New Delhi The Body Shop, a 46-year-old British cosmetics and skincare brand, is planning to add 25 new stores in India this year. In an interview, Antara Kundu, Deputy General Manager, Asia South, Marketing, Brand and Customer Acquisition, said that the COVID-19 lockdown has prompted the retailer to focus and double down on its e-commerce business, even That its offline sales reverted to 2019 numbers. The epidemic subsides. Edited excerpt:
What’s the point of The Body Shop in such a disorganized segment of beauty brands?
The DNA of the brand is very “activist” in nature in terms of environmental justice, social justice and equality and this is very exciting to me as a marketer. Having a brand that truly stands for something is an immediate draw that consumers understand and find relevant. It is a very active brand when it comes to campaigning for support causes, whether it is fundraising, petitioning or advocacy. I think the brands that really stand for something are the brands that command consumer loyalty and this is something that we have seen true of brands in India.
Today, we have around 200 stores in India and this year we are planning to open around 25 more.
Additionally, a brand with a certain draw, (that) is reliable and commands a lot of consumer loyalty, especially in the post-pandemic world, is quite an asset, given that direct-to-consumer ( How competitive the D2C) space is in India this is happening in a very lucrative category.
Are D2C brands becoming a real threat to traditional companies like yours?
It’s one of those big things that a lot of beauty marketers have quite an opinion on. The growth of D2C brands has been a good development for the overall category. The scope of beauty education has really been taken forward by the D2C brands and due to this, there have been a lot of new consumer acquisitions in this category and it benefits us as well.
How do you retain customers in such a competitive category?
I think we face the same challenges that other brands have faced with legacy brands, which have traditionally been retail-first brands. We are also fighting for consumer acquisitions, especially among GenZ.
We are increasingly dealing with more and more competition from international brands. Having said that, for a beauty brand that is making a difference, there really is no better market than India as it is indeed one of the most exciting categories happening right now.
How important is India to The Body Shop?
India is also one of the top 10 markets in the world, both in terms of value and population size. The US continues to be a leading market in the world, followed by Asian and Middle Eastern markets. While China is a highly lucrative beauty market given its population and spending power, we do not sell in mainland China because of its mandatory animal testing requirement and we are the first cruelty-free beauty brand. So, until those rules are in place, it’s a principled stand that we won’t be selling in that market. India is a market that is actually very closely associated with the brand.
We were also one of the few brands that were able to unequivocally claim that we are 100% vegetarian in every sense. This has profound significance for a market like this and right now, we are in the process of transitioning from 100% vegetarian to 100% vegetarian by 2023.
Being largely an offline brand, were you badly hit by this pandemic?
Our traditional approach has always been retail-first as it is about great retail locations and the power of the human connection with the customer experience. Of course, this meant that we were hit hard as the majority of our revenue was coming from the retail channel and for the longest period between the national lockdown and the state lockdown, most of our doors were closed.
This was an opportunity to make major changes on the e-commerce front and grow our e-commerce operations. So, before the pandemic, we were serving about 10,000 pin codes; After the pandemic, as of today, we are providing around 30,000 pin codes.
How do you market to Millennials and GenZs?
How consumers view beauty, especially Millennials and GenZ consumers, is all about the fact that it’s something that makes you feel really good about yourself. It’s almost an escape when life becomes too much for you. This is something that works great for us because we are a brand since the 1970s that has been about the fact that beauty is something that helps with self-esteem. So, sustainability, what the product does, how it’s received and if it’s benefiting local communities, how it makes me feel about myself, all these things are important. It’s not a dramatic difference from what we were doing before, we certainly have the freedom to go out with this kind of communication with this group of people.