Pandora’s latest annual report contains an enthusiastic endorsement of selling direct to the consumer. The company has already launched an e-commerce site in the United Kingdom—which you can see here—and plans to open new ones throughout Europe.

From the report:

We believe our products are very appropriate for online sales. They are affordable, perfect for gifting, not expensive to transport, and mostly available only in one size — except for rings and chains — which means a low rate of returns … [We will] work on developing an online distribution footprint in all major markets.

That last line raises the question of whether Pandora will sell online in the United States—which by any standard is a major market. So I posed the question to spokesman Jakob Langeland, who rules it out—if not unequivocally.

“You cannot say never but in the foreseeable future we do not plan to go online in the United States,” he says, adding the company is still focusing on Europe for online sales.

This issue has come up before. In 2011, the (now-departed) North America president John White told me:

If the company ever ventures into e-commerce in the U.S., [it will be a] model where it keeps the retailer in the equation. “We have made it clear that we are a wholesale company,” he said.

Rob Bates

JCK News Director