Canadian supplier StickerYou (asi/89791) is going against the grain.

The e-commerce company plans to open a brick-and-mortar store this summer in Toronto. The 3-story stickerbombed storefront has already been designed, and doors will officially open on August 12.

“We are proud to open the world’s largest sticker store in Toronto,” Andrew Witkin, founder and CEO of StickerYou, said in a press release. “We are excited to give customers the chance to interact with our products and experience the creative potential of stickers for business or personal expression.”

StickerYou worked with 3M, parent company of Top 40 supplier 3M/Promotional Markets (asi/91240), in creating the exterior graphic. The companies used a unique, proprietary adhesive from 3M, as well as a special heat-roll application technique to ensure that the vinyl not only sticks through varying temperatures, but also weathers the elements.

The interior is currently being renovated and will feature stickerbombed walls, an experience center where customers can touch and feel the product, a sticker museum and kiosks where customers can customize orders for online purchase. The company will also be hosting a sticker art exhibition in the fall, with works from prominent artists such as Shepard Fairey and Matthew Hoffman.

“There's a significant difference between seeing a sticker design on a screen and feeling the quality of the paper or vinyl in your hands, or seeing the sharpness of the colors on thousands of stickers displayed right in front of you,” Witkin said. “For us, a tangible offline experience is a powerful marketing tool, which is why we have decided to open a brick and mortar retail location. By giving customers the chance to experience our product in real time, we aim to drive brand awareness in a way that isn’t possible in an e-commerce-only store.”  

Despite the growing trend of brands shuttering their physical retail locations, Witkin believes the company’s omni-channel strategy will prove beneficial in the long run, even driving online sales. “Though a brick-and-mortar retail space may not generate profits in the traditional sense, we believe that a storefront provides significant value that online ad impressions don’t that can translate into an overall gain,” Witkin said. “The store may technically operate at a loss if you look at operating costs compared with product sold, but retail can still be ROI positive if or when the incremental traffic from retail driven to the website is less costly than using such funds to pay for online traffic.”

StickerYou: The Store is located at 677-679 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2008, StickerYou offers customers proprietary technology to create and order die-cut sticky products, including stickers, labels, iron-ons, decals, patches, name badges and temporary tattoos.