The global personalised beauty market is set to grow by 15% annually until 2030 (InsightAce Analytic, 2022). Brands like South Korea’s Etude and India’s Boddess are putting diagnostics front and centre of store design, while British label The Inkey List’s educative pop-up encourages visitors to turn forensic in their own facial analysis.

Tapping into the mainstreaming of the ‘tweakment’ (non-surgical cosmetic procedures) industry – projected to nearly triple in value by 2028 (Research and Markets, 2021) – some retailers are centring on the desire for injectables like Botox and fillers. Approaches range from John Lewis’s restrained over-25s policy and traditional styling, to fellow British brand Flannels’ social-media-centric clinic, which livestreams treatments to the shop floor.

Brands are looking beyond visual allure and tapping into the heightened post-pandemic consumer desire for sensorial connection and wellness-infused beauty. While Australian company Aesop’s clothing infusion chamber and YSL Beauty’s neural fragrance profiler spotlight scent, Dutch label Rituals’ Mind Spa uses multisensory tech to enhance mental wellbeing.

Astute retailers, like luxury British department store Harrods, are targeting suburban and ‘micropolitan’ consumers – a growing group, spurred by the pandemic’s mega-city exodus (see Leaning into Local) – with regional locations reminiscent of metropolitan bricks-and-mortar flagships. Store design is either pared back (letting the brands shine) or seductive (with ultra-luxe styling).

Sustainable brands including Aesop are harnessing the connection between personal and planetary wellbeing with eco-conscious store designs. These communicate clean beauty credentials and/or overtly educative spaces, spotlighting regenerative research and activism – see French marine skincare brand Biotherm.

In the US, 54% of millennials and Gen Zers want to become influencers (Morning Consult, 2019). Shrewd (predominantly luxury) brands like Chanel and Flannels are targeting this growing cohort of fame-seeking content creators with store-hosted TikTok beauty challenges and social-media-connected changing rooms.