Digital consumer goods firm Honest Company Inc. expanded its partnership with beauty retailer Ulta Beauty Inc. with the launch at 635 in-store locations in an effort to combat soft online sales.
Playa Vista-based Honest Co., founded by actress Jessica Alba, will offer its skincare line, Honest Beauty Clearing Collection, through Ulta both online and in stores.
Honest Co. believes the expansion into brick-and-mortar Ulta stores, which was announced in July, will help its products reach Ulta consumers that may have previously been unaware of the brand or unsure where to find it.
“We see a huge opportunity to meet the needs of the clean and conscious beauty consumer with Ulta Beauty,” said Alba in a press release. “We are thrilled to expand our partnership to bring our best-in-class products to guests in-stores nationwide.”
Honest Co. launched in 2012 with an eye toward selling what it dubs “thoughtfully formulated, safe and effective personal care, beauty, baby and household products.” According to the company, it has banned more than 3,500 questionable materials from its products.
The firm has its own in-house toxicologist to evaluate the safety of each ingredient that goes into its formulas.
Prior to the partnership with Ulta, Honest Beauty products were available via honest.com, third-party ecommerce partners and approximately 43,000 retail locations across the United States, Canada and Europe.
The partnership is part of Honest Co.’s broader push into brick-and-mortar locations to combat slumping online sales. The company saw revenues slip by 15% to $69 million in the first quarter of 2022.
“In the face of significant macro headwinds, I’m pleased we are able to maintain our financial outlook for the year,” said Nick Vlahos, chief executive at Honest Co., during the company’s first-quarter earnings call in May.
“Consistent with the expectations we communicated on our last earnings call, the first quarter of 2022 experienced challenging comparisons year-over-year as well as softness in the digital space.”
The company offered its IPO in May 2021 and raised $413 million at a valuation of $1.44 billion. Shares initially sold at $16 apiece, but are now valued at $3.53 per share. The company currently has a market cap of $327 million.
The company blamed the downturn on consumers’ return to in-store shopping in their product categories, in addition to supply chain constraints that led to many out-of-stock items.
Earlier in the month, Honest Co. expanded its partnership with mega-retailer Walmart Inc., with plans to have Honest products on Walmart shelves by this fall.
Honest also recently said it would launch supplements and other personal care items online and in-store with GNC Holdings Inc. and grow the Honest brand internationally alongside Asian beauty distributor SuperOrdinary.
