Meet the New Beauty Counter | Reimagining Retail

Suzy Davidkhanian (0:00)

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Hi, everyone. Today is Wednesday, September 23rd. Welcome to EMARKETER's weekly retail show, Reimagining Retail, an EMARKETER podcast made possible by Atmosphere TV. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. And I'm your host, Suzy Davidkhanian. On today's episode, we're talking about beauty and what it takes to stay on both the need and impulse lists as consumers become more intentional. Joining me are podcast regulars, Principal Analyst, Sky Canavis from Texas. Hello, Sky.

Sky Canaves (0:59)

Hey Suzy, it's great to be back.

Suzy Davidkhanian (1:01)

Well, I'm back from New York too.

Sky Canaves (1:03)

Yeah, I wish I was still in New York with you in the studio. It would have been fun.

Suzy Davidkhanian (1:06)

We should plan better next time. And Carina Lamb from London area.

Sky Canaves (1:13)

Hi Suzy.

Suzy Davidkhanian (1:14)

Hi Carina, how are you doing?

Carina Lamb (1:16)

I'm good, great to be back on the pod.

Suzy Davidkhanian (1:18)

Thank you guys for joining me. I'm really excited to talk about beauty. It has proven to be a resilient category, even as consumers become more intentional about what they're spending money on. And retailers are noticing, for example, Old Navy recently launched its own body care and fragrance line nationwide after doing an in-store pilot. And in case you didn't know, they already carry market brands in beauty. Beauty is also an interesting category because sometimes it's replenishment, and sometimes it's things that we didn't even know we wanted. And so as consumers become more intentional, understanding what keeps you on their list becomes even more important. But at the same time, the places where we discover, research and ultimately buy those products are getting a little mixed up. So today we're going to look at what loyalty means in beauty, how TikTok and YouTube are changing discovery and research, and where AI is added to the mix, and if every retailer really does need a beauty strategy. Okay, but before we get into it, my question to you is, if you think back to your first favorite beauty brand or product, who introduced you to it?

Sky Canaves (2:23)

I want to say it's probably something from my mom, and I do remember shopping for the older brands in the department store setting, which is where, when I was growing up, where you went to buy the high quality beauty products.

Suzy Davidkhanian (2:37)

Music to my ears.

Sky Canaves (2:39)

And then you had your drugstore brands, and that was kind of it. And now the beauty landscape is full of so many more products and so many more channels to buy them from.

Suzy Davidkhanian (2:48)

Well, we will get to that in a minute, but Carina, tell us where.

Carina Lamb (2:51)

Yep, my mom too, and it was a product that she always bought on the plane on the way home, because there was always like a discounted duty free. It was an amazing concealer stick thing. I can't remember exactly the name of it, but yeah, that was how, because we'd go on holiday, and eventually I was like, oh, maybe I'll get one of those.

Suzy Davidkhanian (3:07)

Me too, my mom, Clinique, and then it was Clarence. And also it's like that whole idea around, Sky, you already had talked about it, but there were different channels, and back then, which is not that long ago, you guys, really word of mouth drove loyalty, and we did a lot of research when I was at a different organization about this.

Everybody knows Carina's smiling. When I was at Macy's, we did Macy's Beauty, big, they go together really well. We talked so much about the word of mouth and how people are just kids, generally speaking, are discovering beauty through someone that they know. But now it's really changed.

Carina Lamb (3:47)

Yeah, I think it's changed, but in many ways, it's also the same. So if we look at what's really leading discovery now, we see that social commerce is kind of almost equivalent now to people going into a physical store and finding something. And the kind of social content that's really driving that discovery is kind of recommendations from peers. It's short form video, it's TikTok. So it's still kind of word of mouth, I would argue. But it's just that our communities have expanded beyond our immediate family and friends.