Co-founder shares how Cotopaxi weighed pros and cons of omnichannel adoption

Having physical stores helps to unlock the essence of omnichannel retail, but not every multichannel offering is worth the investment, as a co-founder at Cotopaxi has shared with Digital Commerce 360. Apparel and outdoor gear retailer Cotopaxi began as a digitally native brand about 12 years ago.

Since then, it has expanded to physical retail and currently operates more than 20 locations. Over the years, Cotopaxi began to look at pilot and test various omnichannel offerings before ultimately deciding not to fully invest in the required technological and operational changes.

Stephan Jacob, chief global officer and a co-founder at Cotopaxi, told Digital Commerce 360 that the retailer tried fulfilling online orders from its physical stores. “Our stores are relatively small — 1,200 square feet, on average,” he said. “There’s not a ton of physical space to run a fulfillment operation there.”

He said that although there’s value in exposing in-store inventory to “online demand and increased sell-through velocity,” it was still not enough to stick with. Cotopaxi decided the operational complexity that came with that store-based fulfillment was not worth it, he said.

It had factored in space requirements, staff training, technological integration and inventory, he said. Currently, Cotopaxi fulfills only from its distribution center, he added. Cotopaxi is No. 1,415 in the Top 2000 Database. The Top 2000 database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Nordstrom ranks No. 21.

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