JCPenney New Beauty Plan Adds New Excitement For Customers

Let’s face it. JCPenney’s loss of Sephora shops to Kohl’s KSS left a gaping hole in their beauty plan. In the next three years, Kohl’s will open 850 Sephora shops in their stores in prominent locations. Not unexpectedly, JC Penney JCP will unveil an exciting new beauty department this month that will be rolled out to replace the well-selling Sephora assortment.

The strategy, announced by JCPenney’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer Michelle Wlazlo, includes Thirteen Lune, the on-line platform selling Black and Brown-owned beauty brands. Partnering with thirteen lune, and focusing on JCPenney’s strategy, are some other brands of renown. These brands represent a combination of lines that Wlazlo specifically wants and certain brands seeking to be part of the JCPenney strategy.

For the launch, JCPenney’s management projects about 170 brands will be included; additional brands will join in the future. Not only will the assortment stress diversity, (with such lines as Nyakio Beauty which was launched last year by Nyakio Grieco and Patrick Herning, founder and chief executive of the inclusive H. Honoré e-commerce website) but there will also be some exclusive brands – such as prestige brand Mirabella and Makeup Geek, a brand for customizing your own make-up kit. The in-house team also curated I’m Meme, Nooni, Kleem Organics, and Better Natured Haircare. Wlazlo indicated that they tripled the footprint dedicated to hair care.

JCPenney’s Beauty Shops will have a closer relationship with the salons and make it easier to fill the customer’s beauty needs. Thirteen Lune has curated a grouping of 28 brands for JCPenney that are also available on its own site. They include Wander Beauty, which is also stocked at Sephora.com as well as such indie brands as Shaz & Kiks, Joanna Vargas, Anové and Pholk. (Pholk is a skin-care brand formulated for consumers with melanin-rich skin and is vegan/plant-based; it is designed to targeting millennials.)

The JCPenney Beauty Shops will be unveiled October 15 when 10 pilot shops will be opened in Davenport, Fla., Dearborn, Mich., Greenville, N.C., McAllen and Mesquite, Tx., Niles, Oh., Springfield, Mo., Saint Cloud, Minn., Trumbull, Conn., and Whittier, Ca. The Beauty Shops will occupy vacated Sephora space, which is about 2,000 square feet in size. The e-commerce site will be ready and will open at the same time. While the pilot shops will open in two weeks, JCPenney plans to have additional new shops ready to roll out as Sephora moves out by the end of October 2022, the end of their 15-year contract.

It did not have to end that way. However, JCPenney’s 7-month bankruptcy, which began in May 2020 and ended just before year’s end, caused stress in the relationship. In addition, Ulta Beauty ULTA signed an agreement with Target Stores to initially open 100 shops in Target stores this year and is expected to add many hundreds more over time. This added to pressure to make beauty a priority for JCPenney. In fact, this adds emphasis on beauty departments across the industry.

POST SCRIPT: There was no doubt that JCPenney would come up with a fabulous assortment of brands that would address the diversity of its shoppers. This new beauty department will be attractive to young shoppers and will bring new customers to the stores. Michelle Wlazlo has shown excellent leadership in shaping an interesting and diverse mix of products for the Beauty Shop. The emphasis on beauty departments by JCPenney, Kohl’s, and Target will be certainly be stressful to both department stores and Walmart WMT . I expect these stores will likely revamp their beauty departments by adding more diversity to their assortments as well. Competition will intensify but the customer will benefit.