Zola Will Open Its First Brick-and-Mortar Store in New York City
Zola, the fast-growing wedding planning and registry company, is about to take another big leap by opening its first brick-and-mortar location.
On Wednesday at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Zola CEO and founder Shan-lyn Ma announced that Zola will open a physical store in New York City in early 2019.
“It’s going to be a unique shopping experience,” Ma said in conversation with Fortune’s Claire Zillman. “It will be the first time you can go into a single location and see 2,000 of our most popular wedding registry gifts and products and create your own wedding websites.”
“We have a 3D printer where you can print your own cake toppers,” she added. “You can plan your wedding as you want, all within an hour.”
Zola, a five-year-old company that has raised roughly $140 million in VC funding thus far, is not planning on changing its primary digital business strategy, Ma said. But she said that the company will look into expanding its brick-and-mortar presence in other locations going forward.
“We’re not in the business of opening 200 stores, but we’ll really get a sense of how it benefits us in terms of awareness and education for the couples,” Ma explained, before adding: “We’ll consider a few more cities.”
Zola initially began as a wedding registry website but has since made it its goal to become a one stop shop for couples’ wedding planning needs. In August, the company launched a paper save the date and invitations business, where customers can customize cards and upload photographs. Now, it appears a physical location is the next step.
Said Ma: “We did a lot of work around how we can create this physical experience that is taking retail to the next level.”
