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What Makes Rituals Stores So Special? · The Retail Podcast

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  Hello. Today I'm joined by one of the
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  most influential figures shaping the future of experiential
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  retail, Richard Lems, Executive Director of Formats and Design
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  at Ritual Cosmetics. If you've ever walked into a
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  Ritual store and felt that time slowed down, the lighting, the
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  scent, the texture, the sound, you've experienced Richard's
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  work. He's the architect of how the
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  brand translates philosophy into physical spaces.
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  Under his direction, Rituals has become a global design
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  benchmark, expanding to 1150 stores in over 36 countries
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  while staying true to its mission of turning everyday
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  routines into meaningful moments.
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  In this conversation, I hope the we'll explore how design
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  thinking drives global consistency and local intimacy
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  and how Rituals brings calm into commerce and what it really
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  takes to scale serenity worldwide.
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  And without any further ado, let's bring Richard to the
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  stage. Richard, hello and welcome.
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  Thank you Alex, nice to be here and I start to blush with such
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  an introduction. Hey, listen, you got to, you got
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  to learn to take it because you've been doing a phenomenal
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  job and it's not stopped. You're still, I think off camera
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  you were saying you're still growing 5 to 10 stores a week
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  globally. So job's not done yet.
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  Job is still being progressed. Absolutely.
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  I mean, our mission is to become a world brand and we are that in
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  Europe, but outside Europe not at all.
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  Yeah, yeah. Not yet.
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  Not yet. Well, what I'd like to do, I
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  want to be super sensitive to your time.
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  So we'll, the interview will be about 15 to 20 minutes.
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  We'll do 5 questions and then we'll take it from there.
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  So I just want to start with design philosophy and purpose.
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  Ritual stores are often described as temples of calm.
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  And when you begin designing a new concept, or when you look
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  about going into a new region or location, what's the first
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  question you ask yourself? Well, it's actually what you
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  say. It's a concept of comp.
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  We call it always our slow shopping paradise and what we
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  always said like if you enter our store from a busy mall or a
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  busy shopping St and you must feel the tranquilly directly.
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  So in all the concepts that we have, actually it's it's one
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  concept because we are very consistent all over the world
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  with the same flooring. We don't have different formats,
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  it's all the same. But the moment you step into our
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  store, you feel like you've got your, your pace goes down.
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  And that's exactly what we want. And on purpose also design wise,
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  we use a lot of colours and warm colour, warm colours for the
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  light, for example, that you also have at home.
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  So what you see in fashion, for example, and I understand that,
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  you know, they, they use the bright colours.
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  So you see the real colour of the clothing.
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  For, for us in our stores, I want to have the light volume
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  and the light softness that you also have at home.
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  So you literally feel at home and feel at ease where the
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  moment you step into our store. So that's, that's the most
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  important. And we have our concept.
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  I mean, I started 18 years ago and we changed the concept and
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  actually the base is still the same.
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  So we don't have any revolutions.
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  We only have evolutions, we call it.
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  So every every second year we roll back to every store that we
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  have all the new things that we found in the last two years.
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  So if we have a new presentation for fragrance sticks or for
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  candles or for the shower farm or the body category, we roll it
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  back in two months to all the stores.
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  So all the stores are on exactly the same level, which has a lot
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  of benefits, but also very important because I think the
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  store that you built 15 years ago is still as important and
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  those customer are still so as important as the new store for
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  example that we are going to open in one month in Oxford St.
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  Oh wow. OK, whereabouts which?
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  Which end of Oxford St. What's the right one?
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  Called Rd. Right across John Lewis.
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  OK, fantastic. OK.
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  With Mind Oasis. Say again.
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  With Mind Oasis. Oh right, OK what's the square
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  footage or square metres? This, the ground floor sales
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  area is around 200 and then we have a basement where we also
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  have a minor Oasis from from around 150 square metres.
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  Oh. Fantastic.
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  Well, I'll, I'll post a review on that and that's before
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  Christmas. Before Christmas, yeah, if I'm
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  not wrong, the 20 or 21 of November.
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  Fantastic. I'm really curious because one
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  of the things I've noticed just going to into different rituals
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  across Europe, across the world. How do you then blend in local
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  culture? You know, for example, in the UK
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  we've got advent calendars and you, you create a section for
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  local. What's your view to local
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  culture? How do you blend that into
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  design? Well, actually we don't do that
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  much on, on the local culture. So we always say if we enter a
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  new country, the first couple of years we do exactly what we have
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  done in different in other countries before.
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  And maybe after that we, we can see like, OK, this range works
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  better in this country than than another range.
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  But at first we start as we start in all the countries on
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  the same, in the same concept. So we don't have a lot of
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  adaptations. And of course you see for
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  example, a good example that fans calendar, what you say it's
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  in the English speaking countries, it was much more
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  common than in in the Netherlands or in Germany,
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  etcetera. But The funny thing is because
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  we also brought it there and I think I mean fans calendars were
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  there already, but we made them big and I think a lot of other
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  brands fall out with us. So we took actually the, the,
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  the idea of what the what you see in the US and in the UK with
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  a France calendar. It went really well in the UK,
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  but we also brought it in all the other countries and it's
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  also a big hit there. Another example we have with the
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  products with for Eastern, Eastern is very big in Germany,
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  in other countries not so big and also in Poland and more
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  Eastern European countries. But we have a beautiful product,
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  a beautiful presentation, and now it's also a big hit also in
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  the UK, for example, or. We love our advent calendars.
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  Yeah. And if you love rituals, there's
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  no you know what? What better gift every day you
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  come down, you open one and you get a gift.
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  I'm, I'm, I'm just curious you, you, whether or not you
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  personally have invented it, but in terms of you mentioned House
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  of rituals and mind Oasis, there's lots of creativity in
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  these concepts. How do you decide when a design
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  innovation is ready to scale? So you, you've already said when
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  you go in, you sort of take your, your base model.
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  This is what we're famous for. We'll bring that in.
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  Like I, I noticed in some of your stores, you have sinks and
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  beauty stations where people can, you know, have an
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  experiential. How do you decide that?
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  Well, I mean, we are always in the in the store every week.
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  I'm somewhere in, in the world, mayor, of course in the store
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  and also my team because I mean, you, you speak about me, but
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  it's of course my whole team working on that.
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  It takes a village, as they say. Absolutely and House of richness
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  is literally 5 minutes away here from from our office and also
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  from my house. And so it's quite annoying for
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  my wife because even if you get in, I always pass by to see how
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  it is. So we are very critical.
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  Besides, I mean, we are not pessimistic, but we all want
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  it's very critical. So even when we open a store,
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  I'm there. We think like, OK, what can we
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  do better? And we not only think about it,
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  but we also do it because I think really big a big
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  difference between US and a lot of other retailers is actually
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  that we are not a retailer. We are building a brand and
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  retail is our biggest instrument, but we are not a
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  retailer in that sense. So now retail is the biggest
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  instrument, but if that would change, then we change with
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  that. I don't believe it will change
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  by the way, because I really strongly believe in retail like
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  it is now with but more experimental food.
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  But it's, I think it's a fundamental difference between a
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  lot of retailers and what we do as rituals and also other
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  brands, of course. When you're thinking, because
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  again, Rituals has made a commentary about sustainability
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  and B Corp, how do you fold that into materials?
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  Or when you're thinking about design, what role does
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  sustainability play for you? A.
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  Big role. So it's really in the heart of
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  all the designers that we have and that work on, on all the
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  new, on the products, on the innovation side, but on the
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  furniture, on the furniture side.
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  So we always look like, OK, what kind of material do we use?
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  Is it reusable or or can we dismantle it and use for
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  something else? And, and we know that we change
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  a lot actually like I said, every second year we visit all
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  the stores and we bring all the new things.
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  But so we are preparing now for next year for a big, big roll
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  out, a refit we call it. But then I think 60% of the
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  furniture we reuse. So we take the top off and we
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  put something else on it. We do that because of
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  sustainability, of course, but also cost wise.
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  I mean, I think that should always go hand in hand by the
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  way. Otherwise it's, it's not a good
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  story and it's also not good for your for your money, money
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  investment. But from the start we always
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  look, OK, how can we use that? For example, our, our stakeable
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  tables that are in almost every store, they are steel is not the
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  best product sustainable wise. But we use, we use them already
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  for 18 years and we track and trace all our furniture.
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  So even if we close a store in Spain, we take the tables back.
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  And there are literally examples that we took the tables from,
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  from Spain, we, we redid them again, that they were nice and
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  decent again, and we used them somewhere in Norway.
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  So also on that level. So it's not only like that we
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  look at what material do we use and how good or how bad is it
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  for the environment, but also like, OK, if we use something
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  that is is not so good, then we use it for a very long term that
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  in the end it's actually the best choice.
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  Final two questions. I know you're a busy man,
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  leadership and creativity. So you lead large
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  multidisciplinary teams across the world or the same team that
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  has to go across the world. How do you keep creativity
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  alive? What's that thing for you?
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  What? Yeah.
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  How are you doing that, especially when you're growing
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  at at such a speed? Yeah, Yeah.
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  That's, that's quite difficult actually.
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  But I think the, the, the biggest question that I always
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  ask the people that, and especially those ones that are
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  on the creative side is every time, if you make something, ask
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  yourself why. But also visit a lot of stores,
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  visit a lot of cities. I mean, I read I'm one of the
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  few guys I think that love, love to shop.
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  So, but I've always looked different, of course, at, at
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  stores. And it doesn't matter where you
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  are, if you are in in a garage showroom for cars or in a, in a
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  shoe store or in a bakery. I always wonder, I always have
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  the why questions, why have they done that?
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  And the moment you ask yourself the why question, I think 8 of
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  10 you have the answer yourself, but you start to think about it.
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  Supermarkets are a great example for that.
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  You know, they are very good in making you a certain route that
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  you make the route that they want at the moment.
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  You ask the question, why do they have the vegetables in the
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  front? Why do they have the bakery in
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  the backside? You can also think about, OK,
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  how can I use that in my in my store?
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  So we do the same. For example, I mean, the sakura
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  is the best running line and we are famous because of that.
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  So immature countries say, OK, put the Sakura line in the back
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  of the store because people will come from that line.
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  But in new countries where no one knows us or where we don't
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  have that much brand awareness, we say, OK, we now we have to
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  put it in the front because people recognise it.
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  So and actually that, that, that idea or that that philosophy
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  came literally because we just, I was literally walking in the
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  supermarket like, OK, why are they doing it?
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  I know the answer. Hey, what?
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  How can we use that also in, in our store concept?
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  So we're constantly learning. We also started now two years
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  ago in, in China, the first stores.
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  And what we like here in Europe is, is the stores that are quite
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  deep. So you enter and you start to
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  feel really distached from the from the shopping street or from
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  the mall of what we see in Asia or in especially in China, the
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  people are quite shy to enter a store and don't walk in the end.
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  So now we prefer, if it's possible, more wider stores that
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  are not so deep that of smaller stores that are deep so.
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  Yeah, OK. Yeah.
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  I mean, I was in Shanghai last year and you've explained why in
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  in the two. I went to a few because beauty
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  is such an exploding cap. And this is my last question.
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  Beauty is such an exploding category globally.
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  I was curious that, you know, how is Asia, the Shanghai beauty
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  experience and, and you're the 2 summer gardener.
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  I can't remember it. They have a flagship.
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  So you go in and there's a little room at break.
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  Basically, you don't go straight into the store.
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  You have something before you like you come into it.
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  But anyway, putting that to side, when you look at the
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  future of, you know, retail and and beauty, if you look, if
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  we're potentially for getting rituals for one second, but if
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  you're looking five years out, what, what some of the things
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  that you see or themes, obviously I don't want to give.
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  I don't want you to give away your, you know, top secrets on
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  what you're working for. But just you know from from a
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  creativity or store perspective, what do you see changing over
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  time over the next five years? Yeah.
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  Well, I think in general, I think that the customer gets
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  more and more aware of everything.
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  You know, they, they, they found out what are the ingredients,
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  what are the products that you use, what are the benefits, what
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  are. So it's I think in, in general
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  and it's not only in in cosmetics, but in general and
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  retail. We have to explain more, but we
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  only have two seconds to explain it.
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  So when when you enter a store, you have to directly understand
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  what, what does this brand stands for?
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  Is it is the fast retailer or is it a very sustainable retailer?
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  And if you're sustainable, why and how?
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  So really explain where you stand for.
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  And I think that's the most most important at this or at this
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  moment, but also in the future. Yeah, OK, fantastic.
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  I I've got one minute. I'm going to maximise my time
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  with you. What's the one question?
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  Because I'm not a, I'm not a store design expert.
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  I'm not a by any means a stretch dementation.
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  What's the one question people always ask you that I may have
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  not have asked you? What's the question you keep
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  getting asked? They, I think most question that
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  is asked to me is how does it come that rituals is so
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  successful? And there is there is no one
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  answer for that. I think if you want to keep one
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  answer, this is the dedication of all the people inside our
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  office. So it's the culture.
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  Absolutely. I mean, we have a lot of people
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  that are here already for for years.
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  We call them if you're longer than 10 years, we call them
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  dynos and we have a lot of them. So, and a lot of them they, they
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  started as on the lower positions and they are on the
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  top position at this moment like myself.
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  So yeah, the culture is very, very important.
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  So practise what you preach. And we really do that within
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  rituals on, on different levels, literally.
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  So I think that's really important.
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  Yeah, thank. Thank you so much.
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  I appreciate you're a busy man. You've carved out some time
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  unless I'm super grateful and hopefully I get to see you.
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  I don't know Euro, Sharp or NRF. I know you were saying at one of
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  the conferences in in person. Absolutely, and you're welcome
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  during opening in Oxford St. Yeah, I'm, I'm definitely going
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  to get down to or we'll get a camera.
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  We'll definitely get down to it. I will let you know where that
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  is. Perfect.
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  Thank you so much.