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Are its Nordstrom pop-ups a sign that Glossier is ready to work with department stores?

December 6, 2019Written by George Anderson

Rendering: Glossier

The beauty brand Glossier has achieved success by skipping department store middlemen and selling its products directly to consumers online and in its two flagship locations in New York and Los Angeles. This week, however, the company made news as it deviated from past practice and opened pop-up shops in seven Nordstrom locations. Glossier has opened its own pop-up shops in the past, but this is the first time it is partnering with a department store. The pop-ups will feature the brand’s Glossier You fragrance. In a series of interviews, CEO Emily Weiss explained that circumstances were right for the company to work with Nordstrom. “Of all things that you can sell online, perfume is really, really tough,” Ms. Weiss told Business of Fashion. “The vast majority of perfume is bought where other perfumes are sold.” Speaking with CNBC, she said that her company was “highly involved” in the hiring and training of beauty associates working in the Nordstrom pop-ups. “We feel confident that with Nordstrom as our partner, we’ll be able to maintain our extremely high bar for customer experience,” she said. The Glossier pop-ups will be located at Nordstrom stores in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, Santa Anita, CA, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The 300-square-foot shops will be open through Feb. 16. The company has not indicated any plans to expand its relationship with Nordstrom or other retailers at this time. Glossier has been on an upward trajectory ever since Ms. Weiss launched it from her “Into the Gloss” beauty blog in 2014. The company, CNBC reports, surpassed $100 million in annual sales last year as it added one million new customers. In September, Glossier named Amazon.com veteran Melissa Eamer as its chief operating officer. Ms. Eamer most recently served as VP for sales and marketing of Amazon devices. Previous posts included VP for consumer engagement, VP for sports, outdoors & toys, technical advisor for the company’s consumer business and director of the Kindle Content Store. Other executive additions to Glossier’s team include Vanessa Wittman, formerly at Dropbox, as CFO; Edith Chen, from beauty industry supplier LF Beauty, as VP of supply chain operations; Nick DeAngelo, from Jet.com, as VP of operations; Diane Vavrasek, also from Jet.com, as chief people officer; and Leah Chernikoff, from Elle.com, as head of content.

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