Dive Brief:
- Function of Beauty last week launched a core lineup of its hair care products at more than 1,800 Walmart stores and the big-box retailer’s website, according to a company press release emailed to Retail Dive.
- The 17 SKUs curated for Walmart include Function of Beauty’s top-selling products, such as 11-ounce shampoos and conditioners customized for wavy, curly, straight and coily hair types, which sell for $9.97.
- Walmart customers will also find the brand’s hair goal booster shots, priced at $3.47, which can be added to other products to further customize a hair care routine and address such needs as frizz control and curl definition. Sets consisting of shampoo, conditioner and two booster shots are offered for $26.88.
Dive Insight:
Function of Beauty’s partnership with Walmart builds upon previous arrangements with Target and Amazon, which all offer a curated group of preformulated shampoos and conditioners for different hair types, as well as specific add-ins to tweak those formulas. That differs somewhat from Function of Beauty’s DTC offering, which is built around fully customized formulas for shoppers.
“The Walmart selection includes our best-selling products at our current accessible price point,” Alexandra Papazian, CEO of Function of Beauty, said in an email. “Our goal for the Walmart shopper is to experience high quality, custom products, made available to everyone. Retail is an important part of our business and we want to meet our customers where they already shop. Walmart is a beloved retailer, so it was a natural choice for our expansion.”
Papazian, who replaced co-founder Zahir Dossa as CEO of the beauty brand in 2021, has led the effort to bring Function of Beauty into more wholesale markets over the years. In addition to Target, Amazon and Walmart, Function of Beauty launched a higher-priced Pro line through an exclusive arrangement with Sephora in 2023.
In what has become a crowded space, mass merchants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target have welcomed small to midsize specialized beauty brands as a way to win over customers looking for superior products at affordable prices. Walmart, which expanded its marketplace last year to include premium beauty products, has since added to that assortment, bringing on brands such as Pretty Smart and Curology. The retailer also announced last week, in tandem with its spring beauty sale, that it would test out 40 Beauty Bars in stores.
Target and Amazon have likewise worked to build up their beauty assortments, though Target recently hit pause on the expansion of an Ulta shop-in-shop partnership aimed at bringing a more upscale offering to stores.
