Revolve’s Path to Luxury Powerhouse Remains Rooted in West Coast

Revolve Group Inc. created influencer marketing, forging a new path in fashion. It’s now aggressively seeking a similar route in luxury. 

CFO Jesse Timmermans said there’s big opportunity in pushing more Revolve customers to its sister site FWRD (pronounced “forward”) in remarks made during the Morgan Stanley Consumer and Retail Conference. The CFO’s comments also hinted at a more ambitious effort to redefine luxury to Millennials and younger consumers—groups that may not necessarily value the same loyalty to heritage luxury brands as previous generations. 

“The differentiation is a, call it a young luxury consumer,” Timmermans said in describing how FWRD is unique from others in the space. “It’s more of a West Coast feel. Younger, emerging brands, more curation, editorial. I think if you pull up the FWRD site or Instagram feed and compare it to some of the other luxury players, you can really get that feel. It really comes through in Kendall Jenner and that aesthetic coming through on the brand.”

Los Angeles-based Revolve Group, started by two friends in a Cerritos, Calif. garage, established FWRD with Elyse Walker more than a decade ago. Walker previously served as fashion director of FWRD and is the owner of the high-end boutiques of the same name and Towne. 

FWRD generates a fraction of the Revolve business, with the strategy around the company’s luxury ambitions more nebulous—until more recently. 

“We know that this Revolve customer, if she’s buying a $200 dress, she’s buying a $3,000 handbag and a nice pair of shoes somewhere, why not FWRD?” Timmermans said. 

Revolve’s merchandise mix is heavy on dresses and apparel, while FWRD skews more toward handbags and shoes. 

There’s about a 5 percent overlap between Revolve and FWRD customers and it’s hovered there for the past few years. 

The company began to more aggressively market FWRD with last year’s Revolve Gallery pop-up event held during New York Fashion Week. FWRD is also now more noticeable to shoppers in the Revolve online shop, e-mails and loyalty program where consumers can use points across the two brands. 

The company in November rolled out its Ambassador affiliate program for FWRD, which allows customers to earn a commission in cash or clothing credit for any sales they help to generate from followers. 

FWRD generated $146.3 million in 2021 sales, accounting for 16.4 percent of the Revolve Group’s total net sales. FWRD’s performance represented a spike of more than 83 percent from 2020, with the average order value totaling $642. 

The luxury site carried under 400 brands in 2021, the most recent full-year data available for Revolve Group. That’s about less than half of the brands available on Revolve.