Ear piercing studio Rowan is on track to hit 100 stores in 2025

Although Rowan carries earrings and cleansing solution, the majority of its revenue comes from its piercing services, which are carried out by licensed nurses. The brand is ramping up its physical retail footprint to better cater to a growing range of customers, from young children and teenagers to people in their 70s and 80s.

For a brand like Rowan, a brick-and-mortar presence is a necessity, not a nice to have. “You have to come in and get pierced. You can’t get pierced online,” as Lynda Fisher, Rowan’s chief revenue officer, put it to Modern Retail. She added, “The rapid growth [of studios] really is an extension of demand.” Rowan declined to share sales growth, but according to Entrepreneur, Rowan had an annual run rate of $100 million in revenue in November 2024.

Rowan began as an at-home service in 2018 but switched to brick-and-mortar retail a year later to serve more customers and avoid issues like scheduling changes. It tested out shop-in-shops in hundreds of Targets beginning in 2020 but exited the retailer in 2022 to focus on its own stores. “We’re really at the point where we feel like our true partners are our customers, and we want to give them the best experience they can have in our own four walls,” Fisher said.

Rowan has spent the last few years building up its store fleet from 14 studios in 2022 to 34 studios in 2023 and 63 studios in 2024. It now has about 70 studios across the United States. Rowan’s first shop was on the Upper East Side in New York City.

“The sterility side of our service is one of the top things valued by our customers,” Fisher said. But customer service and adding unique personal touches is another big focus. Anyone who gets a piercing at Rowan — no matter their age — receives a certificate of bravery. Rowan is also launching a program in late March allowing customers to get their earrings switched out for free when they buy a pair from Rowan. That service will be available Monday through Thursday and is geared toward those who may be nervous about pulling out their initial earrings.

“There are a lot of emotions that can come into getting your piercing, whether you’re a child or you’re an adult,” Fisher said. “It’s a little scary, it’s exciting, it’s anxiety-provoking. We focus on making sure they feel good and that we’re patient. … We try to make it a fun experience.”

Rowan offers two different methods of piercings — needle and piercing gun — as well as eight different types of piercings: lobe, upper lobe, mid-helix, helix, forward helix, flat, conch and tragus. It also sells hoops, studs and charms in stores and online. Many customers buy earrings from Rowan’s website after getting their ears pierced. The online business is growing, in part because “the trust is there,” Fisher said.

Rowan takes a few data points into account when nailing down studio locations. It looks at zip codes where people are buying its jewelry online, and it uses social media to ask customers where they’d like to see the brand next. The brand also maintains relationships with real estate agencies. Now in its seventh year in business, Rowan is able to “pivot more quickly” to get to certain markets, Fisher said.

“What’s cool about Rowan is that we could go into a large mall, a large lifestyle center, or some smaller locations or local street locations, and we would be equally as successful,” she added. “Piercing is a milestone, and the demand [for that service] is there.”

Rowan is stepping up its store footprint as the piercing space becomes more crowded. Studs, an ear piercing studio founded in 2019, is on track to open 10 new stores in 2025, including in Tampa, Houston and Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Claire’s rebranded its piercing offerings in 2023 to include a new logo and focus on personalization.

Ultimately, in today’s competitive retail environment, “brick-and-mortar is essential for building a brand,” said Sam Vise, CEO of the retail intelligence platform Optimum Retailing. Stores allow for strong customer interaction and increase the chances of “an impulse buy,” he told Modern Retail.

“If you really want to have a brand, you want to have something on the street so people can come in and have that experience,” Vise said.