The sexual wellness category was a casualty of luxury department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue’s efforts to cut costs and cull its non-luxury beauty and wellness assortment. In April, sexual wellness brands carried by Saks were alerted that their products would be discounted in an effort to help the complete phase out of the category.
Popular sexual wellness brand Dame was told by Saks that “based on their shipping and fulfillment costs, it no longer made sense for them to carry items below a $50-70 price range,” shares Director of Sales, Joe Vela, who notes that the news didn’t come as total shock to Dame. He details, “I had an inkling that their business was underperforming based on the macroeconomic environment. Several articles were floating around in 2023 and early 2024 about the shift in consumer behavior from department stores to ecommerce and how large luxury department stores were trying new strategies to lure shoppers.”
Saks had carried Dame’s full range of devices and lubricants prior to the department store removing the category. Vela adds that Dame was the top-performing brand in the category for Saks with an average price point of around $75. “When they ultimately cut the department they said ‘it’s not you, it’s us,’” he shares.
Vella Bioscience co-founder and CEO Carolyn Wheeler said she had a call with the Saks team in late April during which she was alerted that Saks would be exiting the category. Wheeler says, “On my call with them we agreed it was a sad day for progress in women’s sexual wellbeing. And that hopefully the category will be made stronger in the long run because of lessons learned here.”
Saks announced its online wellness shop, which included sexual wellness, in Jan. 2022. At its height, Saks boasted one of the largest assortments of sexual wellness products among lifestyle retailers and department stores. Based on primary research completed by Beauty Independent in 2023, the department store chain stocked 120 different devices, lubricants and intimate care products from brands such as Dr. Barbara Sturm, Bloomi, Maude, Fur, Lelo, Pulse and Smile Makers, ranging in price from just under $20 to nearly $400. As of this writing, there are currently 12 items listed under “sexual wellness” in Saks’s online store, with about half of those discounted. Notably, a number of those products are from Lady Suite, which shuttered last year, and reported in Beauty Independent.
When asked about the decision to stop carrying sexual wellness products, a spokesperson for the retailer hinted at lackluster sales. “As a leading luxury retailer, we strive to offer customers an assortment that speaks to multiple aspects of their lifestyles. From time-to-time, we offer new categories, like sexual wellness, to determine if they present an opportunity to drive further customer engagement. In this case, we found that customers were not interested in shopping with us for these products, and have made the strategic decision to exit the category,” the spokesperson said in an email to Beauty Independent.
The move seems to be part of the retailer’s move towards shedding all non-luxury beauty and wellness offerings. While reporting on Saks’s late payments to many beauty brands that were sold there, Beauty Independent was told under the condition of anonymity from brands that were delisted that Saks was going “ultra-luxury, with no beauty product under $115…After that, we heard that they are canceling the wellness category all together.”
Earlier this month, news broke that Saks Fifth Avenue will buy rival luxury retailer Neiman Marcus in a $2.65 billion deal. At least three sexual wellness brands that were carried at Saks are also carried at Neiman Marcus, Agent Nateur, Joylux and Vella. While Neiman Marcus’s sexual wellness selection was only a fraction of the size of Saks’s, Wheeler says Vella’s sales from the latter exceed those of Saks and Bluemercury combined. There’s been no discussion yet whether the Saks move will impact Neiman Marcus’s approach to the category.
Brittany Lo launched her intimate care brand Beia Naturals at Neiman Marcus as part of its sexual wellness pilot in Atlanta last year. “Within a month or so of us launching into Neiman, the physical section of ‘sexual wellness’ disappeared and we were re-merchandised into the trending beauty section,” she shares. “That would have been fine as we are more in the intimate care/body subsection of sexual wellness, but the category can’t be found online either to my knowledge. They still have Kiki Montparnasse’s vibrator and Vush vibrators but they are under ‘bath & body.’”
While industry insiders want to remain realistic about the sexual wellness category’s future at retail, most believe there is a place for sex stuff in upscale stores. Nicole Leinbach Hoffman, Founder of B-to-B sexual wellness trade show Stimulate maintains that sexual wellness as a category isn’t the problem. “I think luxury isn’t ready for sexual wellness on the scale Saks has invested into it,” she posits. “Instead, I think retailers such as Target and CVS are helping to shape consumer expectations of not only where to find sexual wellness products, but also how to explore variations within this category.”
Vela contends that the category belongs in luxury mainstream retailers, “but I understand that business is business, shipping costs are expensive, and we’ll still be able to reach customers through alternative channels,” he says. “We plan to continue to find more avenues to reach as many people as possible and bring more joy and pleasure to the world.”
