How The Body Shop is Planning to Double its Presence in India 

Founded by Anita Roddick, The Body Shop is known for making positive change in the world by offering high-quality, naturally-inspired skincare, body care, hair care, and make-up produced ethically and sustainably all across the world.

The brand entered India in 2006 and since then it has maintained its position as India's largest international beauty retailer.

“We're excited as we have got of ample of opportunities in India to grow aggressively and double our presence. But it is also an amazing opportunity to connect with individuals that care about the things that we care about like making and driving a positive, sustainable, and systemic change in the environment where we live and that is more powerful for us,” said Qas Qayyum, Global Head Franchise Managing Director, The Body Shop.

Introducing New Store Design

To strengthen its position in India, The Body Shop has recently launched its revamped store at Ambience Mall, Gurugram. It is a sustainably designed space for people to come together and discover how they can campaign for social and environmental change.

“Retail has always been a very core part of our business and it's the heart of everything that we do. Humans are social creatures and they thrive with each other and our retail experience adds something special to people's lives and this is the reason why we are revamping our stores as Activist Makers Workshop. It is more than just a store, it is where our activism for the brand comes to life,” he stated. 

“We are going to open about 15 more activist stores before the end of this year. And then we will be renovating some stores throughout the next couple of years. Apart from this, we are planning to open 30 new stores and all new stores will be Activist Maker Workshop,” he further added.

Omnichannel: The Way To Go Ahead

Nowadays, young consumers are embracing the omnichannel shopping approach as they want to experience the touch and feel of the product at the stores and prefer to buy it online. 

“We will continue to expand our brand to fulfill the customer needs across all channels. At present, e-commerce contributes to 25 percent of our business in India, whereas pre-Covid it was just 10 percent. So you can see the acceleration of our channel mix and our channel diversity now,” he said.

To meet the growing appetite of online consumers, the brand is constantly looking at how it can evolve its digital experience.

“We've done a lot of work in the last few years to upgrade our digital customer experience which includes photography of the products, like moveable imagery, short videos, and a lot more. We've also transformed the way we communicate the benefits and the efficacy of the products along with highlighting the powerful ingredients that are being used,” he asserted.

“We are constantly looking at ways that we can use to drive the capability of our business and our people. We've been upgrading, through web optimization and personalization, which is driving conversion to 15 percent. So, we're constantly looking at ways through which we can develop our digital experience for customers,” he further added.

Change Making Beauty

As consumers these days are well-informed and well-engaged, they prefer ethical and sustainable products of the same or better quality as luxury brands, but comparatively cheaper. To augur its ‘Change Making Beauty’ approach, the brand has partnered with ‘Plastics for Change’.

‘When it comes to change-making beauty, we want to drive positive change for our customers, communities, and planet. To aid it further, we will be rejuvenating all of our products in the store by the end of 2023, which means, that our product folio going ahead will be more effective, ethical, and vegan-certified,” he asserted.

“We are following 3 principles when it comes to bringing change, making beauty to life:-
-    Change Making for You - Offering highly effective inclusive beauty care that promotes self-love.
-    Change Making for Our Communities - Promoting social and economic empowerment along with social justice 
-    Change Making for Our Planet - Following some really ambitious sustainability goals and agenda,” he further elaborated.

Expansion Plans

At present, the brand has 200 stores across India. India is among one of the top five most important markets for the brand. Going ahead, it is planning to double its business in India by 2025.

“We are planning to open 300 stores by 2025. We will be opening 30 new stores every year. We will be entering 15 new cities by penetrating deeper into India. In some cities, we are planning to open the stores on the high-streets and in some cities, we will be opening the stores in the malls. As usual, all the stores that we will be opening will be the franchise stores under Quest Retail,” he asserted.

The brand is also planning to strengthen its portfolio going ahead by re-innovating all the products across The Body Shop.

“By the end of 2023, we would've rejuvenated all of our products with better quality formulas and with highly effective efficacious ingredients. Along with this, we will be revamping our packaging to be more sustainable,” he stated.

At present, skincare is an important category for The Body Shop in India as it contributes to 40 percent of the overall revenue.  

“We are looking to bring new categories into skincare. We are looking at interesting and innovative products to supplement the growth of skin care. We believe skincare will be an important driver and accelerator for business across India. We are also looking to build more strength in our haircare,” he said.

The brand is also planning to introduce its refill stations in India. Currently, the brand has 700 refill stations in stores across the world and it helps it reduce and eventually eliminate waste. 

“Through our refill stations, we have saved over 600,000 bottles across the globe. We are keen to bring our refill stations to India as soon as we get the regulatory approvals, he concluded.