DIY makeovers - supporting locked down home stylists with an omni-channel retail push at Sally Beauty

Sally Beauty Holdings is the largest distributor of professional beauty products in the US when measured by store count, with some 5000 physical outlets around the world driving nearly $4 billion worth of sales. Fifty years after its formation, the firm has found that its online presence has been substantially touched-up by the COVID-19 crisis. 

Since April, e-commerce sales are up 278% year-on-year, topping $137 million in the most recent quarter to the end of June. And 50% of total e-commerce customers who’ve engaged with the firm during the pandemic period have been new customers to this channel.

That growth rate peaked in April at 353% and while it’s fallen off now to 115%, the shift to online is one that looks to be a permanent fixture as resurgences of the virus around the US bring about localised lockdowns.