Retail Report
J.C. Penney and Thirteen Lune are restructuring a partnership that has brought minority-owned beauty brands to the department store retailer.
Under the new arrangement, J.C. Penney will interact with and place orders directly with brands, effectively circumnavigating Thirteen Lune’s involvement. The restructuring comes as brands stocked on Thirteen Lune’s website and at its brick-and-mortar store as well as in J.C. Penney’s beauty department claim it owes them tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices. Until now, brands participating in J.C. Penney’s partnership with Thirteen Lune were paid by Thirteen Lune after J.C. Penney placed inventory orders.
In a July 22 letter to vendors obtained by Beauty Independent, J.C. Penney writes, “As we look to the future, JCPenney and Thirteen Lune have together agreed that to more effectively build on the momentum we have created and to accelerate the potential for your brand at JCP Beauty, we must streamline and simplify the operational aspects of this relationship.”
“Therefore, effective immediately, you will sell your products directly to JCPenney. This means that your brand will now establish a direct line of communication with the JCP Beauty buying team and will be coordinating with JCPenney associates on all operational matters including issuance and negotiation of future purchase orders, shipping details, expected in-store dates, go-forward invoicing, future payments and all other related matters.”
The letter goes on to say, “Our goal is to onboard everyone as a JCPenney vendor within the next [15] days. It is our collective hope that this new approach will make it easier for your teams from an administrative and operational perspective.”
Jeanha Joo, director of merchandising at Thirteen Lune, emphasizes in a statement to Beauty Independent that the partnership between Thirteen Lune and J.C. Penney isn’t ending, and that Thirteen Lune “will continue to collaborate closely on our mission’s overarching message, and these brands will remain merchandised under Thirteen Lune in JC Penney stores.” She notes overdue payments to brand partners are being processed. She says, “We anticipate no further issues moving forward.”
As of spring last year, Thirteen Lune’s selection at J.C. Penney was in 600-plus doors of J.C. Penney’s more than 650 stores in the United States. It features 32 brands also carried by Thirteen Lune, which pledges that 90% of its brands are from companies owned and founded by Black and brown entrepreneurs. The remaining 10% are judged to be allies of them with inclusive product ranges.
Thirteen Lune’s partnership with J.C. Penney premiered at 10 J.C. Penney locations with around 50 brands in 2021 in the wake of Sephora exiting 600 shop-in-shops at J.C. Penney stores. All told, J.C. Penney rolled out about 170 beauty brands back then as part of a beauty overhaul.
Bossy Cosmetics pulled the plug on a three-year partnership with Thirteen Lune last year after the company consistently failed to pay invoices on time and honor large purchase orders. The makeup brand was stocked at Thirteen Lune’s brick-and-mortar store and site along with the J.C. Penney curation. In late 2022, the brand ordered almost $100,000 worth of inventory based on Thirteen Lune’s projections for the next year. Aishetu Fatima Dozie, founder and CEO of Bossy Cosmetics, says Thirteen Lune never took the stock. It works on a consignment model.
“I almost went out of business last year. I made multiple attempts to reach out to Nyakio [Grieco, co-founder of Thirteen Lune]. She never responded to me,” says Dozie. “I raised $250,000 to support this relationship and just never got responses from these people. I felt very, very committed to this partnership, and I felt Nyakio was committed as a fellow Black woman. I didn’t feel that I could speak out because I didn’t want to speak out against another Black woman.”
Today, Dozie reports large amounts owed to Bossy Cosmetics for products sold at Thirteen Lune have been settled, and the brand decided to absorb the blow of smaller amounts it was owed. Prior to Bossy Cosmetics’ relationship with J.C. Penney, its Thirteen Lune-related sales were miniscule. Dozie says that the brand’s J.C. Penney performance is unclear as data on its sales at the department store retailer wasn’t provided by Thirteen Lune.
Started by Grieco and plus-size fashion brand 11 Honoré’s founder and CEO Patrick Herning, Thirteen Lune arrived on the beauty scene with much fanfare in 2020 as retailers were enlarging their assortments of Black- and brown-owned and -founded brands. Thirteen Lune’s assortment increased from 13 Black- and brown-owned and -founded brands at the outset to over 160 last year, spanning skincare, haircare, cosmetics and wellness. Its brand partners include Dezi Skin, Pholk, Wander Beauty, Nopalera, By Rosie Jane, Brown Girl Jane, Danessa Myricks Beauty, Holifrog, Goop, Hourglass and Freck Beauty.
Supported by $12.5 million in venture capital funding from investment firms the likes of Fearless Fund, Capstar Ventures and BrainTrust Founders Studio, Thirteen Lune extended its business beyond e-commerce in June 2022 with the introduction of in-house skincare brand Relevant with a sunscreen product called One & Done Everyday Cream. First year sales for the brand were forecast to hit $10 million, according to an estimate in the publication Women’s Wear Daily. The brand subsequently ventured into fragrance and makeup. In May last year, the e-tailer opened a 1,700 square-foot branded brick-and-mortar store in the Los Angeles neighborhood Larchmont Village.
Last year, Thirteen Lune told Beauty Independent that it had registered 2,000% year-over-year sales growth and was on course to become profitable in 2023. Before Thirteen Lune, Grieco launched the brand Nyakio Beauty in 2002. Nyakio Beauty is currently owned by Unilever.
Thirteen Lune isn’t the only retailer struggling to pay vendors. Saks has fallen behind on payments to beauty brands, too. Trying to improve their beauty business, Saks and Net-a-Porter have shrunk beauty assortments to focus on the brands that are the most profitable sales producers.
