American-based women’s fashion brand Windsor is launching its first five stores in Canada this Spring with plans to significantly grow its footprint in the future.
The new stores will open in southern Ontario at CF Lime Ridge Mall in Hamilton, the Oshawa Centre in Oshawa, Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket, and Dufferin Mall in Toronto.
“We are beyond excited to serve the Canadian market with the opening of five new stores this Spring. We look forward to providing an opportunity for our customers in the region to experience the brand in-person and have access to our unique value proposition,” said Catherine Seaton, VP Marketing of Windsor.
“As we continue to make fashion accessible to all, we’re eager to invite women to experience the Windsor oasis that inspires and empowers through an ever evolving assortment of apparel and accessories for all of the meaningful moments in their lives.”
The brand, which is based in Santa Fe Springs, California, and today has about 350 locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, was founded in 1937 by the Zekaria family.
“Our founders were two brothers with their wives and really what they were trying to bring to the market is fashion that was accessible for the broader public. They saw a lot of celebrities with these gorgeous gowns that a lot of people couldn’t afford,” said Seaton.
“They wanted to be in a space and provide so when a woman has a special occasion in her life and she needs a special dress she could have somewhere to go that would have styles that were beautiful, that she was beautiful in, but were much more affordable and accessible from a price point perspective. That’s really the whole heart of where we come from as a brand in terms of making that accessible and we service her across any of the occasions in her life.
“Our assortment really is very broad. We’re almost like a mini department store from an assortment perspective for women in that we dress her from head to toe, inside out, with everything from casual denim to formal dresses and everything in between . . . We really focus more on where she’s going and what she’s looking to dress for, the occasion that she’s dressing for.”
Seaton said the brand expanded to Puerto Rico a few years ago and when it began to think of where to expand next it took a look at its existing customer base.
“We actually have a lot of customers in Canada, the majority of which are in the Greater Toronto Area. So there’s a very natural affinity that we already saw with customers purchasing online from us and even going across the border into our stores in New York and shopping from us there as well. So it just seemed like a really natural next step for us,” she said.
“Canada is also a large market in that there is an opportunity for more than five stores for sure. We see a lot of potential there.”
Carm Sivers, VP/Managing Director, Canada, said she was approached by Windsor at the end of 2022 about expanding into the Canadian market. She had experience in this previously for a number of different brands including The Gap, American Eagle and Psycho Bunny.
“I did my research. I talked to them a number of times and I said ‘you know, you’ve got something here because there’s a void for sure in the Canadian marketplace when it comes to just a place where any girl/woman can go to get what she needs to feel pretty and feel special’,” she said.
Sivers felt moving into the Canadian market was a “sure-fire win” for the brand. With her experience in the Canadian market with other brands, Sivers looked at what real estate would be best for the initial expansion into the country.
“It was really going to the landlords. We were knocking on doors, explaining who we were, selling our brand. I knew once they saw it and once they see the stores open they’ll be sold,” she said.
“Canada is different from the U.S. when it comes to vacancies . . . There’s not a lot of vacancy. Whereas in the U.S. I think the brand where it was able to go into 10 malls and get 10 spaces just like that, it wasn’t that easy in Canada. So it was about what was available, was it the right size, was it the right place?”
The first store opens at CF Lime Ridge on April 11. Oshawa Centre will open April 18 followed by Upper Canada and Hillcrest on April 25 and Dufferin Mall on May 9.
“We’re going to be able to serve a lot of the Toronto market because of the locations that we’re in,” said Seaton.
The stores opening in Canada have an average space of about 3,800 square feet. The brand usually looks for spaces of between 3,800 to 5,000 square feet.
“I think this has a lot of legs,” said Sivers. “I wouldn’t have joined if I thought it was five and done. To me, I’ve got my first five and I’ve already got my next five kind of in my head after that and then it’s Ontario and then I truly think we branch out to the West Coast so we look at the B.C. and Alberta market. We want to get our brand out that way and really spread across Canada.
“When I look at it and kind of did the malls, honestly it could be a 60-store chain, an 80-store chain. We could probably go up to 100 if we wanted to dependent on the availability in the malls. We don’t want to oversaturate the market. I don’t believe in doing that. I’ve been in places where that’s happened.”
Seaton said the brand is growth oriented. Over the last two and a half to three years, the brand opened about 200 stores. The last two years it has opened 30 to 35 stores. The year before that it was 65 and then it was 30 the year before that. Even in COVID in 2020 it still opened about 12 stores.
“We know (Canada) is a different market than the U.S. We’re not going on with that U.S. consumer mindset. We understand it’s a different consumer, it’s a different market and we want to make sure that we’re really understanding what the Canadian customer is looking for from us and how we can service them in the right way and so we’ve done a lot of research there. We’ve done focus groups . . . to understand how do we really become a part of the community in a meaningful way as we step into these markets,” added Seaton.
“We call it the oasis – the oasis experience for the girl. And it truly is giving her that special experience, making her feel special. Customers can be fickle, and we want to differentiate ourselves by providing her that oasis and by giving her the right guest experience so that when she thinks of those special occasions or when she thinks of just wanting to go out and feel pretty one night that she thinks of Windsor and we become the brand of choice,” said Sivers.
