Inspired by the wisdom and ancient traditions of Asian cultures, Rituals Cosmetics has created an extensive collection of luxurious yet affordable products for the home and body, allowing customers to find happiness in the smallest of things. Here, RLI discusses with company Founder Raymond Cloosterman how the brand has reacted to global events and to find out what the future has in store.
Launched in 2000, the Rituals Cosmetics brand unveiled its first store on Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat before additional doors opened in such vibrant global cities as London, Madrid, Antwerp, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Stockholm and New York.
Today, the company operates around 840 stores and more than 2,700 shop-in-shops in very successful department stores and five city spas in 33 countries worldwide. They have expanded rapidly on airlines, cruise liners and ferries as well as in hotels.
Before the pandemic took hold, Rituals was fully equipped to grow rapidly. However when the lockdown came into effect, 800 stores had to close and money was no longer coming in.
“Our first step was to cancel or postpone initiatives such as opening a hundred shop-in-shops at department stores worldwide. The next step was to make plans for what to do in the future, this re-energised the team and allowed us to still invest in 40 stores and our House of Rituals concept,” explains Raymond Cloosterman, Founder of Rituals Cosmetics. “This year we aim to go back to the momentum that we had in terms of opening stores, moving forward with extra innovations and realising our goals of launching in new markets. We haven’t changed; we have just adjusted our ambitions.”
To honour its 20th anniversary last year, the brand unveiled a holistic shopping and lifestyle concept by opening House of Rituals. Opened in October last year, this store offers people the chance to find refuge from the frantic pace of everyday life and discover a place where the body can relax, the mind feels calm and the soul can find satisfaction.
As the world’s largest Rituals flagship store, it offers a unique brand experience from the moment guests step in, with immersive body and mind experiences on every level including many exclusive and unique collections.
“Distributed over four different floors and 1,500sq m, House of Rituals embodies the marriage of the ultimate retail experience with the unique new range of premium product collections and lifestyle innovations, exclusive to the store and online,” explains Cloosterman.
Looking to the future, the brand wants to be more successful outside of Europe, particularly in Asia, but they also want to build even more of a community around the brand. In addition, sustainability is an important pillar that they are working hard on and they want to put this work on the map.
While they have enjoyed success in Europe, they are continuing expansion in this region and plans are in place to open stores in Poland and Italy. As for their Asia plans, progress is being made here.
“In addition to our physical stores, the Asia market also offers us so many more online opportunities. A year ago, we opened our first store in Hong Kong, and we are doing cross border in China through Tmall and WeChat,” says Cloosterman.
A continuing ambition of Rituals is to surprise its loyal fans with new products. Each year they create around 200 new products, making them one of the most innovative beauty companies in the industry. It is very important to the brand that they continuously strive to optimise the use of materials that are natural, renewable and not harmful to the environment.
In terms of social media, Raymond passionately believes that the combination of their different channels strengthens each other, from their boutiques to the luxury department stores to e-commerce. To offer their clients something extra, they have launched a Rituals app with which people can find their shops, products and get to know more about them and even do a one-minute meditation and yoga exercises.
“Our goal at Rituals is not only to offer beautiful products to our customers and fans, but we want to offer a certain lifestyle, philosophy and community. We believe it is important to always bring our brands mission of ‘soulful living’ to the attention of our fans when we launch a new product. We always put our stores and customers first,” explains Cloosterman.
The philosophy of Rituals is that they try to help people rediscover the magic of the everyday. Cloosterman feels that we are living life on autopilot these days and due to busy lives, people have forgotten what it is to enjoy the mundane and the little things. “People all over the world crave a moment to relax and unwind in-between. So in addition to our luxury products, we help them step back and make every moment count,” Cloosterman explains.
“Looking at the next 20 years, we want to take the brand and company to the next level to become successful across Asia and the US and still stay true to a small company mentality.”
