Big Box Briefing: How Target’s and Walmart’s beauty department makeovers are reshaping brand strategies
This is the latest installment of the Big-Box Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the strategies of major retailers. More from the series →
As mass-market heavyweights Target and Walmart overhaul their beauty, wellness and personal care aisles to rival specialty powerhouses — and each other — large consumer packaged goods companies and independent labels are updating their retail playbooks. Specifically, they’re elevating their look and feel, reallocating their media spending, and rethinking their distribution strategies to best align with retail partners’ direction.
For brands operating without direct-to-consumer infrastructure, mass retail stores are critical for driving sales volume, plus they’re increasingly offering media opportunities that work to the brand’s advantage.
“Except for a couple of our brands, we don’t have DTC,” Veronique Mura, svp and gm of sun and skin at Edgewell Personal Care, told Modern Retail this week. Edgewell’s brands include Hawaiian Tropic, Schick and Wet Ones, among others. “Target and Walmart are very important to us, so we’re trying to adapt and work with those retailers from a footprint perspective — but they’re also media partners now, and that’s the big evolution.”
“Retail media is a big part of what we are trying to do: always integrating our plans back into commerce,” she said. “With a smaller budget, that’s really important.”
At the same time, mass retailers are elevating their beauty credentials, prompting brands to reposition their products.
“A lot of these big retailers are really attuned to beauty and wellness, and they’re really amping up the agenda here, so we’re looking at that,” Mura said. “I very much see our Hawaiian Tropic brand as a beauty brand and not as a clinical SPF brand; it’s leaning into the territory of beauty.”
She added, “With our partners, we’re considering: ‘How can we both lean into the beauty credentials of the brand and [support] what [our retail partners] are trying to build in their stores, and how do we partner to do that?’ They’re very much into that. Obviously, Target used to have Ulta. Now, they’re also trying to build their [own] beauty credentials in the beauty aisle. And with Hawaiian Tropic, we’re [supporting] that.”
To date, that has included updating the way the brand shows up in store aisles. “We are [exploring updates] to our packaging across our brands,” Mura said. “That’s something I’m always telling my team: ‘Just because you’re a mass brand, it doesn’t mean you can’t look good.’”
With Hawaiian Tropic, for example, “We’re commissioning and developing better materials — not only from a look and feel [perspective], but also down to the corrugated substrate we’re using — to drive this beauty positioning,” Mura said.
To sustain shelf space as aisles grow crowded, Mura emphasized that brands must mirror retailer priorities: “[As retailers evolve], it’s more about keeping up with the pace and making sure what you’re offering, in terms of the brand — your brand proposition, your customer story — aligns.”
James Thomas, U.S. chief commercial and operations officer at No7 Beauty Company, stressed the advantages of a presence in an upgraded mass channel.
No7 Beauty Company sees “tremendous opportunity for continued growth” at Walmart, he said in an emailed statement to Modern Retail, adding, “We believe Walmart is uniquely positioned to help us reach new audiences and serve as a key growth driver for the brand.”
According to the independent brand executives Modern Retail spoke to for this story, retailers’ modernization of their beauty departments has meant working with younger merchandising teams, rethinking distribution and rising to a variety of new challenges.
“Our [channel focus] is changing. We’re in Walmart now — we have an awesome Gen-Z buyer for Walmart now, and she rocks,” said a beauty brand’s head of marketing speaking off the record. “Plus, we’re in Publix now. We’re in places we didn’t think we would ever be because the innovation is there, and it’s changing how the shopper shops for your day-to-day stuff.”
But, she added, “Once you’re in and excited to be there, it’s like, ‘Let’s play a money game. Who’s going to spend the most for the end cap for the holidays?’ And I can’t afford that.”
When expanding to more big-box stores to take advantage of their new focus, there are also existing specialty store relationships to consider, she said. Many shop owners were upset when her brand entered Target, seeing the new channel as competition.
“Our mom-and-pop shops are still our bread and butter, because we can just do what we want with them; we can update our assortment every two weeks,” she said. So, in Target, the brand has limited its assortment to best sellers, allowing mom-and-pop partners to sell seasonal and bolder products as exclusives.
Another executive from a subscription-based beauty box company noted that specialty stores should also change their mindset, as big-box expansion can elevate a brand’s entire ecosystem: “There’s a brand awareness halo that happens from Target that then drips into these smaller retailers, and they’re going to see the return,” she said, adding, “Entering mass doors makes a brand feel more established,” encouraging shoppers to discover its other products across other channels.
As retailers earn the trust of popular beauty brands, some are experimenting with product formats that provide a lower-risk entry point and increase the draw of their beauty assortment.
“Our company is showing up in Walmart this holiday season with a mystery box of beauty products,” the beauty box executive said. “That’s because the reality is that they want more beauty brands, but not every beauty brand is ready to enter that space. … We’re sort of the umbrella that keeps them safe but also allows the retailer to have these more interesting curations within the shop.”
And it’s likely only a matter of time before the included brands are ready.