NEW YORK — In the early days of building her business, The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick would load a grocery cart with leftover inventory each week and go knocking on neighbors’ doors to sell it.
Thirty years later, in addition to more than 2,050 stores, The Body Shop has an army of consultants in three countries who peddle the company’s products at parties hosted in private homes.
The retailer launched the direct-selling division in the U.K. 12 years ago, and introduced it to the U.S. nearly five years ago. The home-shopping business now operates in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, and is slated to launch in Germany later this year, said Paula Antonini, global director of development for The Body Shop at Home.
“When Anita Roddick started The Body Shop in 1976, she was a pioneer in natural products,” Antonini told attendees of the Direct Selling Association’s conference held here last week. “Now The Body Shop is a pioneer in the multichannel world.”
Antonini, who also spent 27 years at Tupperware Brands Corp., acknowledges that many bricks-and-mortar retailers have an online component, but few have pursued direct selling.
The Body Shop’s vision of becoming an integrated, multichannel retailer has underpinned its success, noted Antonini. For instance, the company plans promotions across each business unit. Consultants are invited to attend in-store events, where they can recruit party hosts and demonstrate products. To get started, U.S. consultants purchase a business kit for $185, or $220 for the deluxe, which includes more products. The kits are filled with items needed for party themes — Your Face Is Forever, Make It Up, Foot Fun and Spa Experience — and printed materials, such as catalogues, along with a videotape of a typical Girl’s Night Out.
The company has found, much to the surprise of store managers, that units located in areas with a high concentration of consultants see sales increases. The at-home events, dubbed Girl’s Night Out, hook partygoers on the company’s products and socially conscious stance, and try to lead them into the store to buy more, explained Antonini. Last year, three million guests attended a Girl’s Night Out.
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The Body Shop at Home may also help the retailer reclaim its heritage in the U.S. market, particularly as its peers — Sephora and Bath & Body Works — continue to sharpen their edge.
The Body Shop set up here in 1989, but began to lose ground by the late Nineties, when Sephora made its U.S. debut.
In 2001, in the midst of its troubles, The Body Shop introduced direct selling here, perhaps as an antidote to stalled growth. Roddick, who now is non-executive director, has said she expects home selling to surpass traditional retail. The division accounts for 7.3 percent of The Body Shop’s 2005 retail sales, which totaled 708.7 million pounds or $1.23 billion at current exchange.
Last year, The Body Shop at Home, reaped $90 million in sales in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, an increase of 31 percent over 2004.
Antonini said that since stores are beginning to reap the spoils of the home business, the company will expand its direct-selling venture, but in a controlled manner. For the time being, the company will focus on markets where it already operates stores. For instance, The Body Shop has 86 doors in Germany. The company operates stores in 53 countries.
Antonini declared, “We are convinced it [The Body Shop at Home] will be a significant driver of growth for the company.”