Walmart Adds Curie To Its Growing Indie Brand Roster

Curie is riding a wave of exposure into Walmart, where it’s hitting 4,300 stores with seven stockkeeping units in the megachain’s natural personal care selection.

The mass-market retail rollout comes over a year since the brand pitched on the ABC reality television business program “Shark Tank,” six months since it was showcased on NBC morning show “Today” and two years since it premiered on QVC. It’s had about a dozen appearances on the shopping network and has sold out in half of those appearances. Buoyed by the publicity, in the last year, Curie’s sales have spiked 900% to reach a profitable eight-figure sum.

“Ninety percent of our business has been direct-to-consumer, and two years ago, I’m not sure I would’ve said yes to such a massive retail rollout, but I think right now the timing is right,” says Curie founder and CEO Sarah Moret. “With ‘Shark Tank’ being such a huge platform that launched us into this next phase of the business, QVC and all the success that we’ve been having, the brand awareness is there, and we aren’t slowing down. And what I’ve learned is, as a new brand, you have to have that recognition going into a mass retailer because your products aren’t just magically going to move off the shelves.”

Curie’s debut Walmart assortment features its $12.97 Deodorant Stick and $13.97 Deodorant & Body Spray in three scents each—White Tea, Orange Neroli and Coconut Nectar—as well as its $13.97 Armpit Detox Mask. The brand’s entrance into the retailer is illustrative of a wider effort at Walmart to inject indie brands often at a premium for the mass market into its beauty and personal care repertoire. Olive & June, PaintLab, Pursoma, The Hair Lab by Strands, Pardon My Fro and Luna Magic are among the indie players that have entered its ranks.

“We are thrilled to welcome Curie to Walmart,” said Kerry Robinson, SVP, personal care and beauty merchandising for Walmart in the United States, in a statement. “Walmart shoppers are looking for new, innovative and effective products to add to their personal care routines, and we believe Curie’s focus on natural offerings will be a great addition to our assortment.”

Curie’s Armpit Detox Mask can help attract consumers interested in switching from deodorants and antiperspirants with aluminum to Curie’s aluminum-free deodorant. Made with bentonite clay, kaolin clay and activated charcoal, the mask is meant to speed up the transition from a traditional deodorant to an aluminum-free version. Curie has branded signage neighboring its products at Walmart that provides tips for the transition.

“Walmart shoppers are looking for new, innovative and effective products to add to their personal care routines.”

The aluminum-free market segment is a small slice of the deodorant market. However, Walmart senses it’s a growth opportunity. The chain and large brands like Dove, Secret, Arm & Hammer and Tom’s of Maine have been trying to tap the opportunity for years. The firm Future Market Insights estimates aluminum-free deodorant holds roughly 6% share of the deodorant market and generated $1.5 billion in sales in 2022, but it projects those sales will double by 2029.

Outside of Armpit Detox Mask, Moret commends Walmart for picking up on Curie’s fragrance-forward merchandise approach. The deodorant scents available at the retailer are the brand’s bestsellers. Moret details it’s typical for Curie customers to identity their favorite scent from the brand—it has six available on its website, including an unscented variety—and buy a deodorant in that scent prior to buying other products in the same scent from it.

While Curie began as a deodorant brand, Moret emphasizes its product trajectory is evolving it into a broader body and personal care brand. Curie has introduced Moisturizing Body Oil and Hair Freshener (both products are currently sold out), and it’s dabbled in candles in the past. It has further extensions beyond deodorant on the way along with another scent. The brand works with fragrance developer Ann Gottlieb, founder of Ann Gottlieb Associates, on its scents. Its product releases have regularly racked up waitlists with 10,000-plus people.

Moret turns to Hero Cosmetics, The Mighty Patch purveyor acquired by Church & Dwight last year, for inspiration on expanding a brand. She says, “[Co-founder] Ju [Rhyu] really built the brand for what strategics are looking for now, which is they were able to start with one product, show incredible sales velocity with that one product, and then successful expand into several products and several retailers and did that with ridiculous EBITDA margins.”

“As a new brand, you have to have that recognition going into a mass retailer because your products aren’t just magically going to move off the shelves.”

Jaime Schmidt, founder of Schmidt’s Naturals, which sold to Unilever in 2017, is also a big inspiration for Moret. In conversations, Schmidt has impressed upon Moret how important it is for a brand to support its wholesale operations with marketing. On that score, to support its Walmart rollout, Curie is embarking on its first out-of-home brand awareness campaign. To date, it’s relied on digital advertising.

Curie’s OOH campaign involves a total of six trucks wrapped in Curie imagery circulating near Walmart locations in Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Bentonville, Ark., home of Walmart’s headquarters. Curie handled the creative in-house and teamed up with the media agency Adgile to coordinate the trucks. In tandem with the OOH campaign, Curie is running digital ads, pursuing influencer marketing and relying on its Sniff Club of loyalty members. Sniff Club has about 1,000 loyalty members, and Curie relies on their feedback for product development and messaging. Moret mentions a recent email to them about a forthcoming scent garnered a 50% response rate.

Curie isn’t completely inexperienced on the retail front. The brand has been carried at Anthropologie, Neighborhood Goods and Nordstrom, although it’s no longer sold by Nordstrom. It’s committed to winning at Walmart this year before considering more retailers in 2024. Moret says Curie used cash flow and what she describes as a “small” line of credit from a bank to fund the multimillion-dollar inventory investment needed to supply products to 4,300 of Walmart’s 5,215 stores in the U.S. and the chain’s e-commerce platform.

Curie has 10 employees, up from two full-time employees and a part-time employee last year. The brand has raised $1 million in funding from friends and family across rounds in 2018, when it launched, and 2020. It doesn’t have any immediate plans to seek institutional funding.

“I am always going to leave the door open. There might be opportunities down the line to bring on some super strategic a funding partner, and I think the only circumstance that we would raise in the future is if it really was going to move the needle,” says Moret, a former investment associate at Crosscut Ventures, and finance and operations manager at Formation 8. “We wouldn’t just be looking for a check. We would be looking for someone very strategic to help us get to the next level.”