FESTIVE RETAILING SPECIAL

How to boost your festive retailing

EDITED BY MARK SMITH

The festive period is a key time for spa operators, especially in 2021. As online retail continues to grow, there remains an important place for in-spa merchandising, promotions and events that highlight the latest brand collections.

Selfcare and sustainability are key themes for many brands this year with a focus on candles, aromatherapy, bathing and bodycare products often presented in recycled and recyclable packaging with eco-friendly credentials. Along with the actual retail items, the tone and messaging of marketing is also changing to meet the needs of ‘conscious’ consumers.

By offering a range of options to suit all ages and tastes – with a choice of luxury sets, impulse purchases and vouchers to fill space in January and February – retail success is within reach for your business.

To help you move towards this, European Spa highlights the latest festive gift sets and offers expert retailing advice from leading spa brands.

Temple Spa – Joyful Places

Inspired by the idea of a personal ‘happy place’, Temple Spa’s festive collection includes products for skin, body and soul. Home fragrance takes centre stage with a festive aromatic candle and diffuser, and a truffle candle. Wellbeing sets to promote sleep and relaxation also feature luxury skincare journeys, bath salts and Himalayan salt massage stones.

People are continuing to adopt more mindful spending habits as established during lockdown. Although the demand for online shopping remains strong – and spas must serve the demand – customers are also seeking in-person events that provide a unique and valuable experience, so where possible spas should safely accommodate these.

– Sarah Ronchetti, Head of spa, Temple Spa

www.templespa.com

Esse – Limited Edition Gift Set

In this year’s festive skincare gift set, Esse presents its Sensitive Cleanser and Toner alongside Nourish Moisturiser, Resurrect Serum and Protect Oil to protect the skin microbiome and rewild the skin. The ultra-gentle products deliver a high concentration of probiotic ingredients to deeply hydrate, soothe and renew the skin.

Festive gifting is a great way to start the journey to healthy skin. Special offerings at this time of the year typically include hero products from a range that can support multiple skins. They can also introduce a client to the brand as well as providing a timely retail boost for spas

– Raquel van Niekerk, Marketing manager, Esse

www.esseskincare.co.uk

Elemis – The Home of British Skincare Christmas Collection

Elemis presents a series of gift sets, leading with a quartet of kits centred around Pro-Collagen Marine Cream and its family of partner products. Scented journeys through bath care, bodycare and candles offer sumptuous gifts. An advent calendar, entitled ‘No.25 Elemis, London, The Home of our Beauty’, features the brand’s iconic products in one box.

With wellness continuing to be front of mind and the client looking for experiences more than ever, spa partners should use the festive period to really focus on creating noise around gift vouchers and New Year treatment package bookings, ultimately driving incremental revenue for the final and first quarter.

– Noella Gabriel, Global president and co-founder, Elemis

www.elemis.com

Elemental Herbology – 2021 Christmas Gifting

Celebrating togetherness and belonging, Elemental Herbology’s festive bodycare, bath, skincare and mini products are named after the brand’s core values: integrity, proximity, vitality, tranquillity and unity. Showing that actions speak louder than words, the brand is donating 10% of proceeds from its Christmas collection to Hestia, which supports UK adults and children in times of crisis.

This Christmas it is important to give back to the community and offer your customers an opportunity to do the same. By supporting a charitable cause that aligns with your brand values, both the spa and its customers can become a part of making a change. Charity gift sets spread awareness and spark conversations between the spa team and its customers.

– Carolyne Beck, General manager, Elemental Herbology

www.elementalherbology.com

Thalgo – Spa Bastide

Inspired by the Christmas traditions of the Provencal Riviera, Thalgo presents a skincare experience with a Mediterranean influence. Featuring beauty boxes and eco-designed Spa Bastide gift sets, the brand helps to create mini spa rituals at home. Three Christmas stockings have been launched containing hand-crafted, scented soaps based on a traditional Marseilles recipe.

Christmas gifting is so enticing and special, so make the most of merchandising opportunities and, in particular, promote the value of any gift sets. Beautiful ribbons, boxes and bags that will look good under the Christmas tree are a great way to highlight the selection you have from your brands.

– Marian Harvey, Managing director, Thalgo UK

www.thalgo.co.uk

Voya – Tides of Joy

Bright, modern designs with colourful organic flowing waves set the tone for the Tides of Joy collection, designed to spark joy and optimism for the festive period. Presented in environmentally ‘conscious’ packaging such as ‘eco’ facial bags, wash bags and tins, the collection includes a variety of home fragrances, cleansing and organic spa facials, sleep wellness sets and nourishing organic body rituals.

Winter wellness trends show that customers are seeking to improve their overall wellbeing with sleep rituals and meditations, and looking to enhance their environment with elements and scents from nature. The spa and wellness industry must be ready to cater to this growing segment by partnering with customers to help them develop and improve their selfcare practices.

– Mark Walton, Co-founder, Voya

www.voya.ie

Babor – Ampoule Concentrates Advent Calendar

The Babor Ampoule Concentrates Advent calendar offers a 24-day skincare journey of discovery using the brand’s skin ampoules. Each window of the calendar, designed in stylishly festive black, white and gold, is decorated with a story from Babor’s history and celebrates the company’s values of empowerment, sustainability and quality. Babor has also launched a collection of SeaCreation, ReVersive and HSR lifting gift sets.

The world has changed and gifts have to be meaningful now. A gift set is the perfect complement to a gift certificate. It creates the sensual experience the consumer wants and that immediate gratification most of us like to have when opening a present. Spa merchandising must be playful and engaging with many opportunities to touch, feel, smell.

– Fabienne Lindholm, Director of international education, Babor

www.babor.com

[comfort zone] – The Garden Gifts

Celebrating the brand’s Scientific Garden in Italy, the festive collection from [comfort zone] takes a conscious and sustainable approach with limited edition boxes made in Italy with recycled FSC paper. Featuring hero and iconic formulas and scents, Tranquillity Candle sets the tone to spa at home and the collection also includes kits entitled Tranquillity, Remedy, 24 Hour, Sacred Nature and Sublime Skin.

A product has to be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem. This means to embrace regeneration and revolutionise the way we formulate, select the ingredients and design our ranges. Choose gifts that take a conscious and sustainable approach, being mindful of using recyclable packaging and recycled paper.

– Barbara Gavazzoli, Communication director, [comfort zone]

www.comfortzone.it

ESPA – Hidden Treasures

Leading its festive selection is ESPA’s Hidden Treasure Advent Calendar, featuring the brand’s hero products in little drawers, including treat and travel-sized products for skin, body and mind. The collection also features stocking fillers, home fragrance options with candles and diffusers, and skincare and lifestyle collections to support sleep, relaxation and general wellbeing.

For Christmas, it is important to offer a gift collection that has both accessible price points and a carefully curated gift line-up to ensure there is something suitable for everyone. To help spa guests select the perfect gift, improving the customer journey with informative gift guides and interactive campaign videos will allow spas to speak to more people than ever.

– Gemma Bosanko, Head of digital, ESPA

www.espaskincare.com

Dermalogica – Holidays 2021

Dermalogica has curated a festive selection of gift sets for a range of skin types and conditions. Discover Healthy Skin is an introduction to the brand offering its top-selling products for glowing, healthy-looking skin. ‘Our Hydration Heroes’ features an ultra-hydrating trio and ‘Our Best Cleanse & Glow’ presents Dermalogica’s Double Cleanse technique in three products.

Train your team, ensuring that everyone understands the new products, sets and overall offering, including their added value. Set sales targets and offer incentives to give staff direction and goals. Start a Christmas countdown to create urgency and demand. Team up with another local business to create festive packages and sell the gifts as a combined offering.

– Louise Lupton, UK sales director, Dermalogica

www.dermalogica.co.uk

Mii Cosmetics – Hidden Depths Gift Set

Mii Cosmetics has introduced Hidden Depths Gift Set to lead its Christmas collection for 2021, offering a range of makeup options for the party season. Featuring lengthening and volumising SuperBoost Lash Lover mascara, ultra-pigmented High Precision Liquid Liner and a multi-dimensional Jewel Chrome Eye Colour, the package is a perfect party season gift.

The most important thing with an impulse purchase is to know your customer. What will excite them? An impulse purchase should be a low-value item – something a customer could buy without a second thought. Remember you’re going for volume here. Choose the right products and position them where your customer is most likely to purchase and where you receive the greatest footfall.

– Paul Gerrard, Head of marketing and communications, Gerrard International

www.miicosmetics.com

Gaia Skincare – Christmas Crackers

Gaia Skincare has curated a selection of vegan-friendly gifts in sustainable packaging for 2021. Awakening Bath Oil and Lip Balm Christmas Crackers are ideal stocking fillers, and the Skincare Mini Body Oil Trio offers an introduction to its hero body oils. For the ultimate gift, the Crystal Range Trio features rose quartz-infused skincare products.

Gift sets are often purchased for brand new customers, so there’s an opportunity to turn the receiver into a returning customer by providing an experience rather than just a product. This might be through a customer loyalty scheme that also encourages a sustainable beauty regime; we offer customers 20% off product refills through our spa and salon partners.

– Diane Nettleton Founder, Gaia Skincare

www.gaiaskincare.com

Natural Spa Factory – Conscious Christmas

Natural Spa Factory’s gift boxes for 2021 are produced in the UK from mushroom mycelium, a natural alternative to fossil fuel-produced polymers that are 100% compostable and break down naturally. The collection contains Bergamot and Black Tea Hand Care, a Spa Facial Kit, a Spa Relaxation Kit and a Bergamot Black Tea Trio as well as new candles and Bath Salts in Winter Pear and Fig and Vanilla.

People looking for gifts at Christmas aren’t afraid to spend, but consumer habits have changed and 2021 has seen purchasing decisions being informed by sustainability concerns and a ‘feel good factor’ for doing the right thing. Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm, it’s about doing more good, so seek out brands with sustainable packaging and components to help support customers to make better choices.

– Jeremy Smith, Co-founder, Natural Spa Factory

www.naturalspafactory.co.uk

Germaine de Capuccini – Christmas Advent Calendar

Germaine de Capuccini has recreated a smart London Georgian townhouse for its 2021 advent calendar. This opens up to showcase a sleek and sophisticated aesthetics practise inside, containing mini and sample sizes of its hero Timeexpert anti-ageing skincare collection, including: Timexpert SRNS Repair Night Progress Serum, Timexpert Rides Global Cream (Rich) and Bi-Phase Make up Removal Lotion.

Advent calendars are a great way to share new products with current customers or to introduce a new regime to others. The social media opportunities with these are countless; have a team member open a door each day and talk about the benefits of the product they discover or have a client open a door and take home what’s inside.

– Clare Dickens, Managing director, Totally UK

www.germaine-de-capuccini.co.uk

OPI – Party Season Colours

Setting the scene for OPI’s 40th anniversary year, vibrant, party-ready mini nail lacquer gift sets and Christmas cracker boxes are complemented by treatment-based product kits to improve the look and health of nails. Hero colours and new launches from the Celebration Collection feature in the OPI Nail Lacquer 25-piece Advent Calendar.

Developing a customer-focused retail strategy is key for driving incremental revenue. Spas should encourage their guests to treat themselves with home care products or to gift nail lacquer sets to friends and family. With customers continuously seeking new experiences, introduce product demonstrations to drive excitement and consequently increase sales.

– Julia Redmond, Head of trade marketing, OPI

www.opiuk.com

Murad – Christmas Heroes

Partnering with renowned illustrator Patrick Hruby, Murad has curated a selection of apothecary-style skincare kits inspired by Dr Murad’s clinically-proven formulations and his holistic approach to skin health. Glow-anywhere and Start Glowing highlight the brand’s hero products for skin health. Revitalise taps into the brand’s Tri-Active retinol technology and Radiance Revealed combines active retinol with SPF protection.

Hosting a seasonal event, either in salon or via Zoom, can be a great way to reconnect with clients, to remind them of the great offers you have and also the professional service you bring, along with gift vouchers and VIP discounts on the night. Gifting previews and unboxing reveals on your website or social media channels entice and excite clients to purchase.

– Tracey Wilmot, International education director, EMEA, Murad

www.murad.co.uk

Natura Bissé – Holiday Glow

Celebrating special moments, family and good times, Natura Bissé has created Holiday Glow, a selection of exclusive sets featuring some of its most iconic products. The Diamond Collection Set combines the face and eye cream while the Inhibit Collection includes Tensolift Neck Cream and Retinol Eye Lift. New for 2021 is the Diamond Well-Living Collection Set containing Dry Oil and Body Scrub, while the Essential Shock Intense Set promises firmer looking skin.

Christmas is about the art of gifting. It is all about care, love and details that really matter. During 2021 we have treasured our wellness – little moments of joy found in caring for ourselves and those around us. This year more than ever, we encourage our partners to create a memorable experience for their clients, showcasing the special concept of gifting and sharing care and happiness with their loved ones.

– Patricia Fisas, Senior vice-president of research and innovation, Natura Bissé

www.naturabisse.com