The U.K. prestige beauty retail market is seeing a renewal of activity, according to BW Confidential. Retailers ranging from Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Marks & Spencer have launched new concepts and store-in-stores over the past year, while online sales are also seeing strong growth.
“The business for us is terrific,” said Space NK chief merchant, Joyce Avalon. “We’ve seen the biggest increases in five years, with high double-digit growth in same-store, like-for-like sales pretty much across all categories. Color has performed particularly well, and appliances are also strong—that trend is not slowing down.” Space NK has opened three stores over the past year and is scouting locations for additional openings.
Over the past year, a number of department store retailers have revamped their beauty floors, introducing new concepts to put more of a spotlight on beauty.
Selfridges, for example, unveiled a new beauty area with a focus on services at its flagship Oxford Street store in London last fall, called the Beauty Workshop. Positioned off of the main beauty hall, Beauty Workshop triples the size of Selfridges’ beauty space. The Beauty Workshop features 50 brands, including Ren, Jurlique and Caudalie. In terms of services, the area hosts a St. Tropez spray tan booth, a Blink Brow Bar and nail services via The Paint Shop by Nails Inc., which allows consumers to choose a manicure according to color.
Department store retailer Harvey Nichols has also introduced two ambitious new concepts: Beauty Bazaar and Beauty Mart. Beauty Bazaar is a standalone store which opened in the Liverpool One Shopping Centre. The store offers a wide range of established, niche brands and exclusive brands. Services are also an important part of the mix. The retailer also inaugurated its Beauty Mart concept, which it describes as a “disruptive approach to retail.” The shop-in-shop boutique offers a tightly-edited beauty offering with an assortment that spans both prestige and mass make-up brands.
To read BW Confidential’s full report on UK retail click here.