Walmart Inc. is going deeper with prestige beauty — and doing so digitally.
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The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is adding Premium Beauty to its online marketplace, starting with 20 brands and more than 1,000 stock keeping units, with a heavy focus on skin care and hair care. Those brands include CosRX, Paul Mitchell, Foreo, ColorWow, PerriconeMD, Bio Ionic and the Beachwaver Co., among others.
For brands, the launch means custom storefronts rife with editorial content and product descriptions, and “a lot of space for branding and storytelling. Brands can really bring their story to life in a much deeper and richer experience,” said Michael Mosser, vice president of categories, Walmart Marketplace.
The move comes two years after Walmart debuted shops-in-shop with the retail entity formerly known as Space NK to bring prestige beauty brands like Mario Badescu, Patchology and NuFace to its aisles. It also comes at a time of growth for Walmart’s marketplace model, which grew 32 percent last quarter, per an investor presentation.
“This opportunity is very customer-focused,” said Silvia Kawas, executive vice president of Walmart consumables, Walmart U.S., who added the “type of growth we’re seeing from a market share perspective as well as with higher-income cohorts.”
Walmart isn’t the only one, and competition remains high. In 2023, Amazon sold more than 1 billion beauty products in the U.S. and recently signed prestige brands Clinique, Too Faced, Bumble & bumble and Kiehl’s. Morgan Stanley had previously predicted that Amazon would overtake Walmart as the largest beauty retailer in 2025.
“Our customers are looking for an experience with brands they trust and love, and they want to find them at Walmart,” Kawas said. “This shows the momentum that we continue to build. Walmart is one of the fastest-growing from a digital perspective, in the beauty space and premium beauty, specifically, is on the rise.”
Coming up with the brand mix started with looking at what consumers wanted to find online. “We see what they’re asking for from the customer search data, and we’re starting off with brands that we think will resonate with them, and build upon that experience,” Kawas said, noting emphases on hair tools, hair routines and skin care — often from indie brands.
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“The customer is attracted to these brands that are younger, they’re looking for and experimenting with different brands,” Kawas continued.
“This collaboration not only amplifies our presence and delivers fan-favorite offerings that we are known and loved for, but also reinforces our dedication to quality and authenticity,” said Erin Potempa-Wall, president and cofounder of the Beachwaver Co., in an email.
Walmart is also offering fulfillment services for those smaller brands. “We’re also enabling them with services like Walmart Fulfillment. A lot of these brands may not have a direct-to-consumer channel or may need help getting their brand online, and these enable getting the products into customers’ hands quickly,” Mosser added.
Fashion led the sales growth in Walmart Marketplace, and Kawas thinks marketing fashion alongside beauty will resonate.
“Style is about fashion and it’s about beauty. We have quite a bit of work from a marketing perspective to help elevate consideration within all of our style categories and with all of the new assortment,” Kawas said.
Premium beauty comes to Walmart just ahead of the holiday season, which both Kawas and Mosser are bullish on.
“We’re continuing to innovate around holiday,” Mosser said. “Walmart is continuing to add this endless aisle, breadth of selection and great value. Last year, for the marketplace model, Black Friday and Cyber Monday were our two biggest days. Over 40 percent of those transactions on those days included an item from a small- or medium-sized business.”
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