What to Watch: Evine’s Beauty Bet

Home shopping network Evine is betting big on beauty.
The television and e-commerce platform is adding Serious Skincare, a brand started by Jennifer Flavin-Stallone and Lisa Stock, as of Jan. 3. Stallone, who is married to Sylvester Stallone, and Stock launched the problem-solution skin-care brand 25 years ago with HSN.
It's one of several wellness and beauty brands Evine has added to its assortment lately. Others include Ready to Wear Beauty and Raw Spirit Fragrances.
"The beauty health and wellness area for us is probably our largest growth area over the last three years," said Evine chief executive officer Bob Rosenblatt. "We've been able to grow it in high-single-digits every year."
Right now, he estimates that health, wellness and beauty makes up slightly more than 20 percent of Evine's total business. It's a bright spot for Evine, which posted a more than 10 percent year-over-year decline in sales for its most recent fiscal quarter, to about $132 million.
The business historically has been more centered around consumer electronics and jewelry, but in the past several years has worked to broaden the breadth of its assortment, with wellness and beauty playing a major part. Evine's customers are about 75 percent women over 45, and 25 percent men, according to Rosenblatt.
"We felt the beauty area and health and wellness one of the best for us to continue to be successful in," said Rosenblatt. "We have been continuing to grow our penetration, and by penetration I mean the amount of hours and minutes on air of our assortment to be more on the beauty health and wellness side and its our biggest growth initiative on Evine."
Recently, Evine opened up west coast studio, which has allowed local brands, like Terry and Heather DuBrow's Consult Beaute, or Skinn, to go on air more often, Rosenblatt noted.
"By actually having studios on Wilshire Boulevard it's really given us the opportunity to have the brands that we haven't been able to have gone as much because of their busy schedules and lifestyles," he said. "Us actually being in the neighborhood where they are, we're finding its really successful."
Serious Skincare is also based on the west coast. Rosenblatt, who was the president of HSN in the late Nineties and early Aughts, goes way back with the brand, he said. "I saw the growth of the business when I was there," Rosenblatt noted, adding that it will be one of the biggest beauty brands on Evine. The brand is said to have done more than $2 billion in sales, with particular strength from Insta-Tox, a $29.50, and FirmaFace, $51.95.
In addition to adding more established brands to its beauty portfolio, Evine is also focused on brand-building and providing a home for indie brands looking for a larger audience, Rosenblatt said.
"One of the big initiatives that we're doing is finding a lot of digitally native brands that have been using social media to drive revenue and to drive awareness, and we found they enjoy the fact we can bring them on air here, they can use their social networks to drive traffic to a specific time," Rosenblatt said.
The business is also working to build brands, like the recently announced Jane Fonda lifestyle brand, which will include ath-leisure items, health and nutrition products.
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