How Rationale Grew from a Small Team to a Luxury Skincare Success Story

Rationale is one of the Australian beauty industry’s biggest success stories, with 15 store locations across the country and a market overseas. But back when it started, it was a very different business. CEO Shamini Rajarethnam recalls joining the luxury skincare company in 2011: in those early days, the team was tight, the business focused primarily on wholesale partnerships, and everyone pitched in wherever they were needed.

“While the team was quite small, I would also put up my hand to assist with a lot of different functions in the business,” she says.

Those functions stretched well beyond her role at the time in marketing. Rajarethnam found herself working across finance and bookkeeping, production, research and development, business development and, later, retail as the company established its flagship network. Those experiences gave her an understanding of how every part of the business fits together – knowledge that continues to shape how the company is run today.

“I think all of those different roles really helped me understand, at the core, what Rationale was built on and the uniqueness that we possessed,” she says.

That perspective proved especially valuable as the business grew. As online sales accelerated, Rationale shifted from third-party fulfilment to managing orders in-house from its headquarters, giving the team greater control over every step before a parcel leaves the warehouse. For a brand built on premium skincare, Rajarethnam sees fulfilment as an extension of the customer experience rather than a back-end operational task.

“From our perspective, Rationale is prestige cosmeceuticals,” she says. “So being able to deliver a really consistent but premium experience to our clients across Australia is really important. It’s an extension of who we are and what we do.”

Once an order leaves headquarters, the next stage of the customer journey is in the hands of Australia Post.

“Australia Post has become an important partner for us in ensuring our client receives that same level of service, regardless of where they are in Australia and regardless of what distribution channel they’re interfacing with us,” Rajarethnam says.

Whether a parcel is travelling somewhere metropolitan, regional or remote, maintaining that consistency is critical. Reliable tracking is just as important as timely delivery, giving both customers and Rationale’s client service team visibility throughout the journey.

“The tracking capability provides that transparency for our client service team that needs to meet our clients with a high level of service,” she says. “It also gives our clients that confidence throughout that whole delivery journey.”

As Rationale has expanded, so too have its logistics requirements. Rajarethnam says Australia Post has scaled alongside the business, supporting increasing order volumes without compromising service – even after the company relocated its head office from metropolitan Melbourne to regional Victoria.

Behind that reliability, she says, is a collaborative working relationship between Rationale’s supply chain team and Australia Post’s account managers and local delivery network.

“It’s down to the relationships they’ve built with our local drivers and support teams,” she says. “The open communication allows a lot of challenges to be resolved really quickly.”

As Rationale continues to grow across Australia and internationally, maintaining a premium experience from product discovery through to final delivery remains a key focus. For Shamini, that means ensuring every part of the customer journey – including delivery – reflects the standards the brand is known for.

“Our success really hinges on that intimate understanding of the interconnectedness of our business and the unique points of difference that we possess,” she says. “It’s given me a greater perspective of the Rationale ecosystem and infrastructure.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Australia Post.