Walgreens Takes Minority Stake In Digital Makeup Company Birchbox, Hopes To Lure Customers With Expanded, Upgraded Beauty Aisles

Walgreens is stepping up its emphasis on beauty products and trying to appeal to millennials in a new partnership with digital beauty subscription company Birchbox. Birchbox is among a new breed of retailers that tend to appeal more to younger shoppers by sending members monthly, six-month or yearly packages of sample makeup, hair and skin products. Walgreens will experiment with adapting the concept to some of its stores, stocking shelves with more “prestige” makeup brands, dedicating 400 to 1,000 square feet of space to Birchbox and allowing customers to “build your own Birchbox” at Walgreens. “Beauty is a very important category for Walgreens, and we’ve been doing a huge amount of work to get ourselves ready for a partnership like this to take us to the next step,” said Lauren Brindley, Walgreens’ group vice president of beauty and personal care. Read more at CNBC.