Last year, Walmart announced an accelerator program called Walmart Start, which resulted in five brands being given a shot: Dossier, a perfume brand; Undefined Beauty, a skincare and wellness line founded by BIPOC; PaintLab, a press-on nail that mimics gel manicures; Pardon My Fro, a hair care brand founded and owned by black women; and The Hair Lab by Strands, a custom hair care brand.
New brands on the shelves include Bubble, Sabrina Carpenter’s Sweet Tooth, Luna Magic, Solo Noir and a variety of textured hair care brands. Walmart was also privy to several exclusives, such as Halsey’s af94, Brooklyn’s new ITK skincare line and Bailey McKnight, and a joint effort hair care brand with Procter & Gamble, NOU. In the past, many proprietary lines, especially influencers and celebrities, used Target as a launching pad.
The industry is closely monitoring whether Beauty SpaceNK’s purchases at Walmart, with lines like By Terry (with retail prices reaching $80) and Mario Badescu, resonate with their shoppers. With more of its customers earning more than $100,000, Walmart officials don’t think those prices are out of character.
Walmart’s challenge, its huge portfolio of more than 10,000 doors, makes it difficult for stores to reflect the updates. It will take a long time to polish the beauty in all of your stores, some of which are showing their age.
Target, with fewer than 2,000 doors, has found it easier to implement its new look, which features light areas for clean beauty, accessories for on-trend launches, and nontraditional shelving that makes the department look “less like a store.” off”.
Although Target missed its most recent quarterly goals, beauty was a high-performing category, according to Christina Hennington, the retailer’s executive vice president and chief growth officer (and architect of Target’s beauty department). Sales surged in the mid-teens for beauty, driven by skin, hair, and makeup. Ulta Beauty’s total sales volume at Target nearly tripled year-over-year, driven by more department installations, estimated to exceed 350 on track for a total of 800.
Ulta had a stellar quarter, with revenue up 17.2%. Cosmetic sales soared 44%. Dave Kimbell, CEO, alluded to Ulta Beauty’s secret weapon if shoppers are hit harder by the rising cost of living. “It’s hard to know for sure if we’re starting to see consumers depreciate. Ulta Beauty is uniquely positioned to capture any consumer shift within price points in the beauty category,” he said of the format that combines affordable and luxury brands under one roof. Mass trumped prestige, but high-end brands also showed gains during 2021.
Ulta Beauty is revamping its store design in a move that is democratizing beauty. Instead of housing affordable lines on shelves in the left quadrant of stores (in most units) and prestige on the right, Ulta Beauty now presents products by category. According to Monica Arnaudo, Ulta Beauty’s director of merchandising, the move reflects feedback from shoppers about how they navigate the stores. Higher-end lines like Estée Lauder and MAC have homes in the center of the store. There are also special areas like Cue the New, Wellness Wall, Beauty Bar (for services), Sparked at Ulta Beauty, and Conscious Beauty.
Drug chains are concentrating on wellness and synergy with the pharmacy. CVS is the most vibrant example. Building on its BeautyIRL experience designed to encourage new and social brand discovery, the chain recently introduced Skin Care Centers.
“Skin Care Center took the BeautyIRL format to the next level by once again incorporating more new and successful top brands into CVS, but also by offering new interactive elements such as on-site skin diagnostic tools and guidance from CVS Beauty Consultants. and graduates. estheticians,” said Andrea Harrison, vice president of beauty and personal care at CVS Health. Currently there are three stores with the premium lines. Brands include Wander Beauty, Blume and Volition Beauty, all new to CVS, along with clinically proven mass skin care brands that have sold at the chain, like La Roche-Posay. CVS recently added Proactiv, making it the first pharmacy to secure the once-exclusive DTC brand.
Luxury skincare could also be bait to lure shoppers into the entire beauty department. All eyes are on Musab Balbale, who launched Walmart and is now a senior vice president and chief marketing officer at CVS. He’s already made headlines with an initiative to eliminate the unfair costs of menstruation products through a program called HERe, Healthier Happens Together.
As the year winds down, drug chains in particular are waiting for the last-minute boost. Even with Amazon’s same-day deliveries, there will still be someone on a gift list who forgets, and only a late-night run to the drugstore will fill the need.
Source: news.google.com