There’s been a seismic move to online shopping during the COVID-19 crisis.
But many major beauty players such as L’Oréal were already accelerating their direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales.
The Hut Group (THG), Europe’s largest online retailer of premium beauty products, has signed more than AUD$180 million in partnerships with prominent tentpole beauty names to leverage their DTC models and fast-track revenues and achieve international scale more rapidly.
Leading brands include Elemis, PZ Cussons Beauty, Burt’s Bees, Nuxe, Revolution Beauty and By Terry.
The agreements allow access to THG’s end-to-end technology and operating platform, Ingenuity, to ramp up a global DTC presence.
Australian sales strategies for two of the brands are already on the drawing board.
Over the next year, Elemis, the UK’s leading anti-ageing skincare brand, will upscale its DTC offerings across Europe and the Asia/Pacific region, fuelled by THG’s distribution centres in Australia, Singapore, the UK and Poland.
Revolution Beauty, which hit the mainstream in Australia with its launch in Priceline stores in July 2019, is aiming higher, too.
The UK cult makeup brand will escalate its DTC online business in the US and Australia later this year through the new THG deal.
The consumer shift to online will continue at pace and a resilient, world-class DTC operation has become a necessity for brands to generate sustainable longterm growth, says Matthew Moulding, founder and CEO of THG.
“The latest partnership agreements with some of the world’s leading international beauty brands are testament to the strength of THG’s Ingenuity’s proven technology services,” he adds.
THG, which owns Lookfantastic, RY.com.au, Australia’s largest haircare and skincare online store, ESPA and Illamasqua, reported a sales increase of 24 per cent in 2019 to US$1.4 billion.
More than 66 per cent of revenues come from international sales.