In the past two years, Walmart has significantly upped its beauty game, injecting speed and relevance into a business that already had scale on its side. Namely, the retailer has partnered with Space NK to launch prestige beauty products at select doors, dove into co-branding with everyone from P&G to a host of influencers, and has set its sights on winning with Gen Z. Creighton Kiper, the retailer’s recently named vice president of beauty, is only picking up the pace.
Just nine months into his tenure, Kiper launched Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight skincare brand Itk, Halsey’s broadcast makeup line, Af94 and Hair Lab, as well as BeautySpace, an incubated line of hair products. bath and body created in conjunction with Space. NK. “You can expect the same level of activity next year,” she said. “Beauty changes trends, it’s like fashion. We have some basic principles that we will stick to and then reserve the right to get smarter.”
Before taking over the beauty job from Musab Balbale, who left Walmart in February to join CVS as chief merchandising officer, Kiper oversaw wellness at Walmart, injecting fashion trends like TikTok’s chlorophyll water craze into the vitamin assortment. , groceries and the like from the retailer. . Before that, she worked in digital product and merchandising strategy at the retail giant, and is bringing his accumulated experience to the beauty industry. “There’s this product mindset of working backwards from a customer and always asking what problem we’re solving,” she said. “That helped clarify our purpose and value.”
Here, Kiper talks about where the business is picking up speed, where she sees opportunity, and how it’s driving shoppers into beauty aisles.
What is working at Walmart and why?
Creighton Kipper: There are many things that the client is responding to. In general, the client absolutely leans towards beauty and not outside. We have everything from our prestige business, our Beauty Space NK partnership that we launched earlier this year, and in stores, customers are responding to luxury and spending money on themselves.
What’s working in Walmart’s brand matrix? Where do you see the gaps?
CK: We have brands like Luna Magic, Bubble, Itk, Af94 that have done very well. They are a bit different in flavor due to the social component. Whether we’re thinking about personalization, mass customization, and finding brands that cater to the biology of different skin tones or types, we still have work to do.
Historically, Walmart’s key differentiators in beauty have been price, scale, and replenishment. What are your other areas of focus?
CK: There has been a huge emphasis on digital. The other piece from a digital perspective is just capabilities. We talk about eliminating friction and, in beauty, technology will be important. It is now and it will be in the future. We do things like fun beauty events; We just came out of our Walmart Beauty Mega Event for the month of September and had phenomenal results that were, to some extent, amazing.
From an innovation perspective, what are you excited about right now?
CK: There are a lot of great things about nails, and personalization on skin and hair will continue to be a focus. From a customer perspective, we will continue to push multicultural, Latino, and other underrepresented and underappreciated groups and products that lead to a more unified hair and beauty experience. We have also seen that men and their appetite to take care of their hair and skin and express themselves is growing, it is becoming an area of focus.
When I first got this role, in the early days, more men came up to me and asked, “What are you going to do for me?” As a business, we’ve drawn that line in the sand, we’ve talked about being the most inclusive beauty retailer on the planet. We’re going to do that by making options accessible to everyone so they can confidently be themselves.
What are the most important learnings that inform your strategy?
CK: Experience is king. We’re going to be focusing a lot on that in the store and on the site. We’ve also learned that this business is such a digitally driven path to purchase, and the more the customer influences and participates in that path, the more you start to see it become an ecosystem for the customer.
We’re thinking about how we operate and engage with the customer before the transaction, and then build trust in those moments and hopefully serve them from a replenishment and discovery perspective. Our model is all about low everyday costs, access, innovation and novelty.
How do you expect macroeconomic uncertainties to affect the business, on vacation and beyond?
CK: Our business is accelerating, and part of that is the strength of the decisions we make at [the first quarter]. We are seeing more clients earning over $100,000 inside our box than ever before. The prestige game and our premium product is great. We have price points of $10 and below, which is about creating access in the segments at a low price point barrier, so customers can get into beauty and build a regimen. We have not seen a slowdown to dramatic changes.
Supply chains are a bit more stable than in the past, so we feel good about when product shows up and when customers expect it. So when you’re ready to give away, we have an amazing program with Space NK. Your advent calendar is going to come in handy.
We are in the golden age of specialty retail, what does it take for Walmart to win with Gen Z?
CK: You have brand experience and storytelling. We’re building an arsenal of brands and products that solve that need, but making sure that the customer experience and, from a digital perspective, that path to purchase, we own that engagement and build the audience. Then we continue to tell that story. Beauty is fresh, it is not static. He is dynamic, he is always improving. You are learning something, you feel inspired. We want to make sure we are there at those times.
Source: news.google.com