In BeautyBio’s first few years of business, founder and CEO Jamie O’Banion was selling the brand’s prestige skin care products solely on HSN, delaying a brick-and-mortar retail expansion until her youngest daughter hit Pre-K. The day she dropped her off for her first day, she returned inbound calls from Neiman Marcus, and debuted at the retailer the following spring.

So began BeautyBio’s retail growth, which has particularly jump started in the past few years. Consumers’ interest in DIY self care during the pandemic gave its skin care devices a boost, and its retail footprint has expanded from 300 to more than 1,700 locations including all Ulta stores. And last August, the company was acquired by Rhyz Inc., a subsidiary of Nu Skin Enterprises, which owns beauty device and product company Nu Skin.

O’Banion, who has remained on as CEO, shared with Retail Brew the factors that led to its recent “explosive growth” and how resources unlocked from its acquisition have helped to further accelerate it.

Keep reading here.—EC

It’s tough rn for retailers.

Last year, stores were sitting on $700m+ in excess inventory they couldn’t shift. Now, take that number and combine it with the fact that 89% of retailers have experienced massive cost increases over the last six months—yep, you’ve got yourself a pickle.

Good news: Sage is here to the rescue. Their exclusive inventory masterclass series is absolutely stacked with super-applicable insights and strategies on all kinds of topics that’ll help your biz grow and scale.

Next up, they’re taking a close look at the inventory issue within the fashion industry. Like, did you know Gap recently saw its warehouses creaking under a $30.4b inventory after racking up a 37% inventory increase year over year? Want more deets?

Let Sage solve your inventory conundrums.

Klarna is taking steps to distinguish itself from traditional banks and credit card companies. The buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider this week launched an initiative called Wikipink, aimed at “setting new standards for transparency and responsibility” in the lending industry.

In effect, this means revealing internal data such as late fee rates, repayment rates, and customer age demographics, and contrasting it with major banks and credit providers.

“We still see too many of the traditional banks and credit card companies pushing products on consumers with exorbitant interest rates, hidden fees, and revolving debt,” David Sykes, chief commercial officer at Klarna, said in a statement. “It is very clear that the traditional credit card model does not work in the favor of the vast majority of customers.”

To highlight this disparity, the fintech firm commissioned a Harris Poll revealing that 41% of US credit card users carry revolving month to month balances, and 23% said they’ve “paid their credit card late and incurred a late fee or had a credit card payment go into debt collection over the last year.”

Keep reading here.—AV

It’s officially the Day of Black Sun. Yes, today is the solar eclipse, and by all accounts, it’s supposed to be more of a spectacle than the one we got in 2017. So much so that dozens of Wegmans stores are temporarily closing up shop. So before you blindly stare right into the eclipse, use your intact eyesight to get a gander at what else is happening in retail this week.

In price increases: Starting today, UPS will be adding delivery surcharges for packages, a move FedEx will also implement next week. The surcharges will affect 82 zip codes in largely urban areas, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

In openings: Publix has been on a bit of a tear lately when it comes to opening new stores, and this Thursday’s grand opening of the company’s new location in Wellington, Florida, bears that out.

Keep reading here.—KM

Keep your on resale. This sector is taking off—with 15x faster growth than the broader retail clothing sector (according to ThredUp’s 2024 Resale Report). This Earth Month, ThredUp invites you to an exclusive webinar on April 10 to uncover the latest trends in sustainable, unstoppable resale. Save your spot (and the planet) here.