Shoppers Stop is placing a significant emphasis on its beauty segment, actively expanding its standalone specialty beauty stores, incorporating shop-in-shops within its department stores, and forming distribution partnerships with renowned global luxury brands. With the objective of deriving approximately 25% of its upcoming revenues from the beauty business, the company is intensifying its presence in this market.
At present, the company operates 13 standalone specialty beauty stores branded as SS Beauty. It is scheduled to inaugurate a spacious 3800 sq ft store at Bangalore International Airport Terminal 2 later this month, with plans for another substantial 9000 sq ft store in Kolkata set to open in March.
Biju Kassim, Customer Care Associate and CEO of Beauty, Shoppers Stop said, “Our desire is to have 3-5 large format flagship stores under SS Beauty. We also expect to have 30-35 mid size format stores and 40-50 small format stores. Our aimbition is to eventually have upto 100 stores in the few years. We want to ensure that this expansion is done in a sustainable manner with a strong focus on profitability.”
Talking about the strategy to open large format flagship stores, “ These large format stores will offer the best beauty brand assortment and presentation. So for instance, in terms of education, we are on track to do one million makeovers and master classes this year. So the store will focus on leveraging on various elements to deepen consumer engagement,” he added.
As the company extends its department store network, it will also increase the presence of beauty shop-in-shops.
“We will add 15-20 department stores every year. So besides the standalone beauty store expansion, the footprint of our beauty shop-n-shops will also grow. So overall, we have a very robust plan in the beauty space,” he added.
At the group level, the current contribution of revenue from the beauty segment stands at approximately 18 percent for the company.
“We believe the beauty space has a strong potential especially in post-Covid times when consumers engagement in this space has increased signficiantly. We think this contribution will grow to 20 per cent in the near future and our desire is to further grow it to about 25 per cent. Given the low per cap consumption, we believe the combination of engagement and education will enable the beauty segment consumption to see strong growth in the coming years,” he added.
The company has been expanding its distribution partnerships with global beauty brands, exemplified by the recent introduction of NARS Cosmetics.
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“We have a strong portfolio of global brands and continue to look for opportunitie to grow the distribution business. For instance : We currently distribute fragrances of brands such as Armani, Prada and Valentino. These brands will also be launching their make-up lines by March-April,” Kassim explained.
