The concept of marketplaces has transformed our world as consumers – from Amazon to shopping on social media, YouTube, and third-party marketplaces our lives are made easier by digital one stop shops that connect us with a vast array of products and services.
To succeed a brand needs to have a strong brand personality with a distinctive USP. They also need to decide what is the best retail strategy to get their products into the hands of their ideal customers. One of the benefits today is that there are so many more avenues to reaching your customer, on the downside this also increases your competition. Customers can now shop anywhere, anytime, which is great for them, but challenging as a brand. You really need to know where to position your brand in the marketplace, and what your competitors are up to.
The success of every route-to-market strategy depends on the depth of understanding a business has of their customers, their needs, their expectations, and their behaviours. Here’s just a snapshot of some of the places in which you can retail your products:
When drafting your retail strategy, you need to consider:
Gone are the days where brands believed that retail and online were the only ways to success. There are now plenty of other doors for brands to get their products into. Spend ten minutes in a renowned department store like Harrods and you will discover the endless number of brands you are competing against. Consumers are extremely savvy when buying – you only need to go online to review the pricing of a product, and the best price you can buy this at.
There are no rules of where beauty and wellness consumers shop anymore, they may purchase a cleanser in Boots, a blusher on LookFantastic.com and a premium foundation in Selfridges. Only recently Boots announced their collaboration with Deliveroo – not only can you buy a pizza from Deliveroo on a Friday night – you can also order your favourite beauty products?! A face mask and a pizza on a Friday night in … can’t think of anything better now that the weather has turned cold.
Department and beauty stores
Buyers from department stores like Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols look for a buzz around your brand and products. They want to see positive engagement around your brand and when shopping in-stores they are looking for customer experience.
Customers like spritzing their wrist with the latest fragrance that has caught their eye and getting a foundation match done by their favourite cosmetic brand. This is when experiential, instore activities really make your brand stand out.
Gyms and studios
Wellness, health, and fitness has been on everyone’s mind for the past year especially when gyms and fitness clubs sadly had to shut their doors during the pandemic. These sites now offer great opportunities for brands to display their products. Most health and fitness clubs tend to build relationships with their customers from day one, so this is a great inroad to selling your products through a different avenue.
Third Party Marketplaces
Selling via third marketplaces gains interaction from all types of consumers. Amazon is the acknowledged King of the eCommerce retailers. Independent sellers can leverage their huge customer base no matter what industry they are in, selling all manner of products directly to customers. Not on the high street has always been known for personalised gifting but in recent years, there are many innovative small businesses that sit on their platform – from jewellery, to wellness, and homeware. Etsy.com which is a little like eBay has a strong emphasis on handmade products.
If you are looking for support with planning your sales strategy, or in getting your brand to market, Get in Touch. We would love to help you.
We love partnering up with award-winning beauty and wellness brands, well-established companies, retailers, investors, trade bodies to bring your ideas to life. With over 60 years combined experience in building brands we know what it takes.
As a beauty brand consultancy, we support you in taking your business to the next level through strategy, brand management, product development. Introducing our 3 C’s – we draw upon years of Clarity, Creativity, Commerciality to deliver your results. We design brand identities and visual elements, create products, develop go-to-market strategies to help you to engage with your ideal customers. We work with you to develop a comprehensive strategy for your business by understanding your vision (and the marketplace) and then delving into the details to create order and structure, neatly packaged up to deliver you commercial results.
We work with clients based in different corners of the world – from the UK, to Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia, the Middle East and across Europe. Over the years we have worked with a diverse portfolio of businesses – here’s a snapshot. If you would like to discuss your ideas with us, get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
‘Janet has a wealth of experience across retail, buying and marketing. She conducted a full strategic review of our cross functional business and the travel retail market to develop a comprehensive buying and quality control strategy that was signed off at board level. I highly recommend her as an asset to any business.’
‘Through Janet’s management skills, expertise and proven track record on the job she successfully managed the purchasing of our retail operations and ensured the integrity of our brands in-stores. Her enthusiasm and total dedication, delivered results in any project she was involved in.’
‘Janet has excellent beauty market knowledge. Level headed with clear vision, direction and the ability to drive business forward, Janet led the teams through a complete product design change advising on what the key marketing messages should be, incorporating her technical knowledge and beauty expertise.’
‘Unless someone comes from a background in this industry, you wouldn’t know what is required. Not only do I have the support of an experienced team to help me to make things happen and to grow my brand, but I also have a great personal relationship with Janet and her team, working in this way means I have someone to turn to, to share the journey of running a business.’
‘Absolutely fantastic course. Condensed learning from Janet, an expert in developing beauty brands. Also, valuable introductions to expert professionals, in the Masterclass sessions. In 12 weeks, you will learn from Janet, what would take years to learn by yourself. A very worthwhile investment’