Simon-Shopify Partnership Adds Color to Physical Retail

As eCommerce brands continue to thrive in a digital-first world, many are facing the challenge of bridging the gap between online success and physical retail.

The partnership between real estate investment trust Simon Property Group, Shopify and Leap offers digital brands a faster, more efficient way to open brick-and-mortar stores, potentially reshaping the future of retail by simplifying the transition from digital to physical.

Benefits of Physical Retail

According to Emily Amor, a Shopify Marketing expert at Digital Darts, the main benefit for eCommerce brands venturing into physical retail is the immediate credibility a brick-and-mortar presence provides.

“While starting in physical retail and expanding online is common, the reverse — going from digital-first to brick-and-mortar — signals something different,” Amor explained in an interview with PYMNTS.

“It tells customers you’ve grown beyond the screen, proving your popularity and success in a way that online presence alone can’t. In-store shopping also gives you access to new customer segments who prefer in-person shopping, and can also result in higher conversion rates.”

Frictionless Transition

For digital-first brands, partnering with Shopify and Leap “lowers the risk of expanding into brick-and-mortar while unlocking the benefits of in-person shopping, like impulse purchases and higher AOV [average order value],” she said.

“On one hand, you’ve got Shopify’s POS [point of sale] unifying online and offline sales, streamlining inventory and insights, and on the other, you’ve got Leap handling real estate, staffing and design. It’s the perfect recipe for a frictionless launch.”

This collaboration removes the usual obstacles that eCommerce brands face when expanding into physical retail, Amor said.

“This partnership flattens the barriers to entry for eCommerce brands that once saw physical retail as too expensive or complex,” she explained. “Instead of spending months securing a lease, hiring a retail team, and designing a store from scratch, brands can now launch in premium locations at a fraction of the traditional cost and time. The biggest challenge will be maintaining profitability and operational efficiency.”

Running a physical store brings new expenses — rent, staffing and inventory allocation become more complex, Amor said, and “brands will also need to adapt their marketing strategies to optimize for foot traffic, localized marketing, and experiential branding.”

Future of eCommerce and Physical Retail

In the future, Amor doesn’t envision a “battle between online and offline” because, “It’s an integrated omnichannel experience where customers expect the same level of convenience, personalization and flexibility across all touchpoints.”

There will likely be more hybrid retail models where stores serve as both experiential showrooms and fulfillment hubs, she said. Many omnichannel brands are already using physical locations for try-before-you-buy experiences, same-day pickup, and local returns, making these stores vital for customer engagement.

As consumer expectations change, malls and shopping centers must adapt by blending online and offline shopping experiences to remain relevant, Amor said.

“It’s absolutely critical,” she said. “Malls are no longer just places to shop — they’re experience hubs. Half the appeal for shoppers to make the effort to go to a physical store is for the experience it now offers.

“If shopping centers want to stay relevant, they need to provide the same convenience and personalization that customers expect online. Consumers want frictionless shopping — whether they start browsing online and finish in-store, or vice versa.”

Partnerships like Simon, Shopify and Leap, Amor added, show malls aren’t just reacting to eCommerce growth. “They’re actively shaping a new retail landscape where digital and physical commerce complement each other. Brands who embrace this shift will have a huge competitive edge.”

Blending Online and Offline

Blending online and offline shopping is already evident in consumer behavior.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report, “2024 Global Digital Shopping Index,” gleaned insights from a survey of nearly 14,000 consumers across seven countries about their omnichannel buying behaviors and preferences. The results revealed roughly 4 in 10 consumers are now Click-and-Mortar™ shoppers, favoring purchasing journeys that combine the digital and the physical over pure-play brick-and-mortar or eCommerce.

Specifically, 25% are now digitally assisted in-store shoppers, opting to use connected technologies to improve their brick-and-mortar journeys. Another 14% are pickup shoppers, preferring to make their purchases digitally and collect them on-site.

Reshaping Retail

Meanwhile, Bob Bilbruck, CEO at Captjur, believes the partnership between Simon, Shopify and Leap could reshape physical retail by enhancing eCommerce brands’ reach and improving logistics, turning physical stores into mini warehouses that enable fast deliveries.

“It gives the consumer flexibility and options, and this is what Shopify has been doing for a long time, improving the ease of logistics for companies,” Bilbruck explained in an interview with PYMNTS.

“For Simon, it is obvious why they want to do this. They can’t get companies to lease space in their malls, that is why many have been torn down or repurposed into apartment buildings and planned communities. This isn’t rocket science, it’s retail science, and it comes down to reducing costs and increasing options and flexibility for consumers where they buy and how they get items.”

As consumer shopping behavior evolves, Bilbruck believes the pressure for malls and shopping centers to integrate both online and offline shopping experiences becomes critical.

“If they plan to have any semblance of their original model in five years, they need to embrace tech more rapidly,” he explained. “Many real estate firms remain hesitant to fully adopt technological advancements, but as the retail landscape shifts, this adaptation will be crucial for survival.”