Glossier’s fifth store to open in DC’s Georgetown neighborhood

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Dive Brief:

• Glossier’s fifth store is opening in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood on Friday, the DTC beauty brand said in details emailed to Retail Dive. The company also told Retail Dive on Tuesday that it would enter wholesale for the first time in a new partnership with Sephora.
• Since opting to reenter physical retail last year, Glossier has opened stores in Seattle, London, Los Angeles and Miami. More locations are set to open throughout the year, including in Atlanta, Philadelphia and the Brooklyn borough of New York City. A store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood is planned for 2023.
• The D.C. location takes inspiration from the city’s “rich history as an international nexus” to support an aviation theme. The “Jet Age” store features arrival and departure signs, runway-style floor lighting, “subtle cloud accents,” and faux leather seating modeled after airplane wings and jet seats.

Dive Insight:

In opening Glossier’s latest store, newly minted CEO Kyle Leahy described it as a key way to “meet our customers where they are.” Leahy, who became CEO in May after founder Emily Weiss stepped down from the role, told Retail Dive in an email that stores help bring the Glossier brand to life.

“We haven’t yet had a retail presence in the DC area, and we can’t wait for our local community to fully immerse themselves in the brand, test and play with our products, interact with our editors, and experience Glossier in real life,” Leahy said.

The DTC brand describes its latest store as a “community hub” for locals and tourists, and it maintains much of the same grandiose feel as Glossier’s other locations, which are all themed to the city they’re located in. A Seattle location that opened last year included mushroom and floral details, while its Los Angeles store takes inspiration from the Hollywood sign.

Glossier’s stores have largely served a dual purpose of selling products and generating buzz, with the brand actively pursuing an Instagrammable aesthetic. A “selfie room” at the D.C. location is designed to look like an airplane window and Glossier luggage tags are available to purchase exclusively at the Georgetown store.

The entrance to the Washington, D.C. store is designed to look like the aisle of an airplane, with small lights lining either side. A large flipboard at the top of the stairs alternates between phrases like “Pink skies ahead” and “Skin first. Makeup second.” Glossier makeup bags are also displayed, along with pink sweatshirts sporting the brand’s logo.

D.C., and Georgetown in particular, has become a popular destination for DTC brands looking to open stores. Some of Glossier’s neighbors include Allbirds, Outdoor Voices, Faherty, Everlane, Rothy’s and Warby Parker. It’s not just in Georgetown that DTC brands tend to congregate: Several other major cities in the U.S. — and some very specific streets, like Melrose in Los Angeles — have emerged as gathering places for some of the biggest DTC brands, which often pursue a similar customer base.

Although the beauty brand has dived headfirst back into physical retail, not all has been smooth sailing since the pandemic upended the retailer’s growth plans two years ago. Before Weiss stepped down, she admitted that the company “made some mistakes” in its bid to scale, causing layoffs of more than 80 employees. And just last month, Glossier said it would raise prices on some of its products thanks to higher production and shipping costs. In the U.S., those price hikes were between $1 and $4.

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