L’Oréal Luxe is introducing a new, sustainably minded initiative Stateside.
The luxury division of the world’s largest beauty conglomerate is introducing refill fountains at four Dillard’s locations, which began rolling out in August and will service key fragrance pillars such as Lancôme’s La Vie Est Belle and La Vie Est Belle Elixir, YSL Beauté’s Libre, Mugler’s Angel and Alien scents and Giorgio Armani Beauty’s Acqua di Gio.
It mirrors similar initiatives that have existed in other geographies, including Europe, and with other products. Mugler, for example, inspired the initiative and has had refill fountains in retail sales points since 1992. “We thought it would be interesting to expand that to other juices,” said Silvia Galfo, president of L’Oréal’s Luxe division in the U.S.
As for the timing, Galfo credited a few factors, including L’Oréal’s focus on sustainability as a key value, consumer adoption, replenishment rates and making sure beauty advisers were properly educated on how to drive the accelerating consumer behavior.
Perhaps most importantly, it comes at a time of growth for the business. “L’Oréal Luxe in the U.S. is doing well. We are growing ahead of the market, and what’s doing very well for us in terms of categories is fragrance — we have almost a third of market share,” said Galfo. “We’re very strong in women’s and in men’s, and growth is coming from both newer franchises and legacy fragrances.”
Among the most anticipated launches are the new Ralph’s Club New York launch fronted by Usher, and the new Prada Paradigme fronted by Tom Holland. On the legacy front, those juices are also getting an environmentally friendly reincarnation — but one that plays to the nature of the products. For La Vie Est Belle Elixir from Lancôme, for example, buying a 100-ml refill instead of two 50-ml bottles saves 73 percent glass, 66 percent on plastic and 61 percent on cardboard. Those compare similarly to YSL Libre, Prada Paradoxe Eau de Parfum and Mugler Angel Eau de Parfum.
If the existing performance of the Angel refills is any indication, it won’t take much for the other juices to gain traction as refillables, either. “About 25 percent or 30 percent of our business is done with the refill,” Galfo said of Mugler fragrances. “The gesture of coming in with your bottle, getting a little service — we see success with that.”
As for why to kick off the effort with Dillard’s, Galfo thinks the high-touch nature of the retailer’s service will drive adoption. “They have a very strong service model,” she said. “The clients are loyal to our fragrances, the staffing is hungry for education, and they have a very strong clienteling approach with their consumers. They do a lot of after-hour activations as well.”
Galfo isn’t opposed to broadening the fragrances available for refill, either. “YSL Myslf and Valentino Born in Roma could be part of it. All of these could be developed and we could have more options in the future,” she said. “We need full adoption of the sales staff on the floor, and there will be a lot of local marketing, local social media targeting, and targeting local influencers.”
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