Minted Makes Unusual Step of Going to Physical Retailing

Normally, businesses make the move from the brick-and-mortar to the online world, and any move to the contrary is somewhat unusual.

Even when major online retailers like Amazon start talking about moves to physical shopping, it’s still an eye-opener.

That’s what makes Minted’s recent move so unusual, as Minted is looking to make the jump from online to physical, and is nowhere near the size of Amazon.

Minted handles custom paper goods, from stationery to home décor items—you’d be surprised how good a paper lampshade can look—available from a wide range of sources.

Crowdsourced goods, the produce of independent artists, and several other types are on hand. It’s taking this unusual array of products to a brick-and-mortar store located in San Francisco’s upscale Union Square neighborhood.

Interestingly, this isn’t going to be a permanent store, but rather is being used as a concept project of sorts, open through October 2016 and operating under the theme “Minted Local”.

There will even be something of a performance-based theme here, as a letterpress will be in the front window of the store, and viewers will be treated to demonstrations of how such a system works. Viewers will even be able to buy custom-made versions of the letterpress work with their names on it.

Minted CEO and founder Mariam Naficy commented “Our crowdsourcing process—sourcing from independent artists and allowing people to vote to tell us what to sell—allows us to surface the best, freshest, and most unique art and design in the world.

Now, we bring our consumers closer to these works and the process of creating them with quality.”

With malls on the ropes and brick-and-mortar increasingly suffering, it would be easy to wonder why Minted’s going this route, until you look at a couple key points.

One, Minted is offering an experience, which is a point that online sources have a hard time competing with.

Two, it’s also offering very unusual goods that aren’t commonly found online or offline, so it has a better chance of competing overall. That improves the chance of success.

It will be interesting to see if Minted can make this work, and potentially go on past the planned shutdown date. It also may be able to show other beleaguered retailers how to effectively compete in the field of brick-and-mortar retail now that online retail is widely available.