Online beauty and hair care store, Recreate Yourself has stepped up its market dominance in the online beauty sector by acquiring specialist online skincare store and direct competitor, Facial Co.
All great wars end with a major showdown, and the latest battle to hit the beauty business sector ended in a blaze of glory Solange Knowles herself would be proud of.
Ultimate online store rivals Recreate Yourself and Facial Co. did the unexpected this week when they shook hands on a deal that would ultimately see the competitors become bedfellows.
Online beauty and hair care retailer Recreate yourself, which trades at ry.com.au, acquired online skincare store Facial Co., which trades at facialco.com.au, to claim ultimate market dominance in the online hair and beauty sector.
The acquisition brings a flush of new brands into the ry.com.au fold including Ultraderm, Skindinavia and Dr. Hauschka – another step forward towards directors Bradley Carr and James Patten’s vision to position the online beauty giant as Australia’s most successful online beauty store.
And while achieving global market share is something Patten and Carr have often toyed with over the years and do not entirely rule out in future expansion plans, the beauty business in Australia alone is worth over $4 billion*, so the company is strategically focused to dominate in its own backyard before considering playing in others.
“It’s no real secret that Australia does have some of the most stringent cosmetic compliance and safety standards in the world and we do get a lot of interest from international consumers because of this, but if we can be the online retailer of choice for Australian and New Zealand consumers by offering the very best brands at the very best prices here, we will be more than happy to achieve that first,” emphasised Patten.
Currently ry.com.au stocks over 8,000 products from over 200 brands and is the 75th largest online retailer in Australia.
“We have always been very ambitious and are really pleased with how we are tracking with our strategic expansion. In saying this, we also have plans to challenge a top 20 position in the next 3-5 years, so growth underpins every focus in the business currently, from enhancing our customer buying experience to developing existing and new brand partners in order to consistently add more products to our range.”
The facialco.com.au acquisition includes an online and dedicated retail store plus clinic in Brisbane where customers can try and buy products at discounted online prices in addition to receiving salon services through a range of customised beauty treatments.
“Along with the vast collection of skincare brands RY.com.au has not stocked before, FacialCo also has a very strong customer loyalty bonus scheme with an emphasis on expert advice that shoppers really appreciate,” said Carr.
“A unique, Australian first ‘shop by skin type’ function also allows online visitors to receive product suggestions based on personal skin needs – a service we are excited to be able to offer to further improve our customer experience.”
Recreate Yourself currently has an annual business turnover in excess of $12million and services over 250,000 loyal customers.