Dive Brief:

• With vaccines becoming more widespread and consumers beginning to feel more comfortable shopping in person, Glossier is jumping back into brick-and-mortar retail.

• The DTC beauty brand plans to open "three all-new, permanent stores" this year, starting with Seattle in August. A Los Angeles store will open in the fall and a London store will open in winter, according to a blog post by CEO Emily Weiss. Weiss added that Glossier has an "exciting retail roadmap" that involves opening more stores in 2022, including in New York. 

• The company had two permanent stores last year, in New York and Los Angeles, which were closed due to the pandemic. These new stores replace those locations, which were permanently shuttered last year, a Glossier spokesperson confirmed via email.

Dive Insight:

Glossier's experiential stores have been a hallmark of the brand over the years, whether permanent locations or pop-ups of various shapes and sizes.

The physical extension of the brand took a hit last year, as Glossier chose to permanently shutter its stores due to the pandemic, and lay off its retail employees as a result. Now, the company is reinvesting in the channel and its employees, with plans to design the stores to reflect their surroundings.

"In Seattle, a city of forests and lakes, our store design plays with the juxtaposition of nature and technology. In London, we'll be following our most successful temporary store of all time with our first-ever permanent international flagship," Weiss wrote. "Each of these stores is designed to inspire everyone to find joy and confidence in their personal beauty style, with a customer journey centered around self-discovery and belonging. People first, products second."

Along with the locations themselves, Glossier is also making changes to the store employee experience after a group of employees called out the brand last year for not supporting BIPOC store associates and other bad practices within stores through an "Outta the Gloss" blog on Medium.

The company hired a head of people for retail, Hector Camacho, who laid out a plan for a new employee experience, including diversity and inclusion training, dedicated HR support and experienced store leadership, among other things. According to Weiss, building out that employee experience has been the priority while its stores have been closed.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to our former retail colleagues who shared with us, through many hours of conversations last year, how we can improve the overall experience for our retail team — and most importantly, how we can ensure that we're consistently creating a safe and inclusive environment for all Glossier retail team members," Weiss said.

The brand has also been building out its executive team elsewhere, promoting Ali Weiss to chief marketer and bringing on a vice president of brand from L'Oréal.