Closing Stores, Opening Browsers: The Body Shop's Battle in the Beauty E-commerce Era

In a world where makeup and beauty is now just a click away, high street shops are finally feeling the effects. The Body Shop recently announced plans to shut half its stores, causing hundreds of job losses and inevitably setting a precedent for the future of high street beauty stores.

After the fall of Wilko last year, it is obvious that the nation's shopping habits are changing. More and more people are turning to the ease and convenience of online shopping. According to the Centre for Retail Research, “People have got out of the habit of high-street shopping or even visiting a store”. They found that fewer people were visiting shops and that online retailing was growing faster in the UK than in any other country.

It could be argued that the pandemic changed the way people purchase. When the world was put into lockdown and everyone was told to stay at home, online shopping thrived. People couldn’t go out to buy the things they wanted so instead we browsed online, changing the way we look at online shopping.

When The Body Shop went into administration on February 13th 2024, closing seven shops with immediate effect, it might not have been a surprise. Studies show that nearly two-thirds of consumers in the UK purchased beauty products through the internet in the last quarter of 2023. So is the death of the British high street being fuelled by online consumerism?

When it comes to why The Body Shop went into administration, it’s easy to blame it on a lack of high street footfall. However, the influence of TikTok and other social media trends creating buzz around viral beauty trends and brands should also be taken into account.

New and trending products and brands are always going viral on TikTok, but The Body Shop hasn’t adapted to this. Milk Makeup, The Ordinary and Rare Beauty are just a few examples of brands that found fame online, leaving The Body Shop in the dust. With their inability to keep up with the times and their once strong high street presence, the company is struggling to compete with younger, fresh-faced beauty competitors.

With Beauty Bay and Boots as well as Sephora and SpaceNK providing customers with a multitude of trending products, there isn’t much space for The Body Shop to survive. As they are suffocated out of the market, there could be the opportunity for other brands to fill their space, taking over what they left behind.

Edited by Faith Suronku-Lindsay