Estee Lauder Executive Chairman: We Are Shifting Where Our Consumer Likes To Shop

“Our business is pretty good. Some places it is very good; some places we will like it to be – actually everywhere in the world – we'll always like it to be better,” Lauder said. “But we have got some headwinds in some places, including currency as well as some modest, moderating consumer demand. But one of the things that we find that has really been to our advantage lately is the diversity of our portfolio in our one narrow space, which is prestige beauty.”

He continued, “We reach consumers in numbers of different brands, numbers of different products, omnichannel, whether it's online, our own retail, retail with perfumer department stores, and we find that the consumer is shifting, and as she is shifting, we are shifting with her to places where she likes to shop.”

When asked for a comparison for how much business Estee Lauder generates through different channels between now and a few years ago, Lauder replied, “Well, market by market, it's very different. Let's go back 10 years ago. I would say 75 to 80 percent of our business globally was done through other retailers other than ourselves. Today, the single largest retailer of our brand is ourselves through online and our own stores around the world.”