The 2022 Beauty Inc Awards
Retailer of the Year: Mass
Walmart
When it comes to mass beauty, scale and speed are no longer mutually exclusive. Walmart has always been a dominant player because of its sheer size. But over the last two years, the world’s largest has also become increasingly directional, thanks to a combination of speed, storytelling and brand selection that started under former vice president and general manager of beauty, Musab Balbale, and has continued under the leadership of Creighton Kiper, his successor. It was a busy year for beauty. There was Walmart’s entry into prestige beauty via a partnership with Space NK. The shop-in-shop concept called BeautySpaceNK, features brands like Mario Badescu, Lancer and By Terry, as well as an incubated brand called BeautySpace. But that wasn’t all. In a bid to win with Gen Z, the retailer launched a number of new and exclusive brands, including Halsey’s AF94 makeup line, Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight’s skin care debut, ITK, and NOU, which stands for Next of Us, and was a collaboration between P&G and Walmart. Look for the retailer to maintain the momentum. “You can expect the same level of activity next year,” Kiper told Beauty Inc. “Beauty changes in trend, it’s like fashion. We’ve got some core tenets that we will stick to, and then we will reserve the right to get smarter.”
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Retailer of the Year: Specialty
Ulta Beauty
There’s no grounding Ulta Beauty. Even after many consecutive years of growth and the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the retailer is flying high under the leadership of CEO Dave Kimbell. Gen Z loves the place: It’s the number-one preferred beauty destination with 42 percent share, according to Piper Sandler’s 2022 survey of 14,500 U.S. teens. So do buzzy brands. Launches this year included Chanel No.1, an exclusive, as well as Rihanna’s Fenty, Olaplex, Supergoop and Andrew Fitzsimons Hair. Sales are soaring, up 21 percent in the first quarter and almost 17 percent in the second. But Ulta is far from content to rest on its laurels. In November, it unveiled a new store format, one which merchandises brands and products by category rather than by channel. “Our business model is working better than ever,” said Kimbell in June, noting that if macroeconomic factors impact consumer spending, the company is fully prepared to weather the storm. “We’re well positioned should that happen. If there is a trading down, you can adjust your spending within Ulta….We want to be there to serve our guests, however, they want to be served at any given moment.”