The Body Shop to open web store in Finland

With 35 stores and 88,000 regular customers in Finland, The Body Shop says e-commerce is now essential for developing its business.

The Body Shop, the natural and ethical beauty brand owned by L'Oréal, is opening a web store in Finland. The Body Shop will include its whole product range in the web store which will be implemented by Smilehouse, a Finnish company focusing on e-business and cross-channel commerce. The company has previously piloted its online sales in the United States and Britain which are its largest markets.

The Body Shop's first store in Finland was opened in 1981 and it currently has 35 stores around the country, with 88,000 regular customers. According to Hanna Harjunen-Soini, Marketing Manager at The Body Shop, the growth of e-commerce and multi-channel retail sales has proved to be so significant that it is no longer possible to develop the cosmetics business without them.

The Body Shop has about 120 employees in Finland and its headquarters is located in Helsinki. The turnover of The Body Shop's Finnish importer Bodim Port Oy was EUR 12.34 million in 2010. In Finland 28 of The Body Shop stores are owned by Bodim Port Oy and the remaining 7 are subfranchise stores. Bodim Port Oy also owns the import rights to the Baltic countries.

The Body Shop has over 2500 stores operating in more than 60 countries.