Victoria’s Secret Is Under Attack

Victoria’s Secret maybe number one in the lingerie business, but that might be changing soon. CNBC reports that a new and upcoming company by the name of Adore Me is looking to come in and take a big part of the lingerie market share, creating a true competition of Victoria’s Secret.

Director of business and brand development for Adore Me, Sharon Klapka, clearly states that they aim to outrank Victoria’s Secret.

“We aim to slay Victoria’s Secret, they are slow, they are expensive, they make women feel sidelined. It is about time that someone really revolutionized the space, and we’re doing it.”

Morgan Hermand-Waiche, the founder of Adore Me, had the same issue as Victoria’s Secret founder Roy Raymond. They did not like the options that were made available when searching for a gift for their girlfriend and wife respectively. Both looked at what the industry was offering and saw an opportunity to do better. The difference between the two is that Raymond did not have a giant like Victoria’s Secret to face.

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Over the years Victoria’s Secret has been seen as an exclusive brand both with the sizes that are offered and the prices that the garments are being sold for. Regardless of this exclusivity, they currently hold 62 percent of the market share. Harmand-Waiche decided to create a brand that would be based on “inclusivity” both in price and size.

“We really cover the full spectrum of sizes … [and] we’re also inclusive through our price. We finally made high-quality lingerie affordable for everyone.”

Business Insider took a close look at all the factors that are making Adore Me a strong competition against the lingerie giant Victoria’s Secrets. One of the biggest factors is that Adore Me currently employs Victoria’s Secret’s previous creative chief, Helen Mears, as their Head of Design. Taking one of their own can truly mean a lot of things for both competitors, but one thing is for sure, her great ideas will now be shared with Adore Me, which is a loss for Victoria’s Secret.

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Social media has a big part to do with how Adore Me reaches out to their customers. They constantly seek the opinion of their customers by presenting two of their designs side by side and noting the feedback received. They even did a poll to decide what design they would have offered for a special occasion which led to that item being sold out in less than two weeks. Their ad campaign has taken a clue from what YouTubers are watching and transferred it to TV commercials. They have a TV ad that shows an “unboxing” of an Adore Me box, which is a popular type of video done on YouTube for many different products.

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Victoria’s Secrets has not taken its products to its consumers on the same level of involving them in production decisions. Transparency seems to be driving customer engagement more and more as social media grows. With Victoria’s Secret’s latest social media hick-up, customers could be looking elsewhere.

@VictoriasSecret someday I'm sure you'll come around to not photoshopping women who are already gorgeous ?

— yasss tacos (@yassstacoqueen) October 7, 2015

Victoria’s Secret has always been seen as a traditional retailer for lingerie. However, fast fashion is making an impact on the fashion industry and Adore Me considers themselves a fast fashion retailer for lingerie. This allows customers to get the products that they want in stock much faster and cheaper than with traditional retailers. Victoria’s Secret recently decided that it would be the best business decision to go with the fast fashion model. This move was made to keep up with Zara and other fast fashion retailers and will also impact their Adore Me competition.

Adore Me is No. 14 overall company on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list, and is growing at a lightning-fast pace. They have grown 15,606 percent in the three years that they have been operating. The rate at which they are growing shows that customers are interested and keep coming back. Can this online store truly take down the Victoria’s Secret empire?

[Image by Chris Farina / Getty Images]