The jury is still out on whether or not partnering with beauty retailer Sephora can jump-start the formerly direct-to-consumer beauty darling Glossier. Regardless of the outcome, editor Trudi Brewer shares this exciting beauty news and how it may benefit us all. Read on to learn more.
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It’s been a staple in our editor’s beauty bag since its launch in 2014. Glossier’s makeup and skincare collection is brilliant. My faves are the legendary Boy Brow Grooming Pomade, the luxe-y Body Hero Perfecting Cream and the glow-giving oil-serum hybrid Futherdew. It’s efficacious and affordable, but up until now not accessible unless you have a USHOP account (the US exchange rate is hefty right now) or a lovely sister (like mine) buys it for you when she travels to London or the US. So what is the future for Glossier, a new retail partnership? Read on to learn more.
Glossier’s next retail move
Billboards, subway ads, selfie opps and Millennial pink everywhere — as Glossier opens its newest SoHo store and prepares to launch in Sephora, it’s like 2014 all over again, when the brand was the darling of the beauty world - a runaway success that seemed to have its finger squarely on the pulse of the much-coveted Millennial. More recently, though, sales — and buzz — have slowed.
While Glossier is once again unleashing its marketing machine in full force, the company is looking to revive its fortunes in a landscape that has shifted dramatically since its heyday in the late 2010s, leading some to question whether the company can meaningfully jumpstart a business that has declined at a time when overall industry sales are surging. Industry sources report that 2022 sales for Glossier declined consistently. However, the NPD Group’s data shows that the broader prestige beauty industry grew in the double digits - 18 per cent in makeup and 12 per cent in skin care for the year. Some analysts peg the brand, which raised an estimated $265 million in funding with key investors, including Forerunner Ventures and Sequoia Capital, as having sales of just shy of $100 million at its height. Glossier executives declined to comment on the figures. The company’s woes have been well reported-on. The brand laid off nearly 200 retail employees during the pandemic and eliminated another two dozen roles last year. Around the same time, social media denizens reported finding Glossier’s hero products in TJ Maxx and Marshall’s.
The company is now regrouping, under recently appointed chief executive officer Kyle Leahy, with a new SoHo store set to open this week and a high-profile launch in Sephora, Glossier’s first major retail partnership ever.
The brand launches in all Sephora doors across Sephora U.S. and Canada on February 2023, which Carolyn Bojanowski, executive vice president of merchandising, said was a response to consumer demand. “Glossier has always been a top-searched term on Sephora.com and is big on Google. We know that the clients are hungry and circling, and we’ve been ready to announce and get the build-up ready. It’s exceeding all of our expectations,” she said. “It’s certainly the biggest launch this year coming out of Sephora.”
Glossier Futuredew, $42.
This oil-like serum gives your skin a gleam like no other. Stacked with plant-based extracts to brighten the skin. It’s hydrating yes, but it’s a great primer before makeup and it lives up to its name leaving skin looking dewy ad fresh for hours.
While Glossier appealed to Millennials in its original incarnation, Bojanowski said it is also gaining increasing prominence with younger shoppers. “We see it as a new client acquisition tool; we’ve got brands that speak to lots of generations,” she said. “Glossier grew up as a Millennial brand, but now it’s attracting Gen Z.” Glossier products will be merchandised on a stand-alone gondola and given what Bojanowski called the “red carpet treatment,” complete with window displays and Glossier T-shirts for beauty advisers. “They have their store footprint and their way, and then we have our point of view, and we were able to work together on an awesome experience,” she said. “It’s very Glossier, but it’s also very Sephora.”
Glossier Cloud Paint, $32.
The eight shades offer a hint of sheer colour that you can work into the skin with your fingertips. If you like a flushed glow on cheeks and lips, the unique blurring pigments in this formula were created to give a soft-focus effect on any skin colouring. There are eight beautiful shades; we love Spark, it’s a soft poppy red.
The partnership should be a win-win for both sides, giving Sephora access to a younger crop of shoppers who seem to favour Ulta Beauty while allowing Glossier to multiply its footprint cost-efficiently. “You often see digitally native brands go into Ulta and Sephora,” said Oliver Chen, an analyst at Cowan. “Beauty moves so fast and rapidly; when you’re in a multi-brand environment, it’s a lot different. Executing that way will have to be like perfecting a shop-in-shop… you’ll definitely need to rely on your wholesale partner.”
Chen said that consumers’ tastes in beauty — and even more so, values - have shifted since Glossier reached its apex. Its Balm Dotcom relaunch garnered mixed reviews online, as did its refillable deodorant concept. “Gen Z looks at what I call S.T.A.R. — sustainability, transparency, authenticity and re-commerce,” Chen said. “Glossier was a pioneer of rethinking what beauty means, but the markets move quickly, and there’s a lot of inclusive brands.”
Glossier Boy Brow, $26.
They were the first brand to answer the calls to create that fluffy boy brow, a trend that has been with us for at least five years. This wax-like cream delivers youthful, well-groomed brows in one swipe - oh and they stay in place for hours. And that’s not all. The formula contains oleic acid, lecithin, and soluble collagen that conditions and moisturises your brows while you wear it. There are four colours (we use blonde) and a clear - once you try Boy Brow, you will never be without it.
Adapting requires a lot of capital. Though Glossier has raised more than $265 million to date, relying on its storefronts is a costly way to scale. “The vast majority of sales right now are in-store,” Chen said of the market. “Signing leases is so capital-intensive and may not be their core competency. (A retail partnership) is almost like outsourcing the real estate function.”
The stakes of the game have also changed. “In beauty and beyond, it was enough to have a novel concept and unexpected, nice, beautiful design that transcended the cues of the category,” said Lucie Greene, founder of Light Years consultancy. “The most interesting brands now are the ones that emphasize disrupting the category with either a completely different business model or reinventing the product itself.”
While Glossier may have hit a rough patch, there are positive signs. Google searches for key Glossier products are seeing a rebound. “When we first started covering beauty, Glossier was on top of the world, and we watched it slowly start to fade,” said Yarden Horwitz, cofounder of Spate. “They’re at 20.1 per cent year-on-year growth now. People outgrew Glossier, and Millennial pink became what Gen Z refers to as ‘cheugy.’ But what’s interesting is consumers are very nostalgic, and we’re starting to see growth pick up.”
Some of it is driven by trends, others by news. Gen Z has shown a heightened interest in pheromone perfumes, Horwitz said, noting that searches for Glossier You fragrances are on an upswing. Merchandise from the brand has also picked up. “Boy Brow (used to be) the big one, but that’s not where the growth is coming from,” she said. Searches for Balm Dot Com, a hero stock-keeping unit that was recently reformulated, are also swelling. “Distribution has created more top-of-mind awareness,” Horwitz said.
Glossier Body Hero Daily Perfecting Cream, $35.
OMG, this body lotion rocks. From the subtle tropical gardenia scent and pearly finish from light-reflecting particles that stay on the skin for hours, it’s divine. Not to mention the thirst-quenching cactus flower extract, prickly pear and yucca extracts that keep dry skin well nourished. It makes skin look radiant and youthful while smelling great; we wish it were available in a pump one-litre bottles.
Though Glossier was among the first brands to harness the power of digital marketing, its social influence has waned. “The core key demographic were the real brand evangelists — those that were a part of the Glossier community from the beginning,” said Olivia Frary, senior director of community and partnerships at Gen Z consultancy Juv. “Glossier is an amazing example of what community means to young people, but it’s really hard to scale, and that’s one of the main problems with the community as a business model.” Data from Tribe Dynamics shows that its earned media value last year was just over $71 million, less than half of its $152 million peak in 2019.
“They’re treading water from a social perspective,” said Conor Begley, Tribe’s founder. “That being said, we find that the brands that do well with social media tend to do well with speciality retailers… retail is almost as much a marketing channel as it is a distribution channel. Getting your product in front of many people creates credibility for the brand.”
Glossier will be available at Sephora.com and in stores across the US and Canada from February 23rd Lets's hope it makes it to Sephora.NZ soon, we will keep you posted.
Source James Manso WWD
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