“Target’s reset is a shift from transactional retail to experiential retail, where beauty is no longer a category, but the connective tissue between discovery, wellness, and lifestyle. By elevating curation, embracing premium, and reimagining stores as destinations, Target should become a more important opportunity for beauty brands across a range of price points. It also represents a growth opportunity regardless of the size or life cycle of the brand.”
We were thrilled to attend a session at the WWD LA Beauty Forum 2026 in Los Angeles on March 26, where Amanda Nusz, SVP Beauty at Target, laid out a vision for beauty retail that was as specific as it was ambitious. The room was energized, the conversation was candid, and we left with a much clearer picture of where Target is headed and what it means for brands.
We left with a lot to think about. Here are our takeaways.
Target is in the midst of a full repositioning, evolving from a transactional retailer into a destination defined by space, style, and experience. Store remodels and new formats are bringing that vision to life, designed to create a more immersive, lifestyle-driven shopping journey that puts the most exciting categories front and center.
Beauty is at the heart of that transformation, and the opportunity is bigger than you might expect. The category is currently under-indexed within Target’s business, which means the upside is enormous. Under Amanda Nusz’s leadership, beauty is being repositioned as a primary traffic and margin driver, with more than 3,000 new products already being added to the assortment. But this is not just about adding more. It is about shifting beauty from a discovery-only category into a full discovery and replenishment ecosystem, one that lives both in-store and in the social feeds where consumers are already spending their time.
What makes this vision compelling is the thinking behind it. Target is not trying to carry everything. It is curating with intention, grounding its assortment in consumer emotion and lifestyle relevance, and positioning itself as a trusted editor of beauty rather than just a distributor. Founder-led and social-first brands are a key part of that strategy, arriving with built-in consumer trust and cultural credibility that keeps Target’s assortment feeling fresh and differentiated.
The categories getting the most attention tell an equally interesting story. Suncare is emerging as a key growth driver as consumers increasingly treat SPF as a daily essential. K-beauty brands like Patrick Ta and Rael are gaining real momentum, and X-beauty, a cross-beauty innovation approach that bridges segments that didn’t previously intersect, is opening up exciting new consumer entry points. Haircare is perhaps the most telling category of all. As Amanda Nusz put it: “Haircare has been an incredibly important category for us, and it is one where there’s a lot of founders. We just launched Gracie’s Corner, we expanded Camille Rose, The Doux, and we are continuing to partner with Kitsch. We understand the importance of having brands that have a white space opportunity.” Backing all of it is sharp, agile merchandising: strategic endcaps, high-visibility placements, and a real focus on identifying innovation and emerging white space before it becomes obvious.
“Haircare has been an incredibly important category for us, and it is one where there’s a lot of founders. We just launched Gracie’s Corner, we expanded Camille Rose, The Doux, and we are continuing to partner with Kitsch. We understand the importance of having brands that have a white space opportunity.”
Premiumization is a thread running through everything. Target Beauty Studio is raising the bar for what mass retail can look and feel like, responding to both consumer demand and brand interest in reaching a broader audience through a more elevated experience. The message was clear: today’s shopper is comfortable trading up within mass retail, and Target is not just keeping pace with that shift. It is actively leading it.
Perhaps the most forward-looking part of the conversation was around the integration of beauty, wellness, and lifestyle. Concept stores like the Soho format are already merchandising beauty, wellness, personal care, and fashion together, because that is how consumers actually live. They are not separating these categories and neither should retail. With 65% of consumers researching wellness before purchasing, Target’s focus is on making benefits clear, accessible, and easy to understand. Meet the shopper where they are and give them the “how it works” context they are already looking for.
The physical store is being reimagined entirely as an experience and discovery platform. Younger shoppers want to stay, explore, and spend time in-store. They treat it as a social environment, not a chore. Target is investing in storytelling-led merchandising, weekend events and activations, and a continuous stream of newness that makes every visit feel worth it. The goal is not just to sell, but to create more reasons to discover, engage, and return.
Underpinning all of this is a smart bet on founder-led and social-first brands. These brands arrive with built-in awareness and consumer trust, and they help Target stay culturally current and differentiated in a way that a traditional wholesale model simply cannot. Through its incubation approach, Target is giving emerging brands a real platform to grow and signaling that it wants to be a place where the next generation of beauty is built.
For beauty brands and retail executives, this is a moment worth paying attention to. Target is making a serious, strategic commitment to beauty and it is looking for the right partners to grow with. If you want to understand what this means for your brand and how to position yourself for the opportunities ahead, we would love to talk.