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Hundreds of Staples retail locations to close by 2015
National retailer with dozens of New York City stores to focus on e-commerce
Prompted by 2013’s online sales boom, national office supply brand Staples has committed to closing 225 brick-and-mortar stores by 2015.
The company, which has 20 stores in New York City, generated about half its $23.1 billion in revenue from online sales in 2013, TechCrunch reported.
“A year ago, we announced a plan to fundamentally reinvent our company,” Ron Sargent, Staples’ chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement cited by TechCrunch. “With nearly half of our sales generated online today, we’re meeting the changing needs of business customers and taking aggressive action to reduce costs and improve efficiency.”
Staples isn’t the only retailer closing physical locations in favor of virtual ones. Businesses belonging to a diverse range of sectors, from finance to food, are increasingly avoiding pricey New York City brick-and-mortar digs and instead opting to operate out of mobile or online marketplaces. The Staples announcement also comes just a day after electronics retailer Radio Shack’s decision to close more than 1,000 locations. [TechCrunch] –– Angela Hunt