I’ve shouted from the rooftops before about what a brilliant retailer Lyko is.

This Scandinavian beauty business is a powerhouse both online and offline, and despite not always being known to a global audience, it’s an example I share with international audiences.

That’s for many reasons. It’s been pioneering in understanding that physical stores can be marketers as well as sellers. It has attracted Gen Z customers with an energy that is only comparable to Sephora. It’s brought a brightness and boldness to Scandinavian shopping streets, like Karl Johans Gate in Oslo, that has been transformative.

But perhaps above all else, Lyko is a great example of a retailer that understands the power of its own brand.

A delicate balance

I’ve also found the balance between a retailer’s brand and the brands it stocks fascinating.

On the one hand there is clearly merit in being a retailer that serves its brands humbly – a stockist that exists to serve those brands and their customers.

But it’s self-evident that retailers who fail to create a clear sense of their own brand can fall into irreversible decline.

Over the years, UK retailers like House of Fraser and Debenhams have disappeared, and beyond all the well-established causes, that same lack of a brand was pivotal.

Because in our modern retail world, there is nothing distinct or memorable about a multi-product, multi-brand environment. If that’s all your business is, you’re vulnerable.

Retailers need their own voice, style, story, tone and mood – all of which needs to be relevant to both the customers they seek and the brands they stock.

This isn’t easy, which explains why so many retailers today still feel like a bland backdrop for other brands to tell their own stories.

But Lyko is a clear exception – and one that’s worth celebrating.

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