Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr, who rescued age-old brands like Pier 1 Imports, DressBarn, and Modell's Sporting Goods, have added two new missions for their company. Radio Shack and Stein Mart are the seventh and eighth brands, respectively, that have been bought by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV) after they declared bankruptcy.
According to Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr, their strategy is to revive these old brands because they were trusted names in their industries. Lopez and Mehr believe that these brands can relive their old glory days with the help of REV's eCommerce expertise. They feel that people would always prefer buying from a trusted brand rather than an unknown brand on the internet.
Lopez and Mehr are confident that Radio Shack can be their greatest purchase so far. Even though in the latter years, Radio Shack got mocked as the place where cassette players and radios went to die, it was formerly one of the leaders in consumer electronics.
Radio Shack still gets mentioned in many movies and podcasts that talk about America in the 80s and 90s. It is a global brand that had a presence in Europe, Japan, South America, and the Middle East. The brand has still retained some of its international stores.
REV has purchased Radio Shack from an investment group that owned and managed the brand after it filed for bankruptcy a second time. The investment group has retained a minority stake in the brand, which is unusual for REV's retail acquisitions. However, unlike the other brands, Radio Shack has a live website and a network of 500 stores with a Radio Shack license to sell their products.
Lopez and Mehr feel that these factors will help in making the relaunch easier and faster. That is why although REV prefers complete ownership, Lopez and Mehr felt this deal could be an exception because of the benefits. They felt that REV would benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the current owners in the consumer electronics industry and their relationship with the manufacturers.
VEYEP Holdings LLC is the company that headed the investment group which owned Radio Shack before the purchase. Their CEO, Ron Garriques, says that he has high hopes for REV's plans to revive the brand. That is the primary reason why the company wanted to retain a stake in the brand.
REV plans to make Radio Shack into a broader consumer electronics purchase portal than it already was. They want to include laptops, TVs, home electronics, mobile phones, security equipment, and many other electronic products to the brand.
Tai Lopez feels that Ron Garriques can help Radio Shack grow in those directions because he has led companies like Motorola Personal Communications, Dell, and Bell Labs in the past.
People who think of Radio Shack as a place that houses outdated tech should know that Radio Shack also sells the latest gadgets such as window sensors for alarm systems, 4k drones, and radio-controlled cars with BlueTooth. Garriques feels that REV can help Radio Shack become 'cool' once again.
REV submitted the winning bid of $6.02 million for Stein Mart on 18th November, which got approved on 23rd November by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. REV acquired the Stein Mart label as well as its private brands, website domains, social media assets, and customer database in the deal. Lopez and Mehr plan to relaunch the brand early next year through online stores. Stein Mart had 281 stores in 30 states when it filed for bankruptcy.
Tai Lopez said that REV decided to invest in Stein Mart because of its strong foundation of omnichannel platforms, designers, and private label fashion products. Stein Mart had its own range of fashion apparel, shoes, decor for homes, and accessories, which made their average online orders reach up to $80.
Lopez says that he wants REV to build further upon this foundation through the brand's existing customers and increase brand loyalty by enhancing the online experience through a border mix of merchandise.
In the past couple of years, REV has purchased several other brands that were popular in the past. Lopez and Mehr feel that these brands were too late to switch over to the online eCommerce model, which resulted in their decline. However, each of these brands is still quite well known in the current generations, and people will recognize them instantly.
Other than the individual websites, REV also has plans to sell the products through Amazon's and Walmart's online marketplace. The company already has a success story up their sleeve. DressBarn, which is one of REV's initial purchases in 2019, got re-invented just before the pandemic started.
The brand has shown tremendous growth during the pandemic and has hopes to reopen its stores again once the Covid-19 vaccine is released. It seems like Tai Lopez and Mehr weren't wrong to rely on people's memories to create an efficient eCommerce model for retail reboots and rescues.
