Dive Brief:
- As the beauty brand continues to expand its brick-and-mortar presence, Glossier on Tuesday announced its first wholesale partnership with beauty retailer Sephora. The deal will not impact Glossier’s own store fleet, which will continue to expand, the company told Retail Dive via email.
- The DTC beauty brand will enter Sephora stores in the U.S. and Canada, as well as Sephora’s website and mobile app, early in 2023. Asked if Glossier will be sold in any Sephora at Kohl’s shop-in-shops, a spokesperson said more details on the partnership would come next year.
- Glossier is “one of the most searched brands” on Sephora’s website that the beauty retailer doesn’t currently sell, a Glossier spokesperson said. And searches around where to shop Glossier and if the brand is available at Sephora have surged up to 200% between July last year and this year.
Dive Insight:
It’s a big week for Glossier. In addition to opening its fifth store in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood this Friday, the beauty brand also named its first wholesale partner. Glossier chose Sephora as a partner because of the company’s shared emphasis on discovery, community and customer experience, along with its global reach.
“They are an iconic, international retailer with an extremely loyal community and we know our customers want to find us there,” Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy said via email. “We share the same customer-centric values and are both deeply grounded in the ever-evolving notion of beauty discovery. This marks a new chapter in our omnichannel strategy and we can’t wait for all that’s ahead in 2023.”
After the pandemic caused Glossier to shutter its entire brick-and-mortar footprint, the brand in 2021 dove headfirst back into physical retail with plans to once again build out a fleet of stand-alone stores. An $80 million funding round helped fuel the company’s expansion, which has included opening stores in Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami, among others. The brand this April also named its first celebrity brand ambassador in Grammy Award winner Olivia Rodrigo.
Glossier’s stores have so far been driving traffic, with the company saying in March that its locations had brought in more than 250,000 visitors since reopening in August 2021. In the first two months of operations, the brand’s Seattle store drove 35,000 visits. Wholesale is another method for the brand to drive traffic and awareness, and Glossier is doing so with a player that is well-known for partnering with up-and-coming brands. Both Ulta and Sephora have worked to cultivate exclusive deals with DTC brands and startups in the beauty space.
“Our top priority is to curate the most exceptional collection of brands that shoppers around the world come to expect from us, as the leading global prestige beauty retailer,” Sephora Executive Vice President and Global Chief Merchandising Officer Artemis Patrick said via email. “As one of the most searched brands on Sephora.com we know our customers are going to be beyond excited to find their Glossier must-have products online, the Sephora App, and in our stores, while unlocking all the perks of our Beauty Insider program has to offer.”
2022 has not been all smooth sailing for Glossier, however. The company started the year with layoffs after making “mistakes” on its path to scale, and CEO and founder Emily Weiss stepped down in May. This past month, Glossier announced it was raising prices on some of its products amid rising production and shipping costs.
