How Aesop Nurtures Retail Consultants for Head Office Roles

Business of Fashion

01-05-2025

The primary factor impacting retention in retail among US employees is concerns around career development, according to The Business of Fashion's (BoF) The State of Fashion 2025 report, published in partnership with McKinsey & Company. Those surveyed for the report cite limited growth opportunities as a key issue, highlighting an industry-wide hiring and retention challenge — with more than 44 percent of US retail workers planning to leave their jobs within three to six months.
Global luxury brand Aesop — which formulates products for the skin, hair and body, as well as fragrance and accessories for the self and home — is tackling this perception of limited career development opportunities in retail. As a cultural pillar and core mission of its business, the company facilitates workplace mobility for employees from the retail environment to head office roles.
For instance, Mélanie Hochedez — Aesop's commercial director for the East Coast — joined the business as a regional store manager in New York. Today, she oversees 43 Aesop stores across 11 states. Similarly, Harry Osuna, the brand's human resources advisor in Los Angeles, began as a retail consultant in Hawaii, while John Alunan — a cluster manager in Toronto — started as a store manager and now oversees multiple branches across Canada.
At Aesop, the brand aims to view retail staff as its primary talent pool for head office roles due to their firm understanding of the brand's values and history. The retail teams are also nurtured for development through learning opportunities, such as product and customer experience training and people management training. There are also interactions with head office staff through training sessions, in monthly cross-functional meetings or in-store during festive periods (when head office employees support retail staff).
Indeed, fostering a positive employee experience across the value chain drives loyalty and long-term tenure, while benefitting the brand and business. Companies with top-quartile employee experience are twice as likely to have top-quartile customer experience, according to The State of Fashion report.
Now, BoF sits down with Hochedez, Osuna and Alunan to learn more about their journeys from the retail environment to head office roles and how the company is fostering employee growth across functions and geographies.
Mélanie Hochedez, Commercial Director East Coast, New York
Mélanie Hochedez, East Coast commercial director at Aesop.
(Aesop)
Mélanie Hochedez joined Aesop as a regional manager, having relocated to New York from Paris. In 2022, she was promoted to commercial director, East Coast, overseeing 43 stores across 11 states. She has been with the business for almost nine years.
How would you describe the culture at Aesop?
Over time, I found that Aesop's values matched with my own.
There is passion for the product and the customer experience, as well as a level of excellence in the work that you deliver. There is respect for the people that you work with and the communities that you operate in. You are challenged to give your best every day, to attain that excellence and deliver in that respect. These values fuel the culture at Aesop.
Employees are also provided with strong support. Inclusivity is a big part of who we are and I feel that Aesop truly value people's opinions and contributions.
What competencies have you acquired from retail management?
When you look at the commercial business, it all starts with the people. You are managing large, diverse teams, from different age ranges, different backgrounds, different aspirations. It requires a lot of adaptability.
Retail management taught me how to manage large and diverse teams. The challenge then is: how do you build, and how do you develop and engage in high-performing teams that are going to deliver a memorable customer experience to drive sales?
When it comes to curating and delivering an exceptional customer experience, I see Aesop as a leader in the luxury industry. It's something that we can expand to the full potential in a store, and convey in digital and wholesale channels. Experience is at the core of what we do, and I think that attention to detail, and how you curate and deliver it, is something that Aesop has mastered.
How has Aesop facilitated your career progression?
I am proactive in terms of being exposed to new challenges — something Aesop encourages. If there is a new opportunity or project, I wanted to be involved. For example, during the pandemic, I expanded my current scope and oversaw the fulfilment centre that processes online orders. Access to different experiences and challenges like this led me to the role that I'm currently in.
I also attended educational courses provided by Aesop. For example, I was part of the Aesop Leaders Program which took place in London and a strategic sales management programme with The Harvard Extension Business School in Boston — something that was fully supported and funded by Aesop.
Harry Osuna, Human Resources Advisor, Los Angeles
Harry Osuna, human resources advisor at Aesop.
(Aesop)
Harry Osuna joined Aesop as a retail consultant in Hawaii in 2016, later relocating to Los Angeles in the same role. He worked his way up to a store manager position, before moving into the head office as a regional HR coordinator. Now an HR advisor, Osuna will soon move to New York to fulfil the same role in the Aesop US headquarters.
What skills did you acquire from a retail career at Aesop?
Gaining retail experience at Aesop has been a huge asset throughout my career. It has given me an opportunity to understand the challenges, the strengths and the dynamics that are unique to our operating system and style. Within the head office, I have had the experience to share what I think will work and what needs more attention in other functions. To build this exact awareness, there is a conscious effort for new hires in our office to spend time in-store during onboarding.
Coming from retail, I felt like a jack-of-all-trades — you are involved in marketing, you are involved in digital merchandising, you are involved in both the commercial and people aspects of the business. It has facilitated many collaborative instances with other teams. We don't let ourselves be siloed, something which helps with creative solutions.
How does Aesop foster connections between retail teams and head office?
We have a strong record of people from retail being promoted to head office roles — in my office here in LA, half of my peers come from retail.
We hold monthly retail meetings at the office — which are an opportunity for us to build connections with the retail teams. In LA, head office members prepare dinner for the evening, providing a time to talk about commercial results or the newest product launches, and to connect with and build relationships with our retail teams.
Plus, high performing retail employees can connect with different functions in the head office through our ambassador programme. In just the last month, two of these employees have been promoted: one to a head office position and another one to a store manager position.
How has Aesop facilitated your career progression?
As a local HR team, we put on regular up-skilling workshops specifically for people managers in our retail stores. One of them is called People Matter, where we try to develop the capability and confidence of managers to embrace people managing at Aesop. We want to bring out the best in them, facilitate their personal growth, and establish a culture of excellence.
In our annual performance and development cycle, employees, with their managers, set goals for the year ahead relating to our day-to-day. This process is also about creating specific moments throughout the year to talk about your career at Aesop — or even your career outside Aesop.
We offer access to learning and development training through LinkedIn Learning, which is available to everyone in the organisation — including retail teams. Employees can access an enormous library of modules, information and useful tools for self-development.
John Alunan, Cluster Manager, Toronto
John Alunan, cluster manager at Aesop.
(Aesop)
John Alunan joined Aesop as a store manager in 2019. He managed several high-volume stores in Canada during his tenure, and held a multi-unit store manager title before being promoted to cluster manager in 2024, where he oversees multiple stores.
What competencies have you acquired from a career in retail at Aesop?
As a store manager, you have to wear many different hats. In this environment, there are no aisles to hide behind and there is no stock room to hide in — you are working with all kinds of people all the time, and you become really good at it.
At one moment you are working with IT, then you might play the role of a merchandiser or a trainer. I think all of this solidifies an understanding of the roles that each person in our head office has and how their support helps the store succeed.
From my experience in-store, I was able to work with many different personalities and learn from the best of them. For example, some people were good with project management, and I was inspired by that. Others were good with communication, so I worked on how I communicate myself.
How has Aesop facilitated your career progression?
Growth is never a matter of one person pulling someone up — it has to be two people working together to progress. During my tenure, I am immensely lucky to have the same mentor throughout my six-year journey. My direct manager at Aesop started about a week before I did and I feel like he has passed on his entire knowledge of luxury retail channels to me since.
I have been able to capitalise on his wealth of experience in terms of navigating the nuances to succeed in this environment, and learn from his strategic thinking involved in staying ahead in this market. Throughout this relationship, I have always received constructive feedback and built the confidence to pursue new avenues. I am trusted to take risks and course correct where needed — that is so valuable and I'm so grateful for it.
What excites you about the future of working at Aesop?
What excites me the most is the L'Oréal integration. I am excited about the new chapter Aesop is about to enter and how opportunities will present themselves in terms of merging expertise in beauty with Aesop's unique values and culture.
Aesop's culture has been so consistent over my six years here. I don't foresee that changing, but I am looking forward to seeing how we are going to inject L'Oréal's vision into what we are doing at Aesop.
This is a sponsored feature paid for by Aesop as part of a BoF partnership.