Modest Sales Gains for German Beauty Retailer

Helped by digitalization, beauty sales are returning to normal in Europe. Douglas, the leading premium beauty retailer in Europe, said fiscal fourth quarter sales rose 3.4% to nearly $850 million. The company credited e-commerce sales and reopened brick-and-mortar stores. Online sales rose 16.7% to $238 million (211 million euros). While the group’s in-store revenues declined 0.9% in reported terms, they advanced 3.7% on a comparable basis.

“Thanks to our consistent digitalization strategy #FORWARDBEAUTY.DigitalFirst, we managed to sustain robust growth in e-commerce in the fourth quarter even after the stores reopened, gaining further market shares and outperforming the market as a whole,” said CEO Tina Müller, Douglas Group, in a statement. “After months of lockdowns in the previous quarters, the stores have now bounced back well. At the same time, we’ve augmented our operating results and, thus, also our profitability by a significant degree.”

According to Müller, long before the pandemic took hold, Douglas began to evolve into a digitalized premium beauty platform.

“The early change of strategy meant that we were well-equipped to deal with a crisis like corona[virus] when it arrived,” said Müller. “Our business model is extremely resilient. Our platform strategy for beauty, which comprises e-commerce, marketplace and stores, appears to be working well,” she continued. “We want to invest in further developing e-commerce, while bolstering our in-store business in order to extend our leading position, and shape the future of the industry from a position of strength.”

According to Vanessa Stützle, chief digital officer of Douglas Group, digitalization programs have rolled out in five countries, thus increasing the online sales share from 25 to 38%. She said Douglas has been gaining more appeal with younger consumers, and that the average basket rose approximately 4% to 70 euros in the fourth quarter. In that period, the percent of e-commerce sales made by mobile devices grew about five percentage points to 71%.

“We’re particularly pleased with the number of new customers in e-commerce, which is 12% above last year’s figure,” Stützle said. “At peak times, we’re now receiving as many as 32,000 orders an hour from customers across all Douglas systems.”