Digital divide at Off 5th

The e-commerce side of Saks Off 5th, the off-price luxury chain, will be split off from its bricks-and-mortar stores in a deal that values the fast-growing, discount luxury site at $1 billion, the company said on Monday.

Venture capital firm Insight Partners took a $200 million minority stake in the digital business under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed.

Just a few months after engineering the same deal with Saks Fifth Avenue, which also spun off its digital business, HBC — the owner of both brands — said sales at the e-commerce arm of the offprice retailer have grown by 100 percent year to date compared with 2019.

Saks Off 5th Chief Executive Paige Thomas, who joined the company a month before the pandemic hit, is leading the digital business.