ABeam Consulting helps Kosé with development of new store in Tokyo

Kosé, a Japanese multinational personal care and beauty products company, chose ABeam Consulting to provide consulting and customer experience services in the run-up to the opening of its latest store in Tokyo.

The Maison Kosé Harakado store opened on August 30th of this year, one of many stores the cosmetics corporation operates worldwide, including in Europe and the United States. Harakado is a prime shopping complex located in central Tokyo.

Tokyo-headquartered ABeam Consulting was tasked with helping in developing systems and business operation designs for the services to be provided. That meant making sure the store was in line with emerging consumer trends, including merging online and offline elements for a smoother customer experiences.

And indeed, the target consumers for the new store are young digital natives, who tend to take a very hybrid digital approach to shopping. The store is designed to offer a variety of services and convenient shopping experiences that can help consumers find their preferred personal beauty products.

This next-generation store offers all the quality high-end products that Kosé is known for, but also aims to provide an engaging customer experience that can help to create new customer contact points.

ABeam Consulting played an important role in transforming the Kosé customer experience using new digital trends. That included choosing the right technologies, designing store operations, and offering support along the way for it to all work smoothly.

In their work, the team of consultants followed the principle of ‘liquid consumption’, which is more ephemeral and geared towards younger consumers. That means that the store was designed to focus more on experiences rather than just products, with a focus on enjoyment of the time spent shopping there.

Some of these experiences that ABeam Consulting supported include things like in-store cosmetic testers and dressers rented by the hour, custom gift-making with special packaging materials, and contact-less product pick-up where online shoppers can us a QR code to access lockers.

Founded in 1946, Kosé has over 12,000 employees in Japan and beyond. The company focuses on the manufacturing, marketing and sales of cosmetics, with a focus on high-value products.