BERLIN — At 100 years old, Douglas Perfumeries is thinking pretty young.
The Hagen, Germany-based company celebrated the anniversary in 2010, but the retailer is looking to 2011 to reinvigorate an initiative tied to store streamlining and redesign — including three new store formats — online activities and in-store exclusives.
The company dates back to 1821, when traveling Scottish soap maker John Sharp Douglas started up a factory in Hamburg, Germany. Douglas’ products and innovations, such as coconut oil soap, brought the Scotsman’s company, J.S. Douglas Söhne (J.S. Douglas Sons), accolades and profits.
In 1910, businesswomen Maria and Anna Carstens signed a contract to use the Douglas name, opening the first Parfümerie Douglas on Hamburg’s most exclusive shopping street. Surviving war and financial hardships, the company expanded across Germany, through Europe, and beyond, to today’s network of more than 1,200 doors.
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For its anniversary, the company played off this history with the release of the J.S. Douglas Söhne brand last spring. The signature, vintage-inspired line of bath and body care products was first tested in select markets. It comes in a variety of scents, including a near replica of John Sharp Douglas’ coconut oil soap, and will be broadened across all doors this year as a permanent line.
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But that’s not all that’s new. The company is reconceptualizing and redefining its stores.
As Jochen Halfmann, general manager of Douglas Perfumeries, explains, doors will be described as mainstream, high-end or trend. Each store will have a basic assortment including Douglas exclusives such as Annayake skin care and Förster & Johnsen scents, as well as products Douglas has exclusives on in Germany, such as Soap & Glory, Jimmy Choo perfume and the most recent scents from Anna Sui.
The mainstream stores will highlight masstige scents such as Coty’s Halle Berry perfumes at the lower end, ranging up to Chanel products. High-end stores will have a boutique feel, and will include luxury brands such as La Mer and Tom Ford perfumes. Trend shops will be aimed at the younger consumer, and will include popular low-cost cosmetics brand Essence, along with MAC Cosmetics and Bobbi Brown.
Shoppers will be able to get virtual makeovers and computerized skin analyses, and can add comments to an e-guestbook that transmits on large screens around the store. Halfmann described a shop that combines style cues from Abercrombie & Fitch with Twitter-type technology.
“We want to try to get a hold of these customers a little bit earlier than we did in the past,” he said. In the next few months, the premiere trend store will make its debut in the central German city Kassel, and a newly renovated high-end door will open on Berlin’s Ku’damm shopping street.
“It’s still a numbers game,” said Halfmann. “We have to multiply our business. We have to reach a certain base of stores in countries to become really competitive. And for us, the major goal is always in the countries where we are, to become market leader.”
That goal has been reached in its home market of Germany, and also in Poland, and new stores continue to be opened in both countries. But in the last year, Douglas Perfumeries chose not just to invest in strong markets, but to exit difficult ones, such as the U.S. and Denmark, and close stores in troubled economic areas, such as in Spain. At the end of December, the company sold off its 32 Russian perfumeries, resulting in an income of 22.3 million euros, or $30.9 million at current exchange.
Douglas is pleased with its combined approach of service, price stability and store localization, though it has not always resulted in global success, especially in markets dominated by the department store model, or those that require extreme inside knowledge of the market.
“Maybe Douglas is not a format for all over the world like Zara or Sephora. Maybe it’s really a more European-oriented business model,” said Halfmann.
Focusing on key markets, the company plans to invest up to 65 million euros, or $90.1 million, in the perfumeries with the opening of 50 to 60 stores, existing store modernization and Internet retail across Europe. Online sales have been steadily climbing, with recent gains in the double digits, according to Halfmann, who champions the idea of cross-channel shopping. For instance, a customer shopping in a trend store can order a niche fragrance — found at a high-end store — on the spot via Douglas’ Web site and receive it at home or in-store in 24 hours.
Douglas also has developed an iPhone application and is taking part in a German-market test project with Facebook’s Places, which lets shoppers check in when they arrive at the store to receive discounts and special offers. Their first offer, which ran to the end of February, allowed customers to choose to get a free 15-ml. eau de toilette bottle of Tommy or Tommy Girl by Tommy Hilfiger or a 15 percent discount on a purchase by displaying a special screen on their smartphones at the register.