Natural beauty products at discount prices in a remarkable DIY concept: Aroma-Zone has found a format that really connects with consumers. The French chain has opened its first store abroad in Brussels, which is so successful that further expansion is on the cards already.
“Niche brands do not change the world”
Aroma-Zone’s Brussels store opened on 27 October, and since then there have been huge queues at the door each day. CEO Sabrina Herlory, who came to Brussels for a press meeting, does not see that as a big surprise. “The Belgian market was already the second – only to France, obviously – and Belgians have been asking for a store for years. The choice for Brussels’ main shopping street Rue Neuve was deliberate, because of the huge traffic figures and accessible location. The brand wants to be as accessible as possible: “With a niche brand, you can not change the world”, Herlory says.
And changing the world, is indeed Aroma-Zone’s ambition: in France, the brand is quite the phenomenon. Eager to democratise natural beauty and health products, is a perfect fit with the Zeitgeist. Started as an aromatherapy blog 22 years ago, sisters Anne-Cécile en Valérie Vausselin created at first an online community and then (in 2014) a first store in Paris, that lured customers from all over France (and beyond).
The success is such that a sixth of turnover is generated abroad, even though the brand does not have an international webshop: “Customers just use Google Translate…” This popularity means that the brand is ambitious in its expansion plans: Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland are all on the to-do list. “As is a second store in Belgium: not straight away, but in the long run, if we see that the demand is high enough. We are here to stay, we have a long-term mission.”
Stores with many functions
Why does a brand that started as a webshop focus so much on physical expansion? “We see a huge demand from customers. People like to shop and meet, to smell and feel our products. Stores help to raise brand awareness and recruit new customers. Also, we organise workshops: people can really learn interesting things here.”
The store concept is basic and accessible, with clear signage and sustainable materials. Shoppers can search for more information on tablets, and ask experts/advisors, but it is especially striking to see how they are helping each other by exchanging experiences. The store’s 2,000 product references are split into three universes: beauty, health&wellness and home. Customers can combine the ingredients into their own beauty products: the retailer organises workshops and sells initiation packages to help them with this.
Low prices
Low prices are written into Aroma-Zone’s DNA: “We want to scale up natural well-being: partly through education, but also through low prices. Low prices are a form of inclusion: we want to give everyone access to our products. Our prices are among the lowest in the market.”
How the company achieves this? “We say no to expensive marketing campaigns, but we start from the community. We read all the questions and comments and use those to find new ingredients and develop new products. Our model is fully integrated, we source our ingredients directly from 400 producers in 120 countries. We also sell directly to the consumers: there are no middle-men we have to pay. And this, obviously, enables us to set our prices low…”
