Robinsons To Return As Online Store, Hiring S'poreans For "Various Positions"

162-year-old department store Robinsons shocked many of its fans when it suddenly announced last October that it was going into liquidation and closing its two outlets in Singapore.

After holding a store-wide closing down sale, it officially left the Singapore market in January 2021.

But now, it has announced that it's coming back — as an e-commerce store called Robinsons Online.

In a press announcement sent this morning, the company says its new iteration will be "a fully digital, state-of-the-art, vertically integrated online department store" that will go live on June 24, 2021.

Products from over 200 brands will be offered, "some familiar, some homegrown, some new-to-market". There will also be exclusive collaborations on the new digital platform.

Robinsons Online will be headed by Jordan Prainito, formerly the managing director of his family-run company Canningvale Australia, an online-based bedding, towels and homeware brand. "The website is easy to navigate, visually pleasing, perfectly curated, and will provide a trusted, safe and secure checkout process," he shares in a press statement.

He will also be hiring Singaporeans "to fill various positions", and has already roped in two former Robinsons' employees for the online store.

According to the Financial Review, the struggling department store was sold by its owner, the UAE-based Al-Futtaim Group, to Canningvale in a six-month deal overseen by liquidators KordaMentha.

Financial Review also reveals that the new Robinsons Online will operate on a "hybrid drop-ship model", with its suppliers holding their own stock and packing online orders, and Canningvale to oversee the logistical end of sending the goods to customers and processing returns.

Robinsons relaunches online on June 24 at www.robinsons.com.sg. Facebook, Instagram.