Intimate Apparel Brand Aerie Plans Up To 80 New Stores
In the wake of strong quarterly returns, American Eagle Outfitters announced plans to open as many as 80 Aerie stores, which is the company's lingerie, lounge and activewear brand, targeted toward 15- to 25-year-old female customers.
"Aerie's performance is nothing short of spectacular, marking nearly four years of consecutive double-digit growth," American Eagle CEO Jay Schottenstein said during the company's second-quarter conference call Wednesday.
"Aerie represents a meaningful growth engine for AEO. Anchored on the body positivity movement, we continue to register record growth and market share gain across the intimates space," Schottenstein said.
In 2016, Aerie rolled out body-positive marketing with its #aerieREAL no-airbrushing campaign. The brand has since pursued diversity marketing by featuring models of different body types and ethnicities, including women with visible disabilities and illnesses, the website Quartzy reports.
The brand's marketing approach is in contrast to Victoria's Secret — the largest lingerie retail brand in the U.S. — which continues to use the kind of conventional models it long has. Sales have been consistently dropping for Victoria's Secret in recent quarters, Bloomberg reports.
In the second quarter, comparable-store sales increased 9% for Pittsburgh-based American Eagle companywide, which Schottenstein said exceeded expectations. American Eagle comparable-store sales were up 7%, while Aerie sales grew 27%.
“Stores remain an important tool in building the Aerie brand and we see tremendous runway for growth,” Aerie Global Brand President Jennifer Foyle said on the call. Online sales were strong as well for the brand, up 30% year over year during the second quarter, she said.
Other online brands agree that physical stores are important in the lingerie space. Online lingerie retailer Adore Me Inc. is taking its business offline with plans to open between 200 and 300 stores across the U.S. over the next five years.
Foyle didn't specify a timetable for the new Aerie stores, or where they would be, but did say the company is "accelerating our Aerie footprint next year with initial plans to open 50 to 80 Aerie stores."
During the second quarter, the number of Aerie stores did not grow. The company opened one Aerie stand-alone store during Q2, but closed one, ending with 109 Aerie stand-alone stores.
During the quarter, the company also opened four American Eagle stores and had no closures, ending Q2 with 939 American Eagle stores, including 131 Aerie side-by-side locations.
