Womenswear retailer Promiss debuts in Belgium

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Aug 28, 2018

Dutch womenswear retailer Promiss has landed in Belgium. Over the weekend, Promiss opened the doors of a 140-square-metre store at the Waasland Shopping Center in Sint-Niklaas.

The retailer said in a press release that the store is a first step in the international expansion of the label. Earlier this year, Promiss became available on Amazon Germany, the first online international point of sale. Along with the Belgian store, Promiss has added EU size 50 to its range. With the size addition, the retailer aims to become available to more women with its collections.

Promiss said that it frequently meets with Flemish consumers at the Maastricht store, which opened in March, confirming the Belgian interest in Promiss.

The Sint-Niklaas store marks the third opening by Promiss this year, following branches in Maastricht and Rotterdam in March. Furthermore, the retailer said that the brand is seeing particularly strong growth online via its partners Wehkamp, Zalando and Amazon Germany. The e-store transactions from Belgium specifically have also increased, with the largest numbers coming from Antwerp and Brussels, followed by Ghent and Sint-Niklaas.

Until 2015, Promiss belonged to Etam Groep Retail, which went bankrupt in 2015. The brand closed all of its 70 stores at the time. In 2016 the Dutch-Belgian FNG Group (then named R&S Retail) fused with Etam Groep Retail and took the brand over via a reverse takeover.

After the takeover, FNG rebranded Promiss and announced a raft of new stores. In July 2016 the brand opened a 188-square-metre flagship store in the town of Hoofddorp. Promiss currently operates 16 physical stores in the Netherlands, one in Belgium and its own e-store. The retailer focuses on fashion for women aged forty and over. 

Other than Promiss, The Waasland Shopping Center also houses a number of other Dutch retailers, including Hema, Hunkemöller, C&A, Kruidvat, M&S Mode, Sasha, WE fashion, America Today and Coolcat. International retailers include Esprit, Zara, H&M, Claudia Sträter and Tommy Hilfiger accessories. In total, the shopping center operates 135 stores and receives 6.3 million visitors per year, approximately 120,000 visitors per week.