This story was first reported on and published by Glossy sibling site Modern Retail.
Edikted, the TikTok-famous fashion brand popular among Gen-Z shoppers, is ramping up its bet on physical retail.
The digitally native brand, founded in 2020, will more than double its brick-and-mortar footprint this year, with new stores opening in five Simon Property Group malls across the U.S., including King of Prussia, The Galleria in Houston and Boca Raton’s Town Center. Edikted launched its first brick-and-mortar store in 2023 when it opened a shop in New York City’s Soho neighborhood. In 2024, Edikted opened a store at The Grove in Los Angeles and another at Minnesota’s Mall of America, one of the largest shopping centers in the U.S.
Edikted, which started out as a online-only fashion retailer, surged in popularity in 2021 when it seized on the “TikTok made me buy it” phenomenon, per Glossy. To date, the hashtag “Edikted” has more than 63,000 posts on TikTok. The brand also has more than 820,000 followers on the platform.
But Edikted’s rapid retail expansion signals a larger trend: mall operators and youth-oriented brands are increasingly investing in Gen Z’s love for shopping in person.
“What excites us about Edikted is their ability to stay ahead of trends and introduce new products quickly, and their store designs are exciting and fresh,” said Zach Beloff, vp of leasing at Simon.
For Edikted, the retail rollout is a natural extension of the brand’s digital success. “Everywhere we are opening stores in the same city, the store usually generates more revenue than online sales in that city,” Edikted’s CEO Dedy Schwartzberg told Modern Retail in an interview. “It’s a win-win situation.” Schwartzberg declined to share exact figures, but he said all of Edikted’s stores are “doing crazy numbers.”
Edikted opened its first store in New York City after hearing from shoppers who wanted to try on and feel the brand’s trendy tops, dresses and more in person. “They want to touch the brand,” Schwartzberg said of Gen-Z customers. “I’m always hearing customers in stores say, ‘Oh, this is the set we saw on this or that influencer.’”
Indeed, at the grand opening of Edikted’s San Diego location last month, thousands of shoppers waited in a massively long line that snaked around the building. Some began lining up in the still-dark hours of morning to be some of the first people to walk in, Schwartzberg said.
Edikted’s stores are a real-world extension of the brand’s social media presence, as they’re designed for content creation. Shoppers enter through a bright pink, heart-shaped archway, where they frequently pause with their cell phones out to pose for TikTok, Schwartzberg said. Within the stores themselves, shoppers encounter an Instagram-worthy branded photo booth, as well as staff trained to create what Schwartzberg referred to as “a happy brand energy.”
“We’re trying to speak in Gen Z’s language, and we think they love it,” Schwartzberg said.
The Gen Z mall comeback
Edikted’s retail push comes at a pivotal moment for shopping centers. Long thought to be on the decline, American malls are experiencing something of a Gen Z revival. Research from ICSC, a mall industry group, underscores the sales opportunity for mall operators, brands and retailers. Gen-Z shoppers visit malls as often as older generations, with 60% saying they go just to hang out and about 30% saying they prefer in-store shopping because they want their purchases immediately, according to the ICSC report, which was published in 2023.
“The fact that these consumers are engaging with brands like Edikted in such a social way online shows they want that outside of digital, as well,” said Melissa Minkow, global director of retail strategy at CI&T. “They want a sense of community. and they want to feel connected, and there’s only so much online can do for that.”
Mall owners like Simon have been courting these brands through a mix of leasing strategies and marketing campaigns, Modern Retail previously reported. Simon’s digital advertising initiative, “Meet Me @themall,” which launched in September, taps into ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia while using TikTok influencers to reposition the mall not only as a place to shop but also a gathering space.
In February, Simon CEO and President Damon Simon told investors on an earnings call that the mall operator is “seeing return on investment” from its national marketing efforts. For instance, mall and outlet occupancy at the end of the fourth quarter reached 96.5%, the highest in eight years. Retailer sales per square foot hit $739 for the year, and Simon signed a record 5,500 leases totaling more than 21 million square feet, with 25% of that activity being new deals.
While Gen Z “may have a reputation of being online all the time, they actually have a strong and consistent affinity for in-person shopping experiences,” Beloff said. Brands like Edikted are using physical locations “to attract a new customer who they’re not already reaching through their existing customer base.”
Edikted isn’t alone in branching out beyond social media and into malls. Other viral-first brands like Halara and Cider have experimented with physical retail, Modern Retail previously reported. Meanwhile Princess Polly, another Gen Z favorite, is opening seven new U.S. stores this year. While he didn’t disclose specific numbers, Simon’s Beloff said the mall operator is working with “many” digitally native and social media-driven brands expanding into brick-and-mortar retail, including Princess Polly and Little Words Project.
Edikted’s retail push isn’t about recreating the big-box footprint of yesteryear. Edikted’s new stores are far smaller than the sprawling Forever 21s of the 2010s, which ranged anywhere between 10,000 square feet and 30,000 square feet, Beloff said. (In February 2020, Simon, ABG and Brookfield Property Partners acquired Forever 21 out of bankruptcy.) By comparison, Edikited’s stores are all under 6,000 square feet, Beloff said.
Edikted’s expansion coincides with Forever 21’s recent bankruptcy filing, marking a symbolic passing of the fast-fashion torch. But while the brands may cater to similar aesthetics, their strategies diverge. For instance, at its peak, Forever 21 operated more than 800 stores worldwide. Edikted, however, plans to eventually scale to 30-40 flagship locations around the U.S. “We’re not going to open 100 or 200 stores. That’s not the plan,” Schwartzberg said.
As more Gen Z-popular brands build out their physical retail strategies, Beloff said Simon is ready to scale with them.
“These digitally native or social media-driven brands see the benefit of adding physical locations as a way to connect with their shoppers and increase their sales,” he said. “We have the largest portfolio of retail real estate in the country, and so the quality and the scale of our portfolio is very appealing to brands as they’re looking to enter retail and scale efficiently.”
