Beauty Success Sisters opens its first Beauty Sisters concept store, near Bordeaux, France.
Key facts
Sector : Beauty
Format : 70 square meters
Year Opened : 2016
Store Location : Near Bordeaux (in the E. Leclerc commercial center at Sainte-Eulalie)
Number of stores: 1 Beauty Sisters, part of Beauty Success chain (293 stores)
Number of Countries : 2 for Beauty Success (France (metropolitan, Guadeloupe, Tahiti, New Calédonia, Guadeloupe) and Morocco)
Product mix : Curated range tailored to attract young adults, mainly makeup-oriented, as well as perfumes, accessories ; 90% under Beauty Success’ own brands
Positioning : Fashionable and modern, targeting millennials, 18-30 years old
What is it ?
A store/blog concept: Beauty Sisters is a compact store designed to attract young adult women. Its physical design is based on a blog. All the virtual codes of the blog universe have been recreated: beauty tutorials, animations, makeup ateliers, screens and free wifi access.
Why is it innovative ?
Being connected via screens and digital devices is not, in itself, innovative, and is present in other retail locations, such as Sephora. What is remarkable about Beauty Sisters is that the retail location’s products and design have been adapted to appeal to the limited target audience of the Beauty Sisters blog. The store and blog are designed to be a coherent reflection of each other and were launched simultanously.
The physical location is a new way for Beauty Success to reach the 18-30-year-old female target by leveraging the original attraction: beauty blogs. The store, its furnishing and its products mirror the blog, offering beauty tutorials on screens, professional advice, videos and the opportunity to discover new products. This is an innovative and original concept and a departure from the traditional beauty products store.
1/ The design: A young, Parisian woman’s apartment
Entering a Beauty Sisters store evokes the experience of entering the apartment of a Parisian bloggeuse or a friend’s private place, where you will join her to try beauty products. Customers feel at home in a modern apartment dwelling enhanced by moulding, mirrors, chests, and imitation parquet flooring.
2/ The product offer
90% of the offer comprises private-label makeup (seven or eight brands), as well as perfumes and other related products, including fashion accessories such as mobile phone casings. The blog’s spirit is also sustained by « crush products» and novelties renewed every two weeks.
2/ The digital coherence:
Beauty Sisters launched its blog and store simultaneously, now existing both online and offline. The blog offers tips and information about beauty trends and lifestyle, but there is no mention of price and the blog does not offer products for sale. Instead, a link is created bridging the real and virtual worlds, pointing at new products and brands to be discovered and purchased in the store.
Ebeltoft Group experts conclusion:
This concept is obviously an answer to Kiko, the Italian makeup fast fashion retailer, which is disrupting the market, but beyond this defensive posture, Beauty Sisters is an interesting concept, new for the market and absolutely revolutionary for the company.
Many longstanding retailers are testing new concepts, but Beauty Sisters appears to be more “radical” (targeting a specific niche), more compact (thanks to digital extension tools), more private-label focused, more omnichannel, behaving like brands more than like retailers. Beauty Sisters is a synthesis of those trends. The choice of not selling online is bold and we wonder if it is a good one. Online sales are becoming an important aspect of the business and can address different targets and different occasions for buying.