Diamond and jewelry brand Brilliant Earth is continuing to expand its IRL showrooms. In the span of a month, it’s adding three new locations to the previous nine it opened this year, bringing its total number of physical stores to 37.
But these three new locations are different from the ones the 18-year-old brand has opened before. All three are located in shopping malls, a first for the brand. One store opened in Roosevelt Field Mall in New York on August 24, another opened in Pennsylvania’s King of Prussia on Thursday, and the final one will soon open in Roseville Galleria in California. All are traditional indoor malls with luxury neighbors like Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga.
Kathryn Money, svp of merchandising and retail expansion at Brilliant Earth, said the decision to go into malls for the first time was a simple one: Mall traffic is up. Coresight Research data from this month showed that more stores opened in malls last year than closed, marking the first time that’s happened since 2016. Additionally, mall retail sales were up 11% year-over-year to $819 billion in 2022.
Money said the main goal for each of these stores is to capitalize on the increased flow of foot traffic into malls and bring in new customers.
“These malls can drive higher unplanned shopping trips and walk-ins,” Money said. “They let us engage and introduce the brand to new customers who might not be familiar with Brilliant Earth. It especially lets us get more exposure to our fine jewelry collection, which is an area with a lot of growth opportunity for us.”
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Money said, compared to Brilliant Earth’s other stores, most of which are located in the downtown shopping districts of cities including Brooklyn and Charlotte, the mall stores have a wider selection of the brand’s fine jewelry — think: higher-end pieces like $2,500 diamond earrings. In addition to fine jewelry, the brand sells birthstones and bridal jewelry including wedding bands. Additionally, the stores will offer a new shopping appointment format featuring shorter lengths and eliminating the need to schedule in advance, to encourage more walk-ins and first-time customers.
The choice of the three locations – Uniondale, NY; King of Prussia, PA and Sacramento, CA – was driven primarily by data showing where the brand’s e-commerce customers primarily live.
Money characterized 2023 as a “big push” year for the brand’s retail strategy, two years after it became a publicly traded company in 2021. And Brilliant Earth isn’t the only luxury brand returning to the shopping mall.
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For a while, it seemed like luxury brands were done with malls as they built out flagships on trendy streets in towns like Charleston while pulling out of malls like American Dream. But that’s recently changed. Moncler is opening a new store in West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada on August 30. Meanwhile, Saint Laurent, Gucci, Golden Goose and Tiffany & Co. have all opened stores in malls and shopping centers across Southern California in the last 15 months.
Kristen Gall, president of Rakuten Rewards, said brands are opening more retail stores because of a relative return to normalcy in consumer spending — especially luxury and jewelry brands, which recovered at a much quicker pace.
“Retailers are recovering from two challenging years,” Gall said. “They weren’t in a healthy place for a long time.”
Money said Brilliant Earth is planning to continue to open new stores, although she declined to share the specific markets. Brilliant Earth’s quarterly revenue increased by 1.3% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2023, thanks to big spending around holidays including Mother’s Day.
“It’s been a big growth year for us,” Money said. “We’ve expanded our coverage of the U.S. geographically, and I’m excited to see what we learn from each of these stores. There are always things to learn from opening a store. We’ll be watching the data and that will guide where we expand to next.”
