In 2022, luxury fashion and beauty brands increasingly shed their “exclusive” reputation, in favor of becoming more inclusive, more accessible and, thus, better suited to the times.
Glossy+ research throughout this year provided data supporting this shift.
According to Glossy’s annual fashion and beauty reports, luxury brands are expanding their distribution far beyond their owned channels and high-end department stores.
At the same time, many are pulling back the curtain, so to speak, having realized the value of establishing authentic connections with customers. Leveraging social platforms’ video capabilities to humanize the brand and strengthen its community is catching on among premium players. And, according to Glossy’s Influencer Index, published in April, social videos — more so than Instagram-style still imagery — are what’s resonating. The formats’ engagement levels prove it.
Below, a deeper look at how luxury brands came down to earth in 2022.
Luxury fashion brands are mingling with the masses
Glossy’s annual report on the state and future of fashion brand distribution, released in September, showed that the No. 1 distribution channel for both luxury brands and contemporary brands is Nordstrom, traditionally a more accessible retailer. Also, though luxury brands were shown to have fewer points of distribution than their contemporary counterparts, they’re clearly casting a wider net than in years past. Many are selling through a range of e-tailers, while some have linked with Intermix or Kith.
Premium beauty brands are embracing Target and Kohl’s
Sephora’s partnership with mass-oriented retailer Kohl’s has allowed Kohl’s to break into the prestige space. Likewise, Ulta’s deal with Target has convinced select prestige brands to leverage the reach of the mass retailer.
In a focus group informing Glossy’s annual report on beauty brand distribution, published in May, Heather Duchowny, head of global engagement and digital marketing at Smashbox, noted the benefits of the company’s new Target distribution. “We launched with Ulta and Ulta at Target, and we’ve found [Target] to be incredibly successful in reaching a totally new audience,” she said. “We’ve found that a lot of our sales there are to Gen Z.”
Platform engagement is influencing a brand shift to ‘real’ content
April’s Influencer Index showed that engagement ratios for Instagram video content clearly outpaces still posts on the platform. Yes, Instagram is giving preferential treatment to Reels, in its aim to compete with TikTok on short-form video. But TikTok’s popularity has also altered user behavior on platforms. As content consumption shifts to video, brands abandoning focuses on curated, edited imagery are being rewarded.
