Debenhams plots more beauty showrooms following Soho opening

Debenhams is planning to open between three and five new beauty showrooms over the next few years, following the success of its existing showroom in London’s Soho.

The existing showroom on Great Pulteney Street was described as a “beauty paradise” that gives customers the chance to explore Debenhams’s range of skincare, makeup and fragrances.

Customers can also opt for treatments including brow tinting, facials and blow-dries.

The handful of new showrooms comes as the retailer has identified beauty as a large area of opportunity for growth, following Debenhams.com’s most successful sales month to date across beauty in December last year.

In the last financial year, Debenhams added 70 new brands to its offering, including Kiko, Dyson, Shark Beauty and Cosmic by Kylie Jenner among others.

Debenhams Group chief executive Dan Finley told Retail Week: “More beauty showrooms as we go forward will support our beauty strategy.

“Beauty is a huge opportunity because fundamentally we want people to be delighted, we want to outfit and accesorise people for those moments that matter, and it’s not just about the outfit but about how great people feel in themselves.

“We want to provide the dress, bag and footwear as well as perfume and makeup and everything associated with that.

“I think we’re relatively uniquely placed where we’ve got this huge fashion community because fashion influences beauty and beauty influences fashion, so it’s a real opportunity for us to leverage our fashion base to buy beauty from us.”

Debenhams.com’s market share jumped from 2% to 3.5% in 2024, according to Circana, and hundreds of beauty brands are live across the group’s portfolio from the likes of Bohooo, BoohooMan, Karen Millen and PrettyLittleThing (PLT).

Debenhams said an additional 30 brands are being added to PLT’s beauty assortment this week.