Estée Lauder Targets New Customers With Amazon Storefront, ‘Creator Council’

Estée Lauder Companies’ debut of its first brand on the U.S. Amazon Premium Beauty store has “greatly exceeded” the company’s retail sales expectations so far.

This new offering, which started with the Clinique brand in late March and will expand to include a select few other brands, has strategically expanded the company’s consumer reach, Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of Estée Lauder, said in a Wednesday (May 1) earnings release.

“Impressively, Clinique store has exceeded our retail sales expectations so far and already contributed in March to the brand’s share gains in U.S. prestige skin care’s biggest subcategory of moisturizers among others as well as in U.S. prestige makeup,” Freda said Wednesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

Estée Lauder announced the launch of Clinique’s dedicated online storefront in the U.S. on Amazon’s Premium Beauty destination March 27, saying this move would introduce the brand to new customers. Some other Estée Lauder brands will do the same in the coming months.

“Amazon in this moment is a fast-growing online platform in the U.S. and the Premium Beauty store has been clearly a contributor to the overall market growth and particularly has been an important brand discovery for some consumers and also consumers that become new consumers to Clinique,” Freda said during the call.

The launch of this storefront came near the end of the quarter ending March 31. During that quarter, Estée Lauder saw its organic sales increase 6% year over year as stronger sales in Asia travel retail drove double-digit growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

In another new project launched during the quarter, Estée Lauder established the Clinique Dermatologist Creator Council, which includes doctors who share science and dermatological insights on their social media channels and inform the Clinique narrative on its own social platforms, Freda said during the call.

“Impressively, Clinique influencer earned media value for skin care in the U.S. soared 80% during the quarter, leaping 33 spots in rank,” Freda said.

In addition, across its brands, Estée Lauder is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology to support the experiences and products it offers.

“We continue to partner with leading technology companies from Microsoft, with whom we are collaborating to embed AI to drive faster speed to market and local relevance, to Google Cloud, as we strive to enhance customized targeting of media at scale,” Freda said during the call.

Looking ahead, Estée Lauder expects net sales to increase between 5% and 9% year over year during the current quarter, according to the earnings release.

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