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How Walgreens’ Prestige-Driven Birchbox Beauty Shops Hint At A ‘Multibillion Dollar Opportunity’

How Walgreens’ Prestige-Driven Birchbox Beauty Shops Hint At A ‘Multibillion Dollar Opportunity’

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It’s a courtship that the pharmacy chain and the direct-to-client splendor darling desire ends in a multibillion-dollar long-term dedication. Walgreens’ flow to piggyback at the status-splendor cred of Birchbox came to life last week at its Spring Street region in New York City, in which an in-shop store from the subscription-field service bowed.

Walgreens has released Birchbox prestige beauty stores in six of its stores.WALGREENS With these Birchbox splendor stores rolling out to 6 shops this year and 5 in 2019, Walgreens’ two-year-long push to raise its beauty branch just was given pushier.

That’s because this “splendid disruptor” will convey new prestige “brands and stories” to the Walgreens’s consumer that she craves, but have gone largely unmet inside the beauty aisles of drugstore chains, said Lauren Brindley, institution vp of splendor and personal care for Walgreens, for the duration of an interview from the Spring Street save at a press occasion.

Walgreens and Birchbox say that these stores, targeting helpful rather than passionate, splendor customers.WALGREENS Birchbox’s sweet spot is a girl in her 30s with mean household earnings of around $100,000. While Walgreens’ consumer skews older and is substantially much less prosperous (with average earnings similar to the average American purchaser,) their commonalities eclipse their differences, stated Katia Beauchamp, CEO of Birchbox, at the occasion. Instead, their consumers percentage a “psychographic” kinship, said Beauchamp, who co-based the brand in 2010.

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Walgreens and Birchbox every serve the regular beauty purchaser who stores the category with “motive” rather than “ardor,” she stated. This is not the beauty enthusiast who watches Instagram motion pictures on makeup contouring. But it is this passive beauty client who desires a convenient revel in that takes the guesswork out of purchasing splendor products that account for a whopping 70% of the marketplace, Beauchamp stated.

Yet, she is woefully unnoticed. In stores that range from 500 to one,000 square toes, the Birchbox stores at Walgreens are designed to rectify that via demystifying splendor merchandise for time-starved purchasers with “self-navigating” displays which might be “now not approximately the logo —[but] about her,” Beauchamp stated.

The shops feature an edited product mix showcased in keeping with the steps in a beauty routine, like cleanse or moisturize, in addition to beauty goals and concerns, consisting of “balance” and “detoxify,” as an instance.

The assortment includes complete-sized skincare, makeup, and hair merchandise from over forty prestige, indie, and “cult” manufacturers plucked from Birchbox’s splendor portfolio like COOLA, Sand & Sky, RMS, and Davroe, which are new to the Walgreens shopper.

Other keep features consist of display tables committed to product spotlights, trying out and activities, and Birchbox subscriptions.

Longtime splendor silos – mass products at drugstore chains and discounters like Walgreens and Target, versus “status” manufacturers at department and forte shops like Macy’s and Sephora — are slowly decalcifying, Beauchamp said.

Nonetheless, Birchbox is not any doubt an upscale play for Walgreens. Brindley stated that the partnership grants the drugstore chain “top rate and indie” brands it’s never had.

It also marks the evolution of a beauty upgrade that began years ago with heaps of beauty specialists in Walgreens stores.

Walgreens is not by myself in its upscale push. Archrival CVS’s new BeautyIRL stores introduce a formidable makeover of the category, nearly doubling the space committed to the commercial enterprise in a redecorate that also functions indie brands and on-demand salon offerings thru a brand new partnership with Glamsquad.

Beauchamp started Birchbox stores at Walgreen carve a gap for the ordinary splendor consumer by marrying the delight of discovery with a type of rational utilitarianism.

With this pass, the 8-year vintage subscription-container carrier with simply its stores in New York and Paris gains publicity to the “scale and understanding” of a 117-yr old brand with nine,800 shops, she stated.

The six stores released this month include three in New York City and one in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. Five greater will roll out in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami early next year.

The partnership reflects a six-month commitment, with each retailer eyeing, in the long run, a permanent collaboration and expansion.

When requested approximately the lengthy-term ability of Birchbox for Walgreens, Beauchamp said, “It’s a multibillion opportunity to serve this customer.”

Beatrice Nelson

Explorer. Extreme communicator. Problem solver. Alcohol buff. Beer geek. Twitter nerd. Bacon lover. Food fan. Wannabe tv fanatic. Managed a small team deploying velcro in Bethesda, MD. Spent a weekend working with hobos in the financial sector. What gets me going now is merchandising plush toys in Ocean City, NJ. Garnered an industry award while merchandising dandruff for the government. At the moment I'm short selling Slinkies in New York, NY. Spent 2001-2006 researching terrorism in Salisbury, MD.

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