On Monday 15 June, 88 Lush shops will reopen their doors after a three-month closure. Opening dates are still to be confirmed for Scotland, Wales and Ireland, so watch this space.

At the time of lockdown, each individual Lush shop did all they could to pass their stock, especially their soaps which had run out in supermarkets at that time, to charities and groups in their local communities. Now three months on, all shops will reopen with fresh stock that is only a few days old.

Lush co-founder & managing director, Mark Constantine OBE expressed his gratitude to be in a position to return:

“Even with considerable help from governments, local councils, and landlords, so many businesses are not making it through. I am grateful to be here reopening our shops again and feel unbelievably lucky that we had the help.

A New Shopping Experience
Finding new ways to provide the kind of personal service Lush traditionally offers to their customers has proven an interesting challenge for the brand and they anticipate a change in customer experience whilst the virus control measures remain.

The UK team has been reviewing feedback from what has been working well in other countries who have already reopened their non-essential retail stores.

Lush Lens

In conjunction with local government guidelines, such as observing advised social distancing rules, no hands-on demonstrations and having a safe queuing system to enter, safety measures for each Lush shop reopening in England will also include the below:

• Lower staffing levels to begin with. Lush will be providing face coverings for staff to use if they wish
• A continuous cleaning rota
• Customers will be invited to wash their hands with their own piece of soap peel as soon as they arrive in-store.
• No product testers on display
• Shops will have pre-filled sample pots of some of Lush’s most popular products, complete with a tamper proof seal
• Till points will be two-metre apart and be installed with recycled and recyclable perspex screens
• Signage at the front of each shop will be on display to explain the new procedures to customers
• Kiosk purchasing at the front door may be set up in a number of shops if they are more comfortable with this to begin with, avoiding the need for customers to enter
• Shops will also be supported through tech advances such as Lush Lens. Designed by Lush’s in-house tech R&D team, customers can download the Lush Labs app on Android and iPhone and scan un-packaged products (over 50% of Lush’s range) in-store. The phone’s camera and Machine Learning are able to recognise products and give the customer detailed ingredients information, price details and ‘how to use’ demonstrations via immersive videos via the app. This feature is available in 30 countries and 20 different languages.

The brand asks all customers to pay by card and will not be taking cash during this time. This will be assessed on a weekly basis.

The Lush Spa and Hair Lab bookings will continue to be suspended until further notice. All party bookings will also be suspended – digital party formats are currently being worked on.

Kiosk purchasing

Alternative Ways to Trade
Aside from the usual in-store customer journey, Lush has been getting creative with various ways customers can shop with them so as to provide as many options as possible. Shops can choose to run some of the following:

• Order and Collect service
• Virtual consultations: moving a part of the customer experience online, enabling quick and easy customer pick-up in-store
• Taking orders from the queue outside: orders can be ready and bagged when the customer enters the shop, limiting the amount of time the customer has to spend in the shop.

For further press enquiries please contact stephanie@lush.co.uk or call 0207 434 3948.

For full Lush information about the Coronavirus crises, please visit: weare.lush.com/lush-life/our-company/covid-19-lush-updates.