Louis Boston closing is such a shame because it is the only cool retail store in Boston. Yeah there's Barneys, but it's a chain out of New York, right?
I just read the owner's blog post announcement where she claims they are not closing because business is bad, but I don't believe it. I never shop at LOUiS and it's my favorite store in Boston, so imagine how other, shall we say, less fashion-committed feel?
Never-mind the complete lack of foot traffic.
TECH FAIL
If you ask me, there's only one reason LOUiS failed: they completely ignored all digital marketing opportunities.
It was a bold, cool move leaving Newbury Street to set up in that lonely corner of the Waterfront. No other retailer would have had the balls to do it.
But when you create such a barrier between you and your customer, you better make sure you're reaching them in some other way, because being great just isn't good enough anymore.
Digital would have been that perfect way.
PERFECT TIMING
And 2010 was a great time to be ballsy. Social Media WOM had just begun taking off with the mainstream shopper, making it a ripe pipe to drive foot traffic to this remote location, through digital buzz.
Indeed a good digital strategy was the only way this move would have worked.
But, as forward thinking as LOUiS is in location and style, they seem the opposite when it comes digital (just look at the blog).
CUTTING EDGE ISN'T JUST FOR FASHION
It makes you wonder, being such forward thinkers why LOUiS shunned tech? Like turning us on to PUBLIC SCHOOL and TIM COPPENS, they could have been regularly delighting shoppers with the latest cutting-edge digital retail tactics. Tech can be like magic, after all, so proper use of digital would have enhanced their maverick reputation, not conflicted with it, like I suspect they feared.
Take for example iBeacon technology where a retailer knows who a customer is when they walk in the store and can ping their phone with customized promotions and deals. This should be functioning at LOUiS right now. It's not.
POWER OUT
Had LOUiS embedded digital into the fabric of their company (pun totally intended) their business could have grown on the back of technological innovations in retail, instead of dying, as it is now, unplugged, on the waterfront.
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About the title: Deadpool normally refers to tech companies who go belly up, not brick and mortar. But, because I believe LOUiS demise is do to tech failures, the Deadpool attribute feels appropriate.
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