What a difference a few years can make. Amazon, once the pariah of prestige beauty, is now viewed by some as its potential savior, but what does this mean for other retailers? The biggest turning point came in March when, after years of eschewing the platform, the Estée Lauder Cos. did and launched Clinique on with its own storefront.
Since then, Too Faced and Bumble & Bumble have joined and Tracey Travis, Lauder’s departing chief financial officer, previously told WWD that the e-commerce platform has the potential to become an important distribution channel for the company. Their launch followed L’Oréal, whose Luxe division was the first of the powerhouse prestige players to make the leap when it launched Lancôme last year. Since then, , Youth to the People, IT Cosmetics, Urban Decay and Ralph Lauren Fragrances have followed suit.
Overall, in 2023, even before the Lauder brands joined, Amazon sold a billion-plus beauty products in the U.S. and currently there are more than 100,000 brands available in its beauty store.
“Amazon Beauty is all about driving the category and the industry overall,” Melis del Rey, general manager, U.S. stores, beauty, baby and beauty technology at Amazon, said earlier this year at the .
“It’s all about net new incremental customers, and it’s net new incremental shopping opportunities for the brands that we work with.” It also certainly has the ability to attract more brands, with more than 100 million unique beauty customers o.