The traditional retail model is broken.

Physical retailing is going through its toughest challenge in generations. Retail has been under pressure for years, trying to keep up with the e-commerce transformation. Then the pandemic came and many businesses have been decimated. Cushman Wakefield recently reported an estimated 12,000 chain stores will close in 2020 in the US alone.

But while direct-to-consumer retail models have been thriving, they too are in the midst of a major reinvention.

A new physical home for a $18BN online market.

Driven by the demands of millennials and Gen-Z’s who account for 87.3M of the DTC shoppers, up 10.3% from 2019, most online brands and retailers eventually venture offline: omni-channel is a necessity. 89% of retail transactions - pre-covid - still happened at brick and mortar. Because physical footprints are an increasingly important driver for online growth called the Halo Effect*. E.g. mattress company Casper plans to open 200 stores in the US while Warby Parker has 100 stores and even Amazon is opening stores.

Making the focus of their physical retail on ‘high-touch’, engaging memorable and instagrammable experiences. 73% of customers will spend more time and money in stores offering experiences. Many come in the form of flexible ‘retailment’ showrooms. 55% of US consumers shopped at pop-up shops because of the unique/exclusive products or experiences they offered in 2019.’

Introducing Naked Retail, the curated, physical home to the most coveted direct-to-consumer brands.

Retail by subscription.

Naked gives online brands, a physical home. Bridging your favorite direct-to-consumer brands to real-life. Naked Retail provides a sense of wonder to brands and people. Naked Retail is a store with a rotating cast of brands. Brands who primarily live on the internet. Brands who they hand select to be partners. Partners who have the same values as them; well designed and well intentioned.Naked Retail empowers partners by taking a turnkey approach to the retail experience. The brand brings the goods, and Naked provides the roof, the design, the staff, and the people.

A collaborative, multi-sensorial experiment.

Naked is built around a community of discerning shoppers and entrepreneurs sharing a passion for well designed products which have a positive impact on the world we live in. The store gets redesigned (and recycled!) every 3 months, allowing for new retail experiments time and time again. A collaborative process between the Naked design team, the audience and the brands allowing for audiences to see, touch, smell and taste products they otherwise can not.

Why Squared Circles is invested in the future success Naked Retail.

With an incredible amount of commercial real estate vacant and the rapid growth of DTC businesses, we believe Naked Retail is uniquely positioned to reinvent physical retail and bridge the on and offline retail environments. It has already proven to be pandemic-proof, with a reopening of its physical retail environment in September, with record performance. With a robust technology pipe-line of on and offline innovations and a rapid expansion of it’s footprint post-pandemic, we believe Naked will be one of the leading, community retail businesses and go-to platform for DTC brands to connect with their fans and experiment with what physical retail means in the future.

On the back of our unique relationship with Naked, we’ve established a dedicated Retail Lab, allowing for the DTC brands in our portfolio to experiment with all the great retail tools Naked provides, giving our founders unique insights and opportunities to innovate.