The Body Shop MY walks the sustainability talk with new interactive store

The Body Shop Malaysia has launched first-of-its-kind store concept titled "The Body Shop Activist Makers" workshop store that encourages shoppers to explore different sustainable products and discover how they can play their part in protecting the Earth. This is part of its plan to offer consumers a place for play and discovery and offer an interactive "activist workshop" experience. 

Located at Sunway Pyramid, the new concept store is touted by The Body Shop to be its most sustainable store yet to date. The store has recycled fixtures and furniture, a refill station, as well as products made from its recycled plastic packaging.

The store been outfitted with sustainable fixtures made from reclaimed wood and recycled plastics to help minimise its environmental footprint, such as a metal facade constructed in aluminium which requires less energy production than other materials, and is infinitely recyclable. In addition, the worktop surfaces that the store flaunts are "manufactured from 100% recycled material otherwise destined for the landfill", according to The Body Shop. A+M has reached out to The Body Shop for additional information on the new concept store.

At the same time, the refill station will enable the company to reduce the plastic it uses with aluminium refill bottles that can be cleaned and brought back to the store. They can then be refilled from 12 of the brand's shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and hand wash. 

The store will also include a Body Butter Tower (pictured below), where The Body Shop body butters products are displayed on a rack. With an attached sink, customers can test out different hand wash and shower gels before slathering on their favourite body butter or body lotion at this testing station.

Meanwhile, The Body Shop's "ACT wall" (pictured below), customers can choose from one of four pledges on the board to commit to, such as to switch to energy-efficient appliances, consume less, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle as much as possible, and lastly, green their commute. The Body Shop explained that this feature will encourage customers to pledge to do something sustainable for the good of the environment, while also inspiring and motivating others to do the same. In the future, the company plans to utilise this ACT wall to activate causes that align with the values of The Body Shop, including youth activism and female empowerment. 

Meanwhile, one of the Workshop store's highlights is the vibrant sustainable artwork (pictured below) created by Malaysian artist Nini Marini. Injecting her personal style of bright colours inspired by nature, Marini used plastic pegs made from recycled The Body Shop plastic packaging to create the mural. Inspired by the theme of climate change, the artwork challenges shoppers to change their consumption patterns and move towards closing the loop for climate change. 

The plastic pegs used by Marini in her artwork were produced by The Sea Monkey Project, a Malaysian social enterprise focusing on ocean plastic solutions and education. The Body Shop teamed up with The Sea Monkey Project to turn plastic packaging returned by customers to the stores into recycled products such as detangling combs, tube winder keys and soap dishes. Separately, 12 mini artworks by Sunway University School of Arts students, also inspired by climate change, used the same kind of pegs as well.

Separately, on the business front, The Body Shop's retailer, InNature reported a profit after tax (PAT) of RM7.8 million on the back of RM43.7 million revenue in the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2021 (Q4 2021). Group MD Mina Cheah-Foong said previously that its remote selling channels such as eCommerce, conversational commerce, and social selling continue to contribute a significant portion to the group revenue post-lock down. She explained that these channels made up 14.2% of the group revenue during the fourth quarter of last year. At the same time, the group's remote selling channels mitigated the effect of COVID-19 lockdown in 2021 with revenue contribution increasing by 2.6 times to 28.6%.

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