Bath & Body Works starts selling on Amazon as brands embrace logistics network
A variety of products from Bath & Body Works.
Courtesy of Bath & Body Works
Bath and Body Works With no minimum shipping threshold, Champagne Toast shower gel is now just a click away Amazon Prime members.
The favorite brand of shopping malls offers its best-selling perfumes, body care products, hand soaps and candles to Amazon customers in the USA. The selection is also eligible for Prime shipping.
Amazon is the #1 online destination for US beauty shoppers, accounting for 47% of the online beauty and personal care market in the US by 2024. According to Euromonitor. Sephora ranks second with a 9% share. Euromonitor estimates that 39% of all beauty and personal care sales occur online.
“Opening our first authorized brand storefront on Amazon allows us to put ourselves directly in the consumer’s path,” Bath & Body Works CEO Daniel Heaf told CNBC. “It’s about meeting them where they already shop.”
Amazon’s launch marks Columbus, Ohio-based Bath & Body Works’ latest effort to expand access points for customers. Last year, it began selling its products outside of the company’s first outlets in college campus stores (now more than 1,000 locations), about 2,600 owned and franchised stores, and its own website.
Heaf joined Bath & Body Works in May after his role as Nike’s chief transformation and strategy officer was eliminated by CEO Elliott Hill.
Heaf recently announced his “plan to come back” [Bath & Body Works] To profitable, sustainable growth.” He calls this his “consumer-first formula” with four pillars: create disruptive and innovative products, revitalize the brand, win in the market, and operate with speed and efficiency.
Heaf said the Amazon partnership was “the first of many milestones we will achieve this fiscal year against this strategy.”
Prior to the official storefront launch, Bath & Body Works products were sold on Amazon through third-party sellers.
Now Heaf says the company is trying to reclaim its brand story and marketplace sales on Amazon.
Amazon: Friend or foe?
Although Amazon has many first-party relationships with brands Nike According to Calvin Klein, which uses wholesale partnerships as part of their business model, there are several examples on the site of retailers who design, manufacture and sell their products entirely on their own.
For so-called vertically integrated brands like Bath & Body Works, Amazon is increasingly taking on the role of skilled logistics partner rather than retailer.
OpennessJ. Crew and Everlane are similarly vertically integrated and have a small selection of branded products available for sale on Amazon.
In 2022, Gap began selling what it calls “basic essentials for the whole family” through a wholesale relationship in which Amazon owns and sells Prime-eligible products. Gap said its aim is to reach new or old customers as well as provide convenience to existing customers with “basic needs”.
Under Bath & Body Works’ new deal with Amazon, the brand will retain ownership of inventory and control pricing but will use Amazon’s network of fulfillment partners for Prime eligibility.
Everlane declined to comment on the Amazon partnership. J. Crew did not respond to a request for comment.
Jewelry company Kendra Scott has an authorized store on Amazon after initially opposing the partnership; despite this, they had wholesale relationships with other retailers. Macy’s and Nordstrom. But over time, the brand came to view Amazon as another opportunity to reach shoppers rather than a competitive threat, according to a person familiar with the company’s decision-making who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Bath & Body Works makes it easy for shoppers to place orders through its website. The company lowered the free shipping threshold from $100 to $50 last month.
Still, Heaf admits: “We know we’ll never be able to compete with Amazon from a Prime Network standpoint. Nobody’s going to offer next-day shipping. That’s not our job. So I think we’re making our own site more competitive by moving to Amazon, but we recognize that our job isn’t to build a fulfillment network that can run at Amazon’s pace.”
