Lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret & Co. announced this week it would acquire digital native lingerie brand Adore Me Inc. for $400 million.

The deal will give Victoria’s Secret access to Adore Me’s technology and 1.2 million active customers, a portion of whom partake in the brand’s home try-on service and monthly subscription service. The retailers expect to close the deal at the end of January 2023.

Victoria’s Secret is the largest online sleepwear/lingerie seller, with $2.11 billion in 2021 web sales, but has notably struggled in recent years. Web sales decreased 4.9% in 2021. By comparison, Adore Me is the third largest online seller in the sleepwear/lingerie category. It has grown substantially over the years to reach a Digital Commerce 360-estimated $210.60 million in 2021 web sales.

This acquisition will be a growth vehicle for Victoria’s Secret, said the retail chain’s CEO Martin Waters, in a press release announcing the deal.

“This acquisition will be a significant accelerant as we pivot toward growth and modernize the foundation of our company with an entrepreneurial mindset that puts technology at the forefront of everything we do,” Waters said. “In partnering with the incredible team at Adore Me, we will move to the future much faster.”

Adore Me launched in 2011 and was one of the first direct-to-consumer lingerie brands to tout size inclusivity. In addition, in September 2022, Adore Me became a certified B. Corporation. The certification designates “meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials,” according to bcoporation.net.

Shoppers care about diverse representation 

These issues are significant to apparel shoppers. In a Digital Commerce 360/Bizrate Insights survey of 1,064 online apparel shoppers in September 2022, 31% of shoppers said models that represent the entire spectrum for sizes and diversity were important to them. 21% said a brand’s sustainably practices were important to their apparel shopping.

Historically, Victoria’s Secret was better known for its runway models, not its emphasis on size inclusivity.

Because of these different customer segments, the acquisition makes sense, says Lauren Freedman, senior consumer insights analyst at Digital Commerce 360.

“Adore Me may be just the perfect fit with Victoria’s Secret,” Freedman says. “Their vision as an accessible, inclusive and sustainable brand is a nice complement to Victoria’s Secret and opens up a world that may not have always been top-of-mind for them and one that is growing in importance to the apparel buyer.”

Although it started as an online-only brand, Adore Me started opening stores in 2018 and has six today. Victoria’s Secret’s 1,350 stores will put Adore Me’s products in front of a larger physical-store shopping audience.

Victoria’s Secret generated 53.9% of online sales in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 sleepwear subcategory in 2021. That’s down from a 60.7% share in 2022. Digital Commerce 360 ranks the top online retailers by North American web sales. In the overall Top 1000, Victoria’s Secret ranks No. 45 and Adore Me ranks No. 356.

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