Online beauty retailer Fragrance Direct has revamped its website and unveiled a brand refresh to drive loyalty among value-seeking shoppers and cost-efficiencies in the business.
An early online retail pioneer, Fragrance Direct has now migrated its website from a third-party platform onto a proprietary solution owned and developed by the Maximo Group. The opportunity arose after Maximo Group acquired the Fragrance Direct business in March 2021, creating one of the UK’s largest online beauty groups with annual sales of £181m. The group is the owner of another direct-to-consumer beauty and personal care retailer allbeauty and is a growing force in UK online retail.
By switching to Maximo Group’s proprietary e-commerce platform, Fragrance Direct is able to build out a more dynamic offer for its value-hunting consumers. Online beauty purchasers typically like to shop around, seeking out the best prices and fastest service. The new platform provides greater functionality for competitive pricing, which Fragrance Direct will combine with brand-led promotions and events to drive repeat business and keep its everyday value brand promise.
Fragrance Direct, which was founded in 1993 and launched its first website in 1998, has long been a known destination for beauty shoppers. It currently offers more than 500 popular beauty brands and now plans to strengthen its reputation as the online home for fragrances. With greater capacity Fragrance Direct will widen its selection of fragrance-related products such as home fragrances and candles to ensure shoppers can find the gifts and treats they want at the best price.
More than 1.69m unique users visit the Fragrance Direct website each month, accounting for the retailer’s annual turnover of more than £55m. Women aged 18 - 35 represent two-thirds of Fragrance Direct shoppers.
Fragrance Direct’s starting point for its brand refresh is recognition of its core customers as experience seekers and value hunters who consider indulgence a key part of a healthy lifestyle. Guilt-free, regular self-gifting is an essential element of self-care for its customers.
The refreshed consumer proposition is reflected in the retailer’s new visual identity, which serves to elevate the online shopping environment and give consumers a brand they can connect to. A hand-illustrated wordmark adds a human touch, and the brand’s strong personality is heard loud and clear through a trusted, value-driven, bold and positive tone of voice.
Fast and efficient customer service is important to Fragrance Direct shoppers who want timely treats and indulgences. As part of a group-wide investment, Fragrance Direct orders will be fulfilled from a new state of the art warehouse in Birmingham. . The Maximo Group’s new consolidated facility brings distribution for both Fragrance Direct and allbeauty under one roof for the first time, providing a streamlined logistics supplier experience for authorised brand partners and fast and efficient fulfilment for customers.
Commenting on the relaunch and Fragrance Direct’s ambitions, Chief Executive Officer Mathew Gully, says: “Fragrance Direct was an early pioneer in pure-play retail but in order to drive customer loyalty in the competitive, online value beauty market we have recognised the need to carve out a clear position within in the market. .
“The relaunch is a new chapter for Fragrance Direct and for the Maximo Group. By taking positive steps forward to create a strong personality, we can further strengthen our connections with our customers. By switching our website to our proprietary platform and improving the online shopping environment, we can also strengthen the offer for our brand partners and start to grow a profile for Maximo Group and its e-commerce capabilities.
“Our ambition is for Fragrance Direct to become the online home for fragrance and we will continue to expand and sell the most complete range of fragrance products, from the best-selling popular brands to niche, trending and undiscovered brands, all within an improved and competitively priced e-commerce environment.”