Adore Me

Adore Me was founded by Morgan Hermand-Waiche.[3] He first got the idea of lingerie company in 2010 during his second year at Harvard Business School’s M.B.A program, when he couldn't find lingerie that was both high quality and affordable.[4] Hermand-Waiche spent three years working at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company prior to Adore Me.[5] where he met Romain Liot, who came on in the early days as COO. Gary Bravard Gary Bravard, the current Head of Business Development, and Forbes Retail 30 under 30[6], also joined early on.

Initial investors in Adore Me include Hermand-Waiche’s Harvard professors,[4] and angel investors Fabrice Grinda and Jose Marin.[3] The company officially launched its website in March 2012.[7] In the same year, Adore Me raised $2.5 million in its second round of funding with investments from Redhills Ventures, Jaina Capital, Ventech Capital, and other US angel investors. Adore Me reportedly sold 100,000 items in their first year of business.[8]

In July 2013, Adore Me raised $8.5 million from investors in a Series B round of funding. Investors included Upfront Ventures, Redhills Ventures, and Mousse Partners.[8][9]

In 2014, Adore Me was listed as the second fastest-growing private retail company on the Inc. 5000 list based on their 2013 sales of $5.6 million.[10] They went on to generate $16.2 million in sales in 2014.[11]

In 2016, Adore Me was ranked #9 on Crain’s list of New York’s 50 Fastest-Growing Companies.[12] Revenue for 2016 was $83.9 million.[13]

In 2017, Adore Me was named one of the Internet Retailer Top 1000 companies from DigitalCommerce360 and was listed on the Inc. 5000 list for the third time in four years.[14][13] As of 2017, Adore Me had 121 full-time employees.[13]

The company has outlined the management philosophy that has guided it since inception in a post from Hermand-Waiche entitled, Resilient Retail: The Adore Me model for ecommerce.[15] The company has been guided by three principles that work together to allow a business to be built to respond to challenges unique in a digital world:

Flexibility - Being long-term focused and smart around utilizing leverage. Hermand-Waiche first indicated the importance of being strategic and avoiding over-raising capital in a 2015 Techcrunch op-ed.[16]

Agility - Building technological and logistical infrastructure that allows constant evolution of services and products. The company has been recognized by publications like the MIT Technology Review for building cutting-edge infrastructure that positions the company well to compete in an increasingly automated and competitive retail world.[17]

Adaptability - Building a culture around hiring adaptive people who thrive on change and uncertainty.

The combination of these three principles has helped the company navigate the incredibly turbulent pandemic period and achieve a record April, seeing 66% YoY growth.[18]

The company uses a style quiz and associated algorithm to recommend products and sizes to customers.[19] Adore Me currently offers three ways to shop on their website:

1. Adore Me VIP: a monthly subscription box with lingerie from the 40-60 new designs that are released every month.[20]
2. Adore Me Elite Membership Program: a fast-growing, subscription-based service launched in 2017 that lets customers try on items before they purchase them.[21]
3. Adore Me Pay As You Go (PAYG) service: allows customers to make a one-time purchase.

With a mobile app (both iOS and Android), 80% of Adore Me’s shopper traffic comes in from mobile.[22]

Since its inception, Adore Me has striven to be as much a technology company as a retailer.

CEO Hermand-Waiche has argued that the trend of "Outsourced Brands", or DTC brands that avoid building their own technology and logistics infrastructure, are unable to scale in ways to meet the evolving demands of customers.[15]

Adore Me was one of the first retailers to use Angular technology [23] – the complete JavaScript-based, open-source, front-end web application framework supported by Google [24] – on its mobile and desktop websites. It's Chief Technology Officer, Bogdan Lucaciu, has been a strong proponent of agile development frameworks and experimentation, leading the development of an entire suite of proprietary retail technology that allows the team to deliver strong results in everything from conversion rates, to the optimization of marketing spend[25], to reducing waste and cost-saving in procurement.[26]

Adore Me launched the Embrace Life, Disrupt Fashion initiative[27] in 2019 to operationalize sustainability efforts across the entire organization.

As of April 2020, the company has launched two sustainable collections and will be launching 10 new sustainable collections through 2020.[28]

In addition to sustainable brands, Adore Me is adamant that change must occur across the entire supply chain, optimizing their procurement processes to minimize waste and committing to no air-shipping.[29] They have additionally integrated water-conserving, digital-printing into swimwear, are transitioning to fully biodegradable packaging.[28]

Adore Me owns and operates its own 130,000 square foot distribution center in Secaucus, New Jersey: Adore Me Services (AMS).[30] The brand officially opened the center in January 2019, with the expressed goal of leveraging a collection of cutting-edge technologies to help rapidly introduce new ways (including addressing the logistical complexities of Adore Me's new try-at-home service) to shop, a series of satellite brands and servicing a network of physical retail stores.[31]

The MIT Technology Review recognized the automation technologies built into the AMS systems, including a high-density robotic storage and order picking system (AutoStore), two automated putwalls (OPEX Sure Sort), as an example of how a mid-sized retailer can compete with ecommerce giants like Amazon: "by being smaller, closer to home, and more flexible."[17]The combination of automation, along with a commitment to worker safety[32], helped Adore Me manage to maintain consistent delivery throughout a major surge in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]

In April 2016, Adore Me opened their first retail store as a showroom at their New York City headquarters.[33] In June 2016, Adore Me partnered with Nordstrom to begin selling products in Nordstrom stores and on the company’s e-commerce site.[34] As of October 2016, Adore Me also partnered with Lord and Taylor to begin selling products in the Manhattan flagship store and online.[35]

Adore Me opened its first permanent brick and mortar retail store in June, 2018. The first store if the brand is located in Staten Island Mall, NY — developed in partnership with Brookfield.[36][37]

Adore Me strives to make retail a profitable growth story, and has been leveraging technology like "smart" fitting rooms:[38] the Adore Me customer can place an item, embedded with a radio frequency identification tag, on the hook in her fitting room to activate the fitting-room display screen. It will indicate the item chosen in full detail — revealing a product image, as well as size run and colors available.[39][40]

On Black Friday of 2018, at 6am ET, Adore Me opened its second retail store, located in Bridgewater Commons Mall, Bridgewater, NJ. The store is 3,600 square-foot in size — which is double the size of its first location which opened in June 2018 at Staten Island Mall, in the Staten Island borough of New York City.[41] The larger store incorporates lounge areas to encourage involvement with the space. The two stores were designed by New York City-based Lawrence Group.[42] In April 2019, Adore Me opened its third retail location at Providence Place Mall in Providence, Rhode Island. In May 2019 a fourth location was opened in Willowbrook, New Jersey. Both of these locations are owned by Brookfield Properties.

2019 started a string of acquisitions and development of new brands.  

In February of 2019, Adore Me purchased maternity brand Belabumbum.[43][44] Adore Me states that “the acquisition was part of Adore Me's strategy to boost further growth by broadening the product offering to serve new phases of a woman's life”.[45] Belabumbum offers intimate apparel, sleep, lounge, and activewear for expecting and new moms.[46]

In June of 2019, Adore Me launched its first satellite brand, called Walkpop. Walkpop is a legwear brand. Walkpop’s offering is legwear, leggings, tights, and socks. Walkpop carries a wide range of sizes, styles, and tights for all skin tones.[47]

In January of 2020, Adore Me launched period panties brand, Joyja.[48] The panties come in sizes XS-4X.[49] With the tagline “The Happy Period Panties,” Joyja wants to bring more joy to “that time of the month” with bright colors, quirky prints, easy usage, and a significantly lower environmental impact than plastic tampons and pads. The brand also wants to improve access of period products for menstruating people in the US living below the poverty line. They do this through affordable pricing and by product donations[50][51]

Adore Me currently operates the following retail brands:

• Belabumbum
• Joyja
• Walkpop

Initially, Adore Me products included lingerie, sleepwear, swimwear, and related apparel. Bra sizes range from 30A to 46G.[52][53] In October 2016, Adore Me launched an activewear collection. Similarly to the bras and panties, the activewear collection includes sizes from petite to plus.[54] In April 2017, Adore Me announced that they had launched their largest swim collection to date, with 88 pieces for standard and plus sized women.[55] Current head of design, Helen Mears, formerly worked as head designer of the Angels brand at Victoria’s Secret.[56]

Adore Me primarily sells its products online. Customers shop through personalized “showrooms” and can purchase products a-la-carte on a one time basis or as part of a monthly subscription, known as “VIP Membership.” Products are currently shipped to customers in the U.S. and Canada.[3][4][57]

In December 2017, Adore Me launched their Bijou Collection.[58] This luxury designer collection used fabrics such as velvet, French lace as well as gold logo plates and piercings. This collection retailed from $69.99-$79.99.

Today, Adore Me carries various product categories, including bras and panties,[59] lingerie,[60] sleepwear,[61] gifts,[62] activewear,[63] corsets[64] and bralettes.[65]

During International Women’s Day and the month of March 2019, Adore Me partnered with non-profit organization Girls Inc. who's programming focus on the development of girls; supporting, mentoring, and guiding girls in an affirming, pro-girl environment. Adore Me sold a collection of panties featuring female-empowering prints with 100% of proceeds donated to Girls Inc.[66][67]

In 2018, Adore Me conducted an artistic portrait series together with New York-based photojournalist Aude Adrien, highlighting women working at Adore Me, and their stories of how they got to where they are now, what inspires them, and how they define empowerment. Every participant brought an object that defines what empowerment is or feels like to them - this is shot in the portrait. The objects are highly personal, and the women brought everything from their passport, to a book, to a photograph of someone they admire.[68][69]

Project Runway: All Stars: Adore Me was featured on the final season of Project Runway: All Stars.[70] Adore Me's Head Designer Helen Mears[71] introduced the challenge for the third episode. The challenge was to create an outfit that used innerwear as outerwear,[72] specifically, a corset. Christina Exie[73] won the challenge and had her winning corset sold on AdoreMe.com after the episode aired.[70]

Upon until 2017, Adore Me has primarily focused on the North American market, delivering its products to all states in the U.S. The service and full product assortment is also available to shoppers in Canada, Australia, and the UK.[74][75][76]

In September 2018, Adore Me officially announced its expansion to start selling in China. The brand has begun launching its products using the interactive livestream platform & global shopping marketplace service, ShopShops.[77][78]

Adore Me has promoted "body positivity" and "inclusivity" within the brand.[52][79] They have worked with models such as Iskra Lawrence, a spokesmodel for body positive campaigns;[80][81] and Nina Agdal, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model;[82] In 2016 Adore Me worked with plus model Sophie Tweed-Simmons.[83]

Customer reviews are visible and available for each product on adoreme.com, assisting customers to see product fit, satisfaction and beyond.[84]

Adore Me received Retail TouchPoints ‘Customer Engagement Awards’ in 2017[85] and 2018.[86] The brand won the Excellence Awards as Best in 2018 Class Omnichannel Experience during Customer Contact Week.[87]

In December 2017, the company implemented a hybrid-bot on its website. The hybrid-bot enables Adore Me customers to receive live support via several messaging platforms.[88]

In the company's early days, many customers had complained about its use of the controversial practice of negative option billing. Adore Me offered the customers the choice of buying a product at full price or of buying the same product at a substantial discount by joining a membership club. The club then billed customers a fixed amount each month unless the customer bought lingerie or opted out for the month. While the membership may be cancelled, the customers have found it difficult to cancel.[89][90] Following an investigation filed by the Federal Trade Commission about Adore Me's deceptive billing practices, the company agreed to refund up to $1.38 million to customers that had previously forfeited their store credits and to clearly disclose how much customers would pay on its monthly subscription plan.[91]

In 2017, Adore Me announced the launch of its scholarship program, offering a $1,000 scholarship to support women pursuing a degree in business. The company began awarding female students who had either started their own business or were planning to do so in the future.[92]