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NEW YORK — Amazon continues to make headway in the beauty category. In 2023, Amazon sold over $1 billion of beauty products to an audience of more than 100 million customers in the U.S. There are more than 100,000 brands available on the platform’s beauty store — and that’s on the rise.
There’s more — Amazon is expected to surpass Walmart as the biggest beauty retailer in 2025.
In the past few months, several holdouts gave in to the Amazon juggernaut. With its sales slowing and an overall outlook that prestige beauty growth is plateauing, Estée Lauder opened the pipeline for several of its brands to sell on Amazon. Today, Clinique, Smashbox, Too Faced and Lab Series are sold in the Premium Beauty program. Under this format, Estée Lauder pays extra to “gate” the brands. That ensures that there are no unauthorized sellers on the platform.
Ashley Helgans, analyst for Jefferies, says that move could offset “lost points of distribution from department store closures.”
Kiehl’s Since 1851, owned by L’Oréal, is also new to Amazon. It is the second of L’Oréal’s brands to sell on Amazon. The megabrand floated a trial balloon last year with Lancôme. Despite being a well-known name, exposure on the platform attracted new customers — 73% of those who purchased, according to Helgans.
John Reed, general manager of Kiehl’s, says selling on Amazon reflects the brand’s strategy of “meeting our customers where they shop.”
It took 18 months to curate just the right tone and mix for Kiehl’s Storefront, which launched on Amazon in May with more than 100 products.
Amazon’s Premium Beauty storefront also sells other high-end brands, including Caudalie, Olaplex, The Outset from Scarlett Johansson and Kerastase.
Amazon has a new competitor on the rise — TikTok Shop. That’s no surprise, since the core age group of TikTok syncs up with enthusiastic beauty shoppers who are accustomed to e-commerce. TikTok garners 2.6% of online sales, according to NielsenIQ.
Leslie Ann Hall, founder and chief executive officer of Iced Media, adds that “TikTok is now the ninth-largest beauty retailer in America.”
