Q&A: Lounge CEO Dan Marsden on rewriting lingerie stereotypes

The underwear retailer, founded in 2015 by couple Dan and Mel Marsden, offers a range of lingerie, apparel and swimwear for women, but continues its bid to be recognised as “specialists in underwear” rather than being a jack-of-all-trades.

Lounge says its physical debut hopes to “rewrite the stereotypes” when it comes to shopping for lingerie, with a view to becoming the go-to destination for women.

As it looks forward to the opening of its permanent store in London later this year, co-founder and chief executive Dan Marsden sat down with Retail Week to discuss the brand’s evolution.

What is the story behind Lounge and how has it evolved to where it is today?

“Mel and I founded the brand back in 2015 and it was essentially reverse-engineered in the way that we built it. It was built backwards because we knew how to market a product through social media. If you go back around seven years, this is when ecommerce and social media was really just kicking off. Timing played a huge part in it.

“We knew how to market a product through social media and then we built the product around that marketing strategy, which is probably an unusual way to go about it because most people found a company because of having a passion for a product or filling a gap in the market. There were loads of criteria that had to go into it: it had to be cheap to ship, cheap to store, big margins so it was scalable, brandable so that when people posted on social media everyone knew who it was straight away.

“It just so happened that underwear fit perfectly around that marketing strategy and it was at a later stage that the actual brand values really came into it. It was important to us to create a really strong business foundation that was profitable, so that we could actually scale it and really push that message out.

“In year one we forecasted to do between £40k and £50k. I think we ended up doing about £850k in the first year, which shows how it blew up. We have completely organically scaled over the past seven years and we have still had no outside investment. It has just grown like wildfire.”

You recently trialled a series of pop-up stores, how did they perform?

“It was always in our mind that we wanted permanent stores. To start off with, the vision was definitely more flagships in major cities. Covid initially delayed it and when we came out of Covid it was very much us dipping our toes in the water and making sure that there was demand from our customers to have the product in real life.

“It proved our theory that our sector definitely lends itself more to real-life space than others, simply down to the fact that we have 50 size variants across a bra, as well as the want and need for people to touch and feel the product to actually appreciate the quality of what we are offering, which is really hard to get across when you’re a pure ecommerce player. 

“The pop-ups have proven to be really successful and that the real-life space is needed for us.”

Lounge recently confirmed the opening of its first permanent store, what can we expect?

“When people see the store in real life, you will instantly know it looks nothing like any other underwear store that is currently out there. It is a service offering, so essentially you’ve got very minimal product out and you have to ask for your sizes rather than having every size out on the floor.

“That is where I think a lot of underwear shops fall down because they can start to look like markets and you have to put so much product out. We’ve gone the other side of it.

“We will have very minimal product out with our hero pieces, where you can still touch and feel what you are going to buy, but then you go and ask for your size to try it on. It gives the store a much cleaner, fresher look and portrays our brand aesthetics in the best way possible.

“There’s no doubt that our store is very Instagrammable, which is only a good thing for us. It is also about reaching a consumer who isn’t on social media. We want a national presence where anyone in the UK has got a store within distance.”

Who do you consider your biggest competitor?

“There is definitely a lack of competition in our space in regard to modern-day players. Traditionally you would probably look at our competitors being Victoria’s Secret or Boux Avenue, but they are run in very old-fashioned ways so we don’t necessarily see them as competition.

“If I had to pick someone I would probably say the US players like Skims and Savage Fenty, but I think the product offerings are very different. There are no players in the UK that I’d be concerned about or say are a direct competitor at the moment.”

What expansion plans are in the pipeline for Lounge?

“The UK trades about 25% of our company so we are definitely an international business. Once we roll out stores in the UK, the idea is then to very quickly roll out into mainland Europe, through Germany, France and the Netherlands.

“We’re still seeing strong growth and the cost-of-living crisis will definitely be making an impact, but it is hard to measure. A lot of our products are admittedly a luxury and are probably towards the higher end of the market, so if consumers do need to cut back on something, potentially it is going to be a product like ours. It is not a huge concern at the moment, but I do appreciate that a lot of people will be feeling the pinch.

“We’re trying to play a really long-term game in a short space of time, it is incredibly hard to find really good locations that are available because the really hot ones are very competitive. It is very frustrating, but that is part of the game.”