Parcos, a brand synonymous with bringing international luxury beauty brands to India, has been serving consumers for the last 35 years. It has been bringing various brands across segments like skin and color cosmetics to India.

At present, the brand has 46 stores in some of the premium locations in the country. Going ahead, Parcos stores will be divided into different formats – Parcos Luxe, Parcos Select, and the last format are the ones on which the brand is working to enter tier-II and III cities, where it can also add in some more affordable brands.

“We are planning to add skin care and color cosmetics to all the existing stores along with fragrances. Our first Parcos Luxe store will be opening in Bengaluru in May and it will carry all high-end luxury fragrances, skincare, and color cosmetics and will be an experience in itself,” stated Biju Antony, CEO and Executive Director, Baccarose Perfumes and Beauty Products Private Limited.

“We've understood the mix of brands, we have understood the size of the store that's required, even the threshold on the rental that can be sort of affordable for such a format,  even the consumption pattern and the amount of consumption for luxury in the country. And having said that, we are working on building a franchise format, and slowly over a period of time, we will take the franchise route as well over the next couple of months or even before the end of the year,” he further added.

Currently, Baccarose is offering around 70 brands to its consumers and a Parcos store carries on an average of 45-50 brands. 

Omnichannel: The Way Forward

Recently, consumers have started absorbing content as well as shopping online a lot faster.

Elaborating on it further, he said, “I believe that online consumption will only continue to grow and consumers will prefer to buy luxury beauty in specialty store formats because they get a better experience and they get a better feel. So, we have already launched our own website as a part of our omnichannel strategy to make Parcos a complete omnichannel brand. We also run Parcos stores on other platforms like Mynta, Nykaa, TataCliq, and Amazon to name a few.”

“Ours is a category where authenticity and genuineness of the product is the key and it is important that the customer understands that when he's buying from a barcode store, whether it is online or offline, they should be assured that they are buying the genuine products that are coming from the exclusive and authorized distributor in India,” he further added.

Technology: The Game Changer

The brand is investing heavily in technology and planning to introduce fragrance finder tools soon. It will help consumers decide which sort of fragrance suits them and which are other similar fragrances available at the store.

“We are also planning to integrate AI tools into the platform and launch our own app soon,” he asserted.
 
Influencer Marketing

With the changing consumer behavior, the scope of influencer marketing has also broadened. 

“Influencers play a huge role in helping consumers understand what they need, including influencing their purchases. So we work with a lot of the influencers directly. We work with them for the things that we do, whether it is color, cosmetics, skin, or in terms of pushing the content, educating our consumers, and a lot more. To engage the influencers, we have also launched an annual event, ‘Beauty Influencer Awards’,” he explained.

Apart from this, the brand also indulges in other forms of marketing like press, newspapers, magazines, in-store, digital, performance marketing, and a lot more.

“We will continue doing in-store marketing as we still believe that as much as people like the digital interface, beauty is something where they would still love the touch and feel and smell of a product,” he added.

Future Plans

The brand is targeting to open 100 stores by December next year and it will be a combination of the brand’s own stores and franchise stores.

“So our brick-and-mortar expansion will continue to grow as much as we continue to grow our own website’s presence. But we believe that brick-and-mortar is here to stay. And at the same time, consumers still like to touch, feel and experience the products before buying them,”

“We are planning to invest Rs 50-60 crore to aid our expansion plans,” he further added.