SOMERVILLE, N.J. — Beauty is taking a backseat for the holiday season at many mass marketers — at least for now.
Inspections of stores including Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS, Kmart, Eckerd, ShopRite and Target revealed chains were putting an emphasis on higher-ticket products, including digital cameras, portable DVD players, flat-screen TVs, toys and gadgets. CVS, for example, offered a sharp price, $19.95, on a portable DVD player. ShopRite — a grocery chain — featured a 19-inch TV for $89.
“I don’t believe drugstores will do much in beauty as they are not in gift mode,” observed industry consultant Allan Mottus, who said most early shoppers are on the prowl for flat-panel TVs, iPod devices and computer games.
Although customers lined up for door-buster sales at Kmart, Best Buy, Target and other retailers last Friday, the stream of customers dwindled to typical levels after the special-hours hoopla.
To encourage shoppers to dig into their wallets throughout the rest of the day on Black Friday, Walgreens announced deals at its cosmetics counter such as its new European Skin Care Collection or Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely priced at $27.99 for the 1-oz. eau de toilette. At the Bridgewater Commons Mall, sales associates stood outside store doors with hot items, beckoning shoppers to enter the store. But buyers from several chains repeated a mantra they say every year — beauty is a last-minute purchase.
A survey of mass market beauty buyers revealed they purchased for flat to only marginal increases in beauty sales for 2006. And that’s on top of marginal 1 percent to 2 percent growth in 2005. Many intentionally kept plans low in hopes of clean sell-throughs. One problem, according to Mottus, is a lack of a hot cosmetics or fragrance items.
“Beauty sales don’t have ‘must-have’ items. Fragrances are being sold across multiple channels with heavy discounts and promotions. Fragrance unit sales are taking a hard hit in department stores. I think Internet, on a small base, will do well,” he said. And like many, he predicts another strong year for gift cards.
Despite an early push on nonbeauty items, there are beauty promotions in most stores — many on stocking stuffers or personal indulgences for the holidays. “Black Friday turned into ‘I’ Friday,” noted Patricia Pao, president of the Pao Principle, a retail consultancy.
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That’s been the case, according to Del Cosmetics president Harvey Alstodt, who has noticed rapid sales of the Sally Hansen Lip Inflation Minis Kit. “This is a 10-shade set of mini Lip Inflation Lip Plumpers. The mini lip kit gained over 20,000 doors of distribution [beyond the full-size Lip Inflation] and is selling through as quickly as they stock the shelves. Some accounts have reordered it two and three times,” Alstodt said.
Another holiday item getting notice is Jane & Co.’s Makeover in a Box, which retails for $6.99. According to company president Lisa Yarnell, the sell-through is about 75 to 85 percent of inventory. The firm’s Liquid Lip is also getting good pickup from early holiday shoppers.
Two mainstays of mass market beauty were part of the lineup — prestige fragrances and blockbuster kits. But both of these perennial winners proved problematic for chains this year. Prestige fragrances have been available for more than 20 years now at mass. In fact, both Target and Walgreens promoted the new Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Eau de Toilette Spray for $38.99. Just about every mass marketer had displays of Jennifer Lopez’s Still, Shania, Lovely and Britney Spears. While retailers love the traffic these scents deliver, they are still cautious about over-stocking.
While prestige manufacturers have built the mass portion of sales into their plans, they have yet to extend courtesies to mass, including returns. Instead, suppliers bank on keen discounts, leaving merchants to “own” the inventory. The theory is that diverters did not take back inventory, so why should manufacturers? However, retailers believe that if they are factored into the launch life of a new scent, they should be treated the same as other channels, especially in celebrity scents that have a limited shelf life.
As for blockbusters, retailers are relying so much on value kits that they’ve lost sight of other items. While blockbusters from Markwins and others are crucial to making a Christmas statement, too many chains are looking only at the kits. According to one industry observer, “The stores look so much alike with the Markwins kits.” Indeed, Markwins items are everywhere, including a hard-to-pass-up $9.99 collection at CVS with 55 items. “Retailers have to look to other brands to provide a statement to shoppers,” the source added.