Douglas is an international success story selling a wide mix of health and beauty items across cosmetics, skincare, hair care and perfume in multiple countries in Europe. Founded in Germany in 1910, Douglas operates a network of 2,000 bricks-and-mortar stores as well as online sites including Douglas.de.
In our Health & Beauty Marketplaces report we cover Douglas indepth, so if after reading the following extracts you want to find out more, download the full report here.
In 2019, the retailer, which considers itself a digital first business, became the first beauty retailer in Europe to incorporate a marketplace solution into its ecommerce platform, pioneering the move by this sector to enable third parties to sell on their ecommerce sites. Douglas utilises the Mirakl platform which has since been implemented by other retailers in the health and beauty space as well as those selling across other product categories.
The Douglas marketplace began with a select few highly curated trading partners and 10,000 products. In its first year, this expanded to more than 100,000 items for sale. Today, the retailer works with more than 200 partners, 3,000 brands and offers more than 200,000 SKUs across its marketplaces in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, France and Italy. What, in 2019, the company called “a key strategic pillar of our platform strategy and an enabler for achieving sustainable success,” is proving its worth and is a model that Douglas plans to expand to new international markets.
Today, more than every 10th ecommerce order on the Douglas marketplace contains a partner product.
Douglas also offers marketing services to brands enabling them to maximise the opportunity of the Douglas partner programme and its retail operations. Product testers, targeted messages through the use of Douglas’ first party data, social ads, user generated content and on-site campaigns can all be run with Douglas Marketing Services’ advertising solutions.
Douglas is also at the forefront of merchandising the beauty category in ways that resonate with consumers. Content such as videos and livestreaming inspire and teach customers about different beauty brands, product application and techniques, as well as giving the retailer an opportunity to interact with customers in real-time.
Online sales are now more than double what they were before the pandemic, with Douglas reporting ecommerce sales of €1.2bn in its latest full financial year. Total company sales rose by 17% to €3.65bn in the 2021/22 period. The company is also expanding in other areas. In 2022, Douglas acquired Dutch online pharmacy Disapo, expanding its business further into the health sector and adding to the Douglas partner program.
Douglas operates a closed and selective marketplace so its partner program is not open to every brand – They carefully select partners who can apply through a form on their corporate website.
