Birchbox to Open Holiday Fixtures at 500 Walgreens Locations
Beauty products subscription service Birchbox will expand its partnership with Walgreens for the holiday season by displaying fixtures inside 500 of the drugstore’s locations in 44 states. The Birchbox displays will be available from this Friday through the end of December. The displays will include limited-edition travel-themed Birchbox Beauty and Birchbox Grooming boxes, an Advent calendar, travel-size beauty essentials, and Birchbox subscription gift cards. Walgreens and Birchbox formed a relationship in late 2018, rolling out pilot store-in-store partnerships at 11 Walgreens in major U.S. cities. Parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance also acquired a minority interest in the beauty brand for an undisclosed sum.
Total Retail's Take: Beauty has become one of the top-performing retail categories in recent years, and pharmacy chains like Walgreens and CVS have taken notice. In that vein, CVS announced last year that it was doubling the size of its beauty departments in its store locations with the launch of a store-within-a store concept called BeautyIRL. Furthermore, CVS partnered with on-demand beauty service Glamsquad to offer hair and makeup services, lash application, face and eye masks, and manicures in its stores. Not to be outdone, Walgreens partnered with Birchbox, and has found a way to integrate the digital-native brand into its physical stores. This latest announcement reflects two trends in the industry: the growing popularity of seasonal pop-up shops, particularly for direct-to-consumer brands, and the willingness for retailers to look for brand partners to help generate traffic, notably in-store, and sales.
