Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Erin Cabrey

retailbrew.com

How Murad innovates its skincare for TikTok

Leaning into TikTok before-and-afters has lifted Murad’s sales at Sephora and Ulta

How this over 30-year-old skin care brand changed its innovation strategy for the TikTok age

Clean beauty products on a table with plants, leaves, and flowers

Clean and vegan beauty reformulation backlash

Glossier is the latest brand to face backlash with its Balm Dotcom reformulation

More and more beauty brands are reformulating to be clean and vegan, but consumers aren’t always happy about it

Katishi Maake

Outline of US map with skincare products 

Men’s personal care brands carve their space in a growing market

Dr. Squatch released a new line of hand and body lotions last week, expanding the company’s product portfolio geared toward men.

Beauty

 in their partnership earlier this year, Target and Ulta Beauty are officially pulling the plug on their shop-in-shop deal.

The two retailers announced today they’ve “mutually agreed” to end the partnership when their current agreement expires in August 2026, but will continue operating online and in stores until then.

Rick Gomez, Target’s EVP and chief commercial officer, said in a statement that the retailer is “proud of our shared success” with Ulta, and that it “remains committed to offering the beauty experience consumers have come to expect from Target.”

The partnership’s end comes after Ulta’s president and CEO, Kecia Steelman, said at a conference in April that the two would “

” the shop-in-shops’ expansion, looking to “leverage the learnings” and create “even greater value” for the partnership.

Weeks before that announcement, Target employees had taken to Reddit to share red flags with the tie-up—pointing to shoplifting, understaffing, foot traffic cannibalization, and an underwhelming customer experience. Following today’s news, Redditors in r/Ulta and r/Target, many claiming to be former and current employees, echoed similar sentiments. One poster who said they’d worked at a shop-in-shop for three years said they were “not surprised at all” the partnership was ending.

Target has opened 610 Ulta shop-in-shops since the partnership was announced in 2021 as a way to grow Ulta’s reach and expand Target’s merchandise into prestige cosmetics.

Target has been focused on growing its beauty assortment beyond its Ulta shops, launching 2,000 products and 50 new brands in February. It also added beauty items to its front-of-store Bullseye’s Playground this summer, Gomez said in May.

But the partnership’s end appears to be yet another blow to Target, which has seen 

 of foot traffic declines since backtracking on DEI efforts in January. Ulta, meanwhile, has seen a sales boost since initiating its 

Target and Ulta officially end shop-in-shop partnership

The announcement comes after cracks in the partnership—including claims of issues with shoplifting and understaffing—emerged in the spring. 

 spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click 

Anncy Rowe is chief commercial officer at skin and hair care company Rodan + Fields.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? 

As chief commercial officer at Rodan + Fields—a clinically driven luxury skin care brand—my focus is on delivering a cohesive, elevated brand experience across every consumer touchpoint, from digital to in store, with a clear goal: to drive growth. Achieving that requires deep cross-functional collaboration across creative, digital, social, sales, and consumer insights. My role is to ensure that the way we define the brand internally is fully aligned with how our customers experience it externally. And when there’s a disconnect, it’s my job to identify it and close the gap—deliberately, strategically, and consistently.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? 

Although Rodan + Fields is a well-established, multimillion-dollar brand, the energy within the organization is distinctly entrepreneurial—faster-paced and more agile than many might expect. We’re in the midst of a strategic transformation, which means we’re continuously testing, learning, and evolving. That spirit of innovation is something I find especially energizing.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on?

 I joined Rodan + Fields to help lead a transformation that hadn’t been done before—evolving a 15-year-old direct-selling powerhouse into a brand that thrives in modern retail. Launching in Ulta was a major milestone, but it was just the beginning. What’s made the experience so energizing is the chance to build everything from the ground up: sharpening our brand positioning, developing our first-ever advertising campaign, and crafting a retail launch strategy with no existing playbook. It’s been a series of bold firsts—and that’s exactly what excites me.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? 

What excites me most right now is the return of “experience” in retail—but with a fresh, elevated twist. While I’m all for the ease and scale of online shopping, there’s something powerful happening as retailers reimagine physical spaces not just as places to shop, but as moments of curated experience. From luxury pop-ups and immersive shop-in-shops to hyper-personalized services, the in-store experience is becoming more curated, more sensorial, and ultimately more memorable. What’s even more compelling is how brands are evolving in step—leaning into partnerships, co-creating experiences, and thinking beyond traditional retail to deliver something that feels both premium and personal.

My most-of-the-year go-to is a boring oat milk latte, but come Q4, my go-to is a peppermint mocha.

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? 

“Just put your head down, do good work, and your career will take care of itself.” It sounds nice in theory, but it simply doesn’t hold up. The reality is—you are the only one who can own your career. That means being proactive: building your network, finding sponsors, being vocal about your goals, and creating a roadmap to get there. I learned that lesson later than I wish I had, and I try to pass it on now whenever I can. And perhaps most importantly: Know when it’s time to pivot or move on. Staying too long out of comfort or inertia can stall growth just as much as not speaking up at all.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now?

 I am a music lover, so I have to say my Sony Discman was my soundtrack on the go when I was 15! My favorite product now—as you can tell, I am a self-proclaimed beauty junkie and I am obsessed with the Rodan + Fields Multi-Function Eye Cream. It’s my go-to eye cream for when my eyes need a wake-up call (which is most days, unfortunately).

Coworking with Anncy Rowe

She’s chief commercial officer at Rodan + Fields. 

As college students head to their campus bookstores this fall to shop for sweatshirts and snacks, they’ll also be greeted by a display of scents from Bath & Body Works.

The fragrance and body care retailer is launching at 600 college campuses, its first large-scale distribution expansion beyond its own stores. It’ll sell body and lip care, hand soap, hand sanitizers, candles, wallflower diffusers and bulbs in their own branded displays within the stores at schools like George Washington University, Georgia State University, University of Florida, Boston College, and Vanderbilt University.

The move “allows us to reach our Gen Z customers where they are and when they need us most,” its chief merchandising officer, Betsy Schumacher, said in a statement.

Scents that’ll be sold include Champagne Toast, Mahogany Teakwood, and Warm Vanilla Sugar, along with selections from Everyday Luxuries, its “prestige-inspired” fragrance line that’s 

the retailer gain favor with Gen Z, which it says is a “key demographic.” In Piper Sandler’s semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey, Bath & Body Works 

 the top 10 of female teens’ favorite beauty destinations for the first time in six years, usurping Target, and was ranked female teens’ No. 1 fragrance choice.

 former Nike executive Daniel Heaf as its new CEO in May, taking over for Gina Boswell. On his first earnings call in May, Heaf said he saw an opportunity for the retailer to grow by attracting younger consumers and men, and aimed to explore “new forms of distribution beyond our own channels strategically and thoughtfully” to bring in new shoppers. The company also considered Gen Z preferences for its new Gingham+ store design rolled out earlier this year, incorporating more areas to test products and using a neutral color palette.

Bath & Body Works’s success with teens comes as another teen and tween mall staple, Claire’s, 

 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time after first filing in 2018. The company said in the filing that growing competition, lower foot traffic, and the impact of tariffs and inflation, contributed to its struggles. Claire’s, too, has tried to attract new audiences through scents, 

 a Gen Z and Gen Alpha-targeted fragrance and body care line last year.

Bath & Body Works to sell on college campuses in Gen Z push

The retailer’s success with younger consumers comes as another teen mall staple, Claire’s, files for bankruptcy. 

Between viral trends, shifting consumer behavior, and supply chain tumult, being set up for success in beauty today takes a lot more than a good primer. At 

 in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this month, global beauty leaders from L’Oréal, Coty, The Estée Lauder Companies, and LVMH, shared the foundations they’re laying to navigate today’s (and tomorrow’s) challenges.

During a panel focused on meeting future shoppers’ needs, Mark Elkins, GM of global e-commerce at L’Oréal, discussed the beauty giant’s approach to social media and social commerce.

Beauty is an “emotionally engaging and socially engaging” business, and he noted that 90% of consumers turn to ratings and reviews to inform their purchases. Meanwhile, omnichannel shoppers have jumped from 10% to 50% of L’Oréal’s business in the last five years as more consumers shop online, making social touchpoints like TikTok increasingly crucial, he said.

 of TikTok, but mastering social commerce isn’t easy (and requires lots of fees—paid to the platform, media partners, and creatives and affiliates).

“You’ve got to feed the content monster, which can be very costly,” he said, noting that working backward from consumer behavior to fully grasp how the algorithm works has been essential. “It’s not just a question about throwing media dollars at the platform and hoping it will work.”

Elkins said success requires integration of teams from media affiliate management to supply chain to enable real-time decision making, which has made the over-century-old company feel like a startup.

And in a panel on community building through social commerce, influencers, and creators, Coty’s chief digital officer Pierric Duthoit admitted nobody

knows how to create virality on TikTok, but it’s all about “test and learn” for the beauty company. Working with influencers and creators with “same DNA” as the brand helps minimize risk, but there is a sense that you have to “let it go” and trust that if “product is good, it’s gonna be okay.”

The Estée Lauder Companies’s supply chain regionalization

To “weather the storms” around tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty, the Estée Lauder Companies has turned to regionalization, a journey it began a decade ago, Jamal Chamariq, the company’s SVP of global supply chain, said in a panel on supply chain resilience.

Its global supply chain strategy revolves around the philosophy “source where you produce as much as you can and produce where you sell as much as you can,” he said.

Several years ago, for example, when Clinique’s Black Honey lipstick 

, selling out at many retailers, the company worked to establish a “higher degree of resiliency.” Now it’s shortened product development timelines and distances between suppliers, and utilizes Microsoft’s AI-powered ConsumerIQ for demand planning.

Now, Chamariq said, 75% of what it sells in the US is produced there, as the same goes for EMEA. That’s allowed it to quickly pivot when, say, a distribution center goes down for 24 hours, which has subsequently helped strengthen its retail partnerships.

“Everyone is facing the volatility and that joint business planning will help us actually, to weather the storms together, versus one of us, managing and handling the burden,” he said.

LVMH’s beauty sector, which includes brands like Benefit Cosmetics and Fenty Beauty, is focused on “unleashing” data, and Julie De Moyer, its chief data and AI officer of beauty brands, and Lou Bennett, its global VP of customer strategy, outlined five steps on how to do it.

The first, (“dream it”), is envisioning how data and AI will boost the customer journey, which Benefit Cosmetics did last year by creating a “connected consumer” department within the company, run by Bennett. Next is, “grab it,” by establishing data products, like its predictive algorithms for product recommendations or internal ChatGPT called MaIA.

The next step, “hack it,” includes using data and AI to help the company reformulate products, identify fluctuating demand to improve manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, and create more personalized marketing content.

“Taking a proof of concept, piloting it, and then running with it fast and hard,” is the focus of the next step, “own it,” Bennett said. This year, Benefit piloted a conversational commerce experience for consumers in WhatsApp using GenAI trained in Benefit’s brand voice to provide personalized shopping support. It resulted in 6,000 conversations over 10 weeks, Bennett said.

“Adoption is really difficult, and that’s our biggest barrier,” she said. “So this really unlocked the barriers to that.”

The final step is “shine with it,” making data insights, now included in part of the training curriculum for executive leadership trainings, core to all roles, De Moyer said. Bennett said the company is ultimately “democratizing data as far and as deep as we can,” by giving “everybody objectives throughout the business.

Shoptalk Europe conference Barcelona, Spain

L’Oréal, LVMH, Coty leaders talk social commerce, supply chain, and AI

Global beauty execs outlined their strategies for success at Shoptalk Europe. 

Ulta Beauty reported a surprisingly shiny quarter amid 

 CEO Kecia Steelman’s turnaround efforts and continued consumer demand for beauty categories like fragrance.

On its earnings call, Steelman noted that there’s no indication consumers are trading down on beauty purchases, and its spend per member is “fairly consistent” across income levels, though value is “an increasingly important priority.”

“Many consumers indicate they’re leaning into beauty as a comfort and escape from the stress of macro uncertainty, and we expect this emotional connection will support the category’s resilience going forward,” she said.

Net sales in the first quarter rose 4.5% to $2.8 billion, thanks to a 2.9% increase in comparable sales and new store openings. Comp sales grew for the first time in a year, driven by a 2.3% increase in customer spend per visit, and 0.6% rise in transactions. The retailer upped the high end of its full-year net sales and comp sales outlooks as a result.

 her Ulta Beauty Unleashed turnaround plan in March, Steelman said the company has “sharpened our execution” in Q1. That includes improvement in its in-store experience, with increased in-stocks resulting from additional in-store payroll hours. New marketing strategies, including its first Super Bowl campaign, a stint as the official beauty partner of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour, and its viral 

, were also a factor. Its loyalty membership grew 3% YoY to 45 million in the quarter.

The retailer launched 19 new brands including Milk Makeup and Tatcha in Q1. Across categories, fragrance continues to be a beauty highlight, and was the strongest category for Ulta in Q1, garnering double-digit growth. Skin care and wellness saw high single-digit growth, with body care, sun care, and wellness doing particularly well. Hair care was flat, though Ulta’s exclusive 

 of Beyoncé’s Cécred hair care line contributed to growth. Makeup dropped slightly, though the segment saw its strongest performance since Q3 of 2023, Steelman said.

E-commerce sales jumped 10% in Q1, and Steelman said the retailer plans to launch a subscribe and save online replenishment option “really soon.” It’s also on track to debut its online marketplace announced in March, which she said has “driven meaningful brand interest,” in the second half of the year. Still, stores account for 80% of its sales, Steelman noted. Ulta Beauty opened six new stores in Q1, and its store openings in Mexico City, Kuwait City, and Dubai are slated for later this year.

Ulta Beauty store entrance sign at a mall, northern Idaho. (Photo by: Do...

Continued consumer demand, turnaround plan boost Ulta Beauty sales

In-store improvements and marketing efforts helped drive a strong quarter for the retailer as consumers turn to beauty “as a comfort and escape,” CEO Kecia Steelman said. 

Jeena Sharma

Wellness is big business—a $2 trillion business to be exact, according to the Global Wellness Institute. Now, a new survey by McKinsey that accounts for “six dimensions” of wellness—health, sleep, nutrition, fitness, appearance, and mindfullness—reveals many ways wellness is changing.

The survey—which included responses from over 9,000 consumers across countries like China, the UK, Germany, and the US—found that younger consumers have become pretty devoted to wellness over the past year.

With the US wellness industry worth about $500 billion in annual spend alone, according to previous McKinsey research, 84% of US customers from the survey said that wellness was a top or important priority for them.

Among those, around 30% of Gen Z and millennials responded that wellness was “a lot more” important to them compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, 23% of older generations felt the same.

But while both Gen Z and millennials seemed to care about wellness the most, there were some stark differences in what it means to them compared with baby boomers and Gen Xers.

For instance, when it came to wellness, areas such as sexual health, skincare, and hair care, Gen Z and millennials prioritized those over older consumers.

Likewise, while both older and younger shoppers spent almost the same across essential health categories such as oral care and personal hygiene, younger consumers also spent more when it came to items like health-tracking devices, massage tools, and IV drops. They were also generally more likely to experiment to test out new digital platforms.

As to why wellness plays such an important role in young peoples’ lives, McKinsey’s Future of Wellness survey speculates it could have to do with burnout, as younger generations reported higher levels of stress and worsening health as opposed to older people.

Another factor is awareness. Social media has made a lot of wellness products and services more accessible to Gen Z and millennials compared to older generations resulting in more purchases.

Still, while the wellness sector’s popularity among young people remains strong, certain gaps persist, primarily when it comes to mental, heart, gut, and cognitive health, where Gen Z reports feeling like their needs are unmet. In fact, 40% of Gen Zers reported feeling “almost always stressed” versus other generations. 

Wellness has become a top priority for younger consumers 

According to McKinsey’s Future of Wellness survey, 84% of US customers said that wellness was a top or important priority for them.

Wellness has become a top priority for younger consumers as burnout takes hold: survey

The first quarter of 2025 brought with it a shifting dynamic in the US beauty industry. For the first time in several years, year over year mass beauty sales outpaced prestige sales, according to Circana.

While prestige sales were flat in Q1, mass beauty sales rose 3%. The boost for the mass market was driven largely by price bumps, while unit sales dropped 1%. Consumers pulled back on spending in the prestige market in January, a trend which improved throughout February and March, when all prestige categories saw a sales lift.

The industry “will continue to stabilize” after a 

 from prestige last year, Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry advisor at Circana, said in a statement, directing beauty companies to focus on “creating brand value beyond price and focusing on compelling value propositions and high-margin innovations to appeal to consumers.”

Fragrance retained its spot as the best performing beauty category, with sales jumping 4% in prestige—where minis and travel sets prevailed—and 8% in mass.

Prestige makeup, the largest prestige category by sales volume, saw a 1% sales dip. Face and eye products had a tough quarter, but stick formats, including eye shadow and foundation, rose double digits. Lip product sales were stagnant, though liners, oils, and balms saw success.

Skin care was the toughest category for prestige sales, dropping 3%, despite a 1% unit volume rise. Mass, however, saw both sales and unit volume rise. Facial skin care—serums, exfoliators, and lip treatments—declined, while segments like body and sun care grew.

Hair was a bright spot for prestige, garnering 4% sales growth along with growth in mass. Prestige hair styling products rose 12%, while the hair wellness segment, with offerings like scalp care products, was popular.

Many CPGs’ recent earnings largely reflected these trends. L’Oréal reported a sales drop in North America, with fragrance in its L’Oréal Luxe division noted as a highlight. Mass hair care brands like Garnier and lip products saw success, while skin care struggled. Unilever, which sells mass brands like Tresemmé and Dove, saw 6.2% sales growth in North America thanks to premiumization in its beauty and wellbeing and personal care segments. Prestige giant Estée Lauder said earlier this month its sales declined 5% in North America, as 

. For Coty, both prestige and consumer beauty revenue dropped in the Americas, it said this month, though US fragrance continues to grow.