Category Archives: Retail

Retail notes from Seoul: Capital of beauty stores

Greetings from Seoul where I’m winding up my spring trip to Asia! I spent the last two weeks in Tokyo: enjoying the city, exploring different neighbourhoods and doing some article research (I am writing a retail profile on Japanese store chain Cosmekitchen for CBM Magazine). I also visited most of the major art and design museums and galleries in the greater Tokyo area. Unlike last year’s visit, my first 2015 trip to Tokyo was culture-oriented rather than retail-focused.

In Seoul, however, I am making up for this: my visit here is all about brands, cosmetics and retail! Although this is my first trip to Korea I already know a good bit about the Korean beauty market and I’m familiar with many of the big retail brands. Korean cosmetics are popular across Asia and brands like Holika Holika, Tony Moly, Innisfree, Nature Republic, Skin Food, Etude House and Missha have a significant presence in East Asia and most of the South East Asian countries. Several of these brands also have retail boutiques in the US, by the way. And with the Korean hallyu blazing its triumphant path across the world, K-Beauty is only going to grow in importance.

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Vivaness 2015: [Show Report]

Vivaness is over and, as always, it was a fantastic show – l discovered new organic beauty brands (my personal highlights included a certified organic snail mucus face care range and a 7-sku line of dog shampoos!), met interesting people and returned to Berlin with cool cosmetics to try out and plenty of ideas for articles and features. Read on for more information on the organic market in Germany, stats about the trade show and, of course, a list of my favourite Vivaness brand discoveries!

Trade Show Exterior (3)

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Event: Vivaness 2015

The next important event for me will be Vivaness trade show in Nuremberg. Vivaness is one of the biggest international organic beauty trade shows and definitely the most important organic C&T event in Europe.

This year, Vivaness takes place from 11th to 14th February 2015; as always, the show is run concurrently with Biofach which is THE most important international trade fair for the organic industry. I’ll only be there for the first two days of Vivaness since I’m flying to Tokyo the week after (yay!) but I fully intend to make those two days count! And there is a lot to look forward to. Continue reading

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SPC Magazine: C&T Market Report Germany 2014

Last September I was asked to write the annual German C&T market overview for SPC Magazine – one of my favourite repeat assignments! Here’s the link to the SPC Germany Report 2014 – as usual, please respect the copyright (HPCi Media/cosmeticsbusiness.com).

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Store Profile: Original Unverpackt in Kreuzberg, Berlin

Last autumn an unusual store opened here in Berlin: Original Unverpackt (lit. “originally unpackaged”) is the city’s first supermarket to sell groceries without packaging and in bulk. OU’s founders Milena Glimbovski and Sara Wolf raised the money for their project via crowdfunding which ensured a lively debate in the German media about packaging waste, recycling and food wastage, long before the store even opened.

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Filed under Berlin, Industry News, Mintel, Retail, Store Profiles

Mintel article: Berlin perfumery Frau Tonis Parfum

This summer I wrote a profile about Frau Tonis Parfum – one of my favourite perfumeries in Berlin: a beautiful store, great fragrances and they even have a brand cooperation with one of my favourite Berlin bars! Check out the Mintel article here.

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[Brand Profile]: Whamisa – organic beauty from Korea

One of my favourite things about trade shows is the chance to discover new beauty labels. I first came across Whamisa at CosmeTokyo 2014 trade show and was immediately struck by the brand: Beautiful packaging, high-quality ingredients, great organic certification (BDIH and Ecocert) and a very attractive 38-sku product range.

Whamisa

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Mintel article: Glööckler flagship Berlin

I arrived back in Berlin three days ago. It was a marvellous five weeks away and I’m still trying to sort out all of my impressions. My next trip to that region is already booked, by the way: two weeks in Tokyo in late February/early March plus a few days in Seoul/Korea. I’ve never been to Korea and already have a long list of stores and places I want to visit.

Before taking off for Japan, however, I’ll be visiting Vivaness trade show in Nuremberg. And after my return I’ll be attending Beauty International trade show in Düsseldorf. It looks like 2015 will be full of travelling and trade shows (yay!)

Since I won’t have time to update the blog this week (too much work to do), here is an article I wrote on German designer Harald Glööckler’s new Berlin flagship store this summer. Glööckler is a rather interesting phenomenon, he has a very flamboyant, in-your-face personality and he polarises public opinion. However, when I researched the article, I was surprised by how genuine he appears, despite his obvious and carefully cultivated artificiality. Enjoy the article!

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Retail notes from Hong Kong: [Show Report] Cosmoprof Asia 2014

I arrived in Hong Kong a few days ago to attend Cosmoprof Asia, the biggest and most important C&T trade show in the Asian region. This year’s Cosmoprof Asia took place from 12th to 14th November at Hong Kong’s Convention & Exhibition Center in Wan Chai. Click on the link below to read more on the show.

Kowloon (19)

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Retail notes from Taipei: [Company Profile] Eslite!

One of my favourite store chains in Taiwan is bookstore retailer Eslite. Not only do they have an interesting and very appealing retail concept, but I’m also impressed by how carefully the company tailors its brand portfolio and store layout to the local neighbourhood.

The Eslite chain started out as a bookstore in 1989 with a small selection of titles from the arts and humanities. Since then it has become a majorly successful multi-channel business. In 2004 Eslite was chosen as “Asia’s Best Book Store” in Time Magazine’s Best of Asia ranking and in 2011 the company received the Top 100 Taiwanese Brand Award from the Taiwanese government.

Books and literature are still a key part of the Eslite portfolio but the company has diversified its focus to embrace the cultural and creative industries in Taiwan, too. In some of the larger Taipei Eslites you’ll find gourmet food courts and super-stylish cafés, hand-made Taiwanese art and design objects, lifestyle cosmetics, international avant-garde fashion and accessories and a very comprehensive selection of books and magazines – mostly in Chinese but the larger Eslites also carry a respectable number of English language books. Some of the outlets feature lecture halls and auditoriums and in these stores there is a varied program of concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events. And the newest Eslite in Songshan even has an arthouse movie theatre.

Ximen Eslite (3)

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