Aesop's work goes far beyond skincare and fancy hand washes. It is a multifaceted brand that speaks in matters of sustainability, architecture, literature, fine arts and beyond. Which it isn’t surprised that their visual merchandising approach is a very artistic and elegant one.
Never have I seen a messy Aesop store (even on the back of house) or a window display that was too busy.
Everything they do is intentional and so is their approach to displaying their products in the store and creating attractive, intriguing and beautiful window displays that speaks to their current product launch or campaign.
As most things, I could ramble about it for hours. But for the purpose of this post I will keep this short-ish. Here’s three points of some of Aesop’s perspective on VM.
Store Design
Aesop's approach to architecture is quite unique in the sense that no two stores in the world look the same. The reason why they create different concepts, within the same guidelines that will always make you recognize an aesop store, is to pay a homage to the city and neighbourhood that is welcoming them in by creating something unique with regional inspiration and at times with local architects. Many times they choose to keep one or more original parts of the building such as a ceiling, a floor tile or even a laundromat signage like this store in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, NY.
Product Display
Aesop displays its products in rows of uniform, not priced and odd numbered SKU's. All of these aspects combined reinforces many messages that is at the core of the brand: confidence in its products and prices, organization and an intriguing interpretation of the space that requires an aesop staff to guide the customer through the experience.
Product Design
Aesop's packaging has all the information that legally needs to be there to avoid using excess boxes and papers when selling their products. Which is why the packaging is at the same time consistent across most products and heavy in content but in an elegant and sustainable way.
Comment below if you want a whole new post of Aesop’s most inspiring campaign displays and communication and follow a retail-specific instagram account that is newly launched - if that's your thing.