Mecca Brands new Gowings flagship ready to impress
First look: Mecca founder Jo Horgan offers a tour of the dazzling new Sydney flagship in the iconic Gowings Building.
For Mecca founder Jo Horgan, experience is everything in retail – something she can relate to this week more than ever.
“I think people that are heralding the death of bricks and mortar are not focusing on what bricks and mortar should be about – and that has to be the experience,” Horgan told The Australian.
It’s something she is backing all the way with Mecca’s new Sydney flagship in the iconic Gowings Building, which opens on Friday.
At 1800sq m over three floors, it will be the largest dedicated beauty store in the Southern Hemisphere.
Due to Covid-19 lockdowns, Horgan had not been able to visit the site in person since signing the lease on the heritage-listed building in February, when British retailer Topshop was still in situ.
For nine months, she had been watching its progress via a permanent Zoom feed in her Melbourne HQ.
On Tuesday night, she was finally able to experience the space first hand, and now offers The Australian the first look.
“I am having the entire spectrum of emotions from jaw-dropping joy, excitement and wonder,” says Horgan.
When that lease was signed in February, Covid-19 had barely registered in Australia.
The subsequent lockdowns brought with them a shift to online sales for retailers around the country and still a reduced number of people passing through city centres.
Regardless, Horgan remains optimistic about what she describes as a “beauty wonderland”.
“We are looking at this with a 10-year arc, not a six-month arc.
“Yes, I will be honest, I have a couple of mantras at the moment. One is ‘fortune favours the bold’, and the second is ‘build it and they shall come’.”
Horgan says that word of mouth, driven by the in-store experience of customers, has always been a key strategy for the 23-year-old company, which has grown from a single 79sq m store in Melbourne’s South Yarra with just seven brands, to become Australia’s biggest beauty retailer.
It now has just over 100 stores across Australia, another 13 in New Zealand and stocks over 200 global beauty brands.
While Horgan declines to comment on revenue for the privately owned company, an August report from IBISWorld says that Mecca holds 12.9 per cent of Australia’s $4.3B beauty retail segment, an increase on last year.
Even as an omnichannel retailer, Horgan puts the company’s success down to the experience of customers in bricks-and-mortar stores.
“Mecca started with one key focus, and that was let’s make the customer experience extraordinary every single time.
“And as fabulous as online is in so many ways, there is nothing as viscerally delightful as coming in, playing with products, smelling beautiful fragrances.”
That message was driven home after the lockdown period, which had seen the company make a number of online services available to help customers when stores were shut.
“Interestingly, yes we closed during Covid, but when our doors reopened, the customers flocked back in and the common catchcry was, ‘We’re so thrilled you’re back, we couldn’t wait to get back, we missed you.’
Through the looking glass
The first thing that hits you when you walk through the glass doors into the ground-floor space is the colour.
The bright orange escalator takes over one corner, a Beauty Lab station is rendered in lemon resin, and a hot pink vintage Murano glass chandelier is one of many colourful light fittings that are dotted throughout the space.
Cosmetics take over the ground floor, skincare is on the lower ground, and upstairs hosts fragrance.
For the first time in a Mecca store, 30 per cent of the space will be dedicated to services.
On the skincare floor, that includes three treatment stations for facials.
“I wanted spaces that were like a little first class seat on a plane, open but closed,” said Horgan of the private “pods” with their curved wall and cosy feel. On the same floor is the Mecca Manes blowdry bar with hair partner Edwards & Co.
The upstairs space is the most engaging and adaptable of all. It houses the Concierge, where guests can arrive and set up appointments in make-up, skincare or fragrance, or book into a Skin Lab session (appointments can also be booked online).
There is space for small private groups upstairs, where hair and make-up can be done, and part of the floor is able to be cleared out for special events.
There are three private consultation rooms on this floor for additional services, including facial aesthetician Dr Van Park, naturopath Anthia Koullouros, and from next year representatives from Gwinganna health retreat, all of whom Horgan describes as “the very best of the best in their field”.
Cleverly, guests in these suites can leave discretely via the lift.
Much of this floor feels like a glamorous apartment, with beautiful custom seating and a library of coffee-table beauty books for makeover inspiration; iPads will also be available with imagery from the books, which also plays on large LED screens.
“We don’t want this to feel like a beauty store at all, it was about making this an incredible beauty experience. And where would you like to do that most of all? In your very beautiful home.”
If only every home came with a wall that also housed a champagne bar.
Bright arrangements of flowers are housed in equally colourful vases, while natural light floods in for added “sparkle”.
The windows are also adorned with bright renditions of the company’s new lip motif, which can also be seen printed on the papers at the wrapping station.
Downstairs, the lips are rendered in tiles on the wall, creating a sense of cohesion throughout.
Among the 208 points of innovation throughout the store – from virtual hosting to digital livestreamed makeup classes – are a number of thoughtful and cunning details.
A recycling program is being test run in stores around the country, and each floor in the new flagship has a recycling bin near the checkout where customers can bring their empty beauty containers.
Also, in seating areas throughout the store are what appear to be simply small round tables but are in fact cordless charging stations for mobile phones, which Horgan concedes may also be useful for “said partner who may not be quite as much a beauty fanatic”.
In trying to work out how to get product between the floors without disrupting “the lots of people having a gorgeous time in a joyful way”, a Beauty Chute has been installed – essentially a dumb waiter that whizzes up and down.
“When you have a problem, there is always a solution,” says Horgan in her inimitable way.
After nine months of development, Horgan is ready for her vision to finally be shared with customers – and not just the 10,000 that have signed up for the virtual launch party.
“The thing that gives me confidence is that I genuinely believe we are offering the customer a completely new experience that they cannot get anywhere else,” says Horgan.
“And we have tried to dare to imagine beyond what anyone would possibly think of imagining themselves.”
And undoubtedly, now that it is built – the customers will come.