Historically speaking, Walmart has been more closely associated with the produce aisle than the beauty aisle, but Musab Balbale is spearheading a change in that department. In 2021 alone, the megastore added 69 new beauty brands to its assortment — a range spanning “indie brands, multicultural brands and brands [like Nou] that we built together with P&G,” he said. In addition to Nou, Walmart added Gen Z-focused brands including Bubble and Skin Proud. It’s a strategy that’s working: At Walmart, these small brands are growing faster than heritage brands, and they’re bringing new customers into Walmart’s stores, Balbale said.
Gen Z has been a focus for Walmart’s beauty department. Balbale said there are a number of reasons why this cohort is so important. For starters, they’re already at Walmart, with their parents. “The Gen-Z community is influencing what their parents buy,” Balbale said. “[This offers] an opportunity to approach the category, with a fresh audience that hasn’t yet been shaped, in terms of their expectations of where to purchase beauty.”
According to Balbale, Gen Z’s values when it comes to brands are aligned with Walmart’s own beliefs and goals. “There is such power in the values that Gen Z cares about, [including] racial equality, the environment, clean products, sustainability, and even accessibility and the move away from historical definitions of prestige versus mass.”
These topics widen the scope of the larger beauty conversation, he said. “By talking about the Gen-Z audience, it allows us to help expand the types of products, the types of brands, the types of representation on our shelves.”
For a brand, Walmart offers unrivaled potential for visibility and discovery. After all, 160 million to 190 million Americans make a weekly trip. “We don’t have to bring traffic into our stores. The traffic is already there,” Balbale said.
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That said, shoppers are often on a mission for groceries and toting small children. “By the time they get to beauty, the ice cream is already melting. You don’t have 5-year-old sticky hands at Sephora,” Balbale said of the unique challenges of the Walmart experience.
“We have a [quick] moment to bring her to the beauty aisle for her basic stock-up. So what we’re starting to do is bring trends more to the forefront. So we can create that moment of intrigue — partially to showcase all the newness, but also to remind her that there are all these things in your bathroom that are probably running out, too.”
