The Body Shop has launched its limited-edition Jasmine Edit for the upcoming festive and wedding season, as gifting becomes an increasingly bigger part of the business. The brand backs the launch with its ‘Spark Your Inner Radiance’ campaign. The first leg of this campaign went live on 21 September.

The move comes as The Body Shop looks to build on the momentum of its festive portfolio while extending the relevance of seasonal launches beyond a single occasion. Unlike last year’s Marigold Collection, which tied closely to Diwali, Jasmine Edit is positioned as a wider festive offering that can work across Diwali, weddings and other celebrations through the end of the year.

The shift comes as gifting has grown from around 5% of sales to double digits over the last two to three years, according to Harmeet Singh, chief brand officer, The Body Shop Asia South. Alongside its pre-curated gift boxes, the brand is also pushing its CYOs (Create Your Own Gift) gifting proposition, allowing consumers to select products based on their preferences.

The Body Shop remains retail-first, but Singh stated that online now contributes more than 30% of sales, with marketplaces and quick commerce adding further consumer touchpoints.

On the sidelines of the Jasmine Edit in Mumbai, Manifest spoke with Singh about the brand’s evolving gifting strategy, its approach to influencer marketing, the growth of online and quick commerce, and why the Jasmine Edit is being designed to stretch beyond Diwali.

From marigold to jasmine

The choice of jasmine follows the success of last year’s marigold collection, but Singh shared that the brand wanted to explore an Indian-relevant fragrance that could work across a wider festive calendar.

“Marigold is very deeply associated and rooted in Indian culture, festivities and traditions,” Singh said. “For sure, this year we had to look for something which was also very relevant and went beyond what we did with marigold last year.”

The Body Shop conducted a consumer survey among working consumers to understand which fragrances they would like the brand to bring into its festive portfolio. Jasmine emerged as one of the options.

The fragrance also has an existing connection with The Body Shop globally, having featured in its portfolio for decades. For the Indian market, the brand has built the limited-edition range around festive packaging and a fragrance sourced from its global portfolio.

“Jasmine fitted in very well because Jasmine is not very new to The Body Shop,” Singh added. “We have had Jasmine fragrances at The Body Shop for, I would say, two to three decades.”

For Singh, the distinction lies in bringing an established fragrance into a distinctly festive Indian context rather than creating an entirely new proposition.

Gifting moves beyond the fixed hamper

The bigger shift for the brand is in how it approaches gifting itself. Singh expressed that consumers are increasingly looking for flexibility rather than simply picking up a pre-designed hamper.

“We also believe in CYOs, where consumers can personalise their gift and put in their favourite Body Shop products into the gift box while they are giving it to their loved ones,” she shared.

That personalisation extends to the Jasmine range, which is available through ready-made gift boxes as well as open-menu options. The brand is also offering empty Jasmine boxes that consumers can use to build their own gifts.

The aim is to make the range relevant to different occasions rather than tie it exclusively to Diwali.

Choosing influence over reach

The Body Shop is also taking a more selective approach to influencer marketing, particularly as the category becomes increasingly crowded.

Singh acknowledged that influencer marketing has become saturated, but said the brand continues to see value in creators who can credibly represent its messaging.

“We want to host credible influencers,” she said. “And that's the reason we are very wary of the guest list we do because we want influencers who actually resonate with the brand.”

Rather than treating follower count as the primary consideration, the brand looks at whether a creator fits the occasion and can act as an advocate for the proposition.

“They are the advocates who can spread the word of the brand messaging that we want to bring to consumers,” Singh added.

Influencers sit alongside the brand’s wider digital strategy, which includes Meta, YouTube and collaborations with other brands. For launches such as jasmine, the role of creators is primarily to extend engagement and reach around a specific moment.

Online becomes a bigger part of the marketing mix

The Body Shop may still describe itself as retail-first, but its digital business has changed considerably since the pandemic.

“Even online is growing,” Singh shared. “We are almost a 30% plus online contribution brand.”

The brand is present across Amazon, Nykaa, Myntra and Flipkart, while quick commerce is emerging as another important route to purchase.

“We are doing very well on Blinkit and Zepto,” Singh stated. “We're very happy with the response our consumers are giving, not only shopping in our stores and shopping on our website, but also at different touchpoints where we see the growth coming from.”

For a brand whose physical stores remain central to its business, the expansion of these channels gives consumers more ways to discover and purchase products, particularly during high-intent festive periods.

Sustainability remains part of the brand story

Sustainability continues to be central to The Body Shop’s positioning, with Singh arguing that the brand’s approach predates the current wave of sustainability claims across beauty.

“Who was talking about sustainability? Who was talking about organic ingredients? Who was talking about natural ingredients? And who was talking about activism since 1976, which is almost 50 years from now? It was us,” she said.

She pointed to the brand’s Return, Recycle, Repeat programme in India, through which consumers can return empty packaging, as well as the use of recycled materials across products and stores.

“We also use a lot of sustainable material in our workshop stores,” Singh shared. “The stores, in terms of the wooden material that we use, the wood is reclaimed wood. We also use fixtures and tabletops that are already recycled.”

While sustainability is now a crowded positioning in beauty, Singh believes the distinction comes from having embedded it into the business over time rather than treating it as a recent marketing layer.

Stretching the festive season

The Jasmine Edit ultimately reflects a broader attempt to make festive beauty less dependent on one calendar moment. Its three-film campaign, ‘Spark Your Inner Radiance’, is being rolled out around the idea of feeling good and radiating from within, with further films planned after the 21 September launch.

But the commercial opportunity extends beyond the campaign itself. With gifting now contributing a double-digit share of sales, the brand is looking to capture occasions that sit around Diwali rather than simply within it.

“The wedding season is around the corner, and it's already started,” Singh shared. “Jasmine is a beautiful creation where consumers can gift their loved ones because the packaging of Jasmine is so apt for gifting,” she concluded.