April 22, 2025
Courtesy of Walmart
Will Walmart’s New Beauty Bar Pilot Take Off?
Walmart recently launched its seasonal Beauty Event on April 18 — and is keeping it running through the end of May — in the hopes of driving increased spend on essential health and beauty products on store shelves.
One notable difference this year was emphasized strongly by Walmart VP of Beauty Vinima K. Shekhar in a news piece shared to the blue-and-yellow brand’s corporate website: This time around, Walmart will also be installing “Beauty Bars” in 40 of its stores.
“But beyond the deals, this year’s event is different. We’re introducing Beauty Bars in 40 select stores — a pilot program where customers can explore new products, talk to beauty experts and test samples. We’re also spotlighting trend-forward brands online with elevated shopping experiences and editorial storytelling. From skincare to haircare, derm-recommended favorites to viral essentials, we want every beauty routine to feel seen and supported,” Shekhar wrote.
Walmart Seeks To Compete With Target, Sephora With New Beauty Bar Concept
As Retail TouchPoints underscored, this latest pilot project coming from Walmart appears to be zeroing in on an active market of cosmetics fans currently spending at Target and Sephora.
“Seeking to compete with high-touch beauty retailers like Sephora and an expanded assortment at rival Target, Walmart will pilot Beauty Bars in 40 stores,” editor Adam Blair stated.
In 2022, Walmart signaled plans to add beauty lounges in 400 stores as part of a collaboration with Mayvenn. Since then, news on the partnership has been scarce. With a more modest scope and managed entirely internally, it’s likely that this latest foray into the Beauty Bar concept will come to fruition, but the results are yet to be seen.
Walmart Is Doubling Down on Retail Expansion Into Beauty
As The Path to Purchase Institute’s Jacqueline Barba pointed out, Walmart has been intensifying its commitment to enhancing its beauty lineup for some time now.
“Walmart has been actively expanding its beauty category in the past two years, focusing on both premium offerings and differentiating shopping experiences,” Barba wrote.
“The retailer has added more than 40 premium brands in 2025, expanded assortment into its core business and launched pathways for emerging brands through programs like Walmart Start, the retailer’s beauty accelerator program,” she added.
Barba went out to sketch out several other Walmart beauty initiatives in a similar vein: a traveling “Color on Tour” salon helmed by haircare brand Henkel’s Schwarzkopf, the introduction of the Premium Beauty storefront within its burgeoning Marketplace — including notable labels such as COSRX and Beachwaver — and the expansion of its Beauty Virtual Try-On capabilities delivered via the Walmart app.
BrainTrust
Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
Gary Sankary
Retail Industry Strategy, Esri
Cathy Hotka
Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates
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Discussion Questions
Will Walmart’s Beauty Bar pilot be able to attract an audience predisposed to shopping at competitors ranging from Target to Sephora?
Which advantages, as well as notable headwinds, does Walmart face when trying to break into a crowded beauty market in retail?
Will its reputation as a low-cost retailer hamper efforts to draw traffic from stores with a chic or trendy brand image, like Sephora?
Poll
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This is another step in Walmart’s journey to becoming more of a multi-dimensional retailer that serves needs beyond low prices and everyday essentials. This boujee-fication has been in play for a while, and it is helping Walmart enlarge its share of wallet from many segments, most notably higher income and younger groups. The beauty bars back the range expansion with expertise and better service levels, which is helpful to cement credibility. The only potential issue is that a lot of consumers shopping for groceries are often reluctant to add higher priced beauty to their baskets and prefer to do this separately from their essentials shop (it’s a psychological thing – budgetary compartmentalization). But as Walmart is mixing premium and cheaper options, this may not be so much of an issue.
Boujeefication. Good one!
Good for Walmart. Beauty experts are an important part of the Sephora experience, and I don’t know why that wouldn’t be true at Walmart as well. This is going to generate revenue and loyalty.
Walmart will do fine with Beauty Bar if it targets and caters to its own market.
This is coming in the same week where we talked about some of the issues Target was facing with Ulta. This strategy requires expertise and high-touch relationships with customers, which is not something that any big-box store has a lot of success delivering. They prefer generalists in their stores, not specialization. I’m also not sure that this will convince the higher-end shoppers, who have adopted Walmart+, to the detriment of their competition, to flock into their local Walmart to visit the Beauty Bar when they’re using Walmart+ to have those goods delivered, avoiding the store experience.
I keep saying it. Customers want to Explore + Experiment. When retailers Execute to that Expectation, it creates the Experience customers crave.
Explore + Experiment + Execution = Experience³ It’s Exponential…!!!
This should do well since Walmart’s core customer in the beauty area skews younger, with a higher propensity to exploring influencer advice on TikTok and other social platforms, meaning they aren’t as reliant on in-store expertise as a Sephora or Ulta shopper. While Walmart’s well meaning intention may be to have expertise on hand in-store, realistically we all know this won’t work out longer term, which is where Target/Ulta fell apart. But this won’t be the deal breaker it was for for others, and the price point will further set shopper expectations to a place where Walmart should succeed nicely.
This is the perfect time for Walmart to give its beauty category a makeover. More shoppers seek value for money, which drives traffic to low-cost leader Walmart. Rival Target’s customer loyalty is in decline and Ulta just paused expansion plans in Target stores. Beauty is also a highly visual category that could strengthen Walmart’s retail media strategy and boost advertising sales.
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This is another step in Walmart’s journey to becoming more of a multi-dimensional retailer that serves needs beyond low prices and everyday essentials. This boujee-fication has been in play for a while, and it is helping Walmart enlarge its share of wallet from many segments, most notably higher income and younger groups. The beauty bars back the range expansion with expertise and better service levels, which is helpful to cement credibility. The only potential issue is that a lot of consumers shopping for groceries are often reluctant to add higher priced beauty to their baskets and prefer to do this separately from their essentials shop (it’s a psychological thing – budgetary compartmentalization). But as Walmart is mixing premium and cheaper options, this may not be so much of an issue.
Boujeefication. Good one!
Good for Walmart. Beauty experts are an important part of the Sephora experience, and I don’t know why that wouldn’t be true at Walmart as well. This is going to generate revenue and loyalty.
Walmart will do fine with Beauty Bar if it targets and caters to its own market.
This is coming in the same week where we talked about some of the issues Target was facing with Ulta. This strategy requires expertise and high-touch relationships with customers, which is not something that any big-box store has a lot of success delivering. They prefer generalists in their stores, not specialization. I’m also not sure that this will convince the higher-end shoppers, who have adopted Walmart+, to the detriment of their competition, to flock into their local Walmart to visit the Beauty Bar when they’re using Walmart+ to have those goods delivered, avoiding the store experience.
I keep saying it. Customers want to Explore + Experiment. When retailers Execute to that Expectation, it creates the Experience customers crave.
Explore + Experiment + Execution = Experience³ It’s Exponential…!!!
This should do well since Walmart’s core customer in the beauty area skews younger, with a higher propensity to exploring influencer advice on TikTok and other social platforms, meaning they aren’t as reliant on in-store expertise as a Sephora or Ulta shopper. While Walmart’s well meaning intention may be to have expertise on hand in-store, realistically we all know this won’t work out longer term, which is where Target/Ulta fell apart. But this won’t be the deal breaker it was for for others, and the price point will further set shopper expectations to a place where Walmart should succeed nicely.
This is the perfect time for Walmart to give its beauty category a makeover. More shoppers seek value for money, which drives traffic to low-cost leader Walmart. Rival Target’s customer loyalty is in decline and Ulta just paused expansion plans in Target stores. Beauty is also a highly visual category that could strengthen Walmart’s retail media strategy and boost advertising sales.