Inside Rituals’ New Oxford Street Flagship: Design, Mind Oasis & Retail Innovation

​ @RitualsCosmeticsGlobal  has opened its newest flagship at 297 Oxford Street, London. And it’s unlike anything the brand has built before.In this exclusive tour and interview, Alex Rezvan sits down with:• Annemarie Forsyth — Managing Director UK & Ireland• Richard Lems — Executive Director Format & DesignTogether, they reveal the design philosophy, customer-experience thinking, community strategy and the technology mindset that shaped this extraordinary store.You’ll hear the story behind removing an entire floor to create a soaring atrium, how the Water Island anchors the brand experience, why the Mind Oasis is already fully booked for days, and how Rituals views the next five years of retail through wellbeing, community, and immersive physical spaces.If you're in London, Rituals Oxford Street opens today.📍 297 Oxford St, London W1D 2JL🌐 Visit Retail News.AI, your premium destination for the most relevant, cutting-edge information in the retail sector: https://retailnews.ai/💬 Which of these trends do you think will shape the future of retail the most — and why? Share your thoughts in the comments below!--------If you are struggling to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving industry, looking for insights from major conferences like NRF, Shoptalk, and EuroCIS, or aiming to connect your digital funnels to physical events with measurable ROI, this channel is designed for you.

➡️ Hosted by Alex Rezvan and joined by some of the most respected voices in the sector, The Retail Podcast brings sharp, actionable insights from industry veterans with backgrounds at Microsoft and Verizon, where projects worth over $1.5 billion were directed. Our mission is to help retailers and businesses that sell to retailers anticipate change, embrace technology, and unlock new growth opportunities.*Subscribe now and activate notifications so you never miss the strategies, stories, and signals defining tomorrow’s retail.*--------📲 Follow us on LinkedIn to stay connected with daily retail insights and industry updates.https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-retail-podcast/📩 Contact us at: [e-mail]--------⏱️ Timestamps00:00 – Welcome inside Rituals Oxford Street00:09 – Richard on the new flagship and design vision00:37 – Why this store is uniquely special01:07 – Removing floors, creating space & building the atrium01:33 – The Rituals tree and signature entrance experience01:39 – Designing the store path & creating constant discovery02:27 – Where the tour begins: Water Island02:48 – AnneMarie Forsyth joins the tour03:11 – Tourism vs local customers on Oxford Street03:30 – How Rituals activates community & loyalty03:50 – Mind Oasis demand and customer behaviour04:39 – The role of the Water Island in the customer journey05:03 – Demonstration of the Rituals three-step routine06:01 – How Rituals thinks about technology in-store06:41 – Empowering female leaders: AnneMarie’s advice07:48 – Returning to Richard for the second half of the tour08:14 – The energy shift when entering the Mind Oasis08:25 – Why the Mind Oasis matters for modern wellbeing09:06 – How design triggers a slower pace09:24 – Continuous improvement across 1400+ stores10:12 – Technology: invisible, supportive, never distracting11:13 – Community, relevance and premium hubs12:01 – Richard’s favourite parts of the store12:48 – Creating a home-like feeling through fixtures & lighting13:45 – Why lighting is undervalued in retail design13:55 – Invitation to visit the Oxford Street flagship--------#TheRetailPodcast #Retail, #Rituals, #RetailDesign, #OxfordStreet, #StoreOpening, #RetailExperience, #CustomerExperience, #RetailInnovation, #BeautyRetail, #LuxuryRetail, #Wellbeing, #MindOasis, #TheRetailPodcast, #RetailNews

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Richard, lovely to see you again.
Thank you for hosting me here. It's incredible, right?
What a beautiful space right in the middle of Oxford St in the
centre of London. The store goes live tomorrow,
how you feeling? Very excited.
Thanks. I mean, it was literally one
year ago when I was here for thefirst time to look at the
locations. It looked awful.

(00:31):
I'm not allowed to say that, but.
You went in here? Yeah.
It's different than it it looks now and I've seen all the stores
all around the world, but this time I was really amazed like,
oh wow, this is really a specialstore.
You know, we have a couple of stores.
All stores are special, but thisone is really special design
wise. The, the space indeed, and the,

(00:53):
and the space industry right across John Lewis, I mean Oxford
St. It's like, you know, Chamzil is
a Oxford St Paseo de Gracias. It's one of the the 4-5 streets
where you want to be in Europe. The the thing that I love is as
you come in is the sense of space and I think you would
there is you got rid of the roof.

(01:14):
Right. Yeah, we took a whole floor out
actually. Wow.
So if you're if if you see the story here, here was a
staircase. So we moved the staircase to the
left part of the of the buildingto enter the minor ways, which
you will see later. And we removed the whole
ceiling. So there you have a sort of
atrium with daylight and we haveone of the biggest tree that we

(01:34):
ever built here. When you're looking at designing
the path through the store, whatinfluence is?
That a lot, I mean, in the past during my studies, I was one
year at an internship at the supermarket and they are the
best in it. So I learnt a lot of from them.
But also here I mean, when a customer comes in, I want them
to surprise every time. So they they, they start with

(01:57):
the promo table. But we all know people are right
orientated even in the UK or when it drives on the left, but
still right orientated store wise.
So it's really like for how can we get people every time that
they discover something so they see this, but in the meanwhile
they see already something else and get trigger to to go further
into the store. Where should we go next when in

(02:18):
terms of going through the storeand where do you recommend?
Well, I mean, of course, we havehere all our rituals.
So with our rituals you have automatic the flow to to the
back of the store. But if you're a new customer,
but we've definitely will bring you to the water islands, OK?
And I think you've got Anne Marie waiting for me there,
right? Yeah, absolutely.
So let's go. I'll go meet Anne Marie and then

(02:39):
meet you afterwards. See you later.
And thank you. So I'm privileged enough to be
joined by Anne Marie for the second time.
I'm making her do this because Ididn't press record.
Anyway, I'm joined by Anne Marie, Managing Director of UK
and Ireland. And as we all know, Oxford
Street is such a unique place inin British shopping history and
it's all splits between tourism and people that live all come

(03:03):
into the area. What I'm curious about is how
Rituals is positioning itself inthat unique way between tourism
and and locals. And just to get your thoughts on
it. I mean, it's fascinating for me.
I've been working Oxford St for the last 20 years.
So actually to bring the ritualsconcept in this environment to
the community here is just fantastic.
We definitely see a 5050 spit, as you said.

(03:25):
And and I think most of our customers are very familiar with
rituals at this stage, whether they work in London, they
probably reside in a suburb. So we really encourage them from
other stores to come and come and test and see our Phoenix
store, which we've got some exclusive assortment.
And we've also got our Mind Oasis treatment.
So we definitely work with worthof mouth to, to send our

(03:46):
community in here to get the full experience.
We also have a really strong CRMdatabase across the UK and
Ireland market. So we've reached out to umm, our
loyal customers through that. And, and I think it's just a
really lovely space on Oxford St.
To slow down for a moment, we'reall very busy, particularly in
London and and yeah, and come down and have a little moment to
yourself. I'm super lucky because I've got

(04:07):
a chance to experience the Mind Oasis in Paris when you had it
for the Olympics. I'm curious.
I I think you said it's already sold out for the first five
days. Right, Yes, absolutely.
I think all this weekend organically our customers have
either been passing our windows or been online and this they've
heard about us. So definitely our loyal
customers are really eager to experience the Mind Oasis.
So yeah, we're totally booked out.

(04:28):
Yeah. And hopefully we will will be
for the rest of the year. We're here at one of your
islands. What's the name of this island?
This is our water island, so this is apparently.
From a from a customer journey perspective, this is where the
relationship will start with rituals. 100% So if you've never
been to rituals, you know when once we welcome any of our
customers into the store, we really encourage them to come to

(04:49):
the water island as a starting point.
So we can explain our kind of three-step ritual routine where
we start off with, I want some of our tour products, uh, across
all of our Fr fragrances. So depending on what your
fragrance preference is, we willthen start off with a using our
body scrub on a hand massage. So there we cleanse and we clean
your hands down. Then we work with our famous

(05:11):
shower foam, which is just absolutely exquisite.
It's like clouds. Oh wow.
And and then we finish it off with a body cream.
So afterwards you'll not only have tested our fragrance, but
you'll understand what our how luxurious our products are and
you're left with just beautiful hands after.
Oh wow. So and sorry, I was going to say
and then also through that you'll you know, you'll be you

(05:32):
can talk to our teams and they'll educate you on on our
further assortments so that you'll kind of understand the
world of rituals better. And just yeah, just to
experience the rest store. And at this time of the year, we
have our famous advent. Calendar.
Advent calendar. I've got my eye on one of those.
We've got to take. Go home.
I can't go home without. Plenty tougher.
Yeah, over there, which is actually as you come in what,
what role does technology play in, in physical retail for you?

(05:54):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's essential
to move forward with. Absolutely.
I think that we have a lovely balance between that because
we're very clear that our customers love to come to our
stores for the experience and, and experience the fragrance and
the service and the environment.However, of course we know that
the future is technology and we've got our fantastic mind

(06:15):
Oasis that is umm, the future ofretail, I think.
And then in the background, obviously to operate, our stores
are a very, very, very big fast retailer in terms of volume.
So we need to make sure that ourtechnology in the background is
servicing the operations of the store.
So definitely it's the future ofretail in in every angle.
Final question, a tradition thatwe have on the show, we we look

(06:35):
to empower female leaders. Obviously as the managing
director, if you could go back to the earlier younger version
of yourself, what advice would you give to a, a, a, you know,
maybe someone who's on the shop floor who does want to go to
head office and who does want togo?
Just curious if you had some words of wisdom for for a
younger you. You know, I do reflect on that
sometimes because people ask me and I think the one thing that

(06:58):
maybe got to me where I am, whether in my career or just,
you know, in myself, is that I was really open to every
opportunity. I looked at it as an opportunity
and I was, you know, I travelleda lot.
I, I worked in many different countries.
So I understood many different cultures.
And I think that was placed me very well to lead a strong team
from, you know, different parts of the world, et cetera, that I

(07:18):
kind of understood the dynamics of what different cultures bring
to a team. So I think just to con for other
people to be open to look at every opportunity and every
challenge, every challenge as anopportunity, I should say, and
just stay positive. Life is life is good and be
happy along the way. Enjoy the journey.
Anne Marie, that's wonderful. Thank you ever so much for

(07:39):
giving up the time and showing me this beautiful part of your
store. I'm going to go back to Richard
and we're going to continue the tour.
Thank. You so much lovely to.
Talk to you, Richard. What an incredible space you've
got here. I remember one of the feelings I
had as I went up the stairs in Paris, and here we're coming
down the stairs. But that's change of energy,
right? The change of lighting, the

(08:00):
change of product as in the materials that you use, describe
for those who obviously who haven't been yet described that
what was that design? Well, this is the mind Oasis, we
call it the future of well-being.
And what we want to achieve is that you come from the busy
street or shopping mall, in thiscase the street, Oxford Street,

(08:20):
I mean the most busiest St in all UK.
And moment you, like you said, you come down and you have a
sort of sync theory of of incredible Oasis.
And it's in the basement, very quite high ceiling for a
basement and all use natural colours and all the same family
colours. As you can see, it's not bright

(08:43):
colours all very to make sure that you really get in a slower
pace pace and you feel it directly.
If you come down, people start to whisper, you know, in, in,
in, upstairs in the store. People are like, enthusiastic
and like and the moment they come up the stairs they start
and that's actually what we really want to achieve.

(09:04):
Of course, with the mind Oasis that people take, take a moment
of it for themselves and a moment of relaxing because
that's in the end what we want to achieve.
Got a genius team behind you A. Very talented team, Yeah.
And and it's like a we, we learnevery time.
It's our every time. And we do that with the stores
already. I mean, this is the store number
almost more than 1400 stores, but still every time we see we

(09:28):
are very critical, how can we make it better?
So the same we do with the MindsOasis, Yeah, how can we make it
even better? So if you see the the first
minds always that we built in the House of Rituals as
Amsterdam, it's still the same look.
I feel very recognisable. But there are a lot of small
details that we made difference and we learn on the way.
And it's also here and like the small thing, like the black

(09:49):
frames are now wooden frames andit has completely different look
I feel. One of the things I wanted to
ask you before, which you wouldn't get done, what's your
view on technology and the physical retail world?
What's the relationship? Well, I mean, there are
different with technology. I mean, technology sometimes is
for a lot of people screens. Yeah, and and we have screens.
But I know the first time I had a meeting with our suppliers,

(10:12):
the first thing I said, I hate screens.
So it was a good start. But I think it has to add
something, you know, not just onthe sake of having screens or
having technology, but if you see for example, here the POTS,
the brain massage, that's one big piece of technology, but you
don't see it, you don't feel it,you don't see it.
And that's that's, I think, how technology should work.

(10:36):
Not visible, but it works. It's like a car.
And I don't most people don't care about the engine.
Yeah. They don't know how the engine
work. As long as it works and you
don't hear it. Yeah, but it's always working.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And and there's another thing
you mentioned to me and I was speaking to Anne Marie.
And I'm just curious from a design perspective, when you're
talking briefing your team, thissense of community and how

(10:59):
retail has to be relevant for, for the next 5 years is about
relevance and community and experience.
Again, you're doing like you're all the all the boxes, but
what's the thinking behind that?Well, we'll, this is a premium
store. So in most, in most cities, we
want to build premium stores andwe use that as the hub for our
community got all the stores around it.

(11:20):
So also here now in, in London, everywhere, we stimulate you to
come to this store. So it's not the, the other store
that we have a store here 10 minutes, 50 minutes on also on
Oxford St. It's not that they don't feel
themselves as a competitor. No, they are also part of
building the community of London.
So we want to use those premium stores really as a community hub

(11:41):
and the mind arises, of course, they're perfect example for
that. Final question, What's your
favourite part of the store? What you What's the one thing if
you had to choose just one thing?
Well, I count 2 things. I I love the story.
I the the show front is amazing,especially in the evening with

(12:01):
the LED lights on it. It's very classical, but also
very modern. Yeah, very delicate.
So I really love it and and it'sit's hard to to jump out in the
in the in the massive Venice of of Oxford Street.
And I love the moment I walk from the step from the store
into the my Oasis. The the stairs is the most is
the nice part because you every time you go down, you feel like

(12:25):
yeah, your space goes down. Yeah, it's a definite feeling.
And I know I said it was the last question, but you reminded
me upstairs in terms of the fixtures that you've got, I
noticed at the back of the storeyou've actually got a completely
different type of fixture, one that's maybe resembling
someone's home. Yeah, I'm just, well, what's the
thinking behind that element? In in general, you see it also

(12:45):
with the lightning in the store.You always want to create a sort
of home feeling. Yeah, You know what I don't like
is that you use completely different lights and then you're
you're at home with your products and it looks completely
different. So we really want to make people
feel at home and that it feels like home.
So the the dark woods and what we've often hear like where can

(13:09):
I get this? The floor?
Because I love it. I won't have it at home.
So that warmth that you also have at home, at least I hope
for most people. We also want to create that in
our store. Yeah, and it does have that,
that sort of uncanny sense of familiarity, think lighting 100%
is beautiful in the store is such an important.
I think it's always valued. Undervalued.

(13:31):
Absolutely. And people then understand that
even in this space, when we camein, he actually on the other
side, he was moving the the details.
Richard, thank you so much for allowing me to come the official
opening. This will go out today.
So if you're in Oxford Street orin any part of London, come
down. Although to be fair, the Mind
Oasis is booked for the next 5 days but always.

(13:52):
Good to see you already. Yeah, make a make a reservation.
Yeah, make you make your reservation because it's the, I
think the best value for money experience that you're going to
have for half an hour of disconnection there.
I I don't think there's anythinglike that.
But anyway, Richard, thank you so much.
Nice pleasure. We're here.
Thank you.