Revolve, which sells its own brands and other fashion labels mostly online, opened its third store just over a month ago at the Aventura Mall in the Miami area, and it’s surpassing the company’s expectations.
Store events and the assortment, including various curated edits throughout the year, cater to the local lifestyle and culture. Already higher-margin private labels are generating almost 60% of net sales there, co-founder and co-CEO Michael Mente told analysts Tuesday.
Customers who shop both in Revolve’s stores and online spend nearly three times more than those who shop either channel alone, according to Mente. In addition to the Aventura location, which opened in late September, Revolve opened at The Grove in Los Angeles in January and has run a store in Aspen, Colorado, since 2024. Before that the company experimented with a series of pop-ups.
Several analysts noted that brick and mortar provides a major opportunity for Revolve, following the company’s report Tuesday that, while Q3 net sales rose 20% year on year to $356 million, the bottom line suffered. Gross margin in the period contracted by 75 basis points to 53.9% and net income fell 27% to $15.5 million.
“We are also increasingly encouraged by progress in physical retail, where a higher owned-brand mix offers a potentially meaningful margin opportunity as the footprint expands over potentially decades,” William Blair analysts led by Dylan Carden said in a Tuesday research note.
That potential, demonstrated by the success of the stores opened so far, is likely why Mente told analysts that Revolve’s fleet expansion will accelerate. But it will nevertheless remain relatively slow and methodical.
“Compared to people who have global fleets, [where] we see people opening literally hundreds of stores a year – we're like years away from that,” he said. International net sales in Q3 rose 22% to $78.6 million, Revolve said Tuesday.
There are other ways to expand, though, Mente said.
The company is expanding its 3,100-square-foot Aspen boutique, which he said “is too small to realize its full long-term potential.” The company has signed a new multiyear lease in Aspen, and expects to begin construction early next year. Meanwhile the retailer is moving into a nearby temporary store with more than 8,500 square feet, nearly triple the size of the existing store.
Revolve’s Miami store is a little over 4,500 square feet and its Los Angeles store is 8,450 square feet.
“We're making great progress. We also realize it is a big world,” Mente said. “We have a big audience, and it is a long journey to get to where we ultimately will be.”
