Lancôme opens flagship store on Champs-Elysées in Paris

By

Sarah Ahssen

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Dec 4, 2019

Last week-end, French cosmetics brand Lancôme inaugurated its new Parisian flagship at 52 avenue des Champs-Elysées, by the Galeries Lafayette department store. It is a world-class showcase of approximately 300 m2 for the fragrance, make-up and skincare lines by the leading brand of the L’Oréal group's luxury division – which includes names like Yves Saint Laurent, Kiehl’s and Giorgio Armani – also featuring a spa area on the first floor.

Lancôme’s remarkable new Parisian opening, ahead of the brand’s 85th anniversary celebrations in 2020, has boosted its omni-channel strategy, a focus also for many other traditional names in the beauty market. Starting from Lancôme’s competitor Chanel, which opened a beauty store nearby last July, still at street number 52 of the Parisian thoroughfare.

Lancôme’s retail strategy is clearly even more relevant in China. According to French newspaper Le Figaro, while Lancôme currently generates 16% of its sales online, it now operates some 50 medium-sized stores in China, in addition to several department store concessions, and it will open a second Beijing flagship in July.

In Europe, Lancôme’s brick-and-mortar retail strategy seems instead focused primarily on temporary stores. For the year-end festivities in 2017, Lancôme opened a pop-up store dedicated to La Vie est belle, a perfume which, since its launch in 2012, has become one of the five top-selling women's fragrances in France.

The same fragrance is the star, until January 2020, of a special installation in London. Lancôme has in fact opened a pop-up store inside St Pancras station, in which pride of place goes to an 11 m-tall model of the Eiffel Tower, decorated with 1,500 bottles of La Vie est Belle.

In 2018, still according to Le Figaro, Lancôme recorded a revenue of over €3 billion. The brand, which was founded in 1935, is expecting to grow further thanks notably to Idôle, the new women’s fragrance it launched last July, targeted to Millennials.