Walmart and Barrymore Reunite for New Home Line

Walmart has expanded its product partnership with celebrity Drew Barrymore to develop an eclectic home decor collection dubbed Flower Home.The Flower Home LineThe online-only line is available via Walmart and subsidiaries Jet and Hayneedle. Visitors can shop across some 200 items in categories spanning furniture (for the bedroom or living room), home decor, wall art, lighting, bed & bath, kitchen & dining, storage and pet. They can also browse by trends such as “perfectly imperfect,” “pattern play” and “marbleized” as well as by looks such as “blushing boho” and “bungalow vibes.”Barrymore had a heavy hand in the design process, creating all the patterns in the line from scratch instead of going to a supplier. The line has been compared to "an affordable Anthropologie" and fills a gap in Walmart's portfolio “in terms of hitting an eclectic, bohemian and modern style," Anthony Soohoo, senior vice president and group general manager for home at Walmart U.S. e-commerce, told Penske Media's WWD.Prices range from $18 to $899, with the retailer curating the collection in different ways across its varying brands. Walmart highlights lower priced products such as a grouping of “decor under $40,” while Jet and Hayneedle focus on the higher end of the product line.Walmart’s showcase also spotlights several of “Drew’s top picks” and offers a video of the star introducing her line. The destination links to related articles with home style tips as well as the @flowerbydrewbarrymore Instagram account.The Broader Flower BrandThe @flowerbydrewbarrymore account was first created in 2017 for the Dear Drew apparel line the star launched with Amazon. Updates for its 89,000 followers turned from Dear Drew to Barrymore’s Flower beauty and eyewear products this March as the actress folded her business ventures that did not share the Flower name, including Dear Drew and wine brand Barrymore Wines.“I’ve cut all my other businesses because I felt spread too thin, as fun as they were,” Barrymore told WWD. “Flower is really my driving force and what makes sense to me.”Barrymore’s Flower brand kicked off in 2013 with the debut of a cosmetics line via an exclusive deal with Walmart, promising quality products at affordable prices. The line launched with what was termed a “revolutionary” business model, relying on Barrymore’s fame to save on advertising expenses and instead invest in product formulations and packaging while accommodating low prices.While keeping select items exclusive to Walmart, the cruelty-free line has moved beyond the mass merchant to offer DTC sales and launch an Amazon storefront, and in recent years its success has propelled it to expand distribution internationally as well as into Ulta in the U.S. with four exclusive SKUs in addition to the regular stock. This year the beauty line will solidify its “masstige” positioning by entering mid-to-high-end retailers in new international markets including the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia and India, WWD reported.Flower eyewear products, which include prescription frames and sunglasses, launched at Walmart in 2015 and remain exclusive to the mass merchant.The Power of Social Media“When Flower started, it was more of a traditional, straightforward brand — we weren’t that Millennial brand or crazy color brand … we were more conservative. But within a few years, social media, influencers, tutorial videos blew up,” Barrymore told Conde Nast’s Allure last year.Though its popularity doesn't approach Kardashian levels, Flower Beauty boasts an Instagram account with a healthy 459,000 followers and is a favorite for reviews and tutorials among the YouTube beauty influencer community.Industry sources project the brand generates about $50 million per year in retailer sales, and including eyewear and the addition of home, could reach $75 million in retail sales in 2019, according to WWD.Hoping to recreate the mixture of social, owned and viral media that made Flower Beauty a success, Walmart and Barrymore have unleashed the new Flower Home line across their digital properties. In addition to its own website and social media presence within Barrymore's consolidated Flower brand, the Home line also is getting launch support via the websites and social media accounts of Walmart, Jet and Hayneedle. The Jet.com and Hayneedle.com brand showcases use the same creative as Walmart but highlight more items from the pricier end of the line. While Walmart and Hayneedle give the line its own carousel ad, Jet spotlights Flower Home on its home page alongside other female-founded brands such as Uma, Antonym, Purely Elizabeth and Larabar.Barrymore's star power also ensured the launch received plenty of media coverage from properties ranging from Time's People to Hearst's Marie Claire and House Beautiful to Forbes.New Flower Home collections are expected seasonally, including outdoor home items this fall. Next, Barrymore also is planning on extending the Flower Home range into Flower Kids with items for children.For Walmart, the move adds to a growing collection of celebrity-backed and exclusive online-only brands, the latter including home brand MoDRN. Part of last year's walmart.com redesign also included a new landing page for the home category, along with curated collections, new shop-by-style options, editorial-style imagery and design tips. “Our vision and purpose are for Walmart to be the most inspiring and accessible place online to design and decorate your living space while saving you time, effort and money,” SooHoo said in a media release. “Drew Barrymore Flower Home is the latest addition to our high-quality, on-trend home assortment and another example of how we’re making a beautiful home possible for our customers.”

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