David’s Bridal is unveiling a new chapter in its business with the acquisition of Love Stories TV and the creation of the Pearl Media Network. The move is an attempt by the chain to move beyond being known just as a purveyor of bridal gowns.

In launching a retail media network, David’s Bridal will look to unlock new revenue streams. That echoes approaches at other merchants, including Saks and Best Buy Canada, which have made recent moves in retail media.

David’s Bridal ranks No. 467 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers by web sales. There, it falls under the Apparel & Accessories category. Digital Commerce 360 projects that David’s Bridal’s online sales in 2024 will reach $164.62 million.

David’s Bridal web sales by year

How Love Stories TV will power David’s Bridal’s retail media network

“David’s is known for dresses; I want David’s to be ubiquitous with weddings,” said Elina Vilk, chief business officer of David’s Bridal, who arrived at the company in August. “We are going to build a marketplace and sell everything the bride needs in the process.”

Vilk is a veteran of IT, having worked in leadership roles at Facebook, WooCommerce and Hootsuite. She said she wants to bring that IT expertise to David’s to create a whole digital ecosystem that emphasizes B2B commerce as much as direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels.

Vilk explained that the creation of Pearl Media Network will allow David’s to ramp up its B2B revenue. That revenue will come from the creation of digital ad spots on Pearl’s platform and Davids.com. Those spots, in turn, will allow other businesses to more easily reach David’s consumers.

Mapping long, modern walks down the aisle

Part of the new David’s vision for an immersive wedding ecosystem for consumers and advertisers will be an evolved approach to changes in wedding demographics and timelines.

“People are dating longer before getting engaged,” Vilk said. “On average, people are together for 3.25 years before they get engaged. The average used to be two years. Before that, it was one year.”

Meanwhile, the engagements themselves are longer than they used to be.

“Engagements used to be 10-12 months; now it is 14-18 months,” Vilk noted, saying that from the first date to exchanging rings at the altar now often spans five years. That can mean more time to sell.

“Longer engagements benefit David’s,” Vilk stated.

She explained that the long engagement window allows for much more content consumption regarding weddings.

“The wedding day is the dream, the fantasy, and your content consumption around weddings goes into hyper-overdrive,” Vilk assessed.

Advertisers on Pearl Media Network

In the meantime, Vilk said David’s Bridal is looking for vendors who need to sell to brides. As advertisers, they will be part of the new David’s Bridal ecosystem. The network will offer tailored “e-spots” for those advertisers to make themselves known to consumers as they scroll through dozens of dresses on Davids.com.

“We need to strategically scale our business so that it is not just about dresses but about B2B,” Vilk said, adding that 90% of all brides go to a David’s Bridal at some point, whether they ultimately get the dress there or not.

According to David’s Bridal, one in three brides wears one of the retailer’s gowns, creating a huge pool of potential business, she posited.

“I am looking at that as an audience, and as a media person, you have peak audience at the point of household formation,” Vilk said. “This is the point when a bride and groom start co-habiting and making every decision, deciding toothpaste, but up until now David’s has only been selling them dresses. There is a huge business that we are not tapping into.”

Vilk said she believes this expansion can help the company move beyond past struggles. Those have included two rounds of bankruptcy, once in 2019 and the other in 2023. David’s Bridal currently has 139 retail outlets.

According to a company press release, with the acquisition, Love Stories TV founder and CEO Rachel Silver will become the general manager of media for David’s and chief product officer for Pearl Media Network. Under Pearl Media Network, David’s will be building upon Love Stories TV’s content across social media platforms, YouTube, and its podcast network; streaming TV (including Roku, Tubi, Vizio, Sling and others); as well as developing breakthrough content and advertising offerings from social, web, streaming TV and in stores.

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