Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty have become pillars of THG’s recent success. Francesca Elliott, CEO of beauty retail, explains why leaning into social commerce, AI and sharpened brand identities is a winning formula in an overcrowded beauty market…

Beauty retail has rarely moved faster. Product discovery, once dominated by department store counters, in-store advisors and editorial pages, is now happening across a host of social platforms, live shopping streams and now AI-powered search.

For Francesca Elliott, who started at THG as managing director of Cult Beauty before becoming CEO of the whole category in 2025, that pace of change is an opportunity for both Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty.

“We want to be seen as that digital leader in beauty. We want to create a space where customers can discover, they can experience beauty online in that most frictionless way possible,” explains Elliott.

The strategy comes as online beauty discovery accelerates. Elliott points to social commerce, AI and the growth of specialist online communities as forces reshaping how shoppers research products, build routines and decide what to buy.

“More beauty discovery happens online than ever before,” she says. “ecommerce is our bread and butter. But over the past couple of years, we’ve really focused in on how do we move that forward at pace.”

Social commerce becomes a growth engine

That focus has put social commerce at the centre of THG beauty retail’s playbook. Lookfantastic has established itself as the number one multi-brand beauty retailer on TikTok Shop. While, both Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty are continuing to deliver double-digit growth through the channel.

“It is the fastest-growing part of our business,” explains Elliott. “We’re a very big business, so it’s still relatively small in terms of the actual numbers and what we draw through our website and our own channels. However, it is the fastest-growing area of our business.”

Social is no longer just a top-of-funnel awareness channel. Creator content and live shopping are increasingly converting shoppers, particularly when the content feels authentic rather than overly polished.

“Some of the best engagement that we see from your traditional engagement metrics, but then also through to actual sales, is from that authentic creator content and from live shopping as well,” she note. “We do multiple lives a week. We are aiming to continuously grow that number.”

Creator partnerships with purpose

THG beauty retail has also doubled down on high-profile partnerships. For Lookfantastic, Molly-Mae Hague has remained a long-term collaborator, fronting its Christmas advertising and summer activity.

The retailer has also added TV personality Olivia Attwood as a key ambassador, and partnered with celebrity stylist Melissa’s Wardrobe on its Good Taste Club, a curation-led platform built around recommendations and “must-have” beauty products.

Cult Beauty has worked with nutritionist and food writer Emily English, supporting her book launch activity and events.

“The key thing for us is that we’ve really understood the audiences that we have on both Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty, and pinpointed who will resonate,” says Elliott.

“We’re really trying to make sure that everything that we do is very considered towards the brands that we want to build.”

The challenge for any multi-brand retailer is that it necessarily gives space to hundreds of third-party names. Elliott says the task now is making sure the retail brands themselves have a clear identity.

“How do we really focus on building a brand in our own right and resonating with our customer base so that they’re not just coming to us for all the incredible brands we stock?” she says. “They’re coming to us because they feel that connection and they feel that loyalty towards us.”

 Glow ups for Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty

That has led to brand investment across both platforms. Cult Beauty underwent a rebrand at the end of 2024, including its first logo change in 17 years. The redesign maintained its positioning as “the home of beauty discovery”.

Lookfantastic has also refreshed its brand, with a new look and feel designed to strengthen consistency and recognition across every customer touchpoint.

“On Lookfantastic, we want to be known as the home of iconic beauty,” Elliott says. “We did a brand refresh earlier this year, so all new look and feel in terms of just really owning a bit more brand IP and making sure that every touchpoint that you have with Lookfantastic feels consistent and feels recognisable as us.”

The early signals are encouraging. Elliott says awareness and recall are “higher than ever”, while customer consideration is building. “The key thing is being really clear on who we want to be and how we want to show up,” she adds.

The search for trust

Showing up for customer is increasingly important when expectations are rising. Elliott says beauty shoppers now want more information, faster, and are increasingly comfortable using AI as part of the research process. THG is testing an AI chat assistant across some Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty territories to help customers navigate products and routines more easily.

“Customers want more information than ever before, and they want it instantly,” she says.

The assistant is already helping lift engagement, product browsing and conversion, while giving THG richer insight into the concerns shoppers are searching for.

“It’s giving us incredible insights into what are the customers searching for, what are the issues that they’re facing, what are the topical skincare concerns that they want to overcome.”

However, AI is only one part of the answer. Elliott notes that consumers are demanding stronger “proof points” and are becoming more sceptical of unsupported brand claims. That is pushing THG to invest in beauty professionals, creators and social communities that can offer practical expertise and visible results.

“There’s a real want for what feels like more authentic proof points,” she says. “How do we partner with our beauty pros on Lookfantastic, who are ultimately experts? They are aestheticians, makeup artists, hairdressers. They have the qualification and the expertise to actually understand the science behind the products and what drives good results.”

Backing the brands that cut through

In a market flooded with launches, THG beauty retail is also becoming more selective about the brands it backs. “Clear differentiation and genuine innovation” is what they are looking for. Cult Beauty is constantly looking for the next category, ingredient or routine shift that will matter to its audience.

“K-beauty has definitely been the trend of the past 18 months for us,” Elliott says. “We’ve doubled the size of our K-beauty business across all of the websites in the past 12 months, and now we’re really starting to look at what is that expansion across all areas of Asian beauty as well.”

Founder and expert-led stories also matter. In a crowded sector Elliott stresses that shoppers respond to brands with a clear reason to exist. Whether that is professional credibility or “a story and an audience that we think connects with our audience in a really authentic way”.

For Elliott, the future of beauty retail is not about choosing between ecommerce, stores, influencers, AI or live shopping. It is about making discovery easier wherever the customer starts. “It hasn’t previously been the first place you would go for beauty,” she says of online. “But actually now, more and more, it’s where everyone wants to do that shopping. So how do we enable that as much as possible?”

That clarity may prove decisive as the beauty market gets noisier. THG beauty retail is betting that customers will keep moving towards digital discovery, but only if retailers can combine speed, trust, curation and entertainment.

“It’s a really competitive market, but we feel like we are really clear on our ethos, really clear on who we want to be, and touch wood, it seems to be resonating well thus far,” Elliott concludes.

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