Bloomingdale’s encourages beauty experimentation with Glowhaus boutiques

August 21, 2017

Bloomingdale's latest concept shop is a beauty boutique called Glowhaus. Image credit: Bloomingdale's

Department store chain Bloomingdale’s is offering a “beauty happy place” for cosmetics-lovers with a new boutique called Glowhaus.

The boutique will specialize in beauty products from a number of brands and will give customers a place where they can freely try out and test different combinations and products in a casual and freeform environment. The retailer is opening five boutiques at various Bloomingdale’s locations in New York and California.

"Glowhaus is a new beauty space for our customer to browse and play in a low pressure environment," said Stacie Borteck, vice president and DMM of cosmetics at Bloomingdale's, New York. "The boutique is built around product discovery and houses a compelling assortment of multiple brands under one shop, allowing our customer to mix and match her favorite products.

"Glowhaus gives us an opportunity to attract not only our current beauty customer but also a customer who is not shopping with us today," she said.

Beauty boutique
Bloomingdale’s latest contribution to the world of beauty products comes in the form of Glowhaus, a boutique designed for customers to test and experiment with different beauty products before they buy in a supportive environment.

The retailer is opening five Glowhaus boutiques, two in New York and three in California, that will be staffed by beauty experts who can help guide customers to the right products.

Glowhaus will bring 26 new brands to Bloomingdale’s stable, including Kosas, RMS beauty and Mario Badescu. The boutique will also have a special “Grab and Glow” section dedicated to unique and novelty beauty products.

Glowhaus is featured on Bloomingdale's Web site as well. Image credit: Bloomingdale's

Finally, Glowhaus’ physical locations will come with a “play station,” an area surrounded by suspended mirrors where customers can try on different products and get a good view from all angles of how it looks on them, encouraging experimentation and discovery within the store.

Bloomingdale’s has said that the boutique is focused on millennials and the messaging around it has reflected that.

One of the primary ways the retailer is promoting Glowhaus is through the use of shoppable Instagram stories.

On Bloomingdale’s Instagram, customers can tap through a story showcasing Glowhaus along with some of the brands and products on display. If a customer likes one of the products, they can swipe up from the Instagram story to be instantly taken to a store page where they will be able to purchase the product immediately.

Shoppable social media
The opening of Glowhaus within Bloomingdale’s represents a larger move on the part of the retailer to have more unique in-store experiences that form their own discrete shops.

For example, Italian linen brand Sferra unveiled a new shop-in-shop within retailer Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship in New York in May.

Sferra’s original shop-in-shop was found on the 7th floor of Bloomingdale’s, but has been moved to the 6th level after the department was overhauled and redesigned. With its new Bloomingdale’s location, Sferra has 721 square feet of selling space to display its linens including its best-selling percales and sateens and the world’s first-ever premium Giza 45 Egyptian Cotton collections (see story).

Some of the new products at Glowhaus. Image credit: Bloomingdale's

Similarly, Bloomingdale’s shoppable Instagram story also has precedent in the retailer’s use of Snapchat as an in-store tool.

The department store chain implemented a call-to-action sweepstakes campaign with Snapchat users to celebrate the fall launch of its 100 percent campaign last year. Through a partnership with artist Greg Lamarche, Bloomingdale’s is bringing graffiti-style flair to its window displays while also inviting users to explore its stores to find hidden filters (see story).

Glowhaus is the latest step in Bloomingdale’s strategy of creating more unique in-store experiences and complementing them with digital efforts on social media.

"Social media is a huge piece of the Glowhaus puzzle," Ms. Borteck said. "The millennial customer we are targeting is heavily influenced by what’s trending on her social media channels and our buyers even scoured Instagram to find some of these buzzworthy products.

"Glowhaus will not only have an in-store presence but will also come to life online through its digital hub and our social media channels."

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Bloomingdale’s encourages beauty experimentation with Glowhaus boutiques

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