Bodyshop loses customer support, lol

Yep, this is when I walked away too. The Body Shop can fuck off with their disrespect to women, they aren’t the only company to sell shea butter.

The Body Shop need women far more than women need The Body Shop, so maybe let us define ourselves?

Heard from many other retailers: your current customers will be dead soon (thirty forty years but 'soon' in the world of crass youth), you have to ditch them to be chasing the up and comings, with a belief that you attract the up and comings by loudly spitting on your loyal current customers.

It's not working in reality is it? Like many things about these politics.

That new demographic chase after the latest shiny viral thing they see on TikTok. There is no brand loyalty.

Shouldnt have sold out adult human females, guys!

Us middle aged females with money to spend and a nostalgic fondness for the Bodyshop could’ve kept you going. Shame.

Mum's terfy shampoo and shower gel because it's free.

Excellent!

Boycotted after JKR.
I do wonder why the whole original look and feel and product range was binned? Was it too expensive to mass produce?
I can remember not just the eco credentials but the international aspect too.
I honestly think if they returned a lot of the original inventory and ramped up refilling opportunities, there'd be enough nostalgic older women and a new teen audience to make a comeback.

So the whole Body Shop empire is now only valued at £207m?

I wonder if there has also been a reliance on renting retail space for its shops, and the company didn't build up property assets when the going was good. When rents shot up, it just put prices up and insulted the customer demographic that actually has some money.

Way to go, Body Shop.

I haven't crossed the threshold since the JKR incident. DD was spending a fortune in there of my money and that stopped. The one on our high street is always empty and that'll be because of the cost and Lush probably appeal to their old customer base more.

Well, making better quality/more ethical/lower-priced products would cost money. Whereas misogyny is free!*

*unless you count the drop in sales to women

Bloody hell! You can get a kilo of Shea butter online for under a tenner! (Also really cheap if you have Caribbean hair shops near by like we do).

I boycotted after their JKR hate and so did several of my friends. They're firmly on the nope list.

i wrote to them too post-menstrugate and told them I’d been shopping there since the late 80s (admittedly much less often recently) and they’d never get another penny out of me.

there is so much choice and variety in the market across absolutely everything they offer,
yet they chose to make their USP misogyny.

I shopped there a lot many years ago. I used to love the fact that you could take empty bottles to be refilled.

I've got DS and future* DiL (20s) staying with me at the moment and neither of them have any Body Shop products. I'll have to ask them why.

(DS will immediately know it's a 'terf quest' but he's a terf too so he'll be interested.)

*god willing with a fair wind

I am old enough (and Brighton was my local town) to have shopped at the original Body Shop. Likewise I was a fan at Uni. The ethos/experience really changed once it expanded massively.

Our little city has a Body Shop that has to have been in the same location for 25years+. I don't think I've crossed its threshold for 15 years (teen DD went through a Lush phase but tends to nick my L'Occitaine or Elemis).

Same here - I shopped there as a poor student in the 90s. Now I have masses of disposable income but think the Body Shop is way too pricey for what it is. Their mark-up must be astronomical.

They have shot themselves in the foot in so many ways.

88 products came up when I searched "men" or "men's" but the search wielded no results when you looked for "Women" or "Women's".
Well, if you don't exist, you can't really be expected to buy anything. Karma.

And also that people expect high tech ingredients in skincare. Brands like The Ordinary are offering that at far lower prices than BS.

I think they've really gone astray with their pricing, as much as anything. If I, aged 57 and earning good money, think of them as very expensive for what they offer, then I'm sure loads of other people do too. And yet when I was a student and regularly ran out of money I still stuck to those products.

Good point, @SqueakyDinosaur. I remember loving (and buying) the Body Shop's raspberry bathing bubbles when I was an impoverished postgrad.

So they have lost our generation of customers for going after JKR (etc).

And there is no new generation of customers because the products are massively over-priced and the blue-haired 14-40 year olds that they've been pandering to don't want to pay those prices. They go to Lush. Or live at home and use their mum's terfy shampoo and shower gel because it's free.

I'd like to think it's because customers have turned away after that frightful anti-JKR campaign (and I remember fondly the thread on here at the time) but I think it's more likely to be their very silly prices now.

"It has lost people who were real avid fans, and it has not connected with new consumers.”

Surely that's what market research is for.

To find out why existing customers shop with you, and what they really care about, what they aren't bothered about, and what they dislike.

And to find out who your potential customers are and the same things about their attitudes

When I was (much) younger, I was a total devotee. Glycerine & rosewater lotion was my only moisturiser throughout my teens and most of my 20s. I adored the little glass pots of lip balm (apricot and kiwi were the best ones). Glycerine soap bars in various scents. Japanese washing grains that it took ages to rinse off.

I think they've really gone astray with their pricing, as much as anything. If I, aged 57 and earning good money, think of them as very expensive for what they offer, then I'm sure loads of other people do too. And yet when I was a student and regularly ran out of money I still stuck to those products.

I'm not surprised. The nearest one to me is always empty. I used to love their sandalwood oil, but haven't even set foot in one of their shops after they went after JKR. I've not spent a single penny on any Avon stuff either,and I used to spend a fair bit there
You reap what you sow.