Back To Basics Goes Back To Shopping Basics With Brick-And-Mortar Location In El Segundo

Back to Basics is breaking out of the box with retail that’s outside of the box.

The non-toxic products subscription service and e-commerce site has opened a 1,400-square-foot store in El Segundo, Calif., that’s intended to be a destination for consumers transitioning from conventional consumer packaged goods to alternatives without potentially harmful synthetic chemicals. Inside the store, wellness consultants familiarize them with products from roughly 70 brands across the household, aromatherapy, haircare, bath and body care, skincare, oral care, makeup, nail polish and mom and baby categories.

“When people walk into our store, it doesn’t feel like a traditional retail experience. We don’t leave them to peruse themselves,” says Ashleigh Frager, a homeopath who launched Back to Basics in November 2016. “The products might not look interesting on the shelf, but, when you learn about the founders and why they’re so passionate, they really come to life and, when we educate people on the dangers of conventional products, they get very interested. You better be darn convincing if you are trying to get someone to switch from a laundry detergent they’ve used for 30 years. We talk to people and persuade them to make the switch.”

To simplify shoppers’ conversions to clean offerings, Back to Basics doesn’t carry tons of products per category. Frager painstakingly whittled down the selection to items she believes are top of the heap. Shoppers “will see one toothpaste on the shelf. I have tested every single other natural toothpaste, and I wanted to carry the best of the best in terms of ingredients and performance,” she says. “We don’t have 20 options to choose from because I don’t think the other 19 are all that worthy of carrying.”

With the exception of Indie Lee, brands available at the store have been introduced in Back to Basics’ subscription boxes — it has Eco Chic Chica, Go Green Gent and Household Combo box options — prior to being stocked at the brick-and-mortar outpost, a sequence Frager is continuing even as Back to Basics grows its retail network. Toothpaste and deodorants are bestselling store and site items for Back to Basics. Bestselling beauty and oral care brands include Davids, Bare Bones, Au Naturale, Habit Cosmetics, Kosmatology and Indie Lee.

Designed by Frager, the layout of the Back to Basics store is similar to the layout of a home. There’s a bathroom featuring makeup on a vanity and skincare on a marble countertop. There’s a baby section with an armoire that resembles an armoire that might be found in a nursery. The cleaning assortment is displayed in a kitchen environment replete with a tile backsplash and sink. “It makes it easy to navigate for people. It’s very self-explanatory,” says Frager. “We wanted every aspect to feel elegant, and the store to be somewhere people are comfortable hanging out.”

Frager initially conceived of placing the Back to Basics shop in her backyard in the Southern California seaside community Manhattan Beach. Back to Basics’ retail fate, though, took a turn toward a grander stage. An opportunity arose for it to enter Plaza El Segundo, a nearly 400,000-square-foot Federal Realty shopping center containing Anthropologie, Best Buy, Drybar, H&M, Whole Foods Market, Lululemon, MAC and YogaWorks, that Frager couldn’t pass up.

“It’s on a much different scale than what I was originally considering, but it seemed like somewhere that would get a lot of traffic, so people would be able to stumble in,” she says. “I did this whole proposal for them [Federal Realty], but it was so different than anything else that I didn’t know how receptive they would be. They got really excited about it. A lot of consumers are drawn to unique and curated experiences, and that’s what we are trying to deliver.”

In the early days of Back to Basics’ venture into retail, Frager has discovered shopping behavior differs online and offline. On Back to Basics’ website, household cleaning products are brisk movers, and she speculates that’s because many of those products are difficult to find elsewhere. However, customers prefer to try beauty products in person. “When it comes to skincare and makeup, they will purchase if they’ve already tried it, but it’s not very common that their first purchase is an online purchase,” says Frager. She notes Back to Basics shoppers are typically women in their late 20s to early 40s.

Back to Basics won’t be only a single-store retailer, according to Frager. She has ambitous plans to expand the concept to locations nationally and eventually globally. She also hopes to advise conglomerates on reducing the loads of questionable chemicals in their products.

“It’s really important for people who are going through a toxin detox to have other people go through it with them because it can feel overwhelming at times,” says Frager. “Having somewhere that feels safe where you are meeting other people going through the same thing can make it a pleasant experience. I want to have more of these touchstones around the country and world where people can come and feel safe. The more places where people can learn and trust us, the better.”