Dive Brief:
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Lady Gaga is launching a new beauty line, Haus Laboratories, which will be available for pre-order starting July 15, the star announced in an Instagram post and through her Twitter account Tuesday.
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According to a Lady Gaga interview with Business of Fashion, the brand will launch exclusively on Amazon. With the pre-order date given on social media, that would mean the new brand would become available during Prime Day, which is set for July 15 and 16.
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Haus Laboratories will officially launch in September, with beauty kits combining lip gloss, lip liner and all-over color, according to the Business of Fashion.
Dive Insight:
Amazon has made some serious moves into the beauty space recently. The e-commerce giant just last month announced the launch of its professional beauty store, a direct shot at players like Sally Beauty, and in March the retailer announced a skin care private label in the space.
Rumblings of Amazon becoming a threat to the beauty space have been heard for some time, and indeed, by some measures, Amazon is the top online destination for buying beauty products. According to data emailed to Retail Dive by Feedvisor, beauty and personal care is the fourth most purchased product category on the marketplace, and 67% of consumers who buy from Amazon on a nearly daily basis most frequently purchase from that category.
Getting a high-status celebrity like Lady Gaga should only help Amazon's bid for more market share in the space, legitimizing it as a platform where new brands can launch. It's a strategy that specialty players Sephora and Ulta have been after as well, banking on exclusive partnerships with up-and-coming and direct-to-consumer brands to fuel interest, and traffic, to stores.
The decision to sell exclusively on Amazon is an interesting one when Ulta and Sephora have been performing strongly in the space, and fostering discovery of new brands. Ulta executives, in particular, have lauded their success in landing brands like Kylie Cosmetics, which drive traffic to stores.
In some ways, launching on Amazon could work against Haus Laboratories, especially if consumers have become accustomed to searching Ulta and Sephora for new products in the space. That being said, Lady Gaga is such a big figure in popular culture that the platform she chooses to sell on is unlikely to deter her biggest fans from seeking it out. Lady Gaga's biggest challenge may be the sheer volume of competition in the space rather than her platform of choice, and she's aware of that.
"The last thing the world needs is another beauty brand, but that's too bad," she says in the introductory Haus Laboratories video. "They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but at Haus Laboratories, we say beauty is how you see yourself. Your glam, your expression, your artistry. We want you to love yourself. Our haus, your rules."
Tech
via https://www.aiupnow.com
, Khareem Sudlow
