Perth’s adult-retail scene has moved from whispered curiosity to mainstream retail in the space of a few short decades.
Adult stores first began appearing across Australia in the early 1970s as social attitudes towards sex shifted. The shops were originally tucked away, down laneways, and seen as late-night curiosities or dirty perverted stores full of unsavoury types. However as societal attitudes shifted to become more accepting of sex toys, your sex toys too evolved and became more suburbanised and professionalised. This national change in retail geography provides the context for what followed in Western Australia.
Where did it all begin in Perth?
Because early storefront openings in Perth were often small and lightly reported, a single, universally-recognised “first” West Australian sex shop isn’t clearly documented in public archives. Sorry everyone, we know that isn't the answer you were looking for. What is clear is the arc: a cautious 1970s and 1980s, an explosive and at the time shocking internet-fuelled 1990s with pornography going digital, and a more mature, multi-channel market from the 2000s onwards.
Basically, the web changed everything.
Perth entrepreneur Malcolm Day seized that moment when he founded AdultShop in 1999 and listed the company publicly — a high-profile, heavily reported move that turned adult retailing into e-commerce headline news. Day’s pitch was blunt and effective: “Everyone knows sex sells, and everyone is anticipating huge increases in e-commerce.” AdultShop’s rapid rise signalled that adult retail had left the secretive shadows and was becoming mainstream retail.
In the 2000s the local bricks-and-mortar sector matured. Lovers Adult Stores established itself in Perth in 2002 and expanded into a multi-site chain with a deliberate overt presence — daylight opening hours, shopping-centre locations and clear branding that helped destigmatise the sector. Lovers’ growth exemplifies the “suburbanisation” of adult retail: sex shops as ordinary retail destinations.
Independent shops have since kept the scene lively and offered bespoke or fetish based products for sectors of the market. Sinderellas built a local following in Mandurah and surrounding areas, offering regional customers a personable, service-oriented alternative to national chains. Other specialist independents—names you’ll still see around Northbridge and Fremantle—include each staking out a different tone from boutique luxury to classic local adult shop.
So who is buying sex toys and how much are we spending on them in WA?
Retail data shows WA customers spend — and can spend well when the economy is on track. An analysis reported in Inside Retail found Western Australians recorded the highest average online-order spend on sex toys at about $95.74 per order, a figure retailers use to justify larger local inventories and targeted marketing. That willingness to buy higher-value items online has helped fuel both specialist bricks-and-mortar ranges and robust e-commerce niches.
Australian online retail analytics projects spanning tens of thousands of orders have shown adult products sell across urban, suburban and regional postcodes, undercutting the myth that this demand is only metropolitan or niche.
Today the market blends the scale of supply chains, the intimacy of independents, and the convenience of e-commerce. Recent consolidation of businesses — notably lovers/AdultShop transactions and the sale of AdultShop assets in 2019 — shows a maturing industry where brand, logistics and confidentiality matter as much as novelty.
Where to next?
New players, Perth Sex Toys 24/7 entered the market in 2024 and immediately introduced a game changing service that many savvy consumers in Perth's adult entertainment scene have been crying out for.
They have flipped the current model of selling sex toys in Perth on its head. No longer are you restricted by opening hours or facing the anxiety of going into a visible store to buy that secret dildo you want no-one to know about.
Perth Sex Toys 24/7 provide an online store, that is open 24 hours a day and an instant delivery service that has been well received by customers across Perth who are looking for something now, or when everywhere else is closed.
They match this service with affordable prices, plus a locally owned and a friendly personalised customer focus that has become the hallmark and mantra of its business.
For many Perth consumers, the ease of ordering from the comfort of your couch, in a fully discreet manner makes buying sex toys simple, and a natural online progression of a fifty-year normalisation.
