This week, I’m highlighting recent conversations with brand execs at Suave, Prakti Beauty and Cosnova about their shifting online search priorities. It’s part of a growing strategy that favors GEO over SEO to ensure a brand’s online presence is optimized for AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity. Additionally, L’Oréal has a new Americas CEO, Aritzia inks a beauty partnership deal, and Gwyneth Paltrow shutters her 2-year-old mass beauty experiment, Good Clean Goop.
Brands replace focus on SEO with GEO as consumer search habits change
Beauty and wellness brands are quietly overhauling their web presences as more consumers adopt AI-driven platforms to answer basic questions about beauty and wellness products and brands.
After decades of prioritizing search engine optimization, or SEO, brands are now leaning into generative engine optimization, or GEO, which describes the strategic formatting of online content to best populate AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity.
AI-powered search platforms have dramatically changed how beauty consumers discover products. For example, Rafael Lopes, vp of innovation and brand equity at Suave, told Glossy that its young shoppers are routinely seeking product information from ChatGPT and Yuka while physically shopping in stores like Walmart and Target. In a way, AI-driven platforms are now vital to seamlessly pick up where store displays leave off, he told Glossy.
“We’re in the middle of revamping our entire website and web presence for Suave,” Lopes said. “We are [using] agentic AI, when it comes to SEO and copywriting, to make sure that everything we have related to product benefits and ingredient lists and how we talk about our products is AI-friendly.”
Cosnova, German parent company of value brands Essence and Catrice, is also prioritizing how younger shoppers search on their phones while browsing in stores.
“The fact that [shoppers today] have their lives, their connection to the outside world, with them in the palm of their hands [while shopping means] they’re able to do research on what they see [as they shop],” said Cosnova CEO Jeffery Wagstaff. “Maybe they haven’t seen [a certain product or display] before, or they’ve heard about something [we sell] in another environment. So it’s that brand connectivity that’s so important [in the moments] before that final [purchase] decision is made.”
As reported by Glossy’s sister publication Modern Retail earlier this month, Target is currently prioritizing five key aspects of its digital presence — price, product, promotions, availability and policies — while ensuring that all information is “machine readable” by AI. Meanwhile, Every Man Jack is in a “test-and-learn phase,” driven by a strategy that favors long-form Reddit content. And Credo Beauty is implementing monthly web updates to stay relevant without overhauling its website for every emerging trend, according to Modern Retail.
Around 700 million people use ChatGPT each week, according to parent company OpenAI, and a noteworthy demographic shift has been happening over the past 18 months. For example, in January of 2024, around 37% of users were female, and today, that number is around 52%, according to an OpenAI study published earlier this month in the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Within the same study, researchers found that most users utilize ChatGPT for personal tasks over work tasks, and around half of all searches seek advice.
“About half of messages (49%) are ‘asking,‘ a growing and highly rated category that shows people value ChatGPT most as an advisor, rather than only for task completion,” according to the study.
“It’s an information play,” said Pritika Swarup, founder and CEO of Prakti Beauty, the Ayurveda-inspired skin care brand she launched in 2021. “Making sure that information is readily available for these apps, and for these search engines to pull the actual data and the metrics that these people need to make an informed decision, is super important.”
Like the other brands mentioned, Prakti is also in the midst of updating its website to ensure the work they put into clinical studies, ingredient lists and product attributes can be easily collected through GEO.
“Sometimes, I may feel like, ‘Do you need to inundate your customer with everything there is to know about a product?!’” said Swarup. “But the truth is that people are digging deep, communication is important, [and our job is to make sure that information is] very accessible.”
Executive moves:
- Amber Garrison has joined the Revlon team as president of Elizabeth Arden and fragrance for the company. She spent the past 12 years at Estée Lauder Companies, most recently as global brand president of Origins. She begins the role on October 1.
- Alexis Perakis-Valat is L’Oréal Group’s new Americas CEO. He has been promoted from president of the conglomerate’s consumer products division and will take over for David Greenberg who is set to become its U.S. chairman. Perakis-Valat has been with L’Oréal for three decades.
- Pacifica founder Brook Harvey-Taylor has stepped down from the CEO role of the 29-year-old company, according to Beauty Independent, and had taken on the role of chief creative officer. Eric Reiter, partner at P.E. investor Brentwood Associates, has assumed the interim CEO role as the company looks for a new leader.
News to know:
- Canadian retailer Aritzia, which operates 63 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S., has inked a beauty deal with Salt + Stone, the deodorant and body-care line founded by snowboarder Nima Jalali in 2017. The collaboration will land in Aritzia stores later this week with $20 deodorant, $36 body wash, $45 fragrance, and a $49 candle in an exclusive scent called Lily & Yuzu.
- Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop has reportedly shuttered its 2-year-old mass beauty experiment, Good Clean Goop. The diffusion line, which sold skin-care staples for under $40 at Target and Amazon, failed to gain traction, according to multiple reports, and will not be replenished as stock sells in the coming weeks.
- Squishmallows, the viral toy brand known for its colorful plush characters, is expanding into fragrance with three inaugural scents set to launch at Ulta Beauty later this week. The fragrances are inspired by three top-selling toys and will retail for $58 each. Squishmallows are made by toy brand Jazwares, which was purchased by Berkshire Hathaway in 2022.
- Charlotte Tilbury has launched on Amazon. The British makeup and skin-care brand, which launched in 2013 and received investment from Spanish conglomerate Puig in 2020, is the latest brand to enter Amazon’s U.S. premium beauty selection. Charlotte Tilbury’s line has been a bright spot for Puig with retailer footprints in Sephora, Revolve, Nordstrom, Ulta Beauty and Violet Grey, along with its own standalone stores.
- Oura Health Oy, maker of the Oura health and fitness ring, is closing in on a roughly $11 billion valuation after selling about 3 million rings over the past year. The Finnish company is raising $875 million in a new Series E financing round valuing it around $10.9 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. That would double Oura’s $5 billion valuation from its Series D round last November. The company expects to reach $1 billion in sales this year, from more than $500 million in 2024. Oura ring first launched in 2015.
- Flower Beauty, the value color cosmetics line Drew Barrymore launched with beauty incubator Maesa in 2013, has shuttered. Speculation online has been brewing with the line’s IG left stagnant since the end of last year. The line is sold in Walmart, Ulta Beauty, CVS and others. It’s part of a larger shift at Maesa to exit color cosmetics. Maesa also owns Fine’ry, Kristin Ess Hair, ITK and other brands.
Stat of the week:
Although far from new, lip stain is having a massive moment online, according to Spate’s recently released 2025 Culture Report. Online popularity for lip stain, measured by online search and social media mentions, is up 89.5%, thanks to more than 16 million online mentions. Spate attributes its growth to the “perfect self” trend, which is based on low-maintenance beauty treatments. Also included in this trend are heatless curls, microneedling pens and the “morning shed,” up 74%, 31% and 2,500%, respectively.
In the headlines:
What’s drawing Amazon sellers to Walmart’s fulfillment services. ‘It’s too risky’: Tariffs are causing brands to back away from the U.S. and expand abroad instead. Fresh off $4.5M raise, this AI startup offers acne care without long waits for dermatologist visits. Beauty manufacturer Intercos targets deals to expand in U.S. Kao maps out strategic initiatives to drive expansion.
Listen in:
Executive coach Angela Bennett spent more than two decades working across L’Oréal and Estée Lauder, but today, she’s part of a growing number of certified professional executive coaches who help individuals and organizations to build stronger teams. In the latest episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, she introduces us to the world of executive coaching and shares her top three universal tips for executives.
Need a Glossy recap?
Inside L’Oréal Group’s open call to distribute $133 million in new accelerator program. Beauty is slowing, health and wellness is booming, here come the celebrities. Sephora becomes The Rockettes’ first official beauty retailer partner. Maybelline taps Miley Cyrus to reinvent ‘Maybe its Maybelline’. From Salt Lake City to Atlanta: Why niche perfume stores are popping up across the country. Liberty London is betting on fragrance’s ongoing growth with the North American launch of its in-house perfume brand.
