Walmart Adds 60 Beauty Brands in Six Months as Target Stumbles
Walmart has added nearly 60 beauty and grooming brands to its shelves in the past six months, accelerating its push into the category under VP of Beauty Vinima Shekhar, who took the role in 2024. In February, haircare brand Odele launched at more than 1,500 Walmart doors; in March, Pacifica Beauty rolled out perfume, skincare, and haircare at 2,000 doors. Walmart's Q4 revenue grew 5.6% year-over-year to $190.7 billion, with the highest gains coming from households earning more than $100,000 a year. Target reported a 1.5% net sales drop to $30.5 billion for Q4 2025 and declining customer traffic for four consecutive quarters. Target's Ulta shop-in-shop partnership ends in August; the retailer is replacing it with its own Target Beauty Studio concept. About 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart or Sam's Club.
Why it matters
Walmart's beauty push changes where beauty brands need creator partnerships to reach scale. If a beauty client is doing a sponsored integration and the brand's primary retail footprint has moved to Walmart, the creator's audience demographics need to match Walmart shoppers, not Ulta shoppers. The fact that the highest income gains at Walmart are now coming from $100K+ households undermines the historical assumption that Walmart talent partnerships skew downmarket. For talent reps with beauty brand relationships, the shift away from Target exclusivity reopens shelf negotiation conversations, since brands previously locked into Target exclusivity agreements will now be seeking mass-market distribution alternatives. Any creator with a CPG or beauty brand deal should be asking whether Walmart co-op dollars are now part of the brand's campaign budget, because that money moves the scale of the integration.
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