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\u201cWe wanted to put ourselves in front of more people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what CEO Sarah LaFleur said of M.M. LaFleur\u2019s opening in Union Station four years ago. It would turn out to be an incredibly ill-timed decision, with the concept opening inse a train station just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shattered physical retail plans across the globe. But the brand still wants to put itself in front of more people \u2014 and is doing so with a new store in Washington, D.C.\u2019s Georgetown neighborhood that opened May 8, as well as a few more on the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe opened in Union Station like six weeks before the pandemic \u2014 and they were the six greatest weeks of that store,\u201d LaFleur said in a recent interview reflecting on the period.<\/p>\n
M.M. LaFleur ended up closing all of its stores in 2020, with a slow reopening process since then. Now, the retailer \u2014 known for its workwear \u2014 lists seven locations on its website, most of which opened this year, including the recently opened store in Georgetown and another that opened a few weeks later in Philadelphia. The Georgetown location, a few minutes walk from the main M Street drag, is across from Maman, a cafe M.M. LaFleur has partnered with before in New York. It joins another store in D.C., on K Street, which was the first to reopen and is more closely located to one of its key demographics \u2014\u00a0people who work in corporate offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat location has done phenomenally for us. There are a lot of professional women who stop by during their lunch break or right after work, even in between meetings, so that location\u2019s actually been very good for us,\u201d LaFleur said of the K Street store. \u201cWe were like, \u2018OK, D.C.\u2019s grown so nicely, we could probably support another location. Where does it make most sense?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We don\u2019t really have the luxury of locations not working\u2019<\/h3>\n Georgetown stood out as a spot where many of the brand\u2019s customers in Maryland and Northwest D.C. like to shop,\u00a0but M Street \u201cdidn\u2019t feel quite right,\u201d according to LaFleur. Georgetown\u2019s main drag features a plethora of name-brand stores and up-and-coming retailers, including Glossier, Skims, Patagonia, Allbirds, Free People, Warby Parker and more.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\nM.M. LaFleur chose to open on Georgetown’s Wisconsin Avenue, instead of M Street, because it felt like a better fit for the brand.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of M.M. LaFleur<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt’s heavily trafficked, but it didn’t actually necessarily feel like it was our traffic. There was a lot of tourist traffic, and obviously some Georgetown University traffic, but I was like, \u2018This is not quite right.\u2019 And then when we walked down Wisconsin, I was like, \u2018Ah, this feels much better,\u2019\u201d LaFleur said about the road that runs perpendicular to M Street.\u00a0\u201cAnd, I mean, we’re still very much underdogs. It’s not like we’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars to just drop on a new store opening. So we were also really opportunistic about what we could find.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, the store has performed well. Katie Twidwell, vice president of sales and operations at M.M. LaFleur, told Retail Dive via email that the store saw double the expected sales in its first month in business.\u00a0M.M. LaFleur is thoughtful about where it opens stores, for the most part only opening once there\u2019s a certain level of e-commerce presence in a given city. And most of its stores are four-wall profitable, according to LaFleur.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t really have the luxury of locations not working,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cL.A. we know, online, we don’t have as many customers as San Francisco. So even though I know L.A. is a big market and probably would be a good opportunity, we can’t just open a store there and consider it a loss leader \u2026 We can’t have it be a top-of-funnel strategy, like it has to return money to the business fairly quickly. So I guess that is the conservative approach here, but I think the one we feel comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n
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“Warby Parker is a fabulous brand, but I don’t think of it as a brand-driven consumer goods company. I think at the end of the day, it’s quite utilitarian and fashion doesn’t have the same luxury.”<\/p>\n
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Sarah LaFleur<\/p>\n
CEO of M.M. LaFleur<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The brand is planning one more opening this year, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts,\u00a0and likely \u201ca few more\u201d next year, according to LaFleur. But even long term, LaFleur envisions a U.S. footprint of only about 20 to 25 stores. That\u2019s low compared to some other DTC brands, but that might not be a bad thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of DTC companies look at Warby Parker and they say, \u2018They opened stores and that’s been really successful for them, so we should go and follow the same playbook.\u2019 And like, Warby Parker is a fabulous brand, but I don’t think of it as a brand-driven consumer goods company. I think at the end of the day, it’s quite utilitarian and fashion doesn’t have the same luxury,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cI just think the number of stores that you can open before you might see that kind of slower return is lower.\u201d<\/p>\n\nNevertheless, physical retail is a critical piece of communicating with the customer, and M.M. LaFleur has evolved enough over the years that opening that conversation back up was important, according to LaFleur. The brand, which started with only dresses,\u00a0still sells workwear-style dresses and tops, but also T-shirts and denim.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people still think of us as the brand that was focused really on corporate dressing \u2014 and we do a lot more than that,\u201d LaFleur said, adding that advertising on Google and Meta is \u201chairy and unpredictable\u201d in a way that physical stores aren\u2019t. \u201cRight now, my strategy as CEO is just keep diversifying, diversifying, diversifying. Don’t get caught with our pants down, don’t lean too hard into one channel versus another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evolving, but not too far<\/h3>\n M.M. LaFleur\u2019s current iteration isn\u2019t a complete departure from who it was five years ago. Many of the brand\u2019s best-sellers from 2017 or 2018 are still sold and still crack the top 10 in terms of sales, according to LaFleur. The executive still thinks of the company\u2019s customer strategy as \u201cnarrow and deep\u201d \u2014 and still sees the brand tied to \u201celevated clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re not the brand that you would probably wear if you wanted to relax at home. Or if you wanted to \u2026 just get a cup of coffee and walk around the neighborhood,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cWe’re clothes where you want to just show up a little bit and I think showing up can take many forms, but if you just want to look a little put together, then that’s when you put on your M.M. \u2026 We’re not going to compete against Everlane or Uniqlo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\u201cWe’re not the brand that you would probably wear if you wanted to relax at home,\u201d CEO Sarah LaFleur said.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of M.M. LaFleur<\/p>\n
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But a brand evolution only works if customers come along for the ride. LaFleur hopes that a broader assortment means customers tell their friends about M.M. LaFleur more and the brand becomes more of a go-to store for its current customers. As it is, some existing shoppers are still surprised to discover M.M. LaFleur sells certain categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\u201cYou could see a world in which they would say, \u2018M.M. has gone in a different direction and it’s not for me anymore\u2019 \u2014 and I’m sure that’s happened to some customers, I’m not denying that,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cBut I think for the most part, customers have really kept up with us, and they’ve liked the direction we’ve headed in and so we’re not churning them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newer collections have been promising, with the sell-through rates of its recent spring line \u201csignificantly higher\u201d than its other lines in the post-pandemic era.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the product lines that are evolving. M.M. LaFleur\u2019s Bento Box, a Stitch-Fix like subscription service, shut down in the fall of 2019 and relaunched in April, with a focus on having customers preview the items in their box and potentially make changes before receiving it. An initial lookbook usually gives customers eight styles to preview, which they then discuss with a stylist and add or subtract pieces based on what they\u2019re looking for, according to Twidwell. Most shoppers whittle down their Bento Box to between five and six styles that they ultimately purchase, Twidwell said.\u00a0M.M. LaFleur noted average weekly revenue has grown 12% since the relaunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company’s stores have always stressed appointments, and still offer them, but the company is also expanding the in-store experience beyond that. Only two of M.M. LaFleur\u2019s seven stores strongly recommend booking a stylist in advance, and even then, walk-ins are possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really like our appointments \u2014 and I think our customers really like them, too,\u201d LaFleur said, noting good basket sizes and higher net promoter scores from appointments. But part of the reason the Georgetown location was appealing was that anyone can walk in, according to LaFleur. M.M. LaFleur\u2019s K Street store, on the other hand, requires prospective customers to hit a buzzer in order to enter, likely a deterrent to casual shoppers.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\nM.M. LaFleur’s Georgetown store in Washington, D.C., features a curated book selection courtesy of a partnership with Old Town Books.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of M.M. LaFleur<\/p>\n
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M.M. LaFleur is also marketing to customers through new avenues, including through a multiyear partnership with the WNBA\u2019s New York Liberty that launched last year. The brand gives free clothing loans to women running for office and dresses a selection of authors that it works with for their book tours as well. Post-pandemic, M.M. LaFleur stores have also played host to book events for some authors.<\/p>\n
The Georgetown store, for example, has its first store \u201cbook club\u201d in the works and features a curated book collection in the store, thanks to a partnership with local independent retailer Old Town Books. The events are good not just for existing customers, but also serve as a unique customer acquisition tool, according to LaFleur.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a big reader, I mostly read a lot of novels. It’s kind of my happy place,\u201d LaFleur said of why the company has leaned into partnerships with bookstores and authors. The company\u2019s New York locations also have a local bookstore partner. \u201cWe started actually featuring a lot of authors on our blog, maybe six or seven years ago \u2026 There is a nice Venn diagram of women who like to read fiction and memoirs, and M.M. customers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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