CVS is following the lead of Canada's Shoppers Drug Mart with a new luxury beauty concept store that will feature brands normally found only in department stores.
The new store dubbed Beauty 360, which makes no mention of a connection with CVS, will have a footprint of between 2,500 and 4,000 square feet, according to a report on the Women's Wear Daily website. The locations will either be established as a store-within-a-CVS or at an adjacent building to a CVS Pharmacy.
CVS plans to open the first pilot store somewhere on the East Coast by the end of the year with another location opening a few weeks later on the West Coast.
Unnamed sources told WWD that the first two locations would be in the nation's capital and in Sacramento, Calif. The drugstore chain is said to be looking to open 100 Beauty 360 stores in the next year, eventually growing the concept to between 500 and 1,000 locations.
CVS is not the first North American drugstore chain to follow the beauty store strategy. Shoppers Drug Mart, the largest pharmacy operator in Canada, announced in March that it was also opening an upscale beauty products format. It has operated its Beauty Boutique store-within-a-store format for eight years.
Cheryl Mahoney, vice president of merchandising for beauty for CVS, told WWD, "Initially, we will overstaff [the concept] to make sure we get the service level right."
CVS is also considering adding "express services" such as manicures and hand massages to make Beauty 360 a destination stop, said Mary Lou Gardner, the senior category manager for beauty at CVS, who is heading up the Beauty 360 concept.
Ms. Mahoney is looking for big things from Beauty 360. "Sixty percent of the female population lives within 5 miles of a CVS store," she said. "One of the things that has made CVS a success is listening to our customers. She wants to shop where she wants to shop. She's buying mass cosmetics and she's also buying prestige."
Discussion Questions: Will Beauty 360 be a winning concept for CVS? Do you have any concern that CVS is launching the concept at a time when the economy faces serious challenges?