part of a subculture that is mainstream now,” Friis said. The other opportunity is taking SkinKandy’s team of experiential piercers with safety, compliance and technical expertise to a mass-market retail environment. “I see the window in front of us. Over the last five years, if not more, a broad acceptance and normalisation of piercing [has occurred], and there are several players globally that are looking at the space,” Friis said. “If we compare ourselves to those kinds of more new, specialised piercing operators, we are the biggest in the world from a store view and we want to maintain that, so there is a little bit of a race on and we need to make sure that we are delivering what we can ahead of competitors. So that drives us.” Scaling an exceptional service  SkinKandy offers over 60 piercings across the body and adheres to the strictest compliance and safety standards. “If you’re getting an earlobe piercing, you’re getting the compliance and safety standards that are required for the most complex piercings, so you’re benefiting from a great experience just because that’s our standard,” Friis said. Compared to a sector like apparel, Friis noted that piercing is a relatively recent addition to the mainstream retail environment.  “Piercings in a mainstream type environment only really started with the first real piercing store something like 60 years ago,” he said. “It’s a young category.” But it’s one with a lot of potential.  “There’s an opportunity for this business model. And there is a hunger for the customer to have that ability to further fashion accessorise themselves beyond apparel,” he said. SkinKandy opened its first store in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast in 2011 and is now in an explosive growth phase.  Friis told Inside Retail that continuing to increase that velocity of store openings without compromising on quality or customer service will be the focus now that the business has streamlined its operations to be highly scaleable.  “We’ve got two stores opening in the next month, and many more lined up and we will continue to seek further expansion, not just in Australia and New Zealand. We’ve got aspirations to be a global business. There’s no two ways about that,” Friis said. Investing in staff training and development During this explosive growth phase, SkinKandy’s team will play an important role in enabling the business to maintain the standard it has set. Friis noted that people often have very personal reasons for getting a piercing, so providing a great customer experience is critical.  The company has a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of well over 80, which Friis described as “very rare in the retail business”.  Being a leader in the piercing industry is attractive to prospective employees, Friis said, as are the opportunities for career advancement both nationally and internationally.  Another way SkinKandy hopes to attract good talent is through its ‘free to be’ ethos, which actively welcomes team members to express their individuality at work.  “We are very accepting of a broad segment of team members and all we’re looking for is people who are passionate about, the ability to create great experiences for customers,” Friis said. “If you are passionate about piercing, passionate about retail, the benefit is that we are quite diverse in our team and our customer base. There is a place for almost anyone in our business,” he added, noting that despite being the CEO of a piercing business, he doesn’t have a single piercing. “Obviously we do have a lot of people who are really passionate about piercings, which is great. Being a part of a community and feeling like you’re part of a family of like-minded people is very good for us and surprisingly broad,” Friis said. SkinKandy takes a a comprehensive approach to training and development, with area managers and trainers across all regions, store-based trainers, national training managers and compliance and training heads within its support office.  “We have a very structured supportive environment to take people through that training,” Friis said. This is one of the reasons, according to him, that SkinKandy never struggles to find good talent. “We were about to open a store in Melbourne Central and we had well over 200 applicants in the first week. It’s not unusual for us, but it’s unusual in the retail category,” Friis said. “Not everyone wants to progress right through the training lifecycle and we don’t force everyone to, we are quite open to that too,” he added. Retailers across categories and markets are prioritising their store staff and employee engagement more broadly as a way to differentiate in an tough economic environment.  At the World Retail Congress in Paris this year Sephora’s global president and chief executive Guillaume Motte shared that the beauty retailer no longer requires store staff in France to work on weekends, and has moved to a five-day work week in the Middle East, where six days are the norm. “If we want to stay attractive, not only we need to deliver in our category, but we need a leader in the best practices of retail,” Motte said. Another example of this is  the global cosmetics brand Lush. Brittany Gian, general manager of retail for Lush ANZ, said that the business is focussing on controlling the controllables, meaning customer experience and staff training.