Unified Commerce Group Partners with NewStore to Enable Omnichannel for its Growing Portfolio of Brands

Frank And Oak is the first brand from the UCG portfolio that will implement the NewStore Omnichannel Platform

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Apr 13, 2021, 08:00 ET

BOSTON and MONTREAL, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NewStore, the essential omnichannel store solution, today announced a strategic partnership with Unified Commerce Group (UCG). Frank And Oak, Canada's award-winning sustainable fashion brand, is the first of UCG's portfolio brands to begin working with NewStore to implement its omnichannel platform. Omni features, such as mobile point of service, endless aisle, store fulfillment, inventory management and integrated order management, will go live at Frank And Oak in 2021.

Founded in 2020 by Dustin Jones and Greg Freihofner, UCG is building a portfolio of direct to consumer (DTC) brands. Their mission is to acquire purpose-driven brands and help to scale their businesses in the world's largest retail economies. The group believes brands must reflect shared lifestyles and values of their consumers and offer omni retail experiences to grow a successful global business.

NewStore will replace the point of sale (POS) at Frank And Oak, offering mobile checkout, endless aisle, store fulfillment, inventory management, cash management and more. It will also replace the existing order management system to integrate ecommerce and store inventory, making it possible to offer all inventory to customers regardless of location or purchase channel. All of this will be managed by store managers and associates on iPhone apps. Through NewStore the brand will have a single system for all inventory, orders, and customer data.

"Omnichannel is essential to DTC brands. On the NewStore platform, Frank And Oak will be able to run their stores more like a website, with ecommerce style payments, rich data collection, and deeply personalized experiences," said Stephan Schambach, Founder and CEO, NewStore. "Frank And Oak consumers will be able to easily checkout and return items from anywhere in the store, and combine in-store and endless aisle purchases in one transaction. The experience will be seamless for both the consumer and associate, which will optimize inventory and increase full price sell-through for the brand."

"Born as a digitally native brand, Frank And Oak has experimented with various omnichannel capabilities, none of which have been easy to manage on the backend. NewStore will be critical to removing any remaining friction, for customers and associates, enabling us to fuel our expansion globally with an omnichannel approach," said Dustin Jones, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Unified Commerce Group. "This partnership helps UCG to accomplish a key part of our vision -- to provide a truly seamless omnichannel experience to our customers around the world. UCG is in the process of creating a complete technology solution for it's brands that elevates the global standard in retail, and NewStore is a key strategic partner in this solution. NewStore's technology now means setting up new stores for Frank And Oak is going to be as simple as shipping out a box of iPhones; a model we look forward to replicating for our other brands."

About Unified Commerce Group
Unified Commerce Group (UCG) is a New Retail group seeking to acquire and scale purpose-driven brands that resonate with consumers in the largest global retail economies. UCG was developed with a new vision for the retail industry: to unlock growth opportunities for high-potential retail brands through expansion into new markets and customer-centric omni-channel capabilities. Powered by a proprietary tech and data management engine, UCG offers new and established brands a platform to achieve scale by implementing best-in-class store and digital operations, accessing new global markets, and tapping into a world-class partner network. UCG is headquartered in New York City with offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit UnifiedCommerceGroup.com.

About NewStore
NewStore is the essential omnichannel store solution for global brands. The company delivers Omnichannel-as-a-Service with the first platform combining POS, order management, clienteling, and inventory. Store operations from endless aisle to mobile checkout to fulfillment are possible with just two remarkably intuitive iPhone apps. NewStore customers include brands such as Burton Snowboards, Decathlon, GANNI, Goorin Bros, Marine Layer, Outdoor Voices, and UNTUCKit. It is backed by General Catalyst, Activant Capital, and Salesforce Ventures. Learn more at www.newstore.com.

SOURCE NewStore, Inc.