Boots to eliminate beauty counters in favour of ‘discovery areas’

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Mar 8, 2019

The UK’s largest health and beauty chain has announced plans to refit 25 of its top beauty halls in line with a reimagined beauty shopping experience.

From April, Boots said it will become the first premium high street retailer to remove traditional beauty counters and replace them with ‘trending zones’, 'discovery areas’, and live demonstration spaces.

Additionally, the retailer is introducing Beauty Specialists who can assist customers and provide advice across several beauty brands, instead of the traditional beauty consultants who specialise in only one brand. More than 200 Beauty Specialists will start next month in stores across the country after receiving training on beauty products and in understanding the motivation and needs of customers.

MORE BRANDS, MORE PRODUCTS, MORE VISIBILITY

Known for having the largest choice of beauty products in the UK, Boots is taking its reputation to the next level by launching 20 new beauty brands in the next six months. April and May will see 805 new products launched in stores and online, with more additions planned throughout the year.

Seb James, senior vice president and managing director of Boots, said: “We are very excited to be completely overhauling our beauty experience.

“With 800 million people walking through our doors every year, it is no surprise that we are already the market leader in beauty, but we want customers to never have any reason to go anywhere else. Adding a little glamour, some great new service and lots of new brands to our beauty offer represents the first few steps of that journey.”

The plans will be showcased at the Glamour Beauty Festival starting this Friday in London’s Saatchi Gallery, where visitors can get a first look of the new furniture that will be going into stores and experience some of the new products.

Helen Normoyle, marketing director at Boots UK, said: “Our 12-month partnership with Glamour, which we announced last month, will also really help bring this to life through sponsorship of their live beauty festivals in London and Manchester, where beauty lovers will get a sneak preview at some of the game-changing new brands set to launch in our stores and online.”

Boots has around 2,500 health and beauty stores across the UK, and stocks some of the world’s leading beauty brands including L’Oreal, BareMinerals, Chanel, Estee Lauder, NYX and Vichy.