Love discounts but hate long lines? There’s good news: Marshall’s is launching its first-ever online store. There’s no official date for the e-commerce website launch, but the company revealed that it will debut at some point in 2019. Currently, Marshalls.com features a store locator to help people find the closest location to them, but no online shopping portal.
For those people who love the “treasure hunt” aspect of shopping, the online site won’t replace scoping out the racks at your local Marshall’s, as the company expects to sell a different selection of products online than what’s stocked in stores.
“We are excited to confirm that the surprising Marshalls shopping experience our customers love will be available to shoppers online sometime later this year,” the company announced in a statement to People. “We expect Marshalls e-commerce site to offer a mix of merchandise that differs from what our customers will find in our stores. When we are ready to launch the site, we will let you know!”
The discount retailer is owned by TJX Companies, the parent company that also owns the discount store TJ Maxx. In 2013, TJ Maxx launched its first-ever online store, and the success of that apparently inspired the company to create a similar online shopping experience for Marshalls, says CEO Ernie Hermann.
“We have learned a lot from TJMaxx.com,” Herrman said in an earnings call to investors. “We really believe it drives incremental store traffic … It is going to encourage cross-shopping.”
Marshalls isn’t the first company to want to take advantage of cross-shopping opportunities. In 2017, Kohl’s partnered with Amazon to allow Amazon customers to return unwanted items in person at select Kohl’s locations in order to benefit from the increased foot traffic to their stores.
It seems that mixing online and brick-and-mortar shopping might be the way of the future!
Margeaux Baulch Klein is a freelance writer and digital strategist based in Los Angeles. She has written for publications like the Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Bustle, and HelloGiggles, among others. Visit Scripps News to see more of Margeaux's work. More.
