Retail pioneer Ron Johnson — the man responsible for the Apple Store and Target’s first designer collaboration — is taking his new retail company public through a SPAC merger with Marquee Raine Acquisition Corp. Enjoy, which Johnson founded in 2014, brings the store experience to consumers’ homes via a technology-powered “mobile store” operation.
“In online commerce every company has the same last mile — it’s a delivery to the door,” said Johnson in a video explaining the concept behind the company. “So how should a premium company deliver a product for someone who wants to start digitally? I believe it’s by delivering an experience, and the only way to deliver an experience is to bring the full store experience through the door.”
Johnson likens the impetus behind Enjoy’s “commerce-at-home” model to that which has driven successful companies such as Peloton and Airbnb. With Enjoy, customers make an appointment with a retailer, and a trained expert shows up at their door with the store experience neatly packed up in a suitcase. Customers can view and try out products at their own pace, get help setting up and connecting devices and even get tutorials on how to use the products they’ve purchased. According to the company, this at-home experience is achieved through proprietary technology and data science tools that manage inventory, routing and staffing.
At the moment, Enjoy primarily operates in the telecommunications and consumer electronics verticals via partnerships with AT&T in the U.S., BT Group in the UK, Rogers Communications in Canada and Apple in select U.S. cities. Johnson said in the video that he plans to expand the model into many other categories, in much the same way Amazon expanded beyond books.
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On April 28, Enjoy announced that it had agreed to merge with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Marquee Raine Acquisition Corp. and to go public as Enjoy Technology, which will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ENJY.” Johnson will continue to lead the company as CEO following the transaction.
“We believe our disruptive ‘commerce-at-home’ platform can do everything a store can do but better, as our full-time experts deliver deeply personalized experiences in the comfort of customers’ homes,” said Johnson in a statement announcing the merger. “As we scale our business and accelerate our growth trajectory, we intend to expand to new geographies, drive investment in our proprietary technologies and add new partnerships with the world’s leading consumer brands.”
