Trafford Centre’s beauty campaign delivers impressive sales and footfall growth

Trafford Centre’s beauty campaign delivered a strong performance across the health and beauty category in H1, with sales increasing by 7.5 percent year-on-year and 5.4 percent on a like-for-like basis. The destination-wide Beautopia campaign and in-person event saw the centre’s extensive range of health & beauty brands come together with a dynamic mix of offers and experiences for visitors.

At the heart of the campaign was The House of Beautopia, a four-day beauty event which transformed the centre with a programme of pop-ups, demonstrations, talks, live experiences, sampling and giveaways.

Major retailers and beauty brands including Selfridges, Space NK, Boots, John Lewis, KIKO Milano, Lush, Rituals and L’Occitane took part, creating opportunities for visitors to discover new products, access expert advice and engage with brands beyond the traditional in-store experience.

The combination of retail, experiences and activations delivered a significant uplift in visitors, with footfall during the event +21.6 percent higher than last year’s event. The Saturday of the activation was the busiest day of the entire May and June campaign period, attracting over 118,000 visits to the centre.

Importantly, the positive performance extended beyond the event weekend itself. Trafford Centre welcomed over 3 million visits across May and June, up 2.4 percent YOY, while UK shopping centre footfall declined by 2.4 percent over the same period according to The BRC (British Retail Consortium) data.

Gemma Ward, Head of Marketing at Trafford Centre, said: “The performance across May and June in H1 demonstrates the value of combining Trafford Centre’s strength as a retail destination with experiences that give our customers even more reasons to visit, discover and engage with brands. Beautopia is a great example of that strategy in action.

By bringing together some of the biggest names in beauty and inviting customers to engage with them through masterclasses and exclusive live experiences, we were able to create something that went beyond a traditional shopping trip while supporting our brand partners and showcasing the breadth of our beauty offer.”

These results reinforce the continued strength of Health & Beauty at Trafford Centre and demonstrate the role of large-scale experiential campaigns in supporting wider trading performance across the destination.

Beautopia 2026 forms part of Trafford Centre’s broader strategy to combine its retail, dining and leisure offer with standout experiences throughout the year, helping brands to connect with millions of visitors while strengthening the centre’s position as a landmark UK leading retail and leisure destination.