New data from Carl Friedrik, the design-led travel goods brand, shows its stores are reaching people its online channel simply doesn’t. 87% of shoppers at its Regent Street flagship are buying from the brand for the first time.
The stores have grown alongside online sales, not at their expense. In Regent Street’s second year of trading, sales at the flagship rose 27%, and Carl Friedrik’s UK online sales grew 45% year-on-year.
Founded in 2013, Carl Friedrik sold primarily online until opening a Regent Street flagship in 2024, followed by a Covent Garden boutique in 2025. Across both London stores, around eight in ten customers are new to the brand.
These customers are as loyal as those online. Shoppers who discover the brand in store come back at the same rate as those acquired online, with more than one in five buying again within 12 months.
Seeing the product in person also changes what people buy and keep. London store purchases are returned at less than half the rate of online orders, as customers can experience the materials, test the features and judge the weight of each piece before buying. Higher-priced pieces do particularly well. Trunk (£645) accounts for 1.6 times as much of in-store sales as online, a pattern that repeats across high-ticket leather weekenders and briefcases.
Customers who first buy at the London stores mostly come back for more luggage, often to complete a set. About two-thirds of second purchases also happen in-store rather than online.
Mattis Oppermann, co-founder of Carl Friedrik, said: “Most people walking into our stores have never heard of Carl Friedrik. The extent of this surprised us, and it’s influenced how we think about growth: there’s a large audience that will only buy luggage once they’ve held it, and wouldn’t necessarily convert online”.
Carl Friedrik’s stores are open at 27 Regent Street and 18 Floral Street in London, and 458 Broadway in New York. The full collection is also available at carlfriedrik.com.
