Networking hour during CEW’s Newsmaker event featuring David Greenberg on Thursday, June 6, had several executives talking about another beauty powerhouse, Creighton Kiper. The chatter revolved around how Walmart’s Vice President of Merchandising, Beauty, had moved to a position in the Home category. On Friday, June 8, Walmart officials confirmed Kiper had been promoted to Senior Vice President of Home, and that it had yet to name his replacement in Beauty.

Kiper held Walmart’s top spot in Beauty since February 2022, and for the next two years he inarguably injected fresh thinking and unexpected brands into Walmart’s beauty aisles.

One example includes how he upgraded the retailer’s Beauty department in their Stores of the Future, which feature easier-to-shop aisles and expanded space on shelves to accommodate interactive beauty tools to encourage self-selection.

Kiper also shepherded the adoption of a new planogram that brought textured hair care together with general market brands.  The effort put BIPOC-owned brands on even footing with multinationals.

Skin care was a sweet spot for Kiper, who upgraded the category by adding emerging brands to the mix, such as Bubble. “We’re building our assortment to align with the interests of younger customers who are driving growth across this category,” he said in a March 2024 Walmart newsletter.

Kiper also tapped many new brands across categories including Madison Reed, Hero Cosmetics, Dossier, Sundae Body, and Olive & June.

Other innovations during his tenure include the debut of The Shop, a men’s grooming collection by LeBron James, and the retail partnership with SpaceNK, which brought prestige beauty to 250-plus Walmart stores via Beauty SpaceNK shop-in-shops, which he called “a great learning for Walmart to understand affluent customers.” Most recently, Kiper expanded the Walmart Start program to nurture emerging brands, now in its second year.

Prior to stepping into Beauty, Kiper was Walmart’s Vice President of Wellness OTC. While overseeing the Wellness category, Kiper managed the launch of brands including Goli, Roman, and Vital Proteins. He also served as General Manager for Strategy, Digital Product, and Analytics for Walmart U.S. Merchandising, where his core responsibility was shaping and enabling merchant transformation through process and technology.

Kiper joined Walmart in 2008. Outside of Walmart’s Beauty, Wellness, OTC, and Digital businesses, he also has held various roles in Apparel and Food where he led several successful turnaround efforts, delivered significant product launches and sustainability initiatives, and accelerated digital transformation.