Douglas is the leading premium beauty platform in Europe. Offering more than 130,000 beauty and lifestyle products in online shops, the beauty marketplace and more than 2,000 stores.
The German retailer offers the largest product portfolio in Europe, from premium industry brands, high-quality exclusive brands, independent trend and niche brands, the retailer certainly has something for everyone.
In the year 2019/2020, Douglas generated sales of 3.2 billion euros in the areas of perfumery, decorative cosmetics, skin and hair care as well as nutritional supplements and accessories. In 2020, Douglas specifically pushed the development of its successful #FORWARDBEAUTY strategy programme. Based on the philosophy of DIGITAL FIRST, Douglas integrates online shops, marketplace and stores into a data-based beauty platform. Making a significant shift to a predominantly online marketplace has been a big step towards the future of beauty e-commerce for the retail giant.
This year, Douglas has launched the third iteration of its start-up competition that aims to highlight and bring new brands, technologies and sustainability initiatives to the company. This gives niche and independent brands a unique opportunity to enter the competitive beauty market with the support of a leading beauty retailer.
Beauty futures
This year, Douglas has launched the Beauty Futures competition to support innovative start-ups and companies trying to break out onto the wider beauty scene.
The competition is open to start-ups and companies in three areas: Beauty Brand, Beauty Technology and Green Retail. The third category is new to the competition and is in response to increased demand for sustainability in retail.
Douglas Group CEO Tina Müller said the retailer wants new ideas that will support the company’s digitalization strategy #FORWARDBEAUTYDigitalfirst. The beauty technology category will focus on ideas and strategies that will help to improve Douglas’ all important customer experience. The technologies can include data management, artificial intelligence (AI) or augmented reality (AR) to be used in the company’s stores, online shop, app or social media.
Meanwhile, the Beauty Brand section will seek out new product ideas in skincare, make-up, fragrance, nutritional supplements and hair care that could be added to the retailer’s product assortment. Whilst, Green Retail will look for start-ups with new ideas to develop sustainable retail in the company’s stores, e-commerce, purchasing or logistics.
The competitions jury includes a number of Douglas’ management including Tina Müller alongside a number of external business figures. The competition offers startups a unique opportunity to integrate themselves into a beauty retail giant and a huge platform for growth.
The future of beauty tech
Technology has adapted the way we buy beauty for quite some time and with so much anxiety around touch and face to face interaction over the course of the pandemic, virtual try-ons and at home devices couldn’t come at a better time.
Over the past few years, the worlds of beauty and tech have come together at an alarming rate and innovations in artificial intelligence, augmented reality and smart tools are set to revolutionise our relationship with beauty and appearance.
It is said that the future of beauty technology will be driven by an increasing demand for personalisation and tailor-made formulas. Our desire for personalised products has led to a wave of luxury tools that can bring professional-grade treatments to our homes and super-smart tech that can effectively read our skin and offer unique insights into evolving issues and potential treatments.
Established brands are now in a race to innovate to keep up with the development of beauty tech, meanwhile offering innovative startups the opportunity to tap into this tech boom before some of the industry dominating brands take their seat at the table. Part of this innovation race has also been led by our lives led on social media. The unique desire to now be more attractive online than in real life means that filters and 3D makeup may be set to dominate the industry in the coming years.
The future of beauty is unknown, but when it comes to innovation and tech, it seems clear that the industry is shifting and that much of the way we experience and shop for beauty will take a digital first approach.
Growing beauty tech brands
Bespoke beauty is booming and products that are tailored to the masses no longer appeal to us as individuals with very unique beauty needs. Prose creates custom hair care that is designed exclusively for the user.
This brand cleverly updates your unique formula on a regular basis to evolve with the user and will even adjust to match the particular conditions in your area. The formulas contain natural ingredients and are created using a manufacturing machine that’s powered by machine-learning capabilities. This not only reduces the brand’s carbon footprint, but allows Prose to package 30,000 custom shampoo and conditioner units a day, making it one of the most mass-scale custom beauty operations in the world.
Understanding your skin can seem like an endless effort and monitoring the changes we face on a monthly basis can make it difficult to build a skincare routine that actually feels like it is having an effect.
The HiMirror is your personal beauty consultant. Using a system developed to assess your skin’s condition, make the best use of your existing skincare products, supplemented with reviews by those with the same skincare concerns as yourself. Moreover, it can also advise you on how to achieve your fitness and weight goals.
Understanding your skin can seem like an endless effort and monitoring the changes we face on a monthly basis can make it difficult to build a skincare routine that actually feels like it is having an effect.
The HiMirror is your personal beauty consultant. Using a system developed to assess your skin’s condition, make the best use of your existing skincare products, supplemented with reviews by those with the same skincare concerns as yourself. Moreover, it can also advise you on how to achieve your fitness and weight goals.
Using data gathered via an anonymous cloud-based Big Data system alongside advice from top dermatologists and fitness experts, HiMirror expertly marries practical advice and smart technology with your unique needs in mind.
Nail enthusiast Jooyeon Song co-founded Manime in late 2019 after being disappointed by her nail-care options. Gel manicures were time-consuming whilst stick-ons didn’t fit well and most often didn’t last very long.
Using her background in 3D modeling, Song devised a way to turn 2D smartphone photos of users’ hands into a 3D model, then custom print gel polish nail stickers that fit perfectly. The company’s sales unsurprisingly grew tenfold in 2020 as the pandemic saw nail salons close their doors. ManiMe has also commissioned designs from sought after nail artists, providing them with a new revenue stream outside of the salon.
Powerful, in-office laser treatments have long been an effective method to treat conditions from hyperpigmentation and rosacea to acne and wrinkles. However, achieving the same results at home had not yet been possible, until now.
Lyma offers a pocket-sized gadget that is officially the strongest at-home laser on the market. Clinical evidence has backed up its ability to help improve the aforementioned skin conditions with just 20 minutes of daily use. Its ability to harness the power of a laser treatment whilst being safe enough for everyday use, makes this an innovative brand to watch.
