Adore Me Teams With Walmart to Reach New Customers

Adore Me has teamed with Walmart to expand its direct-to-consumer (D2C) lingerie brand.

The apparel company, owned by Victoria’s Secret, has been working for the last two years with intimate designer Gelmart on an under-the-radar partnership to develop an exclusive line for Walmart called Adored by Adore Me, Modern Retail reported Wednesday (May 3).

According to the report, the first Adored collection launched in September, with the second going live this week in 1,900 Walmart locations, as well as the retailer’s website.

While it’s not unheard of for apparel brands to develop offshoots for big-box stores, it’s less common for D2C companies to create a separate line for a company such as Walmart, the report stated.

Bryan Gildenberg, founder of commerce consultancy Confluence Commerce, said in the report the partnership lets Adore Me keep prices for its core brand in place, while with Walmart, it can “get an understanding of the degree to which Adore Me consumers who are… from the website… trade down to the more discounted brand.”

PYMNTS spoke last year with Nicolas Capuono, Adore Me’s chief customer officer, soon after the company’s $400 million acquisition by Victoria’s Secret.

That investment gave Victoria’s Secret a decade of product design expertise and a host of digital innovations such as virtual reality try-on, which Capuono said is an invaluable part of the customer experience, especially for apparel retailers.

“As is the case for Adore Me, one of the main focuses is [on] product discovery, and to have software … where you can simulate how the product will display on you based on your body shape, your skin color, based on many features that you can customize,” he said.

Still, brick-and-mortar stores remain the chief revenue source for many retailers.

“[O]ver 85% of all retail sales in the U.S. still occur in physical stores rather than online,” PYMNTS reported this week. “And that’s a finding pushing direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to rethink their online dominate strategy.”

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