Authentic Brands Group Partners with Bolt to Power Forever 21's Online Checkout Experience

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Bolt, the world's first leading Checkout Experience Platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Authentic Brands Group (ABG), one of the largest brand owners in the United States that generates more than $14 billion in annual retail sales. ABG's massive global portfolio includes Lucky Brand, Brooks Brothers, Aéropostale, Juicy Couture, Nautica, and Sports Illustrated. Through the partnership, Bolt's seamless checkout, payments, and fraud protection technology will be available to ABG's global ecommerce network, starting with Forever 21's website and app.

In a world where ecommerce is taking the lead, now more than ever, companies must adapt to keep pace with the rising expectations of shoppers. This partnership paves the way for ABG to evolve its retail platform and bring unprecedented value to its customer base through a single-click checkout experience that's optimized for any device.

"It has never been more important for ABG to invest in technology for a better buying experience," said Corey Salter, Chief Operating Officer of Authentic Brands Group. "We are excited to introduce Bolt's checkout platform to our brand customers just in time for the holiday season."

Key benefits include:

• Single-Click Checkout: Gets shoppers to the finish line faster with fewer form fields and single-click checkout for returning customers
• Payment Information Saved Across Brands: Enables shoppers to save their information once and use it across all of ABG's branded ecommerce platforms
• Better Checkout Across Devices: Provides a flawless and twice as fast checkout experience across all devices
• Mitigate Fraud: Increased security to prevent fraudulent transactions
• Cross-Brand Experiences: Bolt's shared buying infrastructure enables the creation of seamless cross-brand experiences, making it easy for shoppers to buy across multiple brands with one account

Bolt's holistic platform levels the playing field, providing not only a world-class checkout experience for shoppers, but also essential features and integrations from calculating taxes and shipping to fraud detection while decreasing abandoned carts and increasing average order volumes.

"ABG has chosen Bolt for one simple reason -- to meet the needs of a new generation of shoppers," said Ryan Breslow, CEO and Founder of Bolt. "Forever 21 is setting a precedent for how traditional brick-and-mortar stores can adopt technology to improve their online shopping experience in today's increasingly competitive ecommerce environment. We are primed to integrate our tech across ABG's suite of ecommerce businesses."

"We have made it our mission to meet the rising expectations of online shoppers," said Adam Kronengold, Chief Digital Officer of Authentic Brands Group. "We chose to partner with Bolt because they have a proven solution to remove friction, and are excited to collaborate with them on new digital products to give our customers the best possible online shopping experience."

ABG acquired Forever 21 earlier this year with the goal of positioning the retailer for sustainable growth. As part of this effort, the company is focused on building out the brand's ecommerce abilities and experience to align with how the world shops today.

"Our customer-first mindset means that we are fiercely dedicated to meeting our shoppers' evolving needs," said Daniel Kulle, CEO of Forever 21. "We are thrilled to rollout Bolt's ecommerce technology, which both enriches and accelerates the customer journey while streamlining the checkout experience at Forever 21."

Bolt will begin integrating its checkout technology across other ABG brand platforms in the coming months. Bolt and ABG will also introduce a new, subscription-based program that unlocks exclusive user access to a selection of brands, products, perks, and rewards in Q1 of next year.

About Bolt
Bolt is the world's first Checkout Experience Platform, designed to give retailers the freedom to focus on their brand while Bolt perfects the purchase. People have more options than ever when shopping online, and retailers need to provide the best experience or customers will move on. Bolt solves the complicated technological challenges involved in checkout, fraud detection, and digital wallets, so that retailers can devote their energy to what matters most—growing their product, brand, and customer base. Bolt was started in 2014 with the mission to decentralize commerce. Ryan Breslow is its CEO and Founder. Investors include WestCap, Activant Capital, Tribe Capital, Glynn Capital, Human Capital, and executives at nearly fifty of the top 500 internet retailers. For more information visit bolt.com or follow @bolt on Twitter.

About Forever 21
Forever 21, Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, California, is a fashion retailer of women's, men's and kids clothing and accessories and is known for offering the hottest, most current fashion trends at a great value to consumers. This model operates by keeping the store exciting with new merchandise brought in daily. Founded in 1984, Forever 21 operates more than 550 stores in 27 countries around the world. For more information, visit forever21.com. Follow Forever 21 on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

About Authentic Brands Group
Authentic Brands Group (ABG) is a brand development, marketing, and entertainment company, which owns a portfolio of global media, entertainment, and lifestyle brands. Headquartered in New York City, ABG elevates and builds the long-term value of more than 50 consumer brands and properties by partnering with best-in-class manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. Its brands have a global retail footprint in more than 100,000 points of sale across the luxury, specialty, department store, mid-tier, mass, and e-commerce channels, and more than 6,000 freestanding stores and shop-in-shops around the world.

ABG is committed to transforming brands by delivering compelling product, content, business, and immersive experiences. It creates and activates original marketing strategies to drive the success of its brands across all consumer touchpoints, platforms, and emerging media. ABG's portfolio of iconic and world-renowned brands generates more than $14 billion in annual retail sales and includes Marilyn Monroe®, Elvis Presley®, Muhammad Ali®, Shaquille O'Neal®, Sports Illustrated®, Dr. J®, Greg Norman®, Neil Lane®, Thalia®, Nautica®, Aéropostale®, Forever 21®, Juicy Couture®, Vince Camuto®, Herve Leger®, Judith Leiber®, Barneys New York®, Brooks Brothers ®, Frye®, Lucky Brand®, Nine West®, Jones New York®, Frederick's of Hollywood®, Louise et Cie®, Sole Society®, Enzo Angiolini®, CC Corso Como®, Hickey Freeman®, Hart Schaffner Marx®, Adrienne Vittadini®, Taryn Rose®, Bandolino®, Misook®, Spyder®, Tretorn®, Tapout®, Prince®, Volcom®, Airwalk®, Vision Street Wear®, Above The Rim®, Hind®, Thomasville®, Drexel®, and Henredon®. For more information, visit authenticbrandgroups.com. Follow ABG on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Media Contact

Martha Shaughnessy, Bolt, (415) 987-0285, [email protected]

Haley Steinberg, Authentic Brands Group, (814) 882-2913, [email protected]

SOURCE Bolt