The company was founded by Salvatore Falabella, an Italian Chilean immigrant, in 1889. In its original form it was a Tailor's shop, but today has become the largest retailer in South America. The expansion of the company began in the 1960s, with the first store outside Santiago opened in Concepción. In 1980 Falabella created CMR, a credit card with 5.5 million customers. In the 1990s it began a process of internationalization and expanded its operations to Argentina, Peru and Colombia. Some of the celebrities who have appeared in its ads are Cecilia Bolocco, Valeria Mazza, Juanes, Kate Moss, Gisele Bündchen and Ricky Martin On May 17, 2007, Falabella agreed to merge with D & S to form the largest retail company in Chile, but a ruling of the Court of Defense of Free Competition on January 31, 2008 rejected the operation. Giving as fundamental arguments that the merge would produce a huge change in the market structure, creating a company that would be the dominant player in integrated retail and all its segments and a substantial and lasting decrease in the conditions of competition of the market that would be detrimental of consumers. The same year, Falabella acquired 60% of the largest hardware store in Chile, Imperial. In 2012, Subtel accepts the request made by Falabella to become a Mobile Virtual Operator inaugurating the service during the first quarter of 2012. In the second quarter of the same year, the chain opened another store in Bogotá, in the Titán Plaza Shopping Center. In August 2018, it acquires 100% of the Linio Marketplace, in order to accelerate its omnichannel and electronic commerce strategy. In January 2019, the closing of Linio Ecuador and Panama was announced with the aim of focusing efforts in countries where it has strategic capabilities to improve the value proposition of its market platform. In 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak, Falabella started receiving a wave of backlash in social media due to its inefficient customer service to those who had shopped online through their website or mobile app. Currently, Falabella has become the retail company with the highest rate of complains in Chile's SERNAC service. Most of those complains have been made in relation to lengthy delays in shipping, which usually take several months, and malfunctioning products or incorrect packages. In some cases, customers are trying to get their money back due to Falabella's inability to fulfill its delivery times, but the company is repeatedly ignoring the requests customers make through the official contact channels they have available.
