Spanish jewelry label PDPaola is furthering its presence in the U.S. with its latest flagship store.
The brand, which is led by chief executive officer Humbert Saspluga and chief executive officer of North America Jason McNary, is opening its first U.S. flagship store on Thursday in New York City’s West Village neighborhood.
The store, located at 346 Bleecker Street, is the brand’s latest initiative as part of its U.S. expansion strategy. McNary was named to his position earlier this year to help spearhead this strategy.
“We wanted to make Bleecker Street the first store for us because the data is telling us where the consumer is,” McNary said. “We know exactly who she is and Bleecker Street is a place that she’s hanging out. She’s living there, but she’s also shopping there. In addition to that, Bleecker Street also serves as a hub for international tourism, so we really like the charm of the street.”
The over 1,600-square-foot store offers a curation of PDPaola’s best-selling fashion and fine jewelry offerings. The brand’s average price is $150, with pieces ranging from $85 for fashion jewelry to $7,500 for fine jewelry with lab-grown diamonds.
Earrings from PDPaola
Courtesy of PDPaola
“We designed a space that’s very welcoming,” Saspluga said. “We want our customer to spend time in our store to hang out with our team, to create relationships with our team and engage with the brand on another level. It’s all about making the customer feel like they’re welcome — that they’re in a very pleasant space to spend time in and surrounded by a product that you just want to try on.”
PDPaola embarked on its U.S. growth strategy after data showed strong growth in its U.S. e-commerce site, which launched over two years ago. McNary previously stated to WWD that PDPaola’s U.S. e-commerce site had generated $5 million in sales to date.
The brand’s goal is to translate this growth in e-commerce to its physical retail stores, with PDPaola looking at other cities like Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles for upcoming locations. Outside of the U.S., Saspluga stated the brand has grown to 60 stores globally across Europe, China, the Middle East and Latin America.
“As a brand that has already a strong recognition in Europe, we saw that the U.S. market had a white space in the premium segment especially after seeing that organically the brand was selling quite decent volumes without pushing the brand in any marketing initiative or anything,” Saspluga said. “We had data and signals that this market could be a very good opportunity for us.”
The CEOs stated their goal for the New York flagship is to foster long-term relationships with customers and to serve as a hub for local customers and international tourists.
In addition to its own retail, PDPaola is entering Nordstrom next spring and is looking for other wholesale partners.
