CVS is betting big on beauty minis

They say good things come in small packages—and lately, that’s been particularly true for CVS, where mini beauty products have meant big business.

While the drugstore chain has long offered travel-sized products, last October, it elevated its mini experience across 2,700 stores. It created a dedicated beauty mini section that spans 55 brands, from mass to prestige, with more than 125 SKUs across categories like skin care, hair care, fragrance, and sun care. Since then, its beauty mini category sales have climbed 140% YoY, and this summer, it’s expanding its beauty mini assortment to 1,200 more stores.

The minis strategy shift comes as consumers turn to the smaller sizes as a cheaper way to try out new beauty products without committing to the full-sized price tag, establishing a “best-in-class discovery funnel” in stores, Michelle LeBlanc, VP of beauty and personal care, and Hispanic Center of Excellence at CVS, told Retail Brew.

“Shoppers are having to stretch their dollar in today’s environment,” she said. “But they don’t want to have to sacrifice or give up on discovery or self-expression and wanting to trial all the newness in the market, and they shouldn’t have to.”

No small wonder: In the past, consumers have turned to mini beauty and personal care products at CVS for travel essentials, like TSA-friendly bottles of face wash, or for stocking stuffers. While shoppers are still doing this, the significant growth is coming from seeing minis as “a low-risk discovery behavior, or a try-before-you-buy mindset,” LeBlanc said.

When the mini beauty set launched in stores in Q4, “we saw just this immediate shopper interest, colleague interest, organic social posting about our set,” LeBlanc said. “It was everyone. All the signals were telling us [people wanted] more and more and more.”

Minis are seeing success across channels—at prestige retail, fragrance travel size products are up 21% YoY, while makeup minis are up 8% as of June, according to Circana data.

This section at CVS fits into shoppers’ increasing demand for value beyond accessible pricing, LeBlanc noted. Unlike many specialty beauty players, CVS’s store experience revolves around convenience: The average consumer’s shopping journey at CVS lasts only seven minutes, LeBlanc said. CVS merchandises products to appeal to that behavior, so the beauty mini experience is at the front of its beauty and personal care section and on end caps, she said.

CVS’s minis range includes several prestige brands like Vacation and Color Wow that are also sold at specialty retailers like Sephora, and LeBlanc noted that the minis assortment has served as a way to introduce shoppers to these higher-priced items they wouldn’t have previously considered buying at CVS. Many are coming to CVS just for minis, while others are using it as a gateway to purchasing the full-size product.

The minis section also serves as a “strategic entry point” for CVS to strengthen its relationships with certain brands as well as test new brands before it decides to bring full-sized products into another section of the store, she said.

On location: The minis section is just one way CVS is evolving its beauty strategy. CVS stores are found in more than 7,000 communities—from cities to beaches to rural towns and college campuses. This year, the drugstore is focused on establishing a localized assortment of beauty products, allowing it to be “more granular on carrying the right products for the right stores” using consumer data and insights, LeBlanc said.

A CVS near Penn Station in New York City has a “robust” assortment of travel-sized products for tourists and commuters, while a location in a Florida beach town would have a broader suncare set, for example. The respective beauty sections also emphasize brands that “over index” in that particular area, she said.

The level of customer demand at each location determines the size of the beauty minis section, LeBlanc said, which ranges from endcaps to 12- to 16-foot displays.

Still, the desire for discovery in beauty is thriving across locations.

“Minis is such the cornerstone of what beauty should be, and it is all about bringing our shoppers that discoverability, that fun, the accessibility and affordability, and that’s really what’s made it quite successful and magical,” she said.