The body shop is the United Kingdom retailer, a pioneer of the beauty industry that revolutionized the whole beauty sector by prioritizing the fair trade.
The body shop is presently among the most high-profile retailers of the United Kingdom and was founded in Brighton in 1976 by Anita Roddick who was animal rights and environmental activist of her time.
The product line of the body shop-UK comprises makeup, skincare, perfumes, bath and body, and vegan range. The ingredients used in the products of the body shop are sourced directly from the indigenous countries.
The body shop has been passionately running several campaigns against animal testing of the products since its beginning. Moreover, the outcome of these campaigns against animal testing was the complete ban over animal testing as well as the marketing of animal-tested products across Europe and the United Kingdom.
In 2006, L’Oreal owned the body shop and in September 2017, Natura Cosmeticos, a Brazilian cosmetic manufacturer acquired the body shop.
By 2023, the body shop was spread across approximately 70 countries all over the world with 3,000 stores, out of which, around 2,000 stores were being franchised. Approximately 250 stores are just located in the United Kingdom in 2024.
Presently, the body shop is enthusiastic to rejuvenate its heritage of the activist, with the unveiling of the concepts of the new store that show the commitment of the body shop towards sustainability. These include refill stations for bathing gels as well as encouraging the customers to share their reviews about the various issues.
What Is Unique About The Body Shop?
The unique fact about the body shop is that it comprises a wide variety of face, body, hair, and home products and it claims that the products are purely “inspired by nature”. The products at the body shop are made from ingredients like sesame seed oil and marula oil derived from the Community Trade program.
Each of the relationships of the body shop is unique, thereby providing various advantages to the communities, including a more secure future, health care, clean water, and access to basic needs such as education. The body shop team believes in trading fairly, treating people well, and most importantly protecting the planet.
The Heritage Of The Body Shop
The story of the body shop started in 1976 in Brighton England. They never feel any kind of fear to stand up for the right even if they have to stand out of the crowd. They search the finest quality of ethically-sourced ingredients so that they can create a wide range of beauty products inspired by nature.
Presently, the body shop is more energetically dedicated to the business as a power for good, than ever before. They have made it their mission to enrich their products, their people, and the planet.
Evolution Of The Body Shop
The body shop started with just a single small shop in Brighton. Later on, after 35 years, the body shop had above 2,600 stores in approximately 66 markets, offering and selling products exceeding 1200 in number. The body shop began with the entrepreneurship and vision of a woman- Anita Roddick. However, now they are a part of the globally leading beauty company, L’Oreal. Their passion, principles, and commitment are the same since the birth of the body shop. They are more relevant and stronger than they have ever been. The products of the body shop use ingredients derived from nature wherever possible, and they never test those ingredients on animals.they have always been passionately campaigning for the cutting edge environmental and social issues.
The body shop was the pioneer to start the Community Fair Trade in 1987 and continued to work with those suppliers wherever they could. Now they work with above 20 farmers, artisans, and producer groups, and continue to export high-quality products in above 20 countries which effectively work for more than 300,000 people marginalized all over the world.
They launched the Community Fair Trade in the year 1987. It is their commitment to fair trading with suppliers. In exchange, the body shop offers independence building prices as well as good trading practices.
Along with paying a fair price, they pay a bonus to help empower women who work for them. the body shop helps them to gain increased confidence, independent income, and respect. The premium the body shop pays helps in the funding of community projects through which the lives of almost 49,000 people are impacted positively across 11 villages each year. These community projects also help to educate more than 1200 students by building schools and providing community access to health centers and safe water.
Cruelty-Free Campaign
The cruelty-free campaign of the body shop, “Forever Against Animal Testing” is their way of putting their passion for the rights of animals into action. They are actively working for a permanent global ban on cosmetics that use animals for testing. Almost 80% of countries do not have any laws regarding animal testing. Therefore, the body shop has not stopped their fight for animal rights since 1989.
Product Development At The Body Shop
The body shop gets some of the ideas for the new products from their market research and customer feedback. They also work hard to understand new vogue in the beauty industry along with an understanding of how they can respond to them. in other words, the body shop is always looking for more opportunities so that they may fill the gaps in the market.
Although unlike most companies, some of the trends they use relate to proper shopping meanwhile they start with natural ingredients they would like to use.
Conclusion
The body is a UK beauty brand that pioneered in the fight against animal testing of the products. For this cause, they have been running several campaigns and have been fighting for animal rights since the very beginning.
The body shop started with just a single small store in the Brighton, but now almost 35 years later, it is spread to more than 30 countries all over the world.
