
the manufacturer. AT&T turned off
shipping. It’s just Enjoy.com.”
Johnson said Enjoy’s Net Promoter
Score is 96 percent. The positive
reinforcement is a stark contrast from
Johnson’s prior job at Penney’s, which
he joined in November 2011. He quickly
earned the enmity of loyal shoppers by
eliminating the retailer’s popular coupons
in favor of a concept he dubbed,”Fair and
square pricing.” Penney’s lost $1 billion
and shares tumbled 23 percent before
Johnson left in 2013.
“After that kind of hard experience, I
didn’t work for a year,” he said. “I said,
‘I’m going to make myself available for
free and talk to companies like Airbnb and
Twitter.’ Despite how hard that had been,
most of my career has been a blessing.”
After the Penney’s debacle, Johnson
wanted to build something himself.
“I love creating things,” he said.
“When I did Michael Graves at Target,
that was entrepreneurial. Apple was
entrepreneurial. So many people from the
Apple store went to work in the mobile
economy because they wanted flexibility.
There were so many times at Apple when
[customers] asked if they could have the
Genius Bar go to their house.
“We’re now in a growth stage,” he said.
“We’re raising a lot of capital. The device
was the next frontier of retail. Now, the
home is the next frontier. We pair the
convenience of online with the confidence
of a store. My gut says the iPhone and
Sonos speakers came through the door;
what else can come through the door?”
Copyright of WWD: Women's Wear Daily is the property of Penske Business Media, LLC
and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without
the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or
email articles for individual use.