DISCUSSION
Will Five Below’s sales go above and beyond with a new store-in-store concept?
Written by RetailWire Staff
Photo: Five Below
Five Below shoppers have proven willing to spend more than just $5 on the items they find in the store. With that in mind, the value retailer is expanding its Five Beyond store-within-a-store concept, which features products with higher price tags, to one-third of its stores nationwide.
CEO Joel Anderson announced the expanded rollout of the Five Beyond concept earlier this month, according to a Yahoo News report. The concept was born out of Five Below’s test run of a higher-priced store section called Ten Below that it has been piloting over the past few years.
In late 2019, after 17 years of exclusively selling products below $5, the chain began its test of Ten Below, which featured sub-sections with names like Ten Below Tech and Ten Below Gift Shop. The idea emerged as the chain began facing higher costs it could not absorb in key categories like technology. The launch of the new section was accompanied by a new logo: “Cool Stuff. $1-to-$5-to-$10.”
The new Five Beyond name, however, gives the retailer more wiggle room with product prices no longer constrained by either a $5 or $10 ceiling.
The planned expansion of the Five Beyond concept is not the only (slightly) upmarket move the chain has made recently. At the end of 2020, the retailer announced a partnership with Instacart to offer same-day delivery and curbside pickup in select major markets.
Others successful value retailers have also begun testing slightly higher-end product assortments.
Dollar General, for instance, announced plans late last year to launch a full retail concept called popshelf aimed at a more affluent customer base. Popshelf markets to women from households earning between $50,000 and $125,000 per year, whereas the concentration of Dollar General’s core customer base is women from households earning $40,000 per year. The retailer anticipated opening 30 stores in suburban markets near major cities within a fiscal year.
- Five Below plans to raise some prices beyond $5 limit – Yahoo News
- Five Below and Instacart Partner to Launch Same-Day Delivery in Select Cities – Globe NewsWire
- What will happen now that Five Below has gone above $5? – RetailWire
- Will Dollar General win over higher income consumers with its new store concept – RetailWire