UK store debut strengthens Birchbox, Black Friday soars

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 7, 2017

Birchbox enjoyed a strong Black Friday week in the UK and the company said that Britain is currently is fastest-growing market as it continues to expand globally.

 
The company opened its first UK store last month, on London’s Carnaby Street, as the ultimate experiential interpretation of its previous online-only offer in Britain. But it’s not a permanent store with the pop-up only planned to be open until early January.

The has nonetheless store helped raise awareness of the brand in the UK and this week it said that Black Friday Week sales overall were 93% higher this year than in 2016.

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Birchbox UK managing director Savannah Sachs, managing director of Birchbox UK, was quoted by The Retail Bulletin saying: “This has been such a strong year for us as a business and demonstrates why the UK is our fastest growing market globally. As a company, we are constantly looking for ways to disrupt and innovate the traditional beauty retail market and the strength of sales across the pop-up, on mobile, and over Black Friday show that we are delivering what our customers want.”

The company’s Carnaby Street store brings the subscription beauty service to life with events and in-store exclusives as well as the regular offer. It also give shoppers who are already subscribers a 15% discount.

Birchbox has used the pop-up approach extensively with previous stores appearing in New York City and Paris.

The company has grown strongly since being founded in 2010 and during the summer was reportedly in talks with potential retailers to buy it. Acquisition-hungry Walmart was said to be on the list of possible buyers as it seeks to add innovative digital businesses to its portfolio in the fight against Amazon. However, nothing appears to have come of those talks so far.