Walmart Updates Beauty Matrix
Walmart’s strategy to modernize its beauty assortment is paying off.
Despite reported unit declines in the mass market, Walmart’s efforts to update its beauty assortment with a mix of heritage and luxury brands has bolstered that piece of the business. Among them are recent additions Madison Reed, Current State Beauty, Hero Cosmetics and Olive & June.
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“We’re doing exceptionally well. We’re probably a bit ahead of schedule,” said Creighton Kiper, Walmart’s vice president of beauty merchandising. “We are up in sales, we are growing strong in business across our channels…customers are really enjoying the convenience that Walmart beauty has to offer in total.”
Hair care continues to be a bright spot for the business, Kiper said, especially in the prestige end of the market. “We’re seeing really good growth top to bottom,” he said. “It’s a good position to be in.”
To that end, Madison Reed is entering 1,500 doors with the retailer with its prestige color offering. That business is seeing growth across channels as well, said Amy Errett, Madison Reed’s founder and chief executive officer. “Madison Reed is proving that hair color is going to grow, regardless of a pandemic or a recession — she is going to color her hair regardless of what happens.”
The brand’s current distribution includes its own brick-and-mortar color bars, in addition to partnerships with Amazon, Ulta Beauty and Target. Walmart broadens the company’s reach, Errett said. “We believe there’s a significant portion of [Walmart] customers that want a prestige hair color product. We’re priced at $30, and a significant portion want Madison Reed and is a Walmart customer.
“As an omnichannel business, we have a belief that we should be meeting our customers exactly where they are, wherever they are, whenever they want,” Errett continued, adding that the door count with Walmart doubles Madison Reed’s brand awareness. “That’s the core of the business. We don’t think we get to demand where that is.”
It’s part of Walmart’s larger effort to bring prestige beauty to its shelves. Last year Walmart inaugurated its partnership of shop-in-shops with Space NK that includes a shop-in-shop across hundreds of doors. The partnership with Madison Reed also includes a “unique merchandising style inside stores — basically a shop-in-shop,” Kiper said.
The appetite has grown across skin care as well. After launching Hero Cosmetics — “scary numbers,” as Kiper put it — the retailer earlier this month launched Current State, the mass market brainchild of HoliFrog cofounders Emily Parr and Majeed Hemmat.
“Because of the niche they’re trying to fill with innovative packaging and the way they market their brand — they’re where we want to target,” Kiper said of Current State, adding that it’s part of his broader goal to marry heritage brands with emerging ones. “We want to make sure we’re exposing customers to the full breadth of our assortment in a very convenient way. We think about legacy brands and the trust that’s built there, and the regimen that’s built there. But we’re always out for better and we know the customer as well.”
For Current State, it gives the brand a brick-and-mortar boost. “We launched with Target online only, and Whole Foods is a little over 100 stores,” said Parr. “This is giving us the true distribution we need to make Current State an affordably priced product line.
“We’re putting everything behind our Walmart launch — all of our marketing strategies, we’re pushing to Walmart. You put all of the muscle behind the retailer that shares the vision of the brand with you, then it really is a partnership.”
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