Space NK sales boom, make-up boosted by Zoom use, more stores coming

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 24, 2023

​The work from home era may, on the surface, mean that people are likely to buy less make-up because they're not in the office very often. But the opposite is true with Zoom making them keener than ever to wear make-up.

That's according to the chief executive of premium beauty retailer Space NK, Andy Lightfoot. He told The Times that its customers are “going back to wearing colourful make-up and investing in cosmetics just as much as they did prior to Covid as they are spending a lot of time on Zoom. It’s made people a lot more conscious about how they look.”

That may seem illogical in some ways, given that we’d expect the same focus on make-up to be present when people are actually face-to-face. But he added that “when you are in a meeting room you can’t see yourself”. The fact is that when someone's on a video call, as well as seeing others, they also have that window in the corner of their screen where they can see exactly what they themselves look like.

Lightfoot added that as well as the so-called Zoom boom, TikTok beauty trends and and the return of parties and other events meant that make up sales rose as much as 39% in the six months to the end of September.

This compares with the pandemic period when make-up sales struggled (even though that issue of being able to see yourself on Zoom was present back then as well).

Space NK expects its recent strong results to continue, and Lightfoot said that in the year to the end of March, turnover should rise by 37% to £185, million.

The CEO — who credited the fact that the company carries some hard to find brands as being part of its success — said that it will be opening more new stores, and quickly. He has plans for between eight and 10 annually for the next two or three years. 

as for locations, he said there are some remaining parts of London that would offer opportunities for the brand, as well as the Midlands and a number of cities further north.