TheIndustry.beauty Awards Winners’ Interview: Andy Lightfoot, CEO, Space NK

In this series, TheIndustry.beauty further celebrates the successes of winning beauty businesses from TheIndustry.beauty Awards 2024 through dedicated interviews.

As the Awards is dedicated to The Innovators of the industry, we were keen to learn from their future-facing successes. From our 13 winners, we find out everything from the importance of innovation to the one beauty product they can’t live without.

Space NK received the Hall of Fame – Retailer award (proudly presented by Bleckmann). TheIndustry.beauty hears from its CEO, Andy Lightfoot.

Space NK has long been a pioneer in luxury beauty retail. What are some of the key strategies that have allowed you to maintain your position in such a competitive market?

Since our inception, brands have been at the heart of Space NK. Originally this meant bringing the brands that no-one had ever heard of to UK customers. Now it’s about being the destination to find those global brands that beauty lovers have heard of through social media, friends and travels, and are desperate to get their hands on. That DNA will always remain part of our core, but we’ve added to that a focus on the customer. Every decision is made through a customer lens; who are we doing this for? How will it make their shopping experience better? How do we nurture the relationship? Our strategy of putting brands and customers at the centre of everything we do means we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what defines beauty retail.

Can you share how Space NK is navigating the balance between in-store and online experiences, ensuring that customers receive a seamless and consistent service across both channels?

Uniquely we don’t have channel specific roles. Outside of operational support online and stores are run by the same teams ensuring a consistent and complimentary experience through every touch point. By way of illustration 24% of customers that visit our website without transacting go on to purchase in-store within two weeks. This is not only testament to our advanced view of omni-channel but also our advanced analytics capabilities that allow us to understand customer mission and track online to offline behaviour.

Sustainability is becoming a crucial aspect of the beauty industry. What initiatives has Space NK implemented to promote sustainability?

Sustainability goes beyond corporate responsibility; it is a human responsibility to make the right choices for future generations. As such we do not make big PR statements or headline commitments without a plan to achieve them. Instead we have quietly shifted our operation through our programme of “Better Space” which is a commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle beauty packaging waste that would otherwise go into landfill. We are doing this through a partnership with First Mile and Grundon and have also shifted to fully sustainable packaging through our distribution centre (DC), now recycling over 95% of all waste, our stores consumables with all wipes, tester pots, applicators compostable, to our VM materials and even our advent calendar which is built with recycled material and vegetable inks to be fully compostable.

Space NK Westfield London

How does Space NK curate its product range to ensure it continues to offer innovative and high-quality brands that resonate with your discerning customer base?

Brand selection is an art and a science. The science is a set of criteria which the brand must fulfil. They must have an understanding of the customer they are targeting. The price, packaging, formulation and story have to align with this. The founder or team must have gained traction in appealing to this customer and built a level of awareness such that there is demand in the market; demand is greater than supply. Our message to brands is don’t waste your time looking for a retailer. Spend your time finding your customer and we will find you!

The art is the “je ne sais quos”. The excitement you get when you see or try something for the first time. You have to have both to get on to our shelves so every item appeals to our customers’ head and heart.

The beauty industry is seeing a rise in niche and indie brands. How does Space NK decide which emerging brands to feature, and what role do they play in your overall product strategy?

We don’t have a different set of criteria for indie brands versus those that are more established. Smaller brands require a different level of investment and a longer gestation period but with our store estate, each individually merchandised we are able to support these brands in a unique way that is not all or bust. Going back five years we were the first to launch Sol de Janeiro when it was a small indie brand, this first retailer to sell Olaplex when it was salon backbar only. Now we are championing the next wave of exciting founders with brands like Emma Lewisham, Lisa Eldridge and Phlur.

In July, Space NK won the prestigious retailer award at TheIndustry.beauty awards. What does this recognition mean to the brand, and how do you plan to build on this success?

I have been with Space NK for eight years, leading the business for five and a half. This award is significant in that it shows how far we have come in that time, and recognises and rewards the team for the incredible job they are doing. As a business we have grown at over 30% for the past three years doubling the sales in that short period and we are seeing that performance accelerate. This award is an important chapter in our history but with many more to be written for this 30 year old icon of the British highstreet.

Personalisation is a growing trend in beauty retail. How is Space NK leveraging data and technology to offer more personalised recommendations and services to your customers?

I spent a significant portion of my career at Amazon so feel confident in my assertion that we are among the most advanced retailers in our use of data and application of technology. We track and interpret every customer interaction joining up online and offline behaviour in real time. A great example of how we bring data, technology and customer experience together is “My Matches”.

On our website, “My Matches” uses a combination of buying behaviour, inferred behaviour (browsed pages, reviews left, etc) and first person survey questions to create a personalised score for every skincare product on our website. This creates a personalised landing page and takes over all site recommendations enhancing the browse journey. The result is a conversion rate of between 12-15% for those with “My Matches”.

As a leader in the luxury beauty space, how does Space NK stay ahead of the curve when it comes to spotting and setting trends in the industry?

This goes back to our core principle: put brands and customers at the centre of everything we do. By being connected to the latest in brand innovation and investing in our current partners connect brands to customers in a truly authentic way. This simple idea obsessively delivered is what is driving growth in the UK beauty market with Circana reporting Space NK delivered over a quarter of the UK growth in Q2.

Amanda Morgan of Diptyque, Rachel Dyche of Bleckmann and Andy Lightfoot of Space NK at TheIndustry.beauty The Innovators Awards

As the Hall of Fame – Retailer Award was sponsored by Bleckmann, we asked Rachel Dyche, its UK Sales Manager, why it is important to champion innovation in the beauty industry and how it works with beauty brands to drive the market forward.

The retail space is constantly evolving and in the beauty space in particular, we have seen some exponential growth through brands challenging the norm and engaging with their customer in more interactive ways. Innovation is at the core of what we do at Bleckmann, which is why we work collaboratively with our brands to ensure we are able to deliver their innovative ideas through multiple channels, resulting in the end customer receiving the same journey and experience throughout. It is important that we as a 3PL (third-party logistics), are an extension of the brands we work with, and having the ability to support, partner and deliver innovation in the beauty industry then enables brands to realise their potential and being part of the journey too brings like minded businesses together to succeed!

We offer our expertise and advice where needed and where we believe we can truly add value. Most importantly however, Bleckmann seeks to build a successful partnership and be the go to logistics provider in the beauty market. Through our vast experience in fashion, now transcending the beauty space, we provide a consultative approach to help our brands strive and flourish in the beauty market offering an omnichannel approach. Our omnichannel offering means that we can work across all channels, innovating with brands to offer the best end to end solution for each specific beauty brand and the story they are wanting to tell.

You can view all of 2024's winners here.  2025's TheIndustry.beauty Innovators Awards will launch very soon, so please keep an eye on the website and our social channels for announcements.

For sponsorship enquiries for 2025's awards, please email partnerships@theindustry.beauty.