Birchbox and Walgreens Team Up Which Means Mid-Range Makeup Brands Will Hit Drugstores
Birchbox and Walgreens are teaming up shortly to bring Birchbox Beauty Boxes to 11 Walgreens retail locations (hopefully with more locations to follow in the future) which gives a new lease to drugstore makeup consumers to experience new brands that have never been available at drugstores before.
As they say, the only place to go once you reach the top is down and that’s how it feels with many mid-range brands lately who have outgrown their popularity with older customers in a softening beauty market. It would not surprise me at some point if some brands, say Tarte maybe, will team up with Target or some other retailer for some exclusive collection or even had their entire line offered in a larger scale department store. At this point, consumers in the beauty world have grown jaded and have reservations about where they are spending their dollar which means expansions into department stores or in this case drugstores is the next logical step in gaining a new share of an untapped market.
Birchbox being available at Walgreens means brands like Wander Beauty, RMS Beauty, and more would be readily available at the drugstore. Gasp, shock, outrage!? The Birchbox deal enables Walgreens to bring in over 40 different mid-range and niche brands to the everyday consumer.
Walgreens is quoted as saying they will dedicate space in their stores for the Birchbox experience that provides curated assortments of full-size and deluxe-size samples of products available for purchase. This will be happening in 11 stores across the USA including ones located in Chicago, LA, and NYC which will start selling Birchbox as soon as December and more to follow in 2019.
At these stores, Birchbox will also offer subscriptions to its monthly delivery service of samples, and a “Build Your Own Birchbox”� just like the experience at their flagship stores in New York.
I think this opens a door for a more Ulta-like experience at drugstores like Walgreens. It’s not everyday you head into Walgreens and see brands like RMS Beauty lining the shelves. I look forward to see how brands handle things as the market continues to soften.
What do you think of Birchbox at Walgreens?