ASX-listed online retailer Adore Beauty opens new store at Watergardens in Melbourne

Burgeoning online retailer Adore Beauty will open its second-ever in-person store at Melbourne’s Watergardens shopping centre on Friday, promising shoppers private treatment rooms, dermal therapy, facials, 65 in-store brands, a digital kiosk to scan 14,000 products and Tim Tams for every purchase.

The new shop in Melbourne’s outer northeast follows the opening of its first brick-and-mortar offering at the Westfield Southland centre in February.

Adore CEO Sacha Laing said the Watergardens store would offer customers a “next-level beauty experience”.

“After the huge response from our community to our first store opening, we couldn’t be more excited to expand our offering with in-store treatments and even a dermal therapist on staff to answer our customers pressing skincare questions,” he said on Thursday.

“Adore Beauty has always been about empowering our customers to make the right choice for them and their needs, and our newest store will continue that tradition through personalised advice and treatments.”

The store will feature a curated selection of skincare, haircare, fragrance, makeup and wellness products, the company said, including brands such as AB LAB, BIODANCE, Burberry, Embryolisse, Estee Lauder, Murad, Aspect, K18, Kylie Jenner Fragrances and Viviology.

For the month of April, the company said wellness brand IKKARI would be the store’s first brand IKKARI will be the store’s first brand ‘In Residence’ within the shop’s treatment space.

The store opens at 9am on Friday and runs through to 9m.

Watergardens manager Trish Gardiner said more and more people in Melbourne’s west were seeking out premium lifestyle experiences.

“We are thrilled to be able to expand our retail offer by welcoming Adore Beauty to the centre,” she said.

“Servicing a growing customer appetite for beauty and wellness experiences”.

Watergardens marks another step in the ASX-listed company’s plan to open more than 25 new stores across Australia.

By next year, the company expects to boast a physical presence in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and WA, putting it in direct competition with retailers like Mecca and Sephora.

Adore’s half-year results for the six months to December 31, 2024, showed revenues hitting $103m, a 2.3 per cent jump from the prior corresponding period.

Net profits after tax fell from $1m to $600,000.

“The company will establish a national retail store network of more than 25 stores across its Adore Beauty and iKOU brands, materially broadening its addressable market within the $13.9bn Australian beauty industry,” the company stated.

“The stores will be deeply integrated with the online digital ecosystem and infrastructure leveraging Adore Beauty’s well established brand position to increase brand advocacy, awareness and new customer acquisition, and deliver significant incremental sales.”

The retailer offers shoppers some 300 brands and 14,000 products on its online platform and pulls together product information, reviews and podcasts to curate an experience that has built up a cult following.

The company had $11.7m cash on hand at December 31, down from $32.9m at June 30, 2024, which the company credited to a $20m upfront consideration for the acquisition of iKOU, completed over the period, and the initial capital outlay for the company’s first retail stores.

Mr Laing said the new stores were a “natural extension” of the company’s online ecosystem.

“With 25 years as Australia’s leading pureplay beauty authority our retail stores will be a natural extension of our online ecosystem with a deeply connected and immersive digital customer experience in-store,” he said.

Stock in Adore currently trades at 84c a share for a market capitalisation of $79m.