At the end of the first quarter of this year, the format generated 30% of the 13,499 million pesos reported by Grupo Sanborns. This percentage exceeded the contribution of Sanborns, equivalent to 27%, but was still below Sears, which has a 42.5% share. The remaining 0.5% of revenues came from other businesses.
While Grupo Sanborns had to close 16 Sanborns stores permanently in 2021, in the first quarter of the year, the group opened one store under the iShop rubric, in Tulum, Quintana Roo.
Carlos Hermosillo, an independent stock market analyst, comments that one of the catalysts for sales in iShop stores is that they sell Apple products. And it hasn’t been the only thing, as the company has also transformed Mixup’s product offering towards younger consumers, such as those in entertainment. “These are high-growth niches in consumer activity trends today,” he said.
A more profitable business
The iShop Mixup stores have been transformed, and have shown their strength. And for specialists, the remarkable thing about the format is that it has shown good results, even with fewer stores than Sanborns. Today there are 143 iShop branches, compared to 194 Sanborns units.
“Mixup has been a very successful case of adaptation, from a niche that died due to the migration of music from physical to digital formats, to this new format. It seems to me that the change of image, layout and attention in the stores, unlike what we can say about Sanborns and Sears, which have been less radical in their physical adjustments,” says Hermosillo.
The good performance of iShop was reflected in the general results of Grupo Sanborns, which closed the first quarter of 2022 with a 17.6% increase in their incomewhich amounted to 13,499 million pesos, according to data from the report sent to the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV).
“iShop Mixup is generating income for Grupo Sanbors. (The format) is helping to keep the company in the green,” says Julián Fernández, head of stock market research at Bursamérica. “What I see is that iShop will possibly become the star brand of Grupo Sanborns, as long as the group strengthens it in the right way”, he concluded.