Douglas Changes The Face of Beauty

The beauty industry is changing faster than ever before, bringing along with it a host of new products and trends.

As argued by Tina Mueller, CEO of beauty department store, Douglas: “People are shopping beauty and grooming products very differently, they seek unbiased endorsement, trial and experimentation in order to make purchasing decisions, and the modern retail space needs to reflect that in order to drive engagement and retain loyalty.”

We are proud to have worked alongside the Douglas team to redesign their Frankfurt flagship, to provide consumers with a site of discovery and exploration, placing Douglas at the forefront of the beauty industry.

The store’s incredible redesign offers an experience-led and immersive journey, within a sleek but energetic and integrated aesthetic.

Whilst working alongside the brand, the challenge was to blend both new and established brands as a cohesive design, in a way that delivers an enhanced customer beauty experience as the core of this fantastic specialist flagship store. The result is a “shopping experience that is really a demonstration in the art of curation”, according to co-founder and Chairman of Sheridan&Co, Michael Sheridan, in which care has been taken to promote both established and new brands, without compromising a sense of the store’s own identity.

A key feature of our work alongside Douglas Cosmetics was to break the conventional merchandise paradigm and recategorise beauty types. Exploring the art of curation, products were split into ‘worlds’ of interest, such as ‘Natural’, ‘Lab’ and Korean cosmetics, with subtle changes in material and colour scheme to keep a unified, consistent aesthetic, while giving the impression of having walked into a distinct ‘world’ of beauty.

To allow for this discovery, and elevate Douglas as an educator and curator of the best in beauty, the Skincare floor offers a sushi-style conveyor belt of ‘Douglas Exclusives’. This invites consumers to try a selection of seasonal favourites and new releases, handpicked by experts and influencers.

“More than ever, retailers need to be seamlessly agile and sensitive to new trends,” says Michael Sheridan. “Translating this into the retail space to make the bricks and mortar shopping experience continuously interesting.” To allow for changing trends in the beauty industry, every aspect of the Douglas site is easily rearranged, with modular, adaptable furniture.