Beauty Retail 'on the move'

Lately there is quite movement and observe a lot of changes in the point of sale of the beauty and cosmetic sector. Which time those when The Body Shop opened the way to the organic cosmetic with natural products cruelty-free, in the decade of the 80,setting the tone for the concept of monobrand store, with identical image in all their establishments. The luxury australian brand, Aesop, instead, considers pioneer in the design individualized of his Signature-Stores. No two stores are alike, although all share an unmistakable aesthetic language of high value.Since then, a lot of time has passed and stores in the sector have evolved and changed: new ideas and innovative store concepts have emerged that surprise and remain in memory. The multichannel sale has arrived to remain . Values like the ethical and the credibility, the origin, the transparency, the sustainability and the cruelty free are now almost forced, so much for the products of corporal care as for the ones of make-up and cosmetic of colour. The beauty sees increasingly like a holistic concept, where includes the wellness and the spa. Most innovative and emerging niche brands are no longer satisfied with a simple Corner in department stores and High-Street drugstores. Many of the new independent beauty brands bet to open his own shops, in which they expose, or rather, they stage their products with creativity and they can show their Know How, their mission and values to the potential customers. For example, the Swedish brand of natural cosmetic L:A Bruket combines the cold matt steel stainless with the warm red of the bricks in his purist shop of Berlin Mitte and stages a new product of corporal care in an artistic installation, with the main ingredient, the clay, as leading.Besides, these small brands clean beauty no longer content to just show up and sell on the Internet. Quickly they realize that their innovate products have to be able to experience and touch. Especially, in the case of the cosmetics, the haptic experience is used to to be important for the decision of purchase. And this only achieves testing, smelling and using the products in situ - sew that the Dutch brand Rituals already comes showing, from years ago, in his shops around the world.The concept Retail-as-a -Service or RaaS has arrived also to the sector of the beauty. All Yours In Barcelona is a temple of the natural cosmetic that bets by the transparency, the ingredients 100% safe, the sustainability, the cruelty-free and a mentality body-positive. There, the young indie brands international that up to now have been selling almost exclusively on-line or on Instagram, can present in a physical stage. It even offers the opportunity to test the products in a treatment booth, thus complying with the try before you buy. As is already common in other product categories, this shop offers shelves for rent within its sales area. The founder, Maria, and her team are responsible for making a careful selection of the admitted brands and have even created their own Grey List of those ingredients and substances that they consider unacceptable.Cocunat, a Spanish brand that up to now only was available on-line, has bet by an environment of showroom total in his first physical shop in Barcelona. The space is only devoted to experience and test his products and transmit the Know How that there is behind his formulas cruelty-free: Touch it, proof it and experiences it! There, the available gender remains in the back room whereas to the customers informs them , with tablets willing in the walls, on the active substances, innovative and natural, that use and the process of production of his formulas. A very professional and didactic way to do it.Another new trend is the manufacture of products in situ paying attention to the individual needs of each customer. For this, the new brands of natural beauty have sometimes even of an integrated workshop and visible in the same shop in which they mix the products to measure in small batches. It is the case of Brewing Beauty Co. in Berlin. Here, the products experience acutely and adapt to the individual needs of each customer, and even, of each season of the year. Afterwards they mix in situ practically at the moment. More proximity and customization is not possible!Until important mainstream brands, whose products sell in any supermarket, have begun to create his own universes of brand to stage them, and surrender in passing a homage in urban zones of high frequency. Beiersdorf Carries years doing it in his shops Nivea of Hamburg and Berlin. Recently the multinational Henkel has opened his individual House of Schwarzkopf in Berlin Mitte, a immersive universe in which the customers can live the history, the Know How and the innovation of the brand of interactive way. The staged has a high creative value and effective. In this type of establishments, these popular brands can deploy freely all his portfolio of products and range of services, far of the rules and limitations imposed usually by the powerful chains of big consumption. The shops Nivea even have treatment rooms, and the House of Schwarzkopf has his own hair salon.Centre of beauty instead of shopping centre? Also it is possible! In Barcelona, an unemployed shopping centre has turned into the first centre of integral beauty of the city. Where before there was a Shopping Center conventional, today there is a universe of products and services of beauty and welfare: the Alura Beauty Mall, a temple devoted entirely to the beauty and to the premium care in an elegant and friendly environment. His more than 1.000 square metres house all the last in treatments and technical of beauty and of corporal care: five hair salons, each one with a very differentiated positioning, a centre of nails, specialists in mesotherapy and massages until services of aesthetic surgery. All the needs remain fully covers.

Beauty Retail 'on the move'

Barbara Jäger

Specialist in Retail Marketing and Retail Innovation