Athleticwear brand lululemon shared plans to expand its physical store presence, opening 40 to 50 new mainline locations globally in 2021, according to comments made during its Q4 earnings call with analysts.
“In 2021, we’ll be implementing a number of exciting initiatives, starting with the initiative to kickstart our stores,” said Calvin McDonald, CEO of lululemon on the call. “As operating constraints are removed, our teams are focused on accelerating our store productivity. We have a number of guests that only shop our stores, and we are focused on re-engaging with them at the frequency they shopped with us before COVID-19.
“In addition, we have a significant number of new guests who engaged with us for the first time online last year,” McDonald added. “We are focused on extending our omni-relationship with them so they can more fully experience the brand and community connection our stores offer. We will also be expanding our store base; we continue to be underpenetrated from a brick-and-mortar perspective across all our markets, including North America and around the world. We benefit considerably from the agile retail formats.”
The retailer also plans to build on the success of several new strategies it rolled out near the end of last year, including curbside pickup, virtual waitlists and appointment shopping. “These became guest favorites that elevated our in-store experience and demonstrated an area of opportunity going forward,” McDonald said.
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The company will continue to leverage the lululemon ecosystem to raise awareness for MIRROR, the in-home fitness company it acquired last summer and “which remains one of our biggest opportunities,” McDonald noted. Lululemon will expand its shop-in-shop strategy for MIRROR to more than 200 locations in North America this year.
Lululemon also reported that its ecommerce sales more than doubled for the full year and grew 92% in Q4, driven by a combination of increases in traffic and conversion. The results were significantly ahead of expectations and enabled lululemon to reach its original goal — to double its ecommerce revenues by 2023 — three years early. The company saw an 11% increase in net revenue for the year, reaching $4.4 billion, with Q4 revenue rising 24% to $1.7 billion.
