Industry Beauty in partnership with CEW: Margaret Mitchell, Chief Commercial Officer at Space NK

Industry Beauty interview series, in partnership with CEW UK, features one of CEW UK’s executive board members, Margaret Mitchell, to gain insights into their careers and views on what being a business leader in today’s beauty industry means to them.

For the full interview, click here

Margaret Mitchell first joined Space NK in 2016 as Head of Buying, later taking on various other senior leadership roles before becoming the retailer’s Chief Commercial Officer in 2022.

During her time as CCO, Space NK has continued to invest in its stores, operations, technology and customer acquisition, while also onboarding an abundance of new and trending brands, from Kosas and Emma Lewisham to Laneige and Then I Met You.

Have you always had an interest in the beauty industry? Why does it appeal to you and why did you want to work within it?  

I have been a beauty lover since I was a little girl. I would raid my mother’s lipsticks – she was a big Clinique user, so I would always take those famous GWP sets for myself. I never thought of beauty as a real job though until I met the founders at Mecca in Australia and went to join them. When we moved to the UK, working at Space NK was my dream, so I was incredibly fortunate to join the organisation in 2016.

CEW UK promotes the British beauty industry, why is this important? What do you think sets the British beauty industry apart from other markets worldwide? 

The British beauty industry is incredibly dynamic. It is fast paced, always evolving, and is a global leader in the industry – in terms of the brands and products that are created here, retail experiences and environments that can be found here, and influencer voices from the UK. It is such an important market for all brands in the industry to get right, and the British consumer is one of the most discerning and toughest to “crack” in the world, so it is a real test of a brand’s staying power when they can make it in the UK. 

Why did you join CEW UK? Do you have any highlight moments from being part of this? 

I joined CEW UK when I first came to Space NK as a way to build relationships and get connected in the industry. It has been an amazing platform for our business to connect with our brand partners, PR agencies, and like-minded people. The events, especially the Achiever Awards, are one of my favourite nights of the year every year. 

What do you think are the biggest opportunities and challenges in the beauty sector today? 

The duality of wanting to drive virality on social media while also building a healthy underlying business – and the constant evolution of platforms and influencers – mean that success in marketing requires a new level of agility and multilateral thinking.  

Sustainability is constantly in the conversation, but we haven’t found the answer yet as an industry and consumers aren’t changing their behaviours quickly – more technology is needed to be able to offer consumers the product and experiences they want to maintain while minimising the effect on the planet, as opposed to trying to get consumers to pay more or change behaviours.

A continued lack of predictability in global supply chains also creates complexity for everyone, and as demand grows and internationalisation of brands continues, this only becomes more important but also harder to manage.

What key skills do you need to have as a leader today, in general and in beauty? 

The leadership qualities that are increasingly important in today’s world are adaptability and a willingness to change, to evolve your thinking – the world is changing so quickly in terms of consumer preferences, technology, and economic climate; a fixed way of thinking will cause someone to be left behind. To this point, listening to people from all parts and all levels of the organisation, and keeping one’s ear to the ground to hear what the customer is saying – these are crucial to leadership today. 

How can people be encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship or senior leadership roles in their careers? 

In today’s world, I think there isn’t one definition of success. I think that success is best defined as finding the role and the space where someone is playing to their strengths and finding fulfilment. For some, that could be in senior leadership roles and for others that could be starting a new brand – and even then, one may have the goal to make the brand a huge global household name while the other sees their brand as the unlock to a less rigid lifestyle.

I think people should be encouraged to spend time thinking about the intersection of their passions and their natural abilities, and then figure out what roles make the most sense for them as individuals rather than following what would be defined by others as the traditional path to success. 

Having worked your way up from Head of Buying to CCO at Space NK since 2016 – how do you feel about your progression and what are your main responsibilities in your current role?  

I am fortunate and grateful that I get to work for a board and parent company in Mananzita, which has supported me as well as supported the business in our growth. I feel like I have gotten to grow with the company but also have been a leader and driver of the change that we have experienced.

My role is much broader today than the product side where I started – I lead our category buying and merchandising teams, our store field, our digital trading, and our central inventory teams.  From a product perspective, I was enabled to truly bring my point of view to life in the early days, launching brands like Drunk Elephant, Olaplex, Sol de Janeiro, Charlotte Tilbury and Rare Beauty. Now I have an incredible team who are driving the change harder and faster than ever, and my role is more about guiding them and letting them take the customer experience to the next level every day. 

pace NK continues to strategically invest in its online and in-store experiences, can you tell me about this strategy and how it aims to drive sales and customer loyalty at Space NK? 

We put the customer at the heart of everything we do – which every retailer and every brand in the world says, but we do it in a way that is truly unique. Every metric in our business relates back to the customer, and our definition of success is centred around customer outcomes, not financial outcomes. We know that if we look after the customer, the financials look after themselves – this mindset then lends itself to one of constantly looking at the customer experience and investing in new experiences and optimisations all the time in both channels, but it pays back 10-fold in terms of the customer loyalty and affinity we see. 

Space NK has built up a reputation of helping international brands expand their presence in the UK? What are the benefits of this for (1.) Space NK and (2.) the brands joining your line-up? 

We wouldn’t be who we are without our brand partners, both local and global. We help brands crack the UK market, which, as mentioned before, is one of the hardest and most competitive, but also one of the most important, in the world.

Because of the way that we operate with brands, we help them access the market earlier in their lifestage than they would otherwise, so we are joining up with them when they are still developing, before they’ve become household names. This means we are there with the brand through their high growth periods and we are a key part of the value creation narrative. It is very much a win-win partnership model that we are always working towards, and this is core to our DNA and who we are at Space NK.