The in-store beauty experience is facing significant change. How can it remain relevant vs. e-commerce options?

e.l.f. Beauty last week agreed to acquire Rhode, the skincare and cosmetics line created by fashion model and influencer Hailey Bieber only three years ago, for up to a whopping $1 billion. Does this acquisition make sense for the company?

Walmart is launching a pilot program which will see 40 Beauty Bars installed in select stores. Will this pilot project lead to further expansion?

SKIMS will now be the umbrella company for all of Kim Kardashian’s brands.

Razorfish survey data suggests that U.S. tweens are highly interested in automotive and beauty products. Do they actually influence household purchasing behavior?

Walmart has dropped its latest beauty brand additions so shoppers can put a spring in their daily care routines.

Target fans will find even more beauty bargains with wallet-friendly prices after this new drop.

Tatcha makes its stateside debut at Ulta Beauty beginning in 2025.

e.l.f. Beauty is taking a step downstream by opening up distribution to Dollar General. Do you see more benefits than risks?

Recent developments have cast a shadow over The Body Shop’s ability to remain in the retail world, especially after it announced plans to close almost half of its 200 stores in the U.K. What lessons can be gleaned from its trajectory for other retailers navigating the intersection of sustainability, corporate ownership, and market demands?

Dollar General is rolling out enhanced in-store layouts and broader offerings in the beauty category in approximately 300 stores as part of an initiative dubbed “Beauty Reinvention.”

Sephora says the TikTok incubator is not a one-off and will be available to three new brands each quarter.

The beauty retailer saw the ranks of members in its Ultamate loyalty program grow by three million to 40.2 million in 2022.

Ulta Beauty faced boycott threats last week after featuring a star trans influencer in a video. An episode of “The Beauty Of…” podcast featured a TikTok star being interviewed by a gender-fluid hairdresser, about ‘the good, the bad and the silly moments that come with finding girlhood.’ How will Ulta’s and Sephora’s support of the trans community affect their businesses?

Sephora has launched a subscription program that allows shoppers to get unlimited same-day delivery in as little as two hours for $49 a year. Do you see enough consumer appeal for Sephora’s Same-Day Unlimited offering?

Sephora’s shops inside of JCPenney stores are long gone with the beauty retailer having found a new home inside of Kohl’s. Penney, for its part, has moved on with a new “hyper-inclusive” beauty concept of its own that will be available at all the chain’s locations by next spring. Will JCPenney Beauty’s inclusivity branding and its pairing with JCPenney Salons draw customers to its stores?

Ulta Beauty plans to combine in-store displays of mass and prestige skincare and makeup brands for the first time in a new store layout. Do you see a greater upside or downside to Ulta’s new layout that consolidates mass and prestige skincare and makeup brands in-store?

Another day, another retail loyalty program launch. Bath & Body Works earlier this week debuted its “new” rewards program, which was soft-launched in July after it began testing in March. Do you think recent retail rewards program updates focused on discounts are more effective, equally effective or less effective than the approach taken by Sephora?

The Sephora at Kohl’s store-within-a-store concept is working really well for both retailers one year after its debut. So, why hasn’t all the good news surrounding this partnership done more for Kohl’s results — or is that simply too much to ask? Is Kohl’s betting too heavily on its relationship with Sephora to lift results?

Timed to International Youth Day, The Body Shop has launched a youth voter engagement and registration drive across its U.S. stores and website ahead of the November midterm elections. Does Body’s Shop’s voter engagement and registration campaign make sense for the cosmetics chain as well as for many other retailers?

Glossier, the disruptive beauty upstart, has reached a deal for Sephora stores and Sephora.com to start selling its products in North America in early 2023, marking its first wholesale partnership. Do you see more upside than downside to Glossier’s plans to open up distribution to Sephora?

H&M Group has been testing the use of smart mirrors in fitting rooms and on the sales floor at its COS Beverly Hills store and now plans to extend the technology to more stores this year. Will advances in artificial intelligence, new features or reduced costs eventually make smart mirrors more prevalent on selling floors?

Many brands, especially in the apparel and beauty space, have embraced body positive messaging in recent years, although critics charge the movement focuses too much on appearance. Is body neutrality any better? Do you see messaging around body neutrality eventually replacing body positivity for many brands and retailers?

Victoria’s Secret has launched a “storefront” offering its beauty products on Amazon.com, marking the first time the brand has sold not only on Amazon but through any third-party retailer. Does selling through Amazon offer more opportunities than risks for Victoria’s Secret?

Sephora at Kohl’s shops have been a success, and remodels are underway to add 400 of the beauty concepts inside the retailer’s stores this year. Will the new customers being brought in by Sephora have a significant effect on Kohl’s brand reputation and a material effect on its sales and earnings?

Glossier revealed that it is laying off more than a third of its corporate workforce and outsourcing some technology functions after admitting to “some mistakes” in management strategy.  What internal or external issues appear to be behind Glossier’s recent challenges?

Lush Cosmetics deactivated its Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok accounts on Black Friday with a promise to stay away until the social media platforms can provide safer environments for their users. Did Lush make the right call in exiting social media from both a marketing and commerce standpoint?

Direct-to-consumer beauty retailer Glossier continues to bring an experiential element to its brand with its new store location in Los Angeles, its second since shuttering all its stores last year, according to Glossy.  Do you think an experiential beauty store that is not entirely focused on product makes sense for Glossier?

Just two weeks into the rollout of the initial 200 Sephora in-store shops, Michelle Gass, Kohl’s CEO, said the partnership is showing the potential to offer benefits in a myriad of ways. What’s the most encouraging sign that Kohl’s partnership with Sephora is off to a strong start?

Patricia Waldron recently had the opportunity to discuss what it takes to deliver superior omnichannel experiences for consumers in the current retailing environment with execs from Showfields. Are sensory-driven brands doing enough to engage consumers across shopping touchpoints?

JCPenney plans to replace its Sephora in-store beauty shops with a broad focus on inclusivity, including across price points. What do you think of JCPenney’s plans for its post-Sephora beauty departments?

Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass has sought to create a unique identity for the chain since replacing Kevin Mansell in 2018. Yet just how much progress has been questioned by activist investors and industry watchers alike.  What do you see as Kohl’s brand identity and to what extent is it wrapped up in those of its partner brands?

J.C. Penney is trying to fill the void left in its operations by Sephora’s departure by making its own branded in-store spot for beauty. What is your assessment of the value of the Kohl’s/Sephora, Ulta at Target and JC Penney Beauty shops for the respective retailers?

Not every consumer is a serious video gamer, but plenty of people play casual games online to pass the time. Beauty brand Farmacy now plans to use an on-website video game to capture the attention of potential customers. Can using gamification to enhance web engagement lead to higher cart conversion rates?

People ordering restaurant meals from Uber Eats might find makeup on the menu in some markets thanks to a new deal between the rideshare delivery service and Estée Lauder. Do you see customers purchasing beauty products through Uber Eats or is the Uber Eats market too different from the Estee Lauder market?

Amazon has opened a hair salon in its latest bricks-and-mortar experiment, allowing the online giant to test new technologies, expand its B2B business with haircare professionals and potentially explore the haircutting opportunity. What do you think is behind the opening of Amazon Salon?

Ulta Beauty is getting ready to give its c-suite a new management look. The nation’s largest beauty retailer announced yesterday that CEO Mary Dillon will be stepping down from that spot in June. What do you think are the reasons that Ulta Beauty has done so well under Mary Dillon for the eight years she has led the company?

e.l.f. Cosmetics and Chipotle have collaborated on a limited-edition makeup collection inspired by ingredients used by the Mexican fast-food chain. What’s driving the appeal of the limited-release collaboration between e.l.f. Cosmetics and Chipotle?

Sephora and Bath & Body Works have announced plans to aggressively open off-mall locations in 2021. The moves come as traffic woes impact enclosed malls and strip malls, lifestyle centers and retailers turn to open-air locations that offer a social distancing advantage. Will the shift toward off-mall locations outlive the pandemic?

Goodbye J.C. Penney. Hello Kohl’s. That’s one of the takeaways from yesterday’s announcement that Sephora and Kohl’s have reached a long-term deal to open co-marketed beauty product shops in 200 Kohl’s by next fall. How much will losing Sephora hurt J.C. Penney?

Target and Ulta Beauty have announced a strategic partnership that will result in the launch of a “shop-in-shop” concept — Ulta Beauty at Target — that the two retailers believe will elevate their respective businesses. What do you expect from the Ulta Beauty at Target concept?

Sephora is partnering with Instacart to support online delivery of beauty products in “as fast as an hour” from local retail stores across the country. How would you rate the appeal of beauty products for same-day delivery?

Amazon.com has launched an online store-within-a-store concept — Luxury Stores — with the goal of establishing itself as a major player in the luxury fashion, beauty and accessories market. Will Amazon’s Luxury Stores disrupt the luxury fashion and beauty business?

Beauty and self-care sales have traditionally been dependent on high-touch, personalized experiences in retail stores, yet online sales in these categories have soared during the coronavirus outbreak. Do you expect digital engagement to continue to grow as a factor in the sales of beauty and self-care products as stores reopen?

Beauty sellers are facing a double-whammy from COVID-19. Make-up has become unsafe to try on in stores and less necessary as many women shelter at home. Are the difficulties of in-store trial or shifts in product demand likely a bigger challenge for beauty sellers?

Sephora has committed to growing its current roster of nine black-owned brands to include others that will eventually occupy at least 15 percent of the space on its store shelves. How would you go about reaching the 15 percent goal of black-owned brands if you were Sephora or another retailer?

J.C. Penney has had its share of problems in recent years, but a positive constant for the chain have been the Sephora shops operating inside its stores. Now, however, Sephora wants out. What do you think is at the heart of the current dispute between Sephora and J.C. Penney?

As consumers shelter-in-place, some beauty brands have refocused their messaging to mental health and wellness topics. Do you see an opportunity for retailers and brands to use mental health, wellness and related content to better connect with consumers at the present time?

Retailers have dabbled with virtual selling in recent years, but there now appears to be an intensified focus with in-store opportunities vanishing amid the pandemic. Can virtual selling make up for the in-store service lost from stores that are currently closed and likely facing restrictions when they open in the months ahead?

Macy’s and Sephora recently announced plans to focus their expansion on non-mall locations to take advantage of steadier traffic flows seen there vs. indoor malls. What’s driving the apparent healthier traffic trends at strip centers versus enclosed malls?