As Elemis opens its first standalone store in the UK, co-founder and global president Noella Gabriel talks to Retail Week about the new shop, appealing to all generations and what’s to come for the skincare brand in the future
Elemis has been around since the 1990s and, even with a product range largely focused on an older demographic, has managed to remain relevant with the TikTok-obsessed Gen Z crowd.
As it opened its first standalone store in the UK on Monmouth Street in London’s Covent Garden, co-founder and global president Noella Gabriel talks to Retail Week about why the new shop has been a long time coming and becoming the number one British skincare brand globally.
What can we expect from the brand-new store on Monmouth Street?
“We’re B Corp-certified so, when opening our store, we thought: ‘OK, how can we weave in this commitment to change and to our people and our planet, and make sure our standalone store is ticking as many boxes in this space as we possibly can?’ From the materials of the worktops to the recycling units and the uniform of our staff, we wanted it to be eco-friendly.
”We also wanted to bring a wellness element into the store, so we have done that with our treatment rooms with different services.”
Why is now the right time for a first standalone store in the UK?
”I think it’s long-awaited. And I think it’s the perfect timing. We have grown up as a brand. We’re very clear now about who we are. We’re very clear on our DNA. We don’t have to experiment anymore.
“We have earned our positioning and we’re very proud of being British. So we must bring that back home, on the doorstep, for our British consumers to experience all our learnings.”
How does Elemis manage to appeal to people across generations?
”I think we do that by going to the platforms where our customers are. We went to TikTok with our Cleansing Balm and had 50 million impressions on that. My daughter is 25 and the TikTok demographic is younger than that. Our Cleansing Balm is fun and interactive, and you have these young girls who are all interested in that, so if they’re going to buy one product they buy the balm. But, as they get older, they start to convert up with our Marine Cream at age 22 to 23 and our Matrix range into their middle or late 30s.
“So, to answer your question, a brand must have a very strong go-to-market campaign across all those social platforms to be successful today.”
What can we expect from Elemis in the future?
”We cleaned down during Covid, like a lot of other brands. So we spent the last 18 months just cleaning down, creating the white space really, really aggressively. In fact, we’ve cleaned down all of Europe to open it back up again. We closed everything in the UK that we felt wasn’t on brand and the same in Asia.
“We’ve taken 18 months to reposition the brand back into that premium position. So now it’s not about quantity; it’s about brand equity for us, primarily, and quality of execution.
“We’ve made a lot of mistakes, just like any other brand. But we have a grit and determination to bring the best of British skincare to become the global number one and we’re on track to do that over the next three to five years.”
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