For years, people have wondered if Victoria’s Secret was on the way out. If you’ve walked by a shuttered store at your local mall, you might have wondered the same thing. But let’s get one thing straight: No, Victoria’s Secret is not going out of business. In fact, the company is posting stronger sales, reshuffling its stores, and actually finding ways to come back from a tough few years. Here’s what’s really behind the headlines.
The Current Status: Still Open, Still Selling
Victoria’s Secret remains one of the best-known lingerie and beauty chains in the U.S., and you’ll still find their stores in hundreds of malls and shopping centers. People sometimes mix up “closing stores” with “going out of business,” but those aren’t the same thing. Yes, the company has closed some locations—more on that later—but the overall business is operational, selling both in-store and online.
The company spun off from its parent, L Brands, and now stands alone as Victoria’s Secret & Co. If you shop online or drop by their stores, you’ll notice they’re still releasing new product lines, marketing campaigns, and big promotions. They haven’t thrown in the towel.
How Are Sales and Profits Doing?
Let’s get to the numbers—the real test of whether a company might be in trouble. Recently, Victoria’s Secret surprised a lot of analysts by beating its second quarter expectations. The company reported net sales of $1.5 billion, which marked a nearly 3% rise year-over-year.
Comparable store sales, which look at stores open at least a year, went up 4%. If you remove the sales hit from a recent data breach, those numbers look even stronger. Gross margins, which measure how profitable each sale is, expanded to 35.6%. That’s good for any retailer—and suggests Victoria’s Secret is selling more inventory at full price, without resorting to heavy discounts.
The management, now led by CEO Hillary Super, emphasizes that the business is “in growth mode.” That means they’re expanding certain categories, like beauty, and focusing on bringing in new and younger shoppers. Actually, their latest numbers show a 15% bump in new customers.
How Is Victoria’s Secret Reinventing Itself?
You don’t survive in retail by doing the same thing over and over again, and Victoria’s Secret knows this. Executives point to four areas of focus: making their bras stand out, revamping their PINK sub-brand, selling more beauty products, and reshaping the overall brand image to feel more inclusive and modern.
They’re not just relying on flashy fashion shows or celebrity endorsements anymore. Instead, the company is investing in product innovation—think new fits, better materials, and expanding sizes. They’re working to clean up their image after years of criticism about exclusivity, sexism, and company culture issues.
Another big shift? Less discounting. Selling things for full price is a sign of brand health, because it means shoppers still find the merchandise desirable enough to pay up. Over the last year, Victoria’s Secret has noticeably pulled back on promotions, betting that quality and branding will do the selling.
What’s Up With the Store Closures?
There’s no question that Victoria’s Secret is closing stores—30 U.S. locations from early 2025 to November, trimming the overall count down to 768 in North America. This actually follows an earlier spree of cuts during the pandemic, like when over 240 stores closed in 2020, and another 50 in 2021.
Why all the closures? It’s not a panic move. The company calls it “strategic optimization.” In plain English: They’re shrinking their footprint to keep only the best-performing stores, ones that get good traffic and bring in money.
That lets them cut unnecessary costs and shift more of the business to e-commerce, which has become a huge part of their business. Mall traffic is still unpredictable, and rent on low-performing stores isn’t cheap. By shutting down extra locations, Victoria’s Secret says it can focus on making fewer stores more profitable, while also putting energy into its website and digital growth.
Analysts and retail experts are on board with this. They say a smaller, more nimble store network makes sense in today’s market, where shopping often starts on your phone.
What Are the Main Challenges?
No retailer gets a free ride, and Victoria’s Secret has faced plenty of backlash and tough competition lately. A few years ago, they became a lightning rod for criticism about body image, lack of inclusivity, and company culture. The brand made headlines for canceling its long-running fashion show in 2019 and eventually settled a $90 million harassment case in 2022.
Rivals like Savage X Fenty and H&M have pushed models of all shapes and backgrounds, making inclusivity a top selling point. This put real pressure on Victoria’s Secret to update not just its ads, but its whole approach.
More recently, the brand has been hit by external problems. In the second quarter of 2025, a data breach knocked $20 million off sales, highlighting new digital risks. Plus, tariffs are expected to cost the company around $100 million this year, though they say they can soften that blow with supply chain changes.
There’s also the everyday problem of where Victoria’s Secret stores are—primarily inside malls. Mall traffic isn’t what it was last decade, and analysts do warn that could slow down progress, especially if foot traffic keeps falling.
A Look Back: Where Did All This Start?
It helps to remember just how bumpy the ride has been since 2018, when Victoria’s Secret first started rethinking its business. Between 2018 and 2020, the company closed over 330 stores. The biggest wave hit during the pandemic, like so many other chains.
Then came the spin-off from L Brands in summer 2021. As a stand-alone company, Victoria’s Secret had to prove it had a future. Since then, they’ve revamped marketing, tested new product ideas, and even brought back their fashion show—though critics are still out on whether the show fits today’s culture.
Metrics show it’s not just smoke and mirrors: Profitability is steadier, and the latest reports point to careful, if sometimes slow, growth.
For a while, some business writers thought the chain might file for bankruptcy. That never happened, though. There’s simply no public evidence or SEC filings to support the idea that Victoria’s Secret is a bankruptcy risk anytime soon.
What’s Next for Victoria’s Secret?
The future, according to the company and outside experts, is about balance. Management talks about “brand reinvention” and “expanding the customer base.” In simpler words: They’re working hard to win back some trust and build loyalty with a broader crowd.
Expect more focus on digital shopping—think better apps, more social media engagement, and faster fulfillment. The chain knows that younger shoppers spend as much time scrolling as they do browsing in-store.
Product-wise, the strategies will stick with bras, which are still the core business, but beauty and loungewear are getting more attention. Growing those categories could help if the traditional lingerie market shrinks.
On tariffs and global supply chain problems, Victoria’s Secret says they’re watching costs carefully and adjusting their suppliers where possible. It probably won’t erase all outside pressures, but it shows they’re not standing still.
If you want more about how brands adapt these days, or how strategic store closures can power up business health, there are some good examples and tips at Edge Business Mag.
Still, the brand’s not totally in the clear. Some longtime fans don’t like the shifts, and some newcomers still hold a grudge from the old days. The biggest challenge may be staying relevant without losing their core customer, who helped make them famous in the first place.
The Bottom Line: Victoria’s Secret Is Not Going Out of Business
Here’s where we land: Victoria’s Secret is still a major retailer with hundreds of shops and a strong online business. Store closures are more about right-sizing than retreating. You probably won’t see the chain disappear from your local mall anytime soon.
The company faces some real issues—competition, reputation, and external costs—but for now, its sales and profits are heading in the right direction. The management seems clear-eyed about what needs fixing and where the brand can go next.
So no, Victoria’s Secret is not going out of business. They’re just trying to work smarter in a changing market. Will it work forever? We’ll keep an eye on the numbers, but today, Victoria’s Secret is very much in business.
