Will Amazon Succeed With Men’s Grooming Shop?

Amazon.com has its site set on another category and this time it is men’s grooming. The company has launched its new Men’s Grooming store with a black and white motif and expanded content to help guys make those important personal care decisions.

"We’re very focused on providing a streamlined experience for the man who already has a grooming regimen and wants to be able to make purchases from one destination seamlessly," Chance Wales, director of health, beauty and personal care for Amazon, told WWD.

The site will make use of "How-To Guides" by Men’s Fitness, Editor’s Picks, and other content to introduce shoppers interested in new items.

Amazon is offering both mass grooming brands as well as high-end products on the site. Featured brands include American Crew, Axe, Baxter of California, Braun, Gillette, Hugo Boss, Nautica, Panasonic and The Body Shop.

amazon mens grooming

The company is looking to grab share in a fast growing category. According to a report released last year by The NPD Group, over 90 percent of men in the U.S. use grooming products and men’s facial skincare grew 11 percent in dollars in 2011. Men’s electric shavers and trimmers grew nine percent and 12 percent respectively.

"Even though the overall personal care industry is currently flat, the men’s grooming categories are showing healthy growth," Debra Mednick, executive director of The NPD Group’s home business, said in a statement. "Men are purchasing the tools to help them get their look and looking good sells."

The strategy of highlighting special shops is nothing new to Amazon or the companies it owns. Just last month, the e-tailer launched its 50+ Active and Healthy Living Store. Amazon’s Quidsi site has launched category specific sites including BeautyBar.com, Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com and YoYo.com.

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Discussion Questions

What do you think of Amazon’s strategy to build online stores focused on key growth categories? Will the company succeed with its Men’s Grooming Store?

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Max Goldberg
Max Goldberg
10 years ago

This makes sense for Amazon. Rather than looking through endless search results, men can now, with one click, find the grooming products they desire. Amazon has a history of success in creating or buying targeted marketplaces. Men’s grooming is a nice addition to that roster.

Dick Seesel
Dick Seesel
10 years ago

Panelists recently discussed Amazon’s launch of a “store concept” focused on health and wellness products for Baby Boomers, and the men’s grooming store is a similar good idea. There is a long list of good ideas with growth potential that can lend themselves to the “store within a store” treatment, all benefiting from Amazon’s credibility with consumers.

Gene Hoffman
Gene Hoffman
10 years ago

Amazon keeps marching forward with its dominant strategies in key growth categories, but one wonders if men’s grooming is a booming sector in the future. Upon reflection, maybe Amazon can bring back combs and a neat Leonardo DeCaprio male look. Stay tuned and we’ll see.

Jason Goldberg
Jason Goldberg
10 years ago

The site will be successful. The richer content pages raise Amazon’s SEO profile in the category, and help shoppers discover another category they can get from Amazon (with their Prime membership) and its fast, low-friction, high-assortment shopping experience.

Amazon added a number of key elements which improve on its generic product presentations. Enhanced taxonomy, curated assortment (editors picks, essentials, etc…), and content (from Men’s Fitness).

The interesting decision to me is that Amazon put the site on its own URL, rather than on Quidsi, where most of the more curated shopping experiences live. I’m curious what causes Wine, Men’s Health, etc., to get enhanced Amazon Category pages vs. a dedicated micro site like casa.com, yoyo.com, etc., on Quidsi. Is there a shopper adoption reason, or is it merely what group at Amazon owns the initiative?

Kurt Seemar
Kurt Seemar
10 years ago

Amazon’s store within a store concept is a nice execution of customer segmentation. Identifying and communicating directly to a group of customers is a win-win as customers find what they are looking for easily, perhaps even learn more about options. The retailer wins with increased sales and market share.

Tom Redd
Tom Redd
10 years ago

The store is not the issue. The store, online store, site, purchase point, etc. will work, but the success is in the trend factor. Stores, loyalty cards, etc. are all great ideas and some prove to peak and nosedive and others become standards. The trend factor is the element that requires a more granular focus than ever before. The new shopper is trending in ways many of us who are old and retail-bred never thought possible.

These Millennials can be taught a trend and then torch the trend if it does not seem to gain momentum on the social side.

With a men’s shop/style/”dudeness” focus, the probability for success and up-trending is good. Why? We are also the last element of the human race that is “beautified.” Dogs and cats get more allocation of the shopper’s wallet then men do…and they have nicer collars and much nicer doctors.

Tom…the trendy guy….

Lee Kent
Lee Kent
10 years ago

I think Amazon hit the nail on the head with this one! As my husband likes to say, ‘men just like to go out and kill it while women like to play with it for a while before they buy!’

What this means is that men typically don’t look at shopping as a hobby as much as women do. They just want to go one place and nab it. Amazon is offering this to them. Everything in one place, what’s trending, top brands, DONE!

Martin Mehalchin
Martin Mehalchin
10 years ago

Good overall strategy and a good category to execute it in. Shaving products in particular are ripe for disruption. Gilette’s products are the classic over-featured, expensive items from a mature market leader. There are some interesting start ups attacking this category as well, including Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club.

Anne Bieler
Anne Bieler
10 years ago

This sounds like another win for Amazon. The category is growing for gens and Millennials; Amazon being one of their favorites. Organizing products by brand and purpose will make it easier to search and compare, and the advice site would be of assistance in making choices among the many options here. Execution is always key, but Amazon usually nails it and continues to refine as business builds.

Lee Peterson
Lee Peterson
10 years ago

As Amazon becomes the new Walmart in terms of ‘companies people love to hate’ because of pure size and involvement in just about everything retail (mistakes will be made!), separating categories out like this is a great idea. You’d much rather buy from an online men’s store than Amazon, from a brand perspective. And you’d much rather talk about it like that as well.

It’s a lesson Walmart could learn a lot from.

Daniel Silverman
Daniel Silverman
10 years ago

The store looks great—very clean and easy to shop (guys like that!). And men’s grooming is growing exponentially, so this is very on trend.

As with all things digital and eCommerce, the success of the store will depend, however, on the value proposition and discoverability. Amazon Mom was hugely successful because they drew shoppers in with a great discount, and kept them with a relevant product selection and deals promoted via email.

The question for this store will be how well Amazon promotes it and what they do to keep the content—and deals—fresh and relevant so men keep coming back.