Liberty London is not like other London department stores. Its black-and-white Tudor revival building stands out against the unified sandy facades of London’s Regent Street, and inside it feels more like a boutique than a megastore, with a typical customer base that’s more local than tourist.
While it stocks some of the biggest fashion and beauty brands in the world, from Loewe to La Mer, its curation also includes independent designers, limited-edition collaborations and its signature floral and graphic prints, which have been used throughout its history by some of London’s most iconic designers, including Vivienne Westwood. The old-world atmosphere, with its wood-panelled rooms and creaking floors, attracts a loyal customer drawn to a shopping experience that feels more intimate.
In a tough retail market, where many multibrand retailers are suffering (or at least haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic glory days), Liberty’s sales grew 6 per cent this year compared to last with profits up double digits, and its total business is 61 per cent bigger than pre-Covid. (The company does not share specific sales figures.) As Liberty’s 150th anniversary celebrations continue throughout 2025, the retailer is thinking about future-proofing for the evolving landscape.
“The retail landscape has changed so much,” says Sarah Coonan, Liberty’s managing director. highlighting the impact of global trade instability, tariffs, inflation, and the loss of tax-free shopping in the UK, combined with changes in consumer behaviour. “The way we think about it, if we want this business to exist in another 150 years, we have to lean into what we control and what makes us special. Instead of putting our energy into the things that are going wrong, we’re doubling down on things that do well and are a core part of our business. That discipline has really helped to breed these incredible results, though it hasn’t been easy.”
Not long ago, it was thought that the department store had been replaced by multibrand e-commerce, which offered a more efficient way to shop bigger swathes of inventory from home. But while e-commerce boomed immediately post-pandemic, the bubble has burst in the past few years with the closure of Matches, Farfetch’s narrow save from bankruptcy and Net-a-Porter’s bumpy path from Richemont to its eventual acquisition by Mytheresa.
The challenges in that sector were a combination of a normalisation in sales, rising customer acquisition costs, the cost of logistics, the effect of inflation, changes in consumer behaviour and a lack of differentiation across retailers’ brand mixes. At the same time, department stores across the world have also struggled to differentiate, leading to an overly homogenised shopping experience. Now, they’re facing calls to offer a more personalised and experiential shopping experience.
Liberty was founded in 1875 by Arthur Lasenby Liberty, whose father was a draper from Buckinghamshire, just north of London. When Liberty moved to London in 1862, he worked at a cloak and shawl emporium on Regent Street, where he forged relationships with artists, designers and craftsmen and became deeply embedded in the city’s artistic circles. As patron of the arts, he emerged as a key figure in the 19th-century aesthetic movement, which championed the philosophy of art for art’s sake, seeking pure beauty to escape the ugliness and materialism of the industrial age. With that, the store quickly became a hub for creativity and artistic collaboration.
Liberty kicked off its anniversary year with a campaign in collaboration with stylist Leith Clark, who curated a selection of 150 products from the Liberty archive that tell the story of its position in London design and retail. This summer, it hosted an exhibition on the store’s fourth floor, which took customers through the archives and displayed a patchwork made from over 1,000 customer submissions. “It just did all of the things that I think Liberty does really well: it was a celebration of creativity and a real community effort,” says Coonan. There are two to three more projects underway that the retailer is yet to release, and the celebrations will close with its Christmas campaign.
Coonan says Liberty’s commitment to its scrappy, innovative London spirit has been the key to its success. “We’ve really marched to the beat of our own drum and we’ve really stayed true to what makes us special. We’ve focused on creativity — it sounds a little bit lofty, but the market has had so many challenges and so much adversity, that it’s led to an environment where there’s too much homogeneity and conformity, and businesses are losing that distinct thing that made them special,” she says.
Tailoring the customer’s journey
How does Liberty translate its creative DNA into a practical retail strategy? At the heart of the approach is considering how to “provide entertainment, escapism and a sense of discovery for our customer”, says Coonan. That looks quite different in physical than in digital. “We realised we have to tailor our two channels for our customer, because the same approach won’t work in both online and in-store,” says Coonan.
Online, Liberty’s approach is more about “hype and exclusive brands that are hard to find”, says Coonan. Liberty has partnered with a lot of brands that historically only sell direct-to-consumer, such as Jones Road, Peachy Den and Rat Boa. It also launched an online sneakers collaboration with Adidas, inspired by Liberty’s iconic printed fabrics, which saw strong consumer response. “When we partner with brands in our online channel, it’s about building those communities,” says Coonan. Its beauty membership service The Beauty Drop has “driven a digital community of superfans”, for instance. The online strategy is showing fruit: Liberty’s e-commerce business (which it launched in 2009) was less than 10 per cent of total revenue pre-Covid, and it has grown to 35 per cent this year.
In-store, the focus is on service and experience. The Liberty store has seen growth every year for a decade, though this year s performance has been the strongest, up 20 per cent on pre-Covid levels. “We’ve got the most beautiful building that’s bonkers — there’s no escalator, there’s these creaking staircases made from two old Navy battleships — so we wanted to celebrate that incredible architecture and use it as leverage,” says Coonan. Liberty uses the atriums in its store as a stage for its immersive brand experiences, which it has hosted with the likes of Prada, Loewe and Miu Miu. “Because of the success of those, we started to look at where we can replicate that experience in other locations in the store with pop-ups that lean into areas of interest combined with great personal service.”
Liberty opened a fragrance lounge in 2024, where the concierge offers bespoke scent-matching consultations. “We worked really hard on the customer journey: when you have a fragrance consultation the team uses these fragrance tarot cards to help a customer find their perfect scent. It’s about adding all these little touches that feel inherently Liberty,” says Coonan. Liberty launched its own fragrance line, LBTY, in 2023, which has inspired dedicated Reddit threads and TikTok videos, and is now sold at Neiman Marcus in the US, with plans to expand to more global wholesale partners. It’s a testament to Liberty’s clear perspective and DNA. Liberty also has a separate in-house namesake brand, which spans printed fabrics, jewellery and apparel, and now accounts for 30 per cent of the retailer’s turnover. Similarly, Dover Street Market launched an in-house brand, called DSM, last month.
The benefit of Liberty’s primarily local customer base is that it hasn’t been hit to the same extent by the loss of the tax-free shopping tourist scheme like other London retailers have (though Liberty continues to petition for its reinstatement). “Our local customer base is something we’ve really leant into, it’s part of our difference in the London market. I think our customer loves the fact that we’re by them, for them,” says Coonan. It offers a point of differentiation for any international guests, too. “When you’re catering to a primarily international audience, sometimes the department stores start to look the same whether you’re in London, Paris or New York or somewhere else. But Liberty is very different in its curation, which is really powerful. Staying true to our local London demographic is part of our secret to success.”
The potential challenge is the reliance on one consumer demographic, which could cause issues if the London shopper is feeling the effects of the cost-of-living crisis or any other struggles in the UK economy. “That definitely has impacted our business,” Coonan admits. She highlights that Liberty’s comparatively smaller size has been a strength in these occasions. “We’re one of the smaller London department stores, and with that comes agility. We’ve been able to pivot where we’ve seen challenges by changing the brand mix or leaning into things that have been successful.” The retailer has also seen success with small luxuries like stationery and food, for instance, and is opening a major food-focused destination on its fourth floor at Christmas.
As Liberty thinks about building a legacy for the next 150 years, Coonan is confident that the consistent focus on creativity, curation and discovery is what will take the retailer forward, along with its ability to adapt quickly. “The original strategy of Liberty really helps to keep us relevant today. It’s about staying true to our heritage and translating it to today’s market rather than fixating too much on the past.”
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