Rituals has opened doors to its latest on London’s Oxford Street as it expands its bricks-and-mortar estate across the UK and transforms into a truly omnichannel brand.
The health and beauty brand’s UK and Ireland managing director, Penny Grivea, says opening a new store on London’s most famous shopping street is a dream come true.
“I had a vision for the store for nine years. It was my dream to have a store on Oxford Street because it’s one of the most prominent shopping streets in the world,” she says.
The space, which once sold non-descript, souvenir tat for unsuspecting tourists, has been transformed. It carries the retailer’s extensive collection across categories such as bath, body, home and beauty with products ranging from scented candles and fragrances to body wash, hand creams, detergents and car perfumes.
Grivea says the new store perfectly represents the retailer’s idea of storytelling, giving customers an opportunity to buy into the lifestyle the brand is trying to sell.
She says: “We position ourselves as a wellbeing brand. It’s quite easy, actually, to be able to buy into the whole lifestyle piece today. You can like this for yourself, gift products to somebody else or make your home look beautiful. They create a little haven in your house where you’ve got beautiful aromas to be able to slow down and relax.
“What I think Rituals is really good at is the whole storytelling piece. That’s also reflected on our website. We love telling a story. Our ambition and aim is to make people feel good. If we can do that, then everything else just falls into place.”
In the highly competitive health and beauty retail market, Grivea says it is hard to pin down the competition to just one player due to the brand’s unique proposition.
“It’s an impossible task because we don’t have direct competition. We don’t position ourselves as a beauty brand. We are a wellbeing and lifestyle brand. If you look at bath and body, it could be the likes of The Body Shop, L’Occiatne and Lush. But if you look at home then you can get Diptyque and Jo Malone or even The White Company. We have a very unique positioning, in a way.”
Rituals plans to open 10 new stores before the end of the year and 25 stores in the next financial year as it expands its bricks-and-mortar estate in the UK and Ireland.
Grivea says: “We’re planning to have 25 stores next year, across both the UK and Ireland, most of them will be in the UK. Our focus was always London first because we knew if we were going to make it, we have to make it in London. Because once you make it here, then you can make it anywhere. Now we’ve started going into the big cities and will be trialling the market towns like Chelmsford.
“We’re seeing tremendous growth. In the UK, we’ve got, at the moment, 28% like-for-like growth and 25% for Ireland. Our visitor numbers are up by double-digit growth, and we strongly believe people want to have that experience.
“They want to come into an environment where they feel welcome, where they feel special, where they feel taken care of. We’re not a self-select brand. When you give customers that experience and you really connect from the heart with them, it gets them to come back.”
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