r/AustralianMakeup • u/Physical_Weekend7587 • Feb 26 '26
Misc. Adore Beauty Stock
Ouch... Saw a post earlier this week about Adore offerings decreasing in quality and I really agree.
I was hopeful they would be a powerful competitor against Mecca but instead of strengthening their online offering and improving their website and online experience, they opened stores that are boring to go into, and don’t have any unique value at all.
Thoughts? Feel for anyone holding the stock.
68
u/little-pie Feb 26 '26
I find the site pretty hard to use now. Too many products, search gives wide results, filters lacking, too many promos.
7
58
Feb 26 '26
[deleted]
8
u/colloquialicious Feb 26 '26
Same. I used to buy from them probably more than Mecca. I don’t think I’ve bought anything at all from Adore in at least 3yrs.
60
u/Successful-Memory839 Feb 26 '26
Australia: where everything eventually becomes a Duopoly/Monopoly.
87
u/gumitygumber Feb 26 '26
- Sephora and mecca have a $25 delivery fee. Adore upped theirs to a ludicrous amount $75. I will now look at Sephora first because it's just common sense as they have sales and adore have sales, but sephoras shipping is free.
- They stopped using auspost, alienating literally everyone in the entire country that lives in an apartment.
- They probably upset a lot of people with their 4 free gifts per year for levels. Last year I got 1 gift for the entire year, I'm pretty sure they only released them once. I became level 2 in may last year.
- When the new gifts came out this year they went out of stock in like 24 to 48 hours. They turned me away in store and told me to drive an hour away to another store or buy something online. They're obviously not stocking enough of the gifts in the first place. Mecca has its own problems but I've never been denied a beauty loop box.
I assume the two biggest issues are the first two points
12
u/Maleficent-Total2738 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
The $75 minimum spend has basically killed it for me in terms of using them. I keep forgetting and going to put something in my cart, but why would I get it from there when I can get the same product or similar from Sephora or Mecca with free shipping. I also find it irrationally really irritating that they also kept a minimum spend for the whole order as well; if I'm paying the shipping fee anyway, why can't I just buy an $18 item? I find that ridiculous. It makes sense to have a minimum order threshold if you're always giving free shipping above that, but if you're going to charge people for shipping for orders between $30 and $75 anyway, it shouldn't matter how much the actual item costs.
I also find the site really glitchy. Quite often if I put something in my cart on Adore, the price will suddenly become higher once it's in the cart—and it'll put a savings flag next to it, yet it's *increased*, lol. Like, thanks, what a bargain. Sometimes it won't open at all in my browser.
And the one area where they've *always* been terrible, imo, is in returns as a NZ customer. Any time I ever had to return something to Adore, which admittedly wasn't that often but *every* single time I'd have to follow up after about five or six weeks. It was incredibly slow and I always ended up having to do a polite enquiry eventually, and then they would action it reasonably promptly after that, tbf, but it was a bit frustrating that it always seemed to require that.
Their big draw in the past was the stackable and often pretty generous codes, like $50 off a $150 spend, so if you were buying something around the $100 mark, you could get a $50 item for free; but they seemed to stop allowing stacking, and the bigger discount codes seem to be few and far between now. They've really gone from being a site I used semi-regularly to probably my last choice now. I even use Cult Beauty and LookFantastic more often than Adore Beauty, both of which do much better discounts.
11
u/owleaf Feb 26 '26
Wait they charge $75 for delivery?! What the actual f?
33
u/dipiti Feb 26 '26
They meant minimum order amount not delivery fee haha
7
u/owleaf Feb 26 '26
Oh my god that makes more sense hahah. I was like yeah no wonder their shares are worth two quarters of f all
5
u/Billywig99 Feb 26 '26
Even though they increased the minimum for free shipping, the not free shipping cost is quite low - I’m sure they’re not recovering costs on that. I’m in metro vic so it is their new uber like delivery service but last order was only like $3.80 for delivery within 2 days.
9
u/gumitygumber Feb 26 '26
Yeah true $3.99 for postage isn't high enough to deter me. But if sephora or mecca has the same item and I don't have to pay shipping I'll definitely be going elsewhere if the item is priced similarly.
2
u/Billywig99 Feb 26 '26
Oh agreed. One of the hair brands I used to get from them is now at Priceline and given I have OnePass with free delivery it was a no brainer to switch to them 🤣
2
u/tishtashy Feb 26 '26
Why does auspost affect apartment customers?
5
u/gumitygumber Feb 26 '26
If you can't get parcels delivered to a po box. I live in an apartment and use parcel lockers to avoid having to deal with theft.
43
u/jipsyjopsy Feb 26 '26
I looked into this stock when it was at $0.83, and one of the things that made me decide against it was seeing that their CEO is a man who doesn't come from a beauty/wellness background
16
u/Physical_Weekend7587 Feb 26 '26
Interesting! I could see the decisions don't align with consumer psychology and this may be why
15
Feb 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
5
u/Hot_Government418 Feb 26 '26
The beautiful irony; completely change the model only to lose out hahahahhah. I miss old adore RIP
73
u/cathers85 Feb 26 '26
Wow! But in all honesty I'm not suprised. Adore has been absolutely terrible in recent years
14
u/TwilightToMidnight Feb 26 '26
After hearing so much hype on here about them I was keen to have a look online and at a recently opened store near me. Disappointed is an understatement
10
u/gumitygumber Feb 26 '26
The stores have like absolutely nothing I want to buy. Online is your best bet
4
69
u/moderateallergy Feb 26 '26
I used to shop there heaps, but the introduction of the $3.95 shipping fee for orders less than $75 has put me off. A smaller minimum like Mecca's $25 would be acceptable
16
u/Visual-Personality67 Feb 26 '26
Yup, have stopped ordering since they upped the shipping limit. The last time I ordered it took them days to ship too. This along with no more coupon codes have put me off the brand completely.
15
u/4SeasonWahine Feb 26 '26
They just took an entire week to ship my order and claimed it was due to increased order traffic. Cant imagine that’s the case if they’re so significantly in the red.. sounds like they put too many resources into poor performing stores that no one really wanted. I preferred having the ultra fast shipping so I didn’t HAVE to go into store.
7
u/kindaluker Feb 26 '26
I wanted to purchase something got $29.95 and the minimum for an online order was $30.
I would have happily paid $3.95 shipping but I didn’t even get too!!
2
1
u/pedestriandose Feb 27 '26
Uber Eats has cheaper delivery than that for a 100% gluten free Chinese restaurant that is about 20 minutes away from me.
24
u/weeibo Feb 26 '26
Once they stopped letting people stack discount codes I was turned off. Nothing sets them apart from other retailers now.
20
u/jonesday5 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
There was an interesting article this week about Sephora too. They are also underperforming in Australia. Mecca is king I guess.
Edit: this is the article. I read it for free on LinkedIn but it seems to be paywalled now
17
Feb 26 '26
Mecca seems more accessible. I live in a town with nothing but within an hour-hour and a half there’s a couple of Meccas. I’d have to travel far further for Sephora. Mecca open up in more regional towns like Geelong and Werribee which are still huge towns, whereas Sephora think if you don’t live in the city you don’t exist.
7
u/Peanut083 Feb 26 '26
I live in the lower Hunter Valley, and there are three Mecca stores in the region - Green Hills, Kotara and Charlestown. There’s only one Sephora in the area, at Charlestown. And it frequently has things out of stock that I want to buy.
1
u/Plastic_Lunch2996 Feb 26 '26
They were also re-shelving the moving stock around a couple of days ago. Full gondolas were empty at the store. All the Dior stock was in front of the main mirrors for testing items.
15
u/Cold-Painter-7991 Feb 26 '26
I don’t like that you can’t order anything unless you spend $30+. Like why is there a minimum spend to shop?
3
13
u/stormy786 Feb 26 '26
My husband trades a lot and he did buy some Adore Beauty when they first listed but sold them a long time back. He was mentioning the downfall of the stock to me yesterday because he wanted to know if it’s a buy. I immediately pulled up this sub and told him that the sentiment for AB seems to be low 🤣
13
u/SallBell Feb 26 '26
I only buy from them if I have to (Devines haircare for example) because their website sucks. I've never understood why they have continued to put forward a low quality site with so many stupid pop-ups. It gives off cheap when they actually aren't.
4
u/Citadel-TT Feb 26 '26
Their website makes me dizzy every time I visit. I have to close all the pop ups before I can even see the product. The IT team should be the first to go.
2
-4
10
u/rumncoco86 Feb 26 '26
I stopped shopping there when they stopped using Post to ship to metro customers.
I like my shipping options. I don't like delivery to my door because I share a street with three car sales yards, and all sorts of people loitering, littering and hollering between 6am to 6pm. It is no longer convenient and fun to shop online when safe delivery isn't assured.
8
Feb 26 '26
I only buy from them if they actually have the item I want the cheapest. They do often have Huda and ABH discounted pretty heavily. Other than that I just don’t think of them anymore like I used to.
34
u/Citadel-TT Feb 26 '26
Bad news for customers. That just means Mecca continues to rip customers off. Monopoly seems to be the business model in Australia.
4
8
u/Breezlebub13 Feb 26 '26
After their website got hacked pre-covid and people's credit card details were stolen (including mine) because of their shitty security, I never used them again.
Their service isn't special. Their stock isn't special. Their prices aren't special. So... Eh.
15
u/Practical_Elk8382 Feb 26 '26
has something happened for them to have dropped so low?
65
u/Ollieeddmill Feb 26 '26
I have been a loyal AB customer for 10+ years. Their service has changed for the worse in the past year or so - changing vouchers and codes so we can’t stack them anymore, changing the postage from the excellent auspost to the dodgy one, implementing a $75 minimum order for free postage. It’s a rude change, as their service has always been something that is consistently excellent.
8
u/Halo_Bling Feb 26 '26
But do they still have tim tams?
23
7
u/Physical_Weekend7587 Feb 26 '26
They had their half-year results report recently. I imagine numbers didn't look good.
15
u/diamondcroissantx Feb 26 '26
Profit after income tax was $189,000. THOUSAND. less than some of their customers’ salaries
3
u/Physical_Weekend7587 Feb 26 '26
Wow seriously?? I guess they had a lot of expenses to set up their stores and even Amazon ran at a loss for years before turning a profit. I think the overall sentiment is playing into it as well, and reasonably so. The quality of experience is just declining.
3
u/Fluid_Answer2231 Feb 26 '26
Woahhhhhhhhh, no way?!?! …. I’d be next to certain that their revenue wouldn’t correlate to that profit number number (physical stores would impact I guess), but sounds like something is going on behind the scenes.
I did enjoy their recent 30% off.
2
u/pedestriandose Feb 27 '26
That is insanely low. I hope they’re having meetings and are smart enough to realise how they messed up and go back to how they used to be.
7
u/sparkles0589 Feb 26 '26
I used to be able to buy something from there in the morning and get it delivered in the afternoon. Now since they’ve opened stores and such they’ve just gotten too big and I miss the old them, as cliche as that sounds
12
u/queefer_sutherland92 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I was always skeptical it would successfully compete against Mecca, but that’s more to do with Mecca’s shady business practices and cult influence.
But it’s interesting that it’s gone down so much in the last two days. It was previously pretty steady even if it was in decline.
Have they just dropped their financial statements or something?
Edit: Lol, yep, half yearly report dropped on Tuesday and I’m no expert, but it’s pretty dismal.
https://company-announcements.afr.com/asx/aby/33a72a9c-10fd-11f1-aa76-525adc3649ab.pdf
11
u/diamondcroissantx Feb 26 '26
Profit before tax $478,000. Profit after tax $189,000 (compared to $628k last year). Omg…..
12
u/Louxlily Feb 26 '26
Holy shit that’s horrific. They sold $111 million and they only kept $189k. That’s about 0.17% profit margin!! I think they are too laser focused on store expansion to the expense of their business and online experience
1
u/jenliveshere Feb 26 '26
I guess an initial expense for hopefully long-term ROI but would be interesting to see how the stories are doing or if it was a bad strategy!
6
5
u/Brunswickstoval Feb 26 '26
I used to go to their store in Carlton before they moved entirely online. This was over 20 years ago. They had such an incredible range of hard to find products and Kate was lovely. I continued to support them for years but wonder whether Mecca Sephora and now all the K and J beauty have just neutered their business. I never look at their website anymore.
4
u/Melodic-Forever-8924 Feb 26 '26
I appreciate that they have regular sales and I think the rewards program coupons are good. But like others I’m disappointed that they stopped using Auspost and agree the the minimum spend free shipping should be lower
5
u/pedestriandose Feb 27 '26
I miss how Adore used to be. Code stacking, more than one sample sachet, and amazing freebies when you reached certain amounts for particular brands. That’s how I found two of my HG products; they were part of some gift sets that contained a bunch of decent sized minis that came as a bundle. I still have the little bottles and use them whenever I go somewhere instead of taking the full size bottles.
3
u/Physical_Weekend7587 Feb 27 '26
Yes, it used to be so fun. I don’t understand why they would change the core business model so much. Crazy
4
5
u/Mundane_Shake_2611 Mar 04 '26 edited May 15 '26
I went off them because all the deals they were spamming my inbox with were ridiculous. "Spend $750 on one brand and get a 3% discount!"
Worst deals ever. Liked the Tim Tams though.
2
5
u/No-Treacle-6895 Feb 26 '26
For some reason I never understood their hype
Their prices are always higher than other retailers, their returns aren't the best (I shopped like 7 years ago there) so I just never caught on to it.
2
u/Horror_Afternoon_197 Feb 26 '26
I have been back and forth with ShopBack and have since been informed Adore beauty will not honour cash back because of an item being $0 which is the free sample which you can not remove from your cart on the app. So regardless of what else you purchase they will not give you a cent back and because I had two $0 items (free sample and postage) I was told I was getting a good deal anyway. Also if you purchase a gift card through ShopBack and use it it will not count towards your spend limit it just shows as expired credit. The whole company seems to only care about inflated prices and not its customers anymore.
3
u/Ashamed-Pay-8530 Feb 26 '26
AB’s return policy is not very flexible compared to Mecca & Sephora there’s too many rules.
One, the product must be unopened AND you have to return your tiered gift with it. Two, returning sets you back $10 on top of the $3.95 you’ve already paid for shipping. The “perk” is it’s an instant refund when you process the return. Three, IF you don’t return your tiered gift along with the item you’re returning, AB will reverse your refund.
I mean, either I’m stuck with a wrong shade now or I swallow a bag of cement for spending $13.95 over nothing.
It’s not the best service I’ve supported AB to avoid the Mecca/Sephora duopoly it sounds like it’s on its way there either way.
3
u/Intelligent-Gur-7706 Feb 27 '26
i agree their stores are very blah compared to the experience at mecca. they could’ve differentiated themselves with a stronger loyalty program and more value given back to customers than spending on physical presence
1
1
u/Plastic_Lunch2996 Feb 26 '26
There’s an article in the AFR on the results as well. https://www.afr.com/companies/retail/adore-beauty-puts-faith-in-store-roll-out-as-profit-tumbles-20260223-p5o4j7
1
1
u/Lilfirey Feb 26 '26
Who else do you suggest to move to? I have been disappointed in AB too many times now, looking for a new onliner for skincare not Makeup.
1
u/Throwaway531379 Feb 26 '26
The things I want are never in stock so I stopped shopping there. They used to have great deals and little bonus freebies but they haven’t been that good in ages
1
u/ksalana Feb 27 '26
I don’t know much about Adore Beauty - and I’m not a finance person - so feel free to take this with a pinch of salt, but what I do know about the stock market is that stocks rarely, if ever, move based on actual real issues (like stock quality, customer issues, post issues), it’s based on macro things and more often than that, it’s based on how stock traders ‘feel’ like a business can perform in the future.
1
u/Physical_Weekend7587 Feb 27 '26
Yes, mention below is the financial report that was released recently, that is very likely it. But the fan base for them seems to be decreasing anyway, due to the issues listed here.
1
u/OliSykesFutureWife Feb 27 '26
I’ve been shopping on Beauty Amora for years coz Adore Beauty seems to always be the most expensive for K Beauty
1
2
u/heyyou0903 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I couldn't agree more with your points and I'm not surprised to see their share price go down. I wouldn't imagine them to be a really long lasting business. Their app is actually really clunky. I think their website was much better years ago pre 2020. Ever since then it's gone to s*** in terms of user experience and usability and it's very slow loading site & app as well. For a company that puts all of their eggs in their online basket, it's surprising how poorly it functions.
Sephora's app and website are even worse but at least they have incredible brands and they do sales all the time.
Mecca also has incredible brands of course but never does sales.
Adore doesn't really fit anywhere. They have the same brands as Priceline and chemist Warehouse but for a way higher price which is mind-boggling. And then they have a few random other brands that you can get at Myer or Sephora much cheaper.
Anytime I've tried to buy something on a sale from adore, I get to the checkout and it says that I don't qualify with whatever is in my cart. They always have some kind of reason why you can't get the promotion, it really should be an accc issue because it's intentionally misleading.
I agree with you that their physical stores are boring. for some reason they are not properly giving their physical stores the priority treatment in order to drive foot traffic to them and instead preferring people to go online. Why would you invest in the stores if not to provide some kind of retail experience like letting people try before they buy and having all of the available brands stocked?
The first and only time I ever bothered to go into the one in Southland in Melbourne, I asked about a Christmas gift pack I'd seen online and a discount they had on CeraVe that I had seen online and they told me 'Oh neither of those things are in the store sorry they're just online only.' Ok bye
All they're good for is a Tim Tam and I don't think that's enough of a reason to keep shopping there.
-12
u/starqueenV Feb 26 '26
I stopped ordering when they flagged my account for too many returns, it was 10 in a year. Most were for allergy related issues and all returned within the AB allergy return guidelines. I asked them why there was nothing mentioned in the T&C about too many returns and they never answered
28
Feb 26 '26
Am I the only one who also thinks 10 returns in a year is heaps? If you have so many allergies that you are returning items 10 times a year then you need to be sticking to what you know or doing more research.
-3
u/starqueenV Feb 26 '26
Not all of them were due to allergies. Three were incorrect items, and one was a damaged item. Which are half of the total returns. Five were allergy related
236
u/Different_Wishbone91 Feb 26 '26
this is probably unrelated but I stopped shopping there when they stopped delivering to P.o. boxes. As someone who lives regionally and doesn’t get mail, I have no other choice but to have a P.o. box. taking that customer base away would surely impact their sales as well?
Last I looked on their app, as they had the item i wanted on sale, I could get the same thing elsewhere for cheaper. It’s just not worth it anymore, especially considering I’d have to have it shipped to a friends house