In this week’s Store Associates Strategies series, Glossy spotlights the high value of strong store associates amid consumers’ return to retail.
As a veteran fragrance consultant, Patience Anoe-Lamptey Battle has seen how perfume has grown from a niche interest to an obsession for everyone from teen boys to celebrity clientele. But there’s one question she finds perfume consumers always ask: How long does it last? It’s the kind of benefit that can’t just be read off a fact sheet. It can only be tested with real-life experience.
“It makes a difference to the customer. They will constantly ask, ‘Well, have you tried this yourself? Do you have this one?’” said Anoe-Lamptey Battle, a New York City-based luxury sales manager with experience working as a brand ambassador for the likes of Bergdorf Goodman. “It’s the trust factor. They want to know that someone is not just selling them something, but that this is something you actually care about and have knowledge of firsthand.”
With today’s beauty customers armed with TikTok and Reddit recommendations, sales associates need to match consumers with their own expertise and enthusiasm. And there are key pathways to developing that enthusiasm among sales associates on the floor: in-person education and gratis. Both are costly, but they are crucial resources as beauty consumers gravitate back toward brick-and-mortar stores to supplement their online experiences.
“These beauty educators deserve the highest, most elevated experience themselves from their employers,” said Paula Floyd, founder of the retail agency Headkount, which has worked with brands like Sol de Janeiro and Summer Fridays. “They are the boots on the ground. They are literally touching your consumer. Why would they not be as important as your consumer?”
Keeping store associates engaged through gratis and education helps them feel special, Floyd said. And she has seen it have a direct impact on sales: Among her color cosmetics clients, Floyd said a brand that sends gratis to store associates monthly has seen six times sales growth in the past year, while a comparable brand that sends gratis once a year has remained flat.
“The brand that is sending it monthly is being very intentional and strategic about what they’re sending. They’re aligning it to what their focus is for that month,” said Floyd. “You start converting when somebody’s really confident [in their knowledge]. They’re using your product, and it’s super authentic.”
While Amazon and TikTok Shop have made online shopping a rapid-fire, seamless process, customers are increasingly craving in-store experiences — including digital natives like Gen Z. According to June 2025 data on Gen-Z consumer behavior from architecture and design firm MG2, two out of five Gen-Z consumers are shopping mostly or entirely in-store in 2025, compared to one in three in 2023. And 38% of Gen-Z consumers said feeling remembered or welcomed by staff is likely to make them feel more brand loyalty.
Marisa Auciello, svp of niche fragrance distributor Europerfumes, said her team is putting more resources into in-store visits this year to keep representatives at retail partners like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus up to date.
“[Store associates] are the front line, but they can feel like an afterthought. Or they could feel forgotten in the midst of people getting caught up in the virality of online and TikTok and influencers,” she said. “Having in-store visits is probably the most important thing any of us can do. And I think anyone at any executive level can agree that the moments they have in store are the most eye-opening.”
Anoe-Lamptey Battle agreed that the knowledge garnered on those in-store visits can translate into tangible sales.
“The fragrances and the skin-care that we sell the most of are usually, besides them being great quality on their own, [due to] getting the brand story and understanding what’s important to the perfumer, or the user or the executives at the companies,” she said. “We have faces that are attached to these [products], and then we can translate those stories to the customer by letting them know, ‘We just had a great class with them,’ or, ‘They came in to visit us.’ We love [perfumer] Veronique Gabai, because we see her all the time, and she’s a sweetheart.”
In a competitive retail environment, success means establishing relationships with more than just the associates at the beauty counter. Brands should also consider a customer’s journey throughout the store.
“If you’re launching a mascara and you have hopes of it becoming No. 1, then that cashier needs to be wearing that mascara,” said Floyd. “That’s especially if you’re in a retailer where you don’t have as many bodies in the store and may have more vendors, like in an Ulta. It would be very wise to have those cashiers be very knowledgeable and actually receive gratis. And they’re usually the last ones to be thought of.”
“It’s relationships at every level,” said Auciello. “Don’t forget to dip into cross-category. That’s where we’ve had really fun success. Obviously, the day-to-day fragrance associates [are important], but let’s also tap into that top fashion stylist and partner with them on an event and make it special for them.”
Justifying the expense of hosting costly events and sending free products can be challenging in an industry where turnover is traditionally high. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average total separations rate for the retail industry in May 2025 was 3.9%, compared to 3.3% across all sectors.
But in as intimate a sector as beauty, relationships run deep.
“There is a high turnover in retail, but the turnover in beauty is lower than the rest of the departments because knowledge is so important, and having those clients is so important,” said Anoe-Lamptey Battle. “People bond to you. Whether you’re their skin-care person or you’re their fragrance person, it becomes so important. It’s like having a good barber or hairstylist. They don’t want someone else.”
