Vancouver retailer ditches storefront in favour of online sales

A boom in online sales, ongoing construction, and rising rent costs have led to a longtime Vancouver retailer shuttering its Broadway storefront.

Alpine Start Outfitters closed its doors at its physical store for the final time on Sunday. The store’s general manager, YooRa Kang says the closure comes after noticing some new trends in recent years.

“Ever since COVID, I know a lot of brick and motor stores have suffered. But interestingly enough, we saw our online sales pick up and we saw that as an opportunity,” she told CityNews.

“[Having] an online store, we will be able to reach a wider audience and we are looking forward to that.”

Another reason for the change, Kang explains, is the ongoing construction outside of her storefront.

“Since COVID, we have been thinking about how our online store will do, and with the Broadway line construction, and rent and our online store doing better, it just made sense to close the store and move fully online,” she said.

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Kang’s ditching of the physical in place of a virtual one is not uncommon. According to a report from University Canada West, e-commerce in Canada is expected to increase 15 per cent annually through 2025.

Other retail stores have taken a hit recently, including Nordstrom Canada, which closed all 13 of its locations in the country earlier this month.

It also doesn’t appear to be getting any cheaper to rent a storefront, with Colliers’ Vancouver Retail Report finding that retail rents have reached record highs for most of the first quarter of this year.

“Rent has been rising and shutting this physical location down will save a huge chunk of our cost. But [by] closing this store, we will have to contract a third-party logistics [company] or get our own shipping, but without rent that a huge chunk of the cost saved,” Kang noted.

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Now that her physical store is closed, the business owner says she is looking forward to a new structure in her life, and some new challenges.

“Being online means customers can’t try on products in person and sizing and things like that, and we are thinking of different ways to fix those concerns, with 3D sizing renderings online,” she said.

“It’s a little sad,” Kang continued, “My dad started this business when we immigrated from Korea back in 2007, and to see that this is coming to an end is kind of weird. I kind of grew up in this store but I’m excited to see what this new era brings.”