Feelunique signs pivotal deal to herald bright future
Feelunique has spent many years to secure distribution deals for key health and beauty brands that highlight how tough it has been to compete in this category. But it is now in a healthy position for growth. By Glynn Davis
Ahead of taking part in a panel discussion at the Retail Bulletin Omni-channel Summit 2015 on February 4 in London Aaron Chatterley, founder and deputy chairman at Feelunique, reveals that if he had known how hard it would be to source goods direct from the big brand owners when he set up Feelunique nine-and-a-half years ago he would not have started on the journey.
“We knew nothing about health and beauty. I think there was probably lower hanging fruit to go for. Initially it was well nigh impossible [to source direct] so we bought on the grey market but pricing was a nightmare and we didn’t know the provenance of the products,” he recalls.
Four years ago the company decided to just go direct to the manufacturers. But although many hair-care and body-care brands were receptive the others brands were not. It ultimately took seven years to convince both Dior and Yves Saint Laurent to deal with Feelunique and only recently has Estée Lauder Group (that includes Tom Ford and Tommy Hilfiger among its many brands) agreed to supply products. It is still working on Chanel.
He believes Estée Lauder is a “pivotal deal in the company’s history” as it is arguably becoming harder for new retailers to source from these brand owners – particularly to sell online – because they have now seen how digital has “panned out” and are very select about who they supply in this channel.
“They are much more interested in long-term brand equity than short term gains and so the likes of Dior and Chanel are more likely to be closing retail outlets than opening them,” says Chatterley.
This provides Feelunique with an element of insulation from newcomers in the category coming online but he fully acknowledges the threat from Sephora returning to the UK and the ongoing competition from John Lewis and Debenhams as well as Boots. “We’re very definitely far from complacent,” he says.
Since Feelunique no longer competes on price with these competitors it has had to build up differentiating properties. Key is choice and convenience. Along with the recognisable brands Chatterley says there is a “very long tail of other brands” and these products are surrounded by engaging editorial.
“We recruited top health and beauty journalists to build up our editorial team. This helps attract a younger audience who are more likely to shop with us online than a department store. Fifty per cent of our customers are under 35 years old whereas at a department store it will be much less than this. We’re attracting girls when they are young and making decisions,” he explains.
This makes customer acquisition critical to the Feelunique model, but in the digital world he admits it can be very expensive to compete [on search engines] and so the company has brought in strong CRM expertise that encompasses offers and re-activation initiatives to bring in new and also retain the existing customer base.
With deals with big brand owners now under its belt and a recently installed new chief executive and chief operating officer the structure is in place for Feelunique to move onto its next stage of growth.
You can benefit from hearing about Aaron’s experiences along with our other top speakers including Pets At Home, River Island, The Co-operative Group, Carphone Warehouse, Dressipi, John Lewis and more. Register now for the retailer earlybird rate by clicking here.
