Walmart’s Vision of Beauty for Everyone

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When asked to imagine a premium beauty retail destination, one does not immediately think of Walmart, the US-based chain of superstores that operates over 10,000 locations worldwide. Vinima Shekhar, the company’s recently appointed vice president of beauty, asks: ‘Why not?’ Walmart’s recent efforts to stay ahead of the competition have resulted in newer initiatives like Walmart Marketplace (an “endless aisle” online) and three-hour delivery.

Since being appointed to the beauty department in July 2024, Shekhar has been hard at work expanding Walmart’s premium business, in the hopes of serving their value-seeking customer — who has grown more discerning in their cosmetics and personal care purchases — and capturing new ones who might otherwise head to Sephora or browse online. Walmart was once the undisputed number one beauty retailer in the US, but has ceded significant market share to competitors like Amazon, which has successfully convinced premium brands to open digital storefronts. Walmart has also ramped up its online marketplace, which has increased the number of brands available and helped boost discovery and experimentation, creating a digital environment that draws shoppers in and retains them with quick shipping, a seamless checkout and the ability to stock up on other goods they might also need at the same time.

Shekhar’s approach is a comprehensive one and includes stocking stores with exclusive brands and collaborations, and making the most of its logistic muscle and broad distribution. She hopes to show the industry how channels can evolve with their customer base.

The Business of Beauty: Who is the Walmart beauty customer today, and how will they evolve over the coming years?

Vinima Shekhar: The Walmart beauty customer reflects America. What I mean by that is, we’ve got every demographic represented in our customer cohort. There are over 145 million customers coming to Walmart, whether that’s in store or online every week, but 71 percent of our beauty shoppers are women. Of our customers that are below the age of 40, 66 percent of them are shopping beauty at Walmart, and we know that these customers are continuing to grow and spend on beauty. Seventy-one percent [of beauty] customers are making $100,000 or more. These customer [groups] that are under 40 and are [earning] over $100,000 are actually our fastest-growing cohorts. Our assortment is resonating with these high-growth customers.

The Business of Beauty: Do you think the relationship between channel and product is changing?

VS: A hundred percent. The customer is more sophisticated and more knowledgeable, and at the end of the day — I say this all the time — no matter how rich you are, everyone wants to save money and time. That’s what positions Walmart really well, and that’s what you’re seeing reflected in our strategy.

Our most competitive advantage is we can serve the beauty customer in more ways and through more channels than anyone else. If you think of our omnichannel model, we offer the convenience of in-store shopping that fuels discovery. You want to touch, you want to see, you want to feel, and so we have that across 4,600 stores [in the US]. We also know that the customer wants to shop online, so we’ve got our Walmart.com, whether it’s desktop or app, and through that, they can pick it up. On the way home from work, I can just drive by a Walmart, pick up my groceries, and oh, by the way, let me add in my skincare products. I can get them shipped to [my] home or have express delivery. We now are able to offer a wide variety of assortment in under three hours. That is extremely convenient when you think about a customer who is shopping for specific occasions.

Recently, the morning of an event, I realised I ran out of hairspray. I went to Walmart.com, I added in the hairspray that I wanted, and I chose three hours, and I said, ‘You know what, we’re kind of running low on milk, and we also need some oranges.’ I added those to the basket, clicked ‘three hours,’ and went about doing my errands, got home, and my hairspray, milk and oranges were at my doorstep.

The Business of Beauty: How does Walmart blend in-store and digital experiences?

VS: We don’t want 4,600 stores to reflect the same assortment. Sun care is an example. We know that we have stores in the South that will carry more sun care products than probably some stores that are in Vermont. The space allocation that we provide for categories, the price points, all are reflected in how we show up based on our clustering strategy.

Walmart is not trying to be a speciality beauty retailer where there are 10 beauty advisors in an aisle. How that experience comes to life is through very clear navigation based on need states. When you come into Walmart beauty, we’ve made it easy to know where the skincare aisle is. And within that section, there’s a destination for acne, a destination for face wash. It’s based on a decision tree, the customer tells us they want to shop by brand, and even within brand, product type, so you can tell where the mascaras are, you can tell where the eyeshadows are. What we also know is that end caps [prime display locations at either end of an aisle] are a great way to highlight innovation, newness and trend, so we’ve strategically used those end caps and those displays to just get customers excited to find something new, and be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know Walmart had this.’ We also have a ‘Store of the Future’ in about a hundred stores where we’ve positioned beauty actually adjacent to fashion at the front of the store. As far as online, we’ve continued to elevate our digital experience with incredible brand shops and elevated visuals. We know beauty is a lot about storytelling, and the customer wants to be inspired, they want to feel trusted, and they want to feel excited.

The Business of Beauty: How will the Walmart Marketplace continue to evolve?

VS: In stores, we’ve got limited space, and so we’ve leveraged Walmart Marketplace for what we call ‘the endless aisle,’ which gives our customers access to whatever they want — maybe it’s that one item that doesn’t have the productivity metrics to be in stores, but we’ve delighted them because they now can find it at Walmart. We’re also leveraging Marketplace for our premium beauty experience that we launched in the summer of last year, and that is an invitation-only, authorised reseller or brand-direct programme. That allows us to ensure that we can have premium brands in a gated experience, so that customers can trust that they’re getting the products that they love from the brands directly or through an authorised seller. Since we’ve announced that, we’ve actually launched 80-plus brands, and premium beauty is the fastest-growing category in my business today.

The Business of Beauty: How does Walmart view social selling and interfaces like TikTok Shop? Is it an opportunity, or competition?

VS: I would say we’re always looking for new opportunities to create ways for our customers to interact with us, whether that’s in store, at live events, or [online]. Earlier this year, we joined the Walmart fashion team in a pop-up shop in New York City during New York Fashion Week. It was a beautiful store in SoHo that featured the Walmart fashion assortment, as well as a beauty bar; it reinforced Walmart as a style destination. From a digital perspective, we’ve been an early pioneer in social and emerging commerce — we’ve got our own Walmart Creator platform, and in 2020, we were the first to actually create a shoppable livestream on TikTok featuring different fashion and beauty styles. We also have Walmart Discovered on Roblox, which is gamified beauty experiences. Whether it’s TikTok Shop, whether it’s live shopping, whether it’s gaming and more, you’ll continue to see that because we want to be pioneers.

The Business of Beauty: How will Walmart approach beauty collaborations and brand exclusives?

VS: We had a very popular collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter. We sold out, wished we’d bought more. There’s a collaboration we’re working on between a skincare brand and a nail brand — these are well-known brands, but a customer [probably] hadn’t thought about [them together]. That’s just one way we’re collaborating by bringing in unique and different assortments. What I’ve shared with you [so far touches on] everyday essentials and premium, but we also know we need to differentiate. Collabs and a unique assortment, whether it’s our private brands or just in-and-out, one-time things will help that customer discover something new at Walmart.

We’ve got a programme called Walmart Start, which is our beauty accelerator, and that’s focused on onboarding new, smaller DTC brands that might struggle with doing business right away with a big retailer. We feel like we’re pretty easy to deal with, but naturally, supplying to 4,600 stores, the supply chain investment, just the item set-ups can be quite long and complex. This is our third year, and we just announced our third class, launching Maison 276, Kativa, which are haircare brands, as well as Tocca fragrance. What we do is give [them] white glove service. We help onboard them, we actually give them a path to be successful at retail and invest in those brands.

The Business of Beauty: Where else does the Walmart beauty customer shop for their personal care, wellness and beauty needs?

VS: They’re probably shopping at other premium beauty, speciality beauty retailers or on other digital platforms. But they’re probably buying groceries with us. So, going back to our competitive advantage, as we continue to expand our assortment, you’ll continue to see that grocery customer adding beauty products from Walmart into their basket, making it a lot easier for them to just do their full trip with us.

The Business of Beauty: Oranges, milk and hairspray, right?

VS: You got it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

This article first appeared in The State of Fashion: Beauty Volume 2, an in-depth report on the global beauty industry, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company.