What a bath bomb demonstration at Lush reveals about experiential retail

One of the simplest business examples I’ve used recently came from a quick visit to a Lush store.

Me and Drew were standing near the bath bomb display when one of the staff members dropped a bath bomb into a bowl of water. Within seconds it was fizzing, swirling with colour and filling the air with scent.

Nothing complicated. Just a bath bomb in a bowl of water.

But it turned into a really simple way of explaining something we talk about a lot in business: experiential retail.

The challenge facing physical retail

Retailers today face an obvious challenge: if customers can easily buy products online, why should they visit a physical store at all?

Online shopping is convenient, often cheaper, and allows customers to browse and purchase products without leaving the house. Because of this, physical retailers need to offer something that online stores cannot easily replicate.

One way they do this is through experiential retail.

What is experiential retail?

Experiential retail focuses on creating a memorable shopping experience rather than simply displaying products on shelves.

Instead of customers just looking at products, they are encouraged to interact with them and experience the brand.

Retailers increasingly design stores around:

• interactive displays

• product demonstrations

• engaging store environments

  
  

By engaging multiple senses such as sight, smell and touch, businesses can create a more immersive experience for customers. Research into sensory marketing shows that engaging several senses at once can influence how customers evaluate products and increase the likelihood of purchasing them.

How Lush uses product demonstrations and visual displays

Lush stores are designed around this idea.

Products are displayed openly rather than packaged in boxes, encouraging customers to pick them up, smell them and explore the range. Many displays resemble market stalls, with bath bombs and soaps stacked in colourful piles rather than neatly boxed on shelves.

This presentation immediately attracts attention and reinforces the brand’s identity as colourful, handmade and sensory.

Staff also regularly demonstrate how products work. In the case of bath bombs, this means dropping one into a bowl of water so customers can see exactly what happens.

Customers can immediately see the colours, smell the fragrance and understand how the product works.

Why engaging multiple senses works

There is strong research evidence behind this approach.

Marketing researchers refer to it as sensory marketing (using multiple senses to influence how customers experience products).

Studies have shown that pleasant scents in retail environments can increase the amount of time customers spend in stores and can also increase sales. Some research suggests that introducing a signature scent into a retail environment can increase sales by around 11%.

Smell is particularly powerful because it is closely connected to memory and emotion. When a store environment engages multiple senses, the experience often becomes more memorable for customers.

This is one of the key advantages physical stores still have over online retailers. A website can show pictures and videos, but it cannot allow customers to pick up a product, smell it or watch it being demonstrated in front of them.

Competing without competing on price

This approach also highlights an important business concept known as differentiation.

Instead of competing purely on price, Lush focuses on creating a distinctive customer experience. The colourful displays, strong scents, demonstrations and interaction with staff all contribute to this. The store environment becomes part of the product itself.

This strategy helps the brand stand out in a competitive cosmetics market without needing to compete primarily on price.

Online retailers can show photos and videos of products, but they cannot recreate the experience of seeing a bath bomb fizz in water, smelling the fragrance in the air, or picking up a product and exploring it in person.

Sometimes the most effective marketing strategy isn’t an advert, a discount or a social media campaign. Sometimes it’s just a bath bomb in a bowl of water.

Final thoughts

The example of a simple bath bomb demonstration highlights how physical retailers can still create value for customers in ways that online stores struggle to replicate.

By focusing on sensory experiences, interaction and engaging store environments, businesses can transform shopping from a simple transaction into something more memorable.

For Lush, the store itself becomes part of the marketing strategy.

Questions for business students

Class discussion: do you think experiential retail will become more important for physical stores in the future, or will online shopping continue to dominate?

Written question: compare two ways Lush uses experiential retail to influence customer behaviour and justify which one you believe is most effective.

Extension task: visit a retail store (or think about one you have visited recently) and identify examples of experiential retail. Consider how the store uses elements such as layout, demonstrations, music, lighting or scent to influence the customer experience.