Frederick’s Of Hollywood Closes All Stores, Moves Business Online

Just two months ago Frederick’s of Hollywood made plans to shutter one-third of its stores, keeping just 60 locations open. Since then, the company appears to have drastically rethought its “re-engineering” strategy, announcing today that it will close all stores and move to an online-only business model.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the lingerie store has struggled to keep up with rival Victoria’s Secret in recent years.

The company announced its new business strategy on its website: “We no longer have store locations. Our online store offers the same selection of products.”

Moving sales solely online will, in a sense, bring Frederick’s back to its early years. The company began with just one store in the late 1940s, offering only mail order catalogs before expanding into malls in the 1960s, the L.A. Times reports.

Retail experts say that the move online could be a profitable move for the lingerie store.

“An online business is nothing more than another retail store without fixed rent,” Ron Friedman, an expert with consulting and accounting firm Marcum, tells the L.A. Times. “They have to really focus and hire people that really understand the online business.”

Frederick’s of Hollywood closes all stores, strips down to Web [The Los Angeles Times]

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