8 *** Thursday 22 April 2021 The Daily Telegraph Business NUMBERS FIGURES seeks THAT COUNT to be cut above 1.6 Market value of Amazon (in trillions of dollars) with tech-led $500 Size of the beauty industry each year beauty salon (in billions) 1,500 will initially be available to Amazon Company is shaking staff only but will take bookings from Square footage of the general public “in coming weeks”. the firm’s east- up the industry by “We want this unique venue to bring London salon us one step closer to customers, and it allowing clients to will be a place where we can collaborate with the industry and test new peer into ‘magic technologies,” says John Boumphrey, 22pc UK country manager at Amazon. UK adults buying mirrors’ to sample a What Amazon will do with this beauty items via technology, which has been developed Amazon last year by a series of unnamed “partners”, different hair colour, remains unclear. Analysts say the company is likely to either sell them on says Morgan Meaker to retailers or embed them in its own he beauty vloggers of YouTube business, with that latter prospect have a new obsession. “I have a putting competitors on edge. Tproblem and … that problem, I While the concept seems innovative, think, might be an Amazon addiction,” a the technology Amazon is using isn’t sprightly Patricia Bright tells her 2.89m new. Sephora has been “teaching” its subscribers before introducing them to consumers how to shop for beauty a niche French beauty brand that works online using technologies like “amazingly” on dry skin. augmented reality. Sephora customers Bright is just one of a growing have been able to try make-up on number of influencers ditching virtually, using the brand’s app, for products from traditional retailers in more than four years. favour of bargains offered on Jeff L’Oreal-backed Modiface operates an Bezos’s empire. app that lets users virtually change Today, the $1.6 trillion (£1.2 trillion) their hair colour and Snapchat lets company has thousands of beauty users try on make-up from brands such brands listed, many offering exclusive as Estée Lauder using the app’s filters. deals on the site. “Amazon is a major driver of Amazon has also launched its own innovation but not in the way you make-up brands, Find and skincare line might think,” says Victoria Woollaston, Belei, sparking competition concerns in founder of tech and science-led beauty

Europe over the “dual-role” the sites mamabella and MBman. “It has an AP company plays in selling its own eye for recognising rising trends and products in direct competition with then acquiring businesses that have Jeff Bezos’s retail sales rise 7pc in the US and according to natural light. Woollaston believes the model that is growing in popularity in third-party sellers. already put in the legwork.” empire is moving retail analysis firm Mintel, 22pc of UK physical experience is here to stay. ‘What the other parts of the world, such as Asia. But a retail offering isn’t enough. Such trends within the industry have into augmented- adults bought beauty products via “Covid has also shown that digital beauty “Click and mortar [is] where you Amazon on Tuesday revealed it is been sped up thanks to the pandemic, reality beauty Amazon in the last year. services can only get you so far,” she have these really immersive, tech- stepping up its assault on the $500bn-a- according to Simeon Siegel, an analyst consultations Meanwhile, McKinsey reported that says. “The need for such skills and industry enabled brand experiences in brick and year beauty industry by launching its at BMO Capital Markets. “Clearly the Boots saw its overall sales drop by two talents will always be in demand. What needs to do to mortar that become a seamless own salon. Based in east London, the pandemic has accelerated ecommerce’s thirds during 2020’s first lockdown, the beauty industry needs to do to stay shopping experience for the consumer,” Amazon salon will be an “experiential reach into beauty, given that there were with beauty revenues contributing to relevant is to embrace innovations stay relevant she says. venue” for visitors to try new tech no other options in the absence of the plunge. But will retail stores bounce alongside these traditional techniques. is to embrace The Jeff Bezos empire has such as augmented-reality hair stores,” he says. “With everyone on back once lockdowns lift? Whether “I don’t see VR and AR competing innovations demonstrated its ability to drastically consultations, where they can peer into Zoom, cosmetics continued to be beauty is “Amazon proof ” is the against bricks and mortar beauty sales, change the standards consumers expect “magic mirrors” and see what they’d important, [just] the means of getting “burning question for our industry”, I see them being highly alongside from delivery times and the ease of look like with a different hair colour. them shifted.” says Elizabeth Kopelman, founder of complementary. All it needed was a these . Point-and-learn technology will also Before coronavirus, in-store consultancy Frisson Beauty. major retailer to make these At worst, beauty brands that fail to use sensors to understand when a shopping accounted for up to 85pc of Purchasing products, like make-up has innovations more accessible; to show traditional adapt to the “Amazon effect” risk shopper is pointing at a product so it beauty product purchases. But with long been a sensory experience that what’s possible and that’s what the skills’ following the path of the brick-and- can display background information on major retailers wrestling with shuttered consumers can only carry out Amazon salon promises to do.” mortar bookshops that were unable to a nearby screen. physical stores as well as shipping in-store, where they can see Kopelman says Amazon’s salon offer customers a reason to keep Set over two floors and taking up delays, consumers flocked to buy how colours and textures sit presents a threat but also an coming. Whatever’s next, Kopelman more than 1,500 sq ft, the Amazon salon make-up online. Amazon saw beauty against their skin, under opportunity for brands to adopt a says, “Amazon is certainly here to stay”. GameStop chief set for $179m exit package after trading frenzy

By Hannah Boland been granted more shares linked to his Sherman had forfeited almost 600,000 tenure rather than his performance – shares after failing to meet performance THE chief executive of GameStop, the something a growing number of com- targets. The $179m expected payout company caught at the centre of a trad- panies had been doing to protect excluded those shares. ing frenzy earlier this year, could be payouts during the pandemic turmoil. The company’s share price was pro- handed a $179m (£128m) leaving pack- Mr Sherman has been at GameStop pelled to eye-watering levels earlier this age when he steps down this summer. since April 2019. year, almost hitting $350 in late Janu- George Sherman revealed earlier this Mr Hoffmann said: “Investors like ary, after GameStop was caught at the week that he would be leaving the video awards that are performance-based, centre of a -fuelled frenzy. retailer at the end of July, as the Retail investors drove up the price of company embarks on a major push into GameStop, promoting the stock on e-commerce. internet forum Reddit, to fight back On the departure, Mr Sherman will against high levels of interest by short- be handed a stock payout of around 600,000 sellers, who borrow stock and then $179m, a significantly larger amount The number of shares it is suggested that immediately sell it on the expectation than the annual salaries of business the GameStop boss forfeited after failing that it will fall in price. They then buy it leaders including JP Morgan’s Jamie to meet performance targets back at a lower price, making a profit in Dimon. the process. The large size of the package is said to GameStop sales had declined since have been driven by Mr Sherman’s pay that have hard pre-established financial the start of 2017, which was the last year having been decoupled from his perfor- goals, that the executives have to meet in which it made a profit, and the com- mance at the start of the pandemic, as to earn, as opposed to time-based pany had been a major target for short- well as the chief executive receiving shares, where they just have to hang on sellers. stock before the recent share price rally. to get them.” Before the trading mania in January Eric Hoffmann, a vice president at GameStop did not respond to and February this year, short-seller Cit- compensation consultant Farient Advi- requests for comment. ron Research had said that GameStop sors, told that Mr Sherman had Filings last week suggested that Mr was “pretty much in terminal decline”. PensionBee seeking to bring calls time on back-to-back buzz back to London market Teams meetings

By Hannah Boland Brewdog’s co-founder James Watt told By Margi Murphy in The Daily Telegraph earlier this month RETIREMENT savings app PensionBee that the flop had prompted the com - MICROSOFT is updating its calendar shrugged off fears over weak investor pany to consider choosing the US for a to ensure employees get a appetite in London with its £365m listing. “I don’t think Deliveroo helped break in between meetings to combat market debut. anyone looking to list,” he said, although so-called “Zoom fatigue”. The stock started conditional trading The software giant has changed the yesterday and ended the day at 166.2p, settings in Outlook so companies can marginally ahead of the 165p price at Romina Savova, set defaults that shave five, 10 or 15 min- which it offered its shares as part of its PensionBee’s utes off Microsoft Teams meetings to float. chief executive, said carve out breaks for workers. Its debut sees chief executive Romina she was delighted It added the feature after growing Savova net £130m, propelling her into with institutional concern that video meetings were the ranks of the UK’s richest female investors’ support draining the millions of people working entrepreneurs. Ms Savova said the from home thanks to the pandemic. company was “delighted with the “The back-to-back meetings that strong support that we have received added he would still prefer a UK float. have become the norm over the last 12 from institutional investors”. PensionBee comes as the first in a months just aren’t sustainable,” said It comes just weeks after experts cast host of expected tech floats in London, Jared Spataro, corporate vice president doubt on whether there was strong including cybersecurity company Dark- for . enough appetite for technology compa- trace, which is aiming for a £3bn valua- The new settings were inspired by a nies on the London Stock Exchange, tion, and Oxford Nanopore, estimated study Microsoft conducted to see how compared to the US where many British to be worth between £4bn and £7bn. video meetings were impacting peo- start-ups have chosen to float. PensionBee is issuing new shares as ple’s emotions. It studied the brain wave Deliveroo, the takeaway app, was part of the float, and raising around activity of 14 volunteers, which found deemed to have one of the worst market £55m. Ms Savova will remain the that back-to-back meetings “decreased debuts on record, and in conditional largest shareholder in the company at ability to focus and engage”. Transition- trading the company saw £2bn wiped 36pc. Her co-founder Jonathan Lister ing from one video to another was from its market capitalisation. It had Parsons, the company’s chief technol- “stressful” and jumping between video initially been valued at around £8bn. ogy officer, will own around 6pc. meetings caused spikes of “high stress”.