Forever 21 is officially making a return to Canada with physical stores.
This may come as quite a surprise since the brand shuttered all of its locations across the country after filing for bankruptcy in 2019.
The Toronto company, YM Inc., established a partnership with the brand a couple of years back and was able to create the Forever 21 e-commerce site for Canadians last year.
YM Inc. acquired the majority of the Forever 21 locations in 2019 and opened stores like Urban Planet, Urban Behaviour, and Stitches in those vacant spaces.
A handful of these spots will be changed back to the yellow and black signage of Forever 21. As of right now, there’s no word on how many locations the fast-fashion retailer will open, although one is confirmed for Vancouver and one for Windsor, Ontario.
This re-launch comes at a time where trendy shops and affordable retailers are in increasingly high competition with one another.
Only time will tell whether this second launch into the Canadian market will be the best move.
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It seems our prayers have been answered! After closing all of its Canadian stores in November of last year, it’s been announced that Forever 21 is making a comeback.
The fast fashion retailer will be coming back in the form of e-commerce.
While there’s no confirmed date of when we can expect to start shopping, the new Forever 21 e-commerce site will target consumers in Canada (!!!), Asia, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. In partnership with with e-commerce platform Global-e, Forever 21’s new online store will operate in 95 different currencies.
The online platform will also allow over 150 local and alternative payment methods, and make returns in 21 different languages.
“E-commerce forms a large chunk of the profitable core of our operations and as part of our new global strategy,” says Forever 21 President Alex Ok. “Forever 21 will leverage Global-e’s technology to offer international customers an outstanding online experience. To engage digitally savvy consumers today, retailers need to invest in creating a unique online experience that speaks directly to the shopper.”
Before it sadly closed its doors, Forever 21 owned and operated 44 stores across Canada and employed around 2,000 people.
Kevin Diamond, head of global e- commerce at Forever 21, said: “Being able to offer our consumers a sophisticated online experience, tailored to their shopping preferences, wherever they are in the world, is a key priority for us. With Global-e, we can confidently optimise the user experience and align our international offering with our global business needs and goals. We are excited to launch our renewed international online store in Canada, APAC and LATAM and provide our customers in these markets with the very best online shopping experience.”
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It’s been a sad year for retail in our home and native land, as we’ve kissed once retail staples – some which were pretty much Canadian institutions – goodbye.
If last year’s loss of Jean Machine in shopping malls across the country wasn’t a tough enough pill to swallow (even just for the nostalgia factor), other beloved stores have met a similar fate.
Here are some of the retailers who closed up shop in Canada in 2019 (RIP).
Payless ShoeSource
After a long run as a staple go-to discount footwear retailer, in February 2019, Payless ShoeSource filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for the second time in two years. It didn’t take long before the brand began closing up shop one North American location at a time, including 248 stores across Canada. It’s natural to question whether the emergence of other affordable – yet elevated – spots to score shoes like, Nordstrom Rack and Saks Off Fifth, played a role.
Zellers
In August, longtime go-to value-priced retailer Zellers announced the closing of its last two Canadian stores left standing – a move that came as no real surprise to everyone who had long ago switched to Walmart and others. The brand faced unprecedented competition among value-priced retailers and had sort of lost its shine in Canada. If you have a soft spot for Zellers, you can still hit the Etobicoke location until January 2020.
Forever 21
This past September, fast fashion retailer Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, announcing plans to close 350 stores worldwide, including all Canadian locations. The news came after the brand’s sales fell from $4.4 million in 2016 to $3.3 billion in 2018. Forever 21 has lagged behind its competitors in the sustainability department, is no longer the “fastest” in the fast fashion game, and has experienced no shortage of legal woos.
Green Earth
Another homegrown retailer to bite the dust in 2019 was London, Ontario-based retailer Green Earth, who announced that it would close down all 29 locations across Ontario after nearly 30 years in business. It’s closure is telling of the times: the store sold unique collectables, jewelry, and knit-knacks and took a major blow with the growing prominence of online shopping, when customers no longer needed to hit the mall for such finds.
Home Outfitters
HBC-owned home giant Home Outfitters was another victim to the retail apocalypse in 2019. In February, the parent company announced it would close the doors at all 37 Home Outfitters locations across Canada. Though popular, the 20-year-old company was relatively short-lived in the retail world compared its shuttered-in-2019 counterparts.
Gymboree
Once go-to children’s wear brand Gymboree closed all of its Canadian locations after a solid 40 years in business. Gymboree kicked off 2019 by successfully filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy after doing so for the first time in 2017 and managing to stay in the game for a little while longer. According to industry experts, fact that Gymboree Group’s own collection of brands were competing against each other contributed to the downfall of the brand. Most recently, however, Gymboree announced plans for a 2020 comeback.
Town Shoes
We started 2019 knowing that Town Shoes – a footwear brand exclusive to Canada – would soon be a thing of the past. By the end of January, U.S.-based shoe company DSW had closed all 38 of its stores across Canada. According to a spokesperson for the brand, the decision was made after a 90-day review that analyzed Town Shoes’ historical performance, competitive positioning, and future requirements.
David’s Shoes
While David’s Shoes was solely a Toronto and Ottawa institute for the cities’ fashionable footwear lovers, it’s relevant because it became iconic in Toronto in its 60-year run. Sadly for the brand (but not a bad thing for babes on a budget, who flocked to the store to scoop up the deals), it was placed on receivership in the summer and liquidated its five stores before closing up shop for good. Rising rents and increased competition in the designer footwear space are thought to have contributed to its demise.
Bentley
Most recently, in December 2019, Montreal-based Bentley Leathers announced a plan to liquidate and close 90 underperforming stores in Canada as part of a restructuring agreement. The retailer will, however, continue to operate its more elevated concept stores. The fate of those remains TBD; after all, who really wants to lug a suitcase home from the mall when you can have it delivered to your front door?
Motherhood Maternity
Earlier this fall, mom-to-be and new mom spot Motherhood Maternity announced the closing of all stores across North America, including 29 Motherhood Maternity and Destination Maternity stores in Canada. The announcement came after Destination Maternity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. and after the company’s name, website, and operating assets were acquired by Marquee Brands LLC.
So, what went wrong?
To be honest, many of the shuttered spaces are the result of good, old-fashioned shifts in consumer behaviour and growing competition. More than ever with the arrival of massive American retailers in Canada in the past decade and the availability of brands from around the world in just a few clicks. Canadian-based retailers face intense pressure to keep up to their American counterparts and their American counterparts face intense competition with one another.
Regardless of the retailer, brands need to do more to keep customers going into physical stores if they want to keep them.
Whether than means more interactive features, incorporating more tech, hosting in-store events, and influencer collaborations. In the meantime, it’s safe to say that more retailers are on their way out as we head into the fresh decade (Lowes and J Crew, we’re looking at you).
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Say it isn’t so! It seems it isn’t just the smaller, more independent stores that are struggling in todays retail market. Even brands with locations around the globe are feeling the heat and filing for bankruptcy.
Beloved fast fashion retailer Forever 21 is preparing for potential bankruptcy.
According to Bloomberg, the company has been dealing with high amounts of debt and is looking to restructure its debt, however the negotiations with possible lenders have stalled. This leaves us wondering what will happen to the retailers over 800 stores in 57 countries, including Canada.
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Not only are folks who work at Forever 21 at risk, but so are mall owners as the brand is one of the biggest mall tenants.
If the chain were to close a significant amount of stores, it’s predicted that the landlords would have some trouble filling the vacancies.
With negotiations at a standstill, the focus seems to have shifted to a potential Chapter 11 filing.
A Chapter 11 filing would help Forever 21 get rid of stores that are underperforming. This would therefore help recapitalize the business, reports Business of Fashion.
While nothing has been confirmed by Forever 21, we do know that a bankruptcy filing could result in multiple stores across Canada being shuttered for good.
Featured Image: Flickr
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