PARIS — There are rumblings of a retail revolution in France with the recent opening of a new concept store, called Beauty Monop.
In a landscape dotted with perfumeries, pharmacies and department stores, an advance guard of Beauty Monops selling a classy mix of mass beauty items is being unleashed. If the idea catches on, Monoprix executives are prepared to open 60 to 80 more Beauty Monops in France, with half slated for Paris.
Beauty Monop is a freestanding offshoot of Monoprix, which sells food, clothing and cosmetics in its 297 stores across France. The first 1,555-square-foot Beauty Monop location that bowed on Dec. 9 in Paris’ Montmartre neighborhood sells — as its name suggests — only beauty items.
Beauty Monop is Monoprix’s second concept boutique, following the launch of Daily Monop, a convenience store in city centers, which was unveiled in 2003.
Beauty Monop is a clear harbinger of change on the retail front here, which, observers say, has long been stagnant due to lack of true innovation. A spate of mergers and acquisitions of perfumeries could also affect how beauty is sold across the country. As reported, France’s third-largest perfumery chain, Nocibé, was just sold to Charterhouse Capital for an undisclosed sum. And A.S. Watson will invest more than 2 billion euros, or $2.4 billion at current exchange rates, in France’s largest beauty seller, Marionnaud Parfumeries.
According to Soazig Le Prince, marketing and merchandising manager for Beauty Monop, Monoprix discerned a gap in the French market for a store offering such a mix in beauty.
“[We have selected] the best from the mass market and combined that with alternative brands,” said Anne Challe, perfumery merchandise director for Monoprix, referring to the addition of niche brands. “Beauty Monop is designed to be accessible, the opposite of snobbery and pretension.”
Industry sources estimate the store, boasting 3,500 beauty items, of which 20 to 25 percent differ from those in Monoprix, will generate up to 2 million euros, or $2.4 million at current exchange rates, in first-year retail sales.
Brands, for their part, are bullish on Beauty Monop.
“It’s new, modern and glamorous,” said Arnaud Meyssilli, general manager of John Frieda Brands France. “This [type of store] is the best alternative to the negative trend of hard discounting.”
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He also welcomes the retailer’s policy of allowing brands to have more control over their in-store communication and advertising than traditionally given in a retail setting. This, he said, could help jump-start sales growth in slow categories in hair care, such as conditioners, in France.
Beauty Monop’s location in hip Montmartre allows John Frieda to reach its core target group of “young trendsetters,” added Meyssilli, who plans to update his brand’s selection for the location every six months.
Suzanne Aux Bains’ co-founder Romain Vitali said his brand’s core consumers are “women between 25 and 60, mostly urban, with an awareness of naturals and a raised socio-professional status,” which corresponds to Beauty Monop’s target clientele.
“We have a coherence with Beauty Monop’s originality and naturalness, and, of course, there is a sales potential that is not negligible,” added Vitali.
Aliza Jabes, president of Nuxe, considers Beauty Monop an “adventure.”
The new store takes a one-two approach to beauty selling. The idea is to attract customers by offering basic beauty products and then “re-seduce them each time they visit” with an eclectic mix of niche brands, said Le Prince. In other words, a customer buying cotton balls will first have to make his or her way past makeup counters offering the latest products. (Color cosmetics companies are required to renew their selection at Beauty Monop every two months.)
The store’s decor is streamlined, with white walls and wooden floors and a combination of established brands in merchandising units and niche brands on tables.
Most of Beauty Monop’s seven categories — innovations, color cosmetics, beauty accessories, hygiene products, hair care, men’s care and skin care — have both standard and more offbeat items. Product explanations and brand descriptions are provided on cards on shelves.
When people walk into the store, they first see bright pink stands that showcase coup de coeur (love at first sight) items, considered the latest must-have products, according to Beauty Monop executives. For the store opening, quirky offers in this area include Tooth Fairy Swarovski crystal teeth decorations and Mr. Men cold packs and hand warmers by Oscar & Dehn.
To the right of that section is the makeup department. Among the brands showcased there are L’Oréal Paris, Gemey, Maybelline, plus — among the smaller names — Bloom, Nacara and Agnes b., the latter having until now only been sold through the catalogue Club des Createurs de Beauté. Screens integrated into some of the merchandising units, like Rimmel’s, show latest trends and help brands update their image regularly.
Further into the store is the skin care department, featuring items from L’Oréal and Nivea, as well as brands such as Cosmence and Christine Poelman, also from Club des Createurs de Beauté and in a brick-and-mortar locale for the first time.
In a bid to attract male customers, Beauty Monop includes a larger corner for guys than does Monoprix.
“We are deeply convinced the men’s skin care category can become equal to women’s,” said Le Prince. “It’s a reservoir of growth.”
Behind and to the left of the treatment department, the men’s area includes organic skin care, slimming products and depilatories created specially for males. Brands include Sens, Men Expert and Baxter of California. Of course, there are also razors and deodorants available.
Hair care, right next door, carries brands such as Jacques Dessange, Got2b and Phyto. There are also Monoprix-branded hair accessories, plus a section devoted to coloration for touch-ups.
Hygiene products are in the back and to the right, in an area with a white tiled wall. Here, soaps, shower gels and baby care products abound. Some items come from a Monoprix private label collection.
Monoprix, half-owned by the Galeries Lafayette Group and half by food retailer Casino Group, ranked number one among mixed-goods sellers in France in 2003, with total sales of 3.7 billion euros, or $4.4 billion, according to London-based tracking firm Mintel International Group. Beauty sales at Monoprix generated 13.8 percent of its overall business by the end of September.