Framebridge opens a retail location in DC, with plans to add another next month

D.C.-based online framing startup Framebridge opened its first retail location in the District on Tuesday, located at 1919 14th St. NW.

We are officially open! Come visit us and check out the store! ✨ pic.twitter.com/C2bU5Wdf6l

— Framebridge 🖼️ (@framebridge) March 19, 2019

Framebridge’s 14th Street location features 1,400 sq. ft. of space. Founder Susan Tynan told Techcrunch that the D.C. framing startup started testing pop-ups, and found average orders were 40 percent higher value than online. The company also plans to open a Bethesda, Md., 400-square-foot location in April.

It shows that brands which started online still see a place for physical locations. At Technical.ly, we’ve seen examples of brick-and-mortar remaining in the conversation for young companies in Delaware and Brooklyn over the last couple of years. In this case, Framebridge sees the storefront as helping the online business.

“Customers who interact with us in person do repeat online, and we know in communities where we have more brand awareness, our online business grows,”  Tynan told the Washington Business Journal.

With the move to a physical space, Framebridge is still aiming to offer a convenient experience, and factored that in with layouts to show the pricing and look of a potential frame, as well as iPads to upload photos, Washingtonian reports. A grand opening party is planned on March 28.

Framebridge has raised $67.1 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase, and the startup has consistently shown growth since its inception in  2014. The storefronts followed Framebridge’s latest funding round, a $30 million Series C round led by T. Rowe Price, in which the startup committed to making some growth in production capabilities.