Pour Moi sees pandemic sales spike

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 22, 2022

Intimates brand Pour Moi saw saw sales surging 200% during the pandemic, echoing the experiences of some other lingerie specialists that appeared to benefit from consumers seeking to add interest to their lockdown lives.

The company saw total sales rising 46% to £31 million in the year to last September, an increase that followed impressive leaps in previous years. It webstore sales rose 154% last year on a two-year basis and the first quarter of the current financial year (October to December 2021) saw 297% two-year growth.

The company’s primary focus is on its webstore, although it also has a physical store in Chester and plans to open more in the UK. Additionally, it sells through Next, Very, ASOS and Zalando, although its own DTC sales account for almost 60% of the business.

As well as the 17-year-old business making the most of the unprecedented opportunity lockdowns presented, it has managed to retain large numbers of the new customers it attracted during the pandemic period.

Founder Michael Thompson told the PA news agency that profits jumped 75% in the latest year to £2.7 million, easing his initial fears that the pandemic would be devastating for the business.

He said that “like a lot of people, for the first couple of months of the pandemic we were terrified,” repeating what many in the fashion sector have told us in the past year.

Its biggest problem was that 80% of its business when the pandemic started was swimwear. And with holidays cancelled, sales in that segment at all price levels dropped off a cliff.

The firm was clearly able to pivot to more lockdown-relevant categories with Thompson saying that “if you’re stuck at home, your entertainment has limited resources, it was either streaming something, playing Scrabble or buying lingerie.”

He said online sales of “sexy lingerie” spiked early in the lockdown and that “every customer need changed overnight”.

Importantly though, the need to be agile remains paramount as he also said that purchasing behaviour quickly moved towards more everyday lingerie.

That’s also been clear since Covid restrictions were eased last summer with Thompson saying shapewear sales online increased 420% and strapless bra sales rose140% as more people were able to socialise, attend events and go on holiday.