Lush Australia’s general manager of retail, Brittany Gian outlines how the handmade cosmetics brand plans to grow this year and explains how investing in staff training and customer experience helped Lush ANZ navigate the uncertain economic climate of 2023.Inside Retail: What were the biggest highlights of 2023 for Lush ANZ? Brittany Gian: It was a huge year for Lush ANZ. To pick just one highlight is a task in itself but a true standout moment for us was our first foray into collaborations with other brands. Having never partnered with another brand before November 2022, Lush launched four massive collaborations in 2023 with the likes of One Piece, Super Mario Bros Movie, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the iconic Barbie. From a retail perspective, these collaborations were incredibly successful at helping us captivate new customers and reminding our existing ones about the innovation behind every one of our products. For example, our Super Mario Bros Movie collaboration alone contributed to more than 5 per cent of our brand’s growth globally – a huge testament to the success of this partnership and a definite incentive to continue partnering with well-aligned brands. We were also very pleased this year to return to our campaigning roots with social justice organisation Get Up, in support of First Nations justice and the Voice to Parliament referendum. Although the outcome of the referendum was not as we hoped, as a business that has been campaigning for social justice for nearly three decades, we were proud to use our storefronts to amplify First Nations perspectives throughout this important moment in Australian history. IR: Many retailers have described 2023 as ‘patchy’, with several external factors, such as rising interest rates and global conflicts, dampening consumer sentiment. What was your experience in terms of consumer spending, and what strategies did you deploy to navigate the challenging economic environment?BG: It certainly was a challenging year for our industry, with so many external factors influencing customers’ behaviour. My mantra was ‘focus on what you can control’. This meant our strategy centred around customer experience and staff training. We can’t control what’s happening in the outside world but we want our shops to feel like an oasis of kindness – somewhere where you can come in and receive an experience that exceeds all your expectations, from staff with expert knowledge. Focusing on the customer experience will make the sales results come, and we’ve seen healthy growth in our customer conversion rate as a result, over 40 per cent, year on year. To achieve this, we have consciously transitioned back to face-to-face training. And we have further plans to expand on this, with an Australia and New Zealand-wide staff training tour set for the coming months. One of the most powerful things someone once said to me was ‘People don’t want to sell something, they want to belong to something,’ and we find staff training – whether it be on our transparent and ethical supply chains, activism efforts, or effective ingredients – is one of the most powerful community- building tools we have. An engaged and passionate team is one that wants to get it right for the customer, and that is the most impactful thing we can focus on in the current market. IR: Loyalty is always a hot topic in retail, but especially when consumer sentiment is down. What is Lush’s approach to loyalty, and how are you planning to further invest in it in 2024?BG: At Lush, our approach to customer loyalty revolves around immersive storytelling and exceptional customer service that transcends traditional customer loyalty programs. As an environmentally conscious brand, we insist on buying only the best and freshest ingredients for our products, and paying our suppliers fairly for this. Likewise, we price our products fairly to reflect their true cost all year round, rather than hiking prices to cover the cost of loyalty programs or regular sales. Sampling is also key to our loyalty strategy. Cosmetics are deeply personal and the effects of a single product can change significantly from person to person. It’s important to us that our customers never take home a product that will go to waste if it turns out not to be right for them, so we offer extensive consultation and sampling opportunities to ensure customers’ investments in our products will always meet their needs and encourage them to return for future top-ups. In 2024, we will continue our heavy investment in staff training, to ensure that our teams are more than qualified to connect our customers with products they’ll love.Another approach that our community will see more of from us in 2024 will be more direct channels to share feedback, product requests and connect with others within the Lushie community. In particular, we’ll be focusing heavily on Discord as a community channel where our most loyal Lushies can come together to hear the latest news from the business, see a sneak peak of new launches, and even give their input on product development. For example, in November 2023, we released seven limited fragrances, the scents for which were suggested and voted for by devoted Lushies on our Reddit and Discord channels. This was an extremely successful initiative, with five out of six of the fragrances selling out entirely in less than a fortnight. IR: What are the business’ other priorities for 2024? BG: We’ve just seen our new Parramatta store open in December and we’re excited at the prospect of spreading the Lush message further with more new locations on the horizon for 2024. With our decision to come away from social media, our retail stores are so important to us in being able to share our ethos and fresh cosmetics with a wider audience. With this in mind, we’ll be rolling out a new concept shop focused on our brand values and ethics at  new and existing locations over the course of the year, too. Alongside our property projects, we also have more collaborations in the pipeline. Of course, we can’t share who with just yet, but we’re confident these are going to capture a new audience and delight our customers with the same success we saw in the year just gone. In addition to the product innovation the collaborations bring, we’ll be focusing on our fragrance range this year. Fragrance has always been core to the Lush range, we are known for our smell after all, and over recent months, we’ve seen the online virality of our fragrances such as Super Milk and Sticky Dates help drive growth in the range of 45 per cent, year on year. Finally, you can expect to see more campaigning from us as we continue our mission to leave the world Lusher than we found it – for our planet, animals and communities. IR: What are the biggest challenges on your radar in 2024?BG: Unfortunately, I think we’re going to continue to contend with an uncertain economic climate and we expect to see consumer confidence fluctuate across the year ahead. We’re confident that by staying true to our brand message and centring our in-store experience we can continue to see growth for our brand despite the potentially shaky outlook.IR: Are there any ‘quick wins’ you’re hoping to leverage in 2024?BG: We have seen our seasonal launches get bigger year on year, with sales of our gift range in particular experiencing double-digit growth. We are looking ahead to a year of celebration, kicking off with Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day, with our customers celebrating their loved ones with pampering gifts and getting treats for themselves. The inclusion of new ranges for more cultural holidays, including Diwali and Eid, has been a welcome addition to our product range. We want to provide an environment and experience where everyone can be celebrated.This story first appeared in the 2024 Australian Retail Outlook.