Bose shutting off all retail stores in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia

Bose has planned to wipe off all its retail footprint in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia after almost 27 years of selling via retail stores across the globe. The company announced that the decision was taken because headphones, speakers, and other products “are increasingly purchased through e-commerce” and very few people actually went to retail stores to purchase them. Given the massive growth in online shopping especially in the electronics market, Bose announced that it would slowly phase out its remaining 119 retail stores across North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia over the next several months.

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In other parts of the world, however, the company still plans to keep things rolling. Its major stores are located in Greater China, the United Arab Emirates, India, Southeast Asia, and South Korea.

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The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company is privately held and hence a lot of the details are still not out in public especially when it comes to laying of its hundreds of employees that work in these countries. Bose has refrained from revealing the exact statistical figures of how many will be affected by this lay-off however the company has said that it will be offering outplacement assistance and severance to affected employees. The company is known for its signature noise-cancelling headphones and has also been a key market player in smart speakers.

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