Walmart is heavily investing in elevating its beauty assortment.
Walmart’s ramped-up efforts around luxury beauty are, in part, a response to its growing demographic of high-income consumers. “We’re seeing higher engagement across income cohorts, with upper-income households continuing to account for the majority of the share gains,” John David Rainey, Walmart’s CFO, said in May during the company’s latest earnings call for its fiscal first quarter of 2025. During the quarter, the company’s U.S. comp sales increased 3.8%, and its total revenue increased 6% to $161.5 billion.
Walmart’s beauty play is also part of its larger consumer acquisition strategy and plans to compete with Amazon — Morgan Stanley analysts predict Amazon will overtake Walmart as the biggest U.S. beauty retailer by 2025. Amazon’s luxury brand portfolio includes Augustinus Bader, Sunday Riley, Tata Harper and SkinMedica.
For its part, Walmart’s luxury strategy includes rolling out products across a range of price points. “When it comes to luxury brands, accessibility is an incredibly important thing [for us]. You shouldn’t have to trade off getting a high-quality product. Our vision is that beauty is not an elitist activity,” Creighton Kiper, Walmart’s vp of beauty until June 10, said.
As Walmart has increased its assortment, Kiper said the company’s new, higher-spend shopper has inadvertently fueled growth in categories including hair care products and hair tools.
“Offering [product] minis has been an important strategy for us for a while, and we’re kicking that business into overdrive this year,” said Kiper. “We’re also [refocusing] on our hair-care business and the way we think about hair texture. We’re ensuring we have great solutions for all hair types.” To amplify Walmart’s affordable luxury opportunity in the hair-care category, this year, Walmart has introduced to its shelves peptide-infused hair-care brand V&Co. Beauty, Tia Mowry’s hair-care brand 4U by Tia and textured hair-care brand Rucker Roots.
Kiper said luxury hair tools will also be a focus. “With our Dyson luxury products, our customer has reacted favorably,” Kiper said. Currently, Walmart sells the viral Airwrap, the Supersonic Hair Dryer and the Airstrait and Corrale Straighteners. Expanding this brand partnership through new products and accessories will be a priority this year, Kiper said.
“We have aggressive [luxury] goals, and, with the strategies and partners we have, … we’ll achieve them,” Kiper said. He said, for Walmart, other areas of growth in beauty include accessories like semi-permanent tattoos and face gems.
