In early March, Chinese fast fashion brand Urban Revivo announced that it had opened the doors to its first store in the United States: a “superstore” of 2,855 square metres on Broadway in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. The store is neighbours to global high street giants Zara, Brandy Melville and Alo.
The latest flagship opening in New York of Urban Revivo is designed with the concept of both the “urban revival” of Manhattan and is also a tribute to oriental culture, with the main palette taking inspiration from clay teapots. Meanwhile, it also houses installation art pieces to pay homage to the lively neighbourhood of SoHo.
It has been expanding globally since 2016, with its first store abroad in Singapore. Now with its largest store in Southeast Asia, which opened late last year in Bangkok, Urban Revivo has nearly 20 stores abroad out of its over 400 shops. However, Urban Revivo is ambitious, as brand founder and CEO Leo Li Mingguang famously said: “Opening stores in Europe and America is really going overseas (出海)”.
Urban Revivo has been known for its “luxurious big store” strategy since its founding in 2006. The brand’s strategy in offline locations has always been localisation for each store’s urban environment, which is also shown in the New York location. However, Li also stated that for the overseas markets, Urban Revivo seeks to have 70% of the sales going through its online channels, a reverse of the proportion of its Chinese business.
With its twice-a-week drop cycle, Urban Revivo puts the “fast” in fast fashion, which is helped by its global supply chain, and has a global team of over 400 designers. Over 40% of the merchandise in the store is US-exclusive and designed by its European design centre. It is worth watching this Chinese mode of glocalisation to see if it can be applied to other brands or even sectors.
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