Aesop’s new store locations are often based on ‘gut feeling’ – not demographics.

Australia’s Aesop is among the best in the business at building out immaculately designed retail locations. But there’s a science to it. Everything about this firm is deliberate — even if it comes down to intuition.

Here’s how that process goes down, according to Aesop general manager Thomas Buisson, who recently sat down with London’s Courier Paper. (continued below…)

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The Aesop retail approach:

• They don’t care about how others do it, Aesop’s decisions are often based on gut feeling: “There’s a standard method most retailers use of taking information about people in an area: average incomes, education and things like where they go on holiday. . . . [But we] also use a lot of intuitive, gut feeling.”

• They like to go in first: “To look for interesting places and be the first to commit to these areas is a big part of what we do. There’s a balance between being in emerging areas and more commercial ones.”

• Expanding into Germany has been hell: “There’s ferocious competition in places like Munich. Especially compared to the softer economies like France which we have been used to. You need to sell yourself to the vendor like I had not experienced before. Sometimes, even after you spend legal fees and everything, they [the vendor] can decide to go with someone else.”

• Buisson’s advice for brands opening their first stores: “A lot of people who are building chains today want stores to work from day one. Retail takes time. Great retailers will tell you how long it takes to build a following. You can’t just turn it on and off.”