Simon®, Shopify and Leap Collaborate to Deliver the Ultimate Omnichannel Experience Empowering Brands Like Ring Concierge to Expand Their Footprint
Rhea-AI Summary
Simon (SPG), a premier retail REIT, has announced a strategic collaboration with Shopify and Leap to accelerate e-commerce brands' expansion into physical retail locations across Simon's portfolio. The partnership showcases Ring Concierge, a New York-based fine jewelry company, which successfully opened three new stores in key markets using this collaborative approach.
Ring Concierge reported strong Q4 sales performance, with two comparable locations exceeding 2023 figures and three new locations successfully acquiring customers. The jewelry brand now operates five total locations, including stores at Houston's The Galleria and Town Center at Boca Raton, powered by Leap's Retail as a Service (RaaS) solutions.
The collaboration leverages Simon's premium retail spaces, Shopify's commerce platform, and Leap's comprehensive services including location sourcing, store design, staffing, and analytics. This initiative aims to provide e-commerce brands a streamlined path to establish and scale their brick-and-mortar presence, with True Classic and other brands already utilizing the partnership.
Positive
- Strategic partnership expands Simon's tenant base with digital-native brands
- Ring Concierge's Q4 sales exceeded previous year in comparable locations
- Successful expansion of Ring Concierge from 2 to 5 locations
- Additional brands already joining the program, indicating strong demand
Negative
- None.
Insights
Simon Property Group's strategic alliance with Shopify and Leap represents a significant evolution in its business model that warrants investor attention. This isn't merely a marketing partnership—it's a sophisticated attempt to create a new tenant pipeline by tapping into Shopify's ecosystem of over 2 million merchants seeking physical expansion.
The collaboration addresses a critical challenge in Simon's business: maintaining high-quality occupancy across its premium mall portfolio in an era of retail transformation. By streamlining the brick-and-mortar expansion process for digital-native brands, Simon is effectively creating its own tenant incubation system. This could meaningfully impact leasing velocity and potentially reduce downtime between tenants—a key metric for REIT performance.
Ring Concierge's case study reveals important data points: their comparable locations exceeded year-over-year performance, while three new locations successfully acquired customers. This validates Simon's thesis that digital brands can drive foot traffic and succeed in physical settings when properly supported.
From a financial perspective, this initiative aligns with Simon's post-pandemic recovery strategy. The company has been actively repositioning its tenant mix toward experiential retail and brands with strong omnichannel capabilities. The Q4 performance mentioned for Ring Concierge suggests the model is showing early signs of success.
What distinguishes this approach from traditional mall leasing is the end-to-end solution being offered. By partnering with operational experts like Leap, Simon reduces the execution risk for digital brands entering physical retail—potentially allowing it to command premium rents from these growing companies while minimizing tenant failure rates.
For long-term investors, this represents Simon's continued evolution from a passive landlord to an active retail ecosystem developer. The mention of True Classic and other brands already utilizing this framework suggests scalability beyond a single case study. This strategy could create a competitive moat against other mall REITs who lack similar partnerships or technological capabilities.
The timing is particularly strategic as retail vacancies have created opportunities for flexible leasing arrangements. By facilitating rapid store openings "within months," Simon is accelerating its ability to refresh its tenant mix and potentially increase its average rent per square foot—a key performance indicator for premium mall operators.
Simon Property Group's partnership with Shopify and Leap represents a strategic pivot that could meaningfully impact its tenant acquisition funnel and overall property performance. By creating a streamlined pathway for digital brands to establish physical stores, Simon is effectively tapping into Shopify's ecosystem of over 2 million merchants—many of whom represent the next generation of retail concepts.
The financial implications for SPG are multifaceted. First, this initiative directly addresses mall vacancy challenges by creating a new tenant pipeline. Second, these digitally-native brands typically attract younger, higher-income demographics that enhance the overall tenant mix and drive foot traffic to other retailers. Third, the operational support from Leap reduces tenant failure risk, potentially improving lease stability and reducing turnover costs.
Ring Concierge's performance metrics offer valuable validation: their year-over-year growth in comparable locations suggests these brands can generate sustainable revenue, while new customer acquisition in expansion markets indicates physical stores complement rather than cannibalize online channels. This supports Simon's thesis that omnichannel retail delivers superior results.
What's particularly innovative is how this partnership transforms Simon's value proposition from simply leasing space to offering an integrated retail expansion solution. This creates a competitive moat against other mall operators who lack similar technological partnerships or operational capabilities. The mention that brands like True Classic are already utilizing this framework suggests early market validation and scalability.
For context, Simon has been aggressively repositioning its portfolio since the pandemic, acquiring distressed retailers and investing in concepts like Authentic Brands Group. This Shopify/Leap partnership represents a logical evolution of that strategy—instead of directly operating retail concepts, Simon is now creating the infrastructure for emerging brands to succeed in its properties.
The timing is strategic. With mall vacancy rates still elevated in many markets, Simon needs innovative approaches to attract quality tenants. By reducing the friction, cost, and expertise required to open physical stores, this initiative could accelerate leasing velocity at premium properties like The Galleria and Town Center at Boca Raton.
For investors, this signals Simon's continued transformation from a traditional landlord to a retail ecosystem developer—potentially commanding premium valuations compared to peers who remain wedded to conventional leasing models. The ability to rapidly open stores "within months" also suggests improved capital efficiency and faster time-to-revenue for new retail concepts within Simon properties.
Ring Concierge, a
"Simon, Shopify, and Leap were instrumental in helping us implement our brick-and-mortar growth strategy," said Nicole Wegman, Founder, Ring Concierge. "Their knowledge, expertise, and support saved us valuable time and resources and have helped us scale our physical retail footprint faster than we could have imagined. We are highly encouraged by our Q4 sales performance that we saw in these new markets over the holiday season. Our two comp locations exceeded LY 2023 and our 3 new locations continue to acquire new customers which are valuable to our omnichannel experience. Thanks to the expertise of Simon, Shopify, and Leap, we efficiently and successfully implemented our omnichannel growth strategy."
Ring Concierge has locations at two premier Simon centers:
These locations are part of a broader rollout, bringing Ring Concierge's fleet to five locations, all powered by Leap. Their first location on
"Physical stores are a vital component to a brand's omnichannel strategy and have a proven track record for growing revenue and attracting new customers," said Zach Beloff, Vice President, Leasing at Simon. "We have helped numerous e-commerce brands establish a brick-and-mortar presence and our new collaboration with Shopify and Leap will provide an easy way for e-commerce brands to scale their brick-and-mortar business. We are excited to add Ring Concierge to our portfolio and look forward to their success."
"By unifying a merchant's online and offline sales experience, Shopify empowers millions of brands to grow and scale their businesses," said Ritu Khanna, VP Partnerships, Shopify. "We are thrilled to work alongside Simon and Leap to bring e-commerce brands like Ring Concierge to physical retail faster and easier than ever before."
"We're excited to enable Ring Concierge to further build their brand and reach their local customer base in premium Simon centers," said Amish Tolia, Co-Founder and CEO at Leap. "After launching over 60 brands in physical retail, and managing a fleet of over 100 stores, our platform understands the many challenges that come with scaling the channel. Collaborating with Simon and Shopify will accelerate our mission, to help winning brands scale retail, turnkey."
Whether brands are new to physical retail or looking to expand, Simon, Shopify, and Leap provide world-class platforms and venues to scale brands seamlessly and faster than ever before. True Classic and several other unique brands are already using the industry expertise of Simon, Shopify and Leap with more brands launching soon across Simon's premier shopping destinations.
To learn more about the Simon, Shopify and Leap collaboration, visit https://business.simon.com/leasing/brick-mortar-expansion.
About Simon
Simon® is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, and entertainment mixed-use destinations and an S&P 100 company (Simon Property Group, NYSE: SPG). Our properties across
About Leap
Leap is building the world's largest network of branded retail stores – powered by data, technology, and scale. Leap's platform enables brands to deploy stores that work in concert with ecommerce more rapidly and at significantly reduced cost and risk. Brand stores powered by Leap bring modern brands to life with compelling, immersive customer experience and operations driven and informed by millions of data points. Learn more about Leap's platform, and brand stores powered by Leap, at http://leapinc.com.
View original content:SOURCE Leap; Simon
FAQ
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