As aways, when I first shop at a new store, I try my best to share with you my experience. You never know who has been too anxious to ever press pay due to not having any prior experience with a store or perhaps even who has not even heard of a certain retailer. Hope this helps. Today I a going to talk about the German, boutique beauty retailer Niche Beauty.
Shopping at Niche Beauty
I have known about Niche Beauty for a while, but haven’t felt compelled to purchase anything. Well, of course the store carries lots of brands and products that I really want to try or others that I have tried before and love, but I needed a better excuse and the advent calendar for 2020 was the item that pushed me to make my first purchase.
I tried placing my order via phone and found it slightly difficult. The interface on mobile is fine, however the checkout page did not let me choose the packaging and the shipping option with ease. It kept forwarding to the next page after making one of the two above choice. I gave up and switched to my computer (*the issue might have been caused by the advent calendar – will confirm when I place my next order).
On my desktop, the process was significantly easier. No issues occurred at checkout. I was able to make all the selections (*moot point in my case thus the reason why I believe the calendar was the one that caused the issue with the mobile checkout, see more below).
Customer service
In order to get an idea of how things work in regards to customer service, I tried contacting the retailer via social media and the results were really bad, I found the answers to be unprofessional, uninterested and plain rude. Regardless of whether I left the impression that I wanted to actually buy something or not, the treatment was unsatisfactory.
I was also contacted by email in regards with my order. I paid for express shipping, but the calendar could not be delivered via this option. I was kindly asked what I wanted to do, refund or not. Instead, I was sent the other items I got via express delivery. I wish this would have been more clearly started, but it is fine. Partially my fault. The customer assistance offered via email was really great and super professional.
One of the readers was also kind enough to share their experience (see beauty advent launch info post for more details). There was a case of miscommunication, however it seems that it was solved.
Delivery
The delivery was via DHL. The express delivery arrived in less than 24 hours after the order was dispatched. The standards delivery with the calendar took around 6 days (not working days).
Both parcels were in perfect condition on the outside. The calendar box was slightly injured, but that is so common with boxes with magnetic closing. More in the calendar review. The other parcel was perfectly fine. The issue, I would say, was not wrapping, but the product packaging itself, the inner packaging.
However, there were a few other issues here as well. Luckily they did not impact me, but they could have. For one, my address was not spelt 100% correctly on the label. It was not a big deal. However, my contact number was not featured anywhere. The courier was unable to contact me, he was lucky or I should, I was lucky that he figured it out.
Overall conclusions
Overall, the experience was a bit adventurous. However, all is well that ends well, no? Maybe I am a bit more lenient here as I love my purchases, but in fact things were okay. I am not saying that Niche Beauty should not make some improvements, but this first experience did not put me off in the slightest when it comes to ordering from them again. I am looking forward to my next order and hope things will go as smoothly if not a little bit better. I will update you shall my opinion change.
Shop at Niche Beauty Here.
Have you ever purchased anything from Niche Beauty before?
*This article is not sponsored. This article contains affiliate links which means that Blush Suede might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make any purchases by clicking the links included in this article. Thank you for your support. It is you that keep us going.
Oh, i expected more from a high end boutique. I had the phone number issue with another shop, once my package was on the verge of being sent back to the sender, and after a few complaints the issue was not fully resolved because of incompatibility between systems of the shop, their carrier and a partner carrier. There were two different ones in my country and the problem persisted. I eventually became quite discouraged.
🙁😞😒 really sad to hear that. However, personally I noticed that all customer service across shops has gone down a bit. Some are trying to maintain high standards, but many people cannot cope with work from home or they are forced to go in to work and feel u comfortable and unsafe. That is no excuse side, but it takes a toll on the psyche
Ah, that’s an old story from 3 and 2 years ago.
Their customer service was super nice and helpful and I saw later my phone number was put on the first label but it still wouldn’t copy to the second label. One courrier checked the first label, another one didn’t and assumed there was no number, eh.
I guess when it comes to shopping we always have to take chances as couriers are often unreliable. Sadly, there are some disappointing cases where items get damaged or lost. Luckily, some retailers are willing to offer replacements or get the issue settled. In some cases it takes longer than in others as seen in the case of my Cult Beauty missing goody bag from last year. It is not a perfect system 😢
Seriously, one of the most expensive beauty calendars, even the most expensive one among multibrand retailers and it’s insufficiently packed. What a disappointment! I really would expect it to be impeccable. I.e. Fortnum’s experience is superb. Even Holland and Barrett calendar came to me unscathed and it’s made of a thin cardboard so it’s very susceptible to damage during transport.
Actually, my Fortnum and Mason advent calendar from last year was even more severely damaged. I do get your point. In this case however, it is the box format and not necessarily the wrapping. Once you see pictures you will understand better what I mean. Each time Harvey Nichols sent me a similar box, same thing happened. I will most likely share the review of the Niche Beauty calendar tomorrow or this weekend in any case so stay tuned.
Ah, looks like it’s a lottery with whatever shop. But it’s such a pity when a beautiful, reusable box is damaged 🙁
I will never buy from Niche Beauty again. So I had the issues with being told my order was fully cancelled as they couldn’t deliver to me. After going back and forth they finally said they could send standard delivery not express. They then refunded me the express delivery cost, twice. So then they emailed to tell me I now had to turn around and pay 9.95 Euros again to them !!! My order sat for a week in Germany and was supposed to be delivered today. I just got an email to say they tried to deliver but I wasn’t home. I haven’t left the flat, so now I have no idea what address is on the parcel and when or even if I will actually receive it. By far the worst shopping experience I have ever encountered. Terrible customer service. My advice is Buyer beware when shopping from them.
OMG! Thanks for sharing this! This is simply horrible. I was willing to give them another chance as even though things did not perfectly well on my side either, they did manage to get the parcel to arrive at its destination without further messages back and forth with their team. I cannot believe they managed to screw up so badly! Hope you get the situation sorted and that you left them an official review. Again, I am very sorry to hear about this bad experience
i have just looked on Trustpilot and it looks like bad customer service and issues with wrong addreesses is common. Lots of bad reviews.
😞that is quite disappointing. They claim to be a high end beauty boutique and this is the kind of customer service they provide??! Really, really sorry you had such a bad experience. I was looking forward to ordering from them again as I am quite happy with my purchase and especially since they also carry brands otherwise unavailable.
I’ve been shopping with Niche Beauty for about a year now and throughout this time I’ve had many problems with them. The most prominent being the absolute diabolical sham of “customer service” they claim to have. Despite my threats to stop shopping with them on numerous occasions they have made good at the last minute and so, I’ve given them the benefit of the doubt until recently. Imagine placing an order and being excited to receive your product and then receiving an email 2 days later to inform you that your order has been cancelled. No explanation given. You email to ask why and don’t get a response. You email again only to be told there was a processing error, they’re sorry but if you want the order place it again. What? Oh and did I mention this happened a few times before? Not just this once. Also, another glitch never fixed is no clear indication on products which do not ship to your country until you get to checkout and find out you can’t purchase those items. Infuriating. After many emails giving constructive feedback they have not bothered to make important changes regarding valuable communication to their customers. And believe me, their communication is awful, rude and abrupt. There are different departments which you get bounced around.
They claim to be “Niche” and market themselves as upmarket. Don’t be fooled. They are anything but. They are as good as an online scam shop.
Please save yourself the energy and disappointment and shop with a more reputable online shop like Cult Beauty. You can see they are light years ahead in dealing with customer dissatisfaction and errors. They communicate effectively, seek to resolve problems quickly and always compensate their customers promptly.
I am taking my business elsewhere because in this climate only those businesses who value their customers deserve our support!
I am so sorry you had such bad experiences. Sadly, I know what is like to be super excited to get and order only for it to be canceled. It happened to me with Liberty and the last gift with purchase form them I could have gotten before Brexit. It was also a St Nick gift (who needs sweets?). Most UK retailers are better versed in the art of customer service when compared to those in other countries actually. However, they do have their issues. Cult Beauty for example sent me my parcel without the goody bag despite it being shown on my invoice. It took weeks for me to get a response after I posted basically on every social media platform and wrote a long article about their lack of response. It happened to tens of not hundreds so not just me.
Going back to Niche Beauty, I am thankful you posted this. Not only it means a lot that you took the time to share your experience but it is helpful to all of us. We can now avoid the shop as no retailer that ignores its customers is worth our business. Once again, I am incredibly sorry you had such a bad experience.
My only issue with them was having paid for express delivery without being told that my order could not shipped that way. However they asked me whether I wanted to cancel rather than cancel it without notice. I now realize it was a lucky event rather than the respect they show everyone as they should.
Overall though, up market retailers should provide impeccable customer services. No excuses. Mistakes can slip through and that is understandable, but what happened to you is clearly a company wide/culture thing rather than a mistake. Incredibly disappointed by this retailer now.