Walmart To Test Beauty Bars In 40 Stores
Walmart is testing a new beauty bar concept at 40 stores as part of its spring sale event, and Chris and Anne dive deep into what it means for the retailer's future (00:04). Chris highlights how this test differs from Target’s Ulta partnership and lets Walmart fully own its beauty experience (01:45), while Anne shares insights from her past at Target and her shift to buying drugstore beauty via Walmart Plus (02:50). They both discuss how beauty bars create immersive, high-touch customer experiences while tackling in-store theft through controlled environments (04:00). Bonus: behind-the-scenes tidbits from their visit to Walmart’s Store of the Future in Mississauga (01:07).
For the full episode, head here: https://youtu.be/YZOCyd_MPhw
This week's episode was brought to you by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand.
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Transcript
Walmart is testing beauty bars at 40 stores in tandem with its spring sale event.
Speaker A: ive, Walmart will be offering: Speaker A:Walmart is offering savings on skin care, cosmetics, hair and accessories, and also piloting beauty bars at 40 select locations where shoppers can now browse new products, talk to beauty experts and and test samples.
Speaker A:Chris, do you like Walmart's beauty bar test or do you think this is one case where beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder?
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:Nicely done, ad.
Speaker B:You're doing some really awesome questions today.
Speaker B:You know, for I, I'd say 100%.
Speaker B:I think it's a smart test.
Speaker B:That's where I might answer that question.
Speaker A:You know, so unlike these flowers.
Speaker B:Yeah, unlike Target flowers, this is a test versus a rollout too.
Speaker B:Big difference there, you know, so, and I think this is the other important point about this is a test informed by previous testing.
Speaker B:So we saw that one of the first iterations of a beauty bar concept at Walmart store of the future just outside of Toronto last week on our travels, which.
Speaker B:Stay tuned, folks.
Speaker B:We're gonna have a video coming of our experience of Walmart store of the future just outside of Toronto here, hopefully dropping very soon, probably even in the next week if everything turns out right for us.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So I just think this is a natural extension of that test.
Speaker B:And what I like about it even more, though, Ann, is that unlike, you know, Target or even Kohl's with Sephora, you know, Target's beholden to Ulta for its beauty experience.
Speaker B:Good and bad, the good and bad that comes with you being beholden to saying, you know what, this brand, come into my space and put up shop.
Speaker B:Walmart, however, can control its own destiny and still work with the beauty brands to upscale the experience as much as necessary to drive comp, similar to how they've done with apparel both online and in stores.
Speaker B:So I mean, and you're a vaunted, you're a vaunted Walmart plus convert at this, this point in time, especially over the last year since you signed up.
Speaker B:So my question for you is, like, how many beauty products have you procured since joining Walmart Plus I'm actually interested to know that.
Speaker B:I bet you it's at least more than 10, if not far more than 10, but I don't know.
Speaker B:So that makes me think like this is a smart way to upscale your beauty without having to pay or be beholden to another brand for the long run.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker A:I'm surprised you don't know because I feel like all my notifications go to you every time that I purchase.
Speaker B:I had to turn them off because I was getting so damn many of them.
Speaker B:And I was like, that's why I'm like, it's got to be at least 10.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, I shifted almost all of my drugstore beauty purchases to Walmart when I joined Walmart.
Speaker A:Plus, I think the other, like, key thing is, you know, Target.
Speaker A:I used to work on the beauty concierge program at Target, which put those, those concierge and beauty bars inside the drug area to like the drugstore makeup area.
Speaker A:And you're 100% right.
Speaker A:Like, there are people in the Ulta aisles, but those people are specific to the Ulta brands that are within Target.
Speaker A:You don't, you lost that, that guidance.
Speaker A:And really the people that would sit there and help you at Target figure out like, okay, I want to dupe for Dior lip oil, which one is the best one here?
Speaker A:Like, you could go into a beauty advisor Target in the past and you, they would help you find that.
Speaker A:And I think that's where Walmart's going to steal away these people.
Speaker A:Where you're going to go, like, you're going in there, you're in this, like, sectioned off area of beauty, which is another interesting thing that I'll touch on here in a second.
Speaker A:But you get to have these rich brand experiences.
Speaker A:You were even saying we were walking through the Toronto one, like, brands will pay to show up in these spaces in a different way to educate the, the beauty bar consultants so that they will be able to start to answer and enrich those experiences both in the store and online when I'm ordering from Walmart.
Speaker A:Plus, if I'm not, you know, going in a store to experience these beauty bars.
Speaker A:And I, I absolutely love that.
Speaker A:The, the last part is, you know, the biggest change that I noticed, whether it was in the Palm Springs Target or, sorry, the Palm Springs Walmart that I went to or the, the Walmart Toronto store that we were in last.
Speaker B:Week, is that Mississauga technically and Mississauga just outside of Toronto.
Speaker B:That's a big difference from those Canadian, Canadian Omni Talk fans out there.
Speaker A:Yes, that's true.
Speaker A:The Mississauga store.
Speaker A:So anyway, they're, they're quarantined off.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Beauty is also a very high theft area.
Speaker A:And so what I love about this is it takes, they like are making lemonade out of lemons here instead of making this like a crappy experience where, you know, you gotta wait for somebody to come in.
Speaker A:They're like using this to their advantage at Walmart, which I think is another just such a smart thing to do.
Speaker A:Make this a special area, make it a beauty bar.
Speaker A:Not, not an area where you have a separate register and the brands are showing up.
Speaker A:It's like, no, let's make an experience out of this and see instead of making it this just like extra area that I have to shop in or like making me feel weird because I'm going into this other area.
Speaker A:It's like let's department stories this where it's like, this is cool.
Speaker A:This is a boutique.
Speaker A:You get to have the knowledge and you get.
Speaker A:They're bringing all the expertise in this space with you so that you have this amazing beauty experience at Walmart.
Speaker A:And I, I'm thrilled.
Speaker A:I think it's such a great move.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker B:Like, it's a new wrinkle on the controlled entry and exit concept that we've talked about before.
Speaker B:I don't know if they're going to be doing that in the beau.
Speaker B:Our tests that, that they're talking about here, but we've definitely seen, you know, iterations of that through our travels recently.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's, it's an interesting new rickle.
Speaker B:It's, it's a smart thing you brought up.
