EXCLUSIVE: Rowan courts landlords with nurse-led ear-piercing, new format
Ear-piercing and jewelry company Rowan is plotting big expansion as it prepares to unveil a new, more upscale format.
The company, founded in 2017 by former Wall Street executive Louisa Schneider, started out as an at-home concierge-style piercing service. It opened its first physical store in 2020 and hasn’t looked back since.
Rowan reinvented the traditional retail model for ear-piercing by giving it a medical bent: Every piercing is performed by a licensed nurse who has been trained to pierce ears. The nurses are a key component of what Rowan calls its “clinical piercing standard, a set of stringent protocols and training guidelines developed to prioritize customer safety at every step of the ear piercing process.
The standard also encompasses sterilized equipment, the exclusive use of hypoallergic earnings and detailed aftercare support, the company said.
Rowan locations ("studios") offer an inviting, clean and stylish environment, with elements that include a pink storefront, pink and beige interior walls and lacquered millwork fixtures. Rowan-branded wallpaper in the piercing areas adds a pop of color. The piercing area is designed to be comfortable and clean for both the customers and piercing nurses.
Expansion
With approximately 120 studios, Rowan is one track to have 135 locations by the end of the year. Looking further out, the company has set an ambitious goal when it comes to expansion.
“Based on data and thorough market research, we are confident that Rowan should grow to service more than 1,000 locations in the domestic U.S. alone,” Schneider told Chain Store Age. “Expansion at such a scale makes us unique and requires exceptional decision making, discipline and requires partnering with legendary real estate pioneers."
The company’s upcoming locations include The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a Forbes Company property. Opening in mid-December, the location will be Rowan’s first “bespoke” studio, with a design that takes its cues from luxury retail. (The format will also offer private rooms for piercing.) A second will follow at Forbes’ Somerset Collection in Troy, Mich.
Chain Store Age spoke with Schneider about Rowan’s new format, its real estate strategy and more.
What distinguishes the ear piercing experience at Rowan?
Our combination of licensed medical professionals, premium materials and clinical standards ensures a consistently clean, safe and comfortable experience.
Rowan is the only ear piercing studio supported by a dedicated medical advisory board, a team of healthcare experts who ensure the company’s practices are regularly updated and aligned with the latest medical research.
Competition in top-performing malls for space can be intense. How has Rowan met the challenge?
One of the most important parts of our business is building and maintaining strong relationships with the real estate partners and landlords we work with.
We also have a proven business model with a unique use in a center, one that drives traffic and volume. After all, you can't get pierced online! We are also nimble on footprint, allowing us to move quickly and competitively to secure space of various scale and shape when they become available.
The Gardens is a good example. It's our first location with the Forbes family, who assist brands when entering new markets. The relationship took years to build. We're excited to work with them.
What is Rowan’s real estate strategy?
We look for sites with a large trade area serving our core customer, along with strong co-tenancy and adjacencies. I personally visit every site before we sign a lease to make sure we're well positioned to bring Rowan to that community.
Our expansion team also takes a data-driven approach. It uses AI tools and market knowledge to find our customers and identify the centers that fit best.
Competition matters, too. In Palm Beach, we're the first to offer consistent piercing services with flat-back styles. In other malls, we're one of three companies piercing ears. Each situation has its own benefits, and we weigh both when we evaluate real estate.
The Palm Beach location will also be home to Rowan’s first bespoke studio. How does it differ from the standard experience?
We took our recognizable, proven Rowan studio and experience and elevated it for the Palm Beach customer. That meant a new lighting package, an elevated seating area, redesigned interior signage and a piercing area set back from the storefront so the jewelry takes center stage.
We're also debuting a flat-back ramp display with earrings designed for this client.
The Forbes family is thoughtful about who they lease to across their portfolio. Our teams put a lot of work into a design concept that felt like Rowan and fit Palm Beach, and that's what earned us the space. Now we're focused on bringing it to life.
Do you plan to replicate it in other locations?
We will apply what we learn in Palm Beach to improve our service and product offerings for studios that we have open today and future studios in similar locations.
Every Rowan studio is built around the same clinical piercing standard, the same commitment to licensed piercing nurses and the same safe and celebratory experience.
Within that framework, we want each studio to feel like it belongs in its community. That means paying attention to the neighborhood, the center it's part of, and the families and customers who will walk through the door.
