RETAIL BRICKS-AND-MORTAR
Glossier’s stores (left) act as community hubs, while Harrods (above) is enhancing the retail experience via in-store beauty services
permanent closure of eight stores in July. According to Hathaway, the retailer’s flagship on London’s iconic shopping district Oxford Street is “a logical place to establish an experience for the 500,000 people who pass by the street each day”, so it was a surprise move when John Lewis opted to convert floors into office space. But Nancy Liberman, VP Marketing at customer management platform JRNI, says there is always a place for department stores across Britain, not just in the capital, for time-poor consumers. But they “need to deliver experiences, up their service game and deliver value beyond going to a smaller shop”. Citing Nordstrom in the US, Liberman adds that the mix of personalised and pre-booked appointments will help to create experiences shoppers crave. But she warns “the challenge for many department stores is a lack of focus, they need to focus on a few departments and really excel with assortment, access and experience”. For example, if Debenhams does land a buyer, the retailer’s strategy is expected to focus on reinventing its beauty proposition, a key department for the company.
COMMUNITY MATTERS
The outlook for the high street will be less of ‘the sell’. An extreme reference is The Forum shopping complex in Groningen, Holland, where products are rented rather than sold and experience is key in the effort to show that town centres do not need to sell to survive. Community hubs are frequently mentioned, while Glossier’s regionally themed stores are cited as role models for legacy retailers. “It’s about meeting someone in line waiting outside, who uses the same products or is from the same town or has the same hair and you talk about where you get it cut. It’s really about bringing people together,” explained Glossier founder Emily Weiss to The Guardian in 2019, before being forced to close all stores as a result of the pandemic.
British activist brand Lush also embraced hyper-localism in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. First trialled via its London flagship store and later expanded to 45 locations in the UK, Lush turned its stores into regional distribution centres during lockdown to prevent its fresh cosmetics from going to waste.
Meanwhile, Deciem retrained its in-store sales consultants to become virtual sales assistants to aid consumers in their
58 January 2021
local areas. Beauty retailers could also take inspiration from other consumer goods sectors, such as book chain Waterstones, which promotes local bookseller recommendations and events with resident authors. Meanwhile, Next and Harrods have understood the risk of a London-centric retail strategy and spotted the opportunity outside of the capital by launching dedicated beauty stores in Reading, Milton Keynes and Essex.
Independent retailers are also creating localised strategies and building momentum. These include Content Beauty and Seekology in London, Amaranth in Manchester and Wideye in Brighton, which serve as refreshing alternatives to stagnant mainstream options.
“By upskilling store teams, retailers can enhance their
e-commerce proposition while demonstrating social responsibility by reducing their footprint through local fulfilment,” says Grigoras. “Offering in-store appointments provides a safer and enriched shopping experience, while assisted remote purchasing means online shoppers can benefit from a store assistant’s expertise via a video call. “Knowledgeable staff can advise shoppers on suitable beauty and cosmetic products, take the order and arrange appropriate delivery. “Most importantly, retailers must ensure that all stock is available on every channel. This way no sales will be missed due to stockouts and retailers will avoid the need for unnecessary discounting.”
As well as ensuring stock levels are maintained both online and offline, incorporating bricks-and-mortar into digital campaigns will be vital for retailers keen to promote the irreplaceable physical shopping experience. Superdrug is using TikTok in-store to showcase the products that have gone viral and welding together online and physical retail in imaginative ways. Elsewhere rival Boots has used its YouTube channel to promote its safety measures in an effort to win back footfall.
“What constitutes retail success needs a wholesale rethink,” says Hathaway. “2021 will be the year we truly begin to see what the next decade has in store for the industry. The buzzwords will be utility and experience. Any beauty retailer or brand that expects a store to only sell and e-commerce to only deliver has not grasped the magnitude of change underway.”
But do consumers actually want physical stores anymore? Grigoras says certainly. “Going to the shops is woven into the fabric of our culture, and it is in the interest of society to ensure high streets retain their vibrancy and energy as the heart of our towns and cities”
cosmeticsbusiness.com
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