Popular e-commerce lingerie brand Adore Me is turning to the bricks-and-mortar channel to fuel growth. Morgan Hermand-Waiche founded the brand in 2010 to fill what he described as an under-serviced niche in the marketplace of affordable yet fashionable lingerie. The first full-fledged Adore Me e-commerce Website launched in 2012, and, by 2015, Adore Me ranked No. 14 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S. The company cites $43 million in revenue for 2015, up from $16.2 million in 2014. Now, the wildly popular brand is adding fuel to its already hotly burning fire by expanding into the realm of bricks and mortar.
“While at Harvard, I got the idea for Adore Me when I tried to buy lingerie on a budget as a birthday gift for my girlfriend,” Hermand-Waiche said. “All the high-fashion, high-quality items were way out of my budget and anything I could afford was either outdated, under-designed or of poor quality. I did some research and found out that 40 percent of the U.S. lingerie industry was dominated by a single player (Victoria's Secret) that was rolling over the costs of hundreds of prime retail locations to its customer (with high shipping [and] high return fees), collections launched only four times a year and available in a very limited size range.”
Adore Me aims to make lingerie affordable and available to all U.S. women. For example, the company offers high-quality sets for half the price of its competitors and sizes go from petite to plus (from 30A to 44G). The company designs its lingerie in-house and, until recently, has sold exclusively online. In addition to classic lingerie, the company also offers sleepwear and swimwear.
“Our first offline presence was our Valentine’s Day pop-up store at New York City’s Hudson Hotel, during the first week of February and for three days only,” Hermand-Waiche said. “It proved to be such a success that we decided to go one step further and open our first retail store.”
Last month, Adore Me opened its first retail outpost in New York City. The 600-square-foot showroom is located in Adore Me’s West 39th Street Manhattan headquarters building, ensuring top-notch customer service. By recreating the personalized online shopping experience in its retail stores, Adore Me hopes to transform the way customers shop for lingerie.
“Adore Me’s ability to create a personalized experience online—each Adore Me shopper gets a curated lingerie showroom tailored for their specific style and size preferences, ensuring they don’t get lost in a sea of lingerie—has been a great driver of growth,” Hermand-Waiche said. “When establishing our offline strategy, it was obvious that we wanted to translate this online personalized experience into an offline one—and change the way women shop for lingerie in bricks and mortar as well.”
Adore Me aims to accomplish this goal by providing a unique, by-appointment only shopping experience that offers an intimate way to shop for lingerie. “Shoppers spend 45 minutes of one-on-one time with a lingerie expert who listen to their needs, helps them find their true bra size, and helps find the perfect lingerie fit and style for them,” Hermand-Waiche said. “This highly engaging experience has an unmatched added value, especially since the appointment is completely free of charge and our sets are only $39.95.”
The brand’s popular online shopping experience will still be part of the physical stores. Customers make an appointment to shop at the Adore Me store, and then pay for items on an iPad through Adore Me’s mobile app. Items will then be shipped directly to their home or office. Upon checkout, customers will have the option of subscribing to the monthly online membership, in which they pay $39.95 per month and have the option to shop or skip each month. (If they skip a month, they will receive a store credit to use anytime.) — Misty Milioto