Trinny London is bringing a pop of colour to the corner of King’s Road.
The seven-year-old UK-based digitally native beauty brand opened its first flagship store on the high-traffic street in London on Wednesday. The 1,216-square-foot storefront is coated in the brand’s signature yellow, inside, there are product displays featuring reviews from online customers. Downstairs, there’s a studio, where clients can receive one-on-one makeup and skincare consultations.
One of the store’s defining features is its “meet your match” room, replete with virtual reality filters and salespeople who bring out items atop a silver tray. It’s the physical manifestation of Trinny London’s popular online personalisation tool called “Match2Me” that helps customers devise makeup and skincare routines. The room is the clearest example of the brand’s aim to bridge the online and offline experience, a non-negotiable for younger, digitally savvy consumers.
“It takes you on a skincare journey. It’s like an immersive experience,” said Trinny Woodall, the brand’s founder and chief executive. “There’s that sense of you’re not just coming to a beauty store because most people go to a Space NK, for example, in the UK or Sephora in the US.”
Like most DTC start-ups at the moment, Trinny London is investing in brick-and-mortar to shore up profitable growth. In 2024, the company expects sales to grow 38 percent year over year to north of $100 million, and to generate an 8 percent margin of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. The store is slated to recoup the costs of its opening in three months, Woodall said.
The brand has reason to be confident in the store’s ability to contribute to the growth of the overall business. It used the same space for a pop-up in June, where about 20 percent of visitors became repeat shoppers online.
Until now, the company’s retail presence had been restricted to shop-in-shops in Fenwick, Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue in the US and Westfield in Australia. It will open seven concession shops in the British luxury department chain John Lewis this year.
It’s looking to open a standalone store in New York next, though no lease has been signed yet. The brand plans to raise money from existing investors to hire four people in New York, including a general manager.
“The difference between the direct relationship you get with doing it straight to the consumer, and then the concept of your own store environment to tell the message how you want to tell it, you’ve got to have enough traction to justify the rent,” Woodall said.
