It’s no secret that online shopping is booming while traditional retail stores struggle, but Reformation has managed to combine the ease of e-commerce with the benefits of brick-and-mortar. The California-cool brand opened the doors to its first D.C. location in Georgetown last week.
“We wanted to create a more seamless shopping experience that solves a lot of the problems with traditional clothing stores,” founder and CEO Yael Aflalo said. “Most are super messy, you can never find your size, you have to wait in line forever, the dressing room lighting is the worst, etc. I felt like a high-volume, high-end retail experience was basically nonexistent. So we wanted to blend internet and IRL to create a store we'd actually want to go to ourselves and hopefully solves a lot of these problems.”
The Georgetown store is one of Reformation’s first tech-enabled locations, following successful launches in San Francisco, Dallas and New York in 2017. Inside, shoppers can find recycled or eco-friendly items ranging from $28 to $600.
The space includes a tech table (resembling something you’d see at an Apple store) which offers customers a place to sit and browse Reformation content, updates and styles on iPads. Fitting rooms have tunable mirror lights that offer flattering hues like “golden” and “sexy-time” and audio capabilities to play your own music.
To maintain a clean, uncluttered experience, there is limited inventory on the floor – just one of each item. Reformation instead uses touchscreen monitors throughout the store to help keep track of items and find the right size, style and color. But there are still associates on-hand to do everything technology can’t.
Reformation has incorporated technology into its business since founding in 2009, especially when it comes to sustainable practices.
"Our factory uses the most efficient, eco-friendly and pro-social technologies and practices available,” Aflalo said.
And in 2015 the brand launched RefScale, a tool that measures the carbon dioxide and water savings and the labor behind each garment produced, giving every customer the ability to track their own environmental savings with every Reformation purchase.
“Technology has had a huge effect on fashion,” Aflalo said. “A lot of customers prefer the ease of online purchasing/delivery at their convenience, but choose to go to stores to try on clothing and see it in real life. In that sense, our stores and online platform complement each other and enhance the overall customer experience.”
