February 24, 2026
Photo courtesy of Bath & Body Works
What Benefits Will Amazon Offer for Bath & Body Works?
Joining a few other vertically-operated retailers, Bath & Body Works opened its first storefront on Amazon’s U.S. platform.
Bath & Body Works is offering a limited selection of its top-selling fragrances, body washes, hand soaps, and candles for Amazon’s U.S. shoppers. Under the set-up, Bath & Body Works retains ownership of the inventory and controls pricing while using Amazon’s fulfillment network for Prime eligibility.
The partnership is part of the retailer’s Consumer First Formula’s transformation plan announced last year, which includes opening up distribution to third-party accounts to better reach new and younger customers.
“Our Amazon launch reflects our commitment to bringing consumers what they want—seamless access to the products they love across an integrated marketplace,” said Maly Bernstein, Bath & Body Works’ chief commercial officer, in a statement.
Last August, Bath & Body Works began selling to 600 college campus stores across the U.S., with a curated collection of Gen Z favorite products to mark its first store sales outside its owned locations.
Bath & Body Works and Amazon Team-Up in the Cards For Some Time
In first revealing plans to open with Amazon last November, Daniel Heaf, Bath & Body Works’ CEO, said Amazon will enable the retailer to “reach new consumers and reengage lap ones, and we will launch with a curated assortment of evergreen, hero products and over time, introduce products designed to acquire a new consumer.”
Heaf noted that Bath & Body Works’ customer “is already there.” He estimated that between $60 million to $80 million of Bath & Body Works items were being sold on Amazon.com by third-party sellers, describing those gray sales as “brand dilutive and profit dilutive.”
However, he said the main focus is to ensure Bath & Body Works is on “the path of the consumer” — one that isn’t restricted to its stores or website.
Heaf further told CNBC that while Bath & Body Works is upgrading its own website to drive e-commerce growth, it wants the dedicated Amazon shopper. He admits, “We know that we will never compete with Amazon in terms of their Prime Network. No one is going to be offering next-day shipping. That’s just not what we’re in the business of.”
Victoria’s Secret, Gap, and Everlane are among the few vertically integrated chains that have opened storefronts selling limited selections on Amazon. J.Crew sells its J.Crew Mercantile range that’s produced for its outlet stores. The majority, including everybody from Lululemon to Abercrombie & Fitch to Zara and L.L.Bean, avoid direct sales, reportedly due to concerns over brand perception, less control over presentation and customer service, and providing Amazon access to a brand’s customer data.
BrainTrust
Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
Gene Detroyer
Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics and University of Sanya, China.
Bhargav Trivedi
Solutions Architect, Bloomreach
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Will Bath & Body Works likely see more benefits than drawbacks from its decision to open a storefront on Amazon?
What’s keeping other vertically integrated chains from selling directly on Amazon?
Poll
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In 2022, 48.7% of Bath & Body Works’ candle buyers cross-shopped with other retailers. By 2025, that figure had climbed to 61.4%. The leakage isn’t to other mass players; it’s largely to DTC firms and myriad smaller brands on platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop. Against that backdrop, the decision to sell directly on Amazon is both defensive – ensuring Bath & Body Works is present where its customers are – and offensive, putting the brand in front of new audiences. Both moves are necessary because in home fragrance and personal care, Bath & Body Works is already a market leader and therefore has limited headroom for organic growth.
Amazon’s already coming to my doorstep; they may as well bring along my favorite brands. Bath & Body Works wins by driving brand awareness, product discovery and sales among Amazon shoppers. The assortment will likely be well rated with glowing reviews, making Bath & Body Works more competitive on Amazon’s high-traffic platform.
BBW will be gaining exposure on the largest (and most trusted) online shopping mall in the world. It’s bound to cannibalize their existing (and likely more profitable) online business. To some extent this can be mitigated by differentiating assortments. I’m going to guess that the increased volume and brand expansion through Amazon will more than make up for decreased BBW direct online sales AND it will drive more traffic to the brick and mortar stores. The equation is different for other Brand companies depending on who their customer is, but there’s a whole lot of “amazon is my competition” out there which has to be dealt with first. If Amazon Basics starts showing candles next to BBW products there may just be some reconsideration to take place.
Bath & Body Works’ move onto Amazon is a logical extension of a broader “meet the customer where they are” strategy—and in that context, the benefits likely outweigh the drawbacks. Amazon provides immediate access to a massive built-in audience, including younger, more digitally native shoppers, but the brand has struggled to attract in recent years. It also addresses an existing reality: tens of millions of dollars in Bath & Body Works products were already being sold on Amazon via third-party sellers. By going direct, the brand regains control of its presentation, pricing, and customer experience while adding convenience through Prime shipping and easier discovery. The primary risk, of course, is channel conflict and some erosion of the in-store “treasure hunt” experience that has historically defined the brand—but given the curated assortment and test-and-learn approach, this feels more like a measured expansion than a wholesale shift.
The broader question of why more vertically integrated brands have resisted Amazon comes down to control. Many of these brands have spent years building direct-to-consumer ecosystems—own stores, owned e-commerce, loyalty programs, and rich customer data—and Amazon can dilute that relationship. There are also concerns around pricing transparency, margin pressure, brand presentation, and the risk of becoming just another SKU in a crowded marketplace. For premium or experience-driven brands in particular, the fear is that Amazon can commoditize what they’ve worked hard to differentiate.
That said, the Bath & Body Works decision highlights a growing reality: even highly vertical brands may need to reconsider their stance as discovery increasingly happens off their owned platforms. Amazon is not just a sales channel—it’s a search engine and a customer acquisition engine. For brands willing to manage it strategically, it can serve as a top-of-funnel entry point to reach new customers who either don’t have convenient store access or simply haven’t engaged with the brand before. The winners will be those who treat Amazon as a complement to their ecosystem—not a replacement for it.
I only buy directly from a brand if the item is something I really want and there’s no other way to get it. Otherwise, I search for the item on Amazon, and if it’s available, I buy it there. It’s faster and less of a hassle.
With this Amazon launch, Bath & Body Works won’t just attract new and younger consumers, it will benefit from customers like me who are all about convenience.
Smart, pragmatic entry to Amazon could give Bath & Body Works exactly the advantages it needs while letting the brand test the waters without giving away the store: immediate scale and visibility to Prime members, improved logistics and fulfillment options (including FBA and fast shipping), and access to Amazon’s discovery and review ecosystem — all of which drive incremental reach and convenience that many shoppers now expect. By limiting the initial assortment to top-selling fragrances, soaps and candles Bath & Body Works can protect brand equity while using Amazon to amplify winners and learn which SKUs and price points perform best in a pure e-commerce environment. Beyond sales lift, the partnership can deliver useful first-party data and customer behavior signals that inform assortment, promotions and inventory planning — benefits that legacy retailers historically gained when they expanded into marketplaces or new digital channels. That said, the move isn’t without trade-offs: Amazon’s scale can compress margins and create channel conflict if pricing, promo cadence or assortment aren’t tightly controlled; fulfillment and return policies must be nailed down to avoid harming brand perception. Finally, the broader retail trend toward off-mall and omnichannel strategies shows why a measured Amazon presence makes strategic sense — it meets customers where they are while preserving the brand’s owned retail footprint and in-store experience, provided Bath & Body Works keeps control of assortment, gating and brand presentation as it tests expansion. In short: use Amazon to extend reach and test demand, harvest behavioral data, and optimize fulfillment — but proceed with strict brand governance, a curated initial assortment, and clear pricing and inventory rules to avoid margin erosion and channel conflict
Opening a storefront on Amazon is less about surrendering control and more about regaining it, especially when $60–$80 million in sales are already happening through third-party marketplace sellers. For Bath & Body Works, the move feels pragmatic: bring pricing, presentation, and inventory back under brand oversight while meeting customers where they already prefer to shop, particularly Prime-first consumers.
The upside is incremental reach and more disciplined distribution. The risk is strategic drift if marketplace growth begins to outpace owned-channel engagement. For brands rooted in sensory experience, loyalty, and storytelling, Amazon should function as an acquisition and convenience layer but not the primary customer relationship.
What keeps others away is straightforward: data visibility, brand control, and margin protection. For vertically integrated retailers, the owned ecosystem remains the moat. Marketplaces can accelerate growth, but only when tightly managed.
According to research, Amazon is the default site for 40% to 60% of online shoppers. If I am selling anything, I want to be there.
Bath & Body Works’ move reflects something more retailers are navigating: growth today often comes from meeting customers where they already prefer to shop.
Opening on Amazon does not automatically weaken a brand when the fundamentals are protected. Retaining pricing control, maintaining inventory ownership, and leading with hero products are all signals of discipline. The goal is reach without erosion.
We’ve seen this model work. Shopbop operates with strong credibility because the brand experience, curation, and presentation standards remain clear and consistent. Customers still experience a point of view, not just a transaction layer.
That is the real balancing act. Expanded distribution only works when the brand feels coherent across environments. Product truth, pricing integrity, and experience consistency are what protect trust.
Brands grow when access expands and standards hold.
Exactly! “ …growth today often comes from meeting customers where they already prefer to shop.” Sounds pretty simple.
Amazon = Access + Convenience. Access and convenience on a scale no one else can even hint at. In that regard, it’s a no-brainer. Then the questions are about profitability and potential brand dilution. Is it incremental sales volume that is profitable, or is it “instead of” sales with lower margin? Meaning, is the customer buying it on Amazon instead of the parent website and the brand sees slimmer profits…??? Yes, that’s in service to the customer, but is the customer happier with the brand, or Amazon? And if they are happier with Amazon, will they shop Amazon for alternatives? Not easy questions to answer, but if Amazon’s access + convenience means potential profitable sales growth, that’s going to be a tough scenario to not at least look into.
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In 2022, 48.7% of Bath & Body Works’ candle buyers cross-shopped with other retailers. By 2025, that figure had climbed to 61.4%. The leakage isn’t to other mass players; it’s largely to DTC firms and myriad smaller brands on platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop. Against that backdrop, the decision to sell directly on Amazon is both defensive – ensuring Bath & Body Works is present where its customers are – and offensive, putting the brand in front of new audiences. Both moves are necessary because in home fragrance and personal care, Bath & Body Works is already a market leader and therefore has limited headroom for organic growth.
Amazon’s already coming to my doorstep; they may as well bring along my favorite brands. Bath & Body Works wins by driving brand awareness, product discovery and sales among Amazon shoppers. The assortment will likely be well rated with glowing reviews, making Bath & Body Works more competitive on Amazon’s high-traffic platform.
BBW will be gaining exposure on the largest (and most trusted) online shopping mall in the world. It’s bound to cannibalize their existing (and likely more profitable) online business. To some extent this can be mitigated by differentiating assortments. I’m going to guess that the increased volume and brand expansion through Amazon will more than make up for decreased BBW direct online sales AND it will drive more traffic to the brick and mortar stores. The equation is different for other Brand companies depending on who their customer is, but there’s a whole lot of “amazon is my competition” out there which has to be dealt with first. If Amazon Basics starts showing candles next to BBW products there may just be some reconsideration to take place.
Bath & Body Works’ move onto Amazon is a logical extension of a broader “meet the customer where they are” strategy—and in that context, the benefits likely outweigh the drawbacks. Amazon provides immediate access to a massive built-in audience, including younger, more digitally native shoppers, but the brand has struggled to attract in recent years. It also addresses an existing reality: tens of millions of dollars in Bath & Body Works products were already being sold on Amazon via third-party sellers. By going direct, the brand regains control of its presentation, pricing, and customer experience while adding convenience through Prime shipping and easier discovery. The primary risk, of course, is channel conflict and some erosion of the in-store “treasure hunt” experience that has historically defined the brand—but given the curated assortment and test-and-learn approach, this feels more like a measured expansion than a wholesale shift.
The broader question of why more vertically integrated brands have resisted Amazon comes down to control. Many of these brands have spent years building direct-to-consumer ecosystems—own stores, owned e-commerce, loyalty programs, and rich customer data—and Amazon can dilute that relationship. There are also concerns around pricing transparency, margin pressure, brand presentation, and the risk of becoming just another SKU in a crowded marketplace. For premium or experience-driven brands in particular, the fear is that Amazon can commoditize what they’ve worked hard to differentiate.
That said, the Bath & Body Works decision highlights a growing reality: even highly vertical brands may need to reconsider their stance as discovery increasingly happens off their owned platforms. Amazon is not just a sales channel—it’s a search engine and a customer acquisition engine. For brands willing to manage it strategically, it can serve as a top-of-funnel entry point to reach new customers who either don’t have convenient store access or simply haven’t engaged with the brand before. The winners will be those who treat Amazon as a complement to their ecosystem—not a replacement for it.
I only buy directly from a brand if the item is something I really want and there’s no other way to get it. Otherwise, I search for the item on Amazon, and if it’s available, I buy it there. It’s faster and less of a hassle.
With this Amazon launch, Bath & Body Works won’t just attract new and younger consumers, it will benefit from customers like me who are all about convenience.
Smart, pragmatic entry to Amazon could give Bath & Body Works exactly the advantages it needs while letting the brand test the waters without giving away the store: immediate scale and visibility to Prime members, improved logistics and fulfillment options (including FBA and fast shipping), and access to Amazon’s discovery and review ecosystem — all of which drive incremental reach and convenience that many shoppers now expect. By limiting the initial assortment to top-selling fragrances, soaps and candles Bath & Body Works can protect brand equity while using Amazon to amplify winners and learn which SKUs and price points perform best in a pure e-commerce environment. Beyond sales lift, the partnership can deliver useful first-party data and customer behavior signals that inform assortment, promotions and inventory planning — benefits that legacy retailers historically gained when they expanded into marketplaces or new digital channels. That said, the move isn’t without trade-offs: Amazon’s scale can compress margins and create channel conflict if pricing, promo cadence or assortment aren’t tightly controlled; fulfillment and return policies must be nailed down to avoid harming brand perception. Finally, the broader retail trend toward off-mall and omnichannel strategies shows why a measured Amazon presence makes strategic sense — it meets customers where they are while preserving the brand’s owned retail footprint and in-store experience, provided Bath & Body Works keeps control of assortment, gating and brand presentation as it tests expansion. In short: use Amazon to extend reach and test demand, harvest behavioral data, and optimize fulfillment — but proceed with strict brand governance, a curated initial assortment, and clear pricing and inventory rules to avoid margin erosion and channel conflict
Opening a storefront on Amazon is less about surrendering control and more about regaining it, especially when $60–$80 million in sales are already happening through third-party marketplace sellers. For Bath & Body Works, the move feels pragmatic: bring pricing, presentation, and inventory back under brand oversight while meeting customers where they already prefer to shop, particularly Prime-first consumers.
The upside is incremental reach and more disciplined distribution. The risk is strategic drift if marketplace growth begins to outpace owned-channel engagement. For brands rooted in sensory experience, loyalty, and storytelling, Amazon should function as an acquisition and convenience layer but not the primary customer relationship.
What keeps others away is straightforward: data visibility, brand control, and margin protection. For vertically integrated retailers, the owned ecosystem remains the moat. Marketplaces can accelerate growth, but only when tightly managed.
According to research, Amazon is the default site for 40% to 60% of online shoppers. If I am selling anything, I want to be there.
Bath & Body Works’ move reflects something more retailers are navigating: growth today often comes from meeting customers where they already prefer to shop.
Opening on Amazon does not automatically weaken a brand when the fundamentals are protected. Retaining pricing control, maintaining inventory ownership, and leading with hero products are all signals of discipline. The goal is reach without erosion.
We’ve seen this model work. Shopbop operates with strong credibility because the brand experience, curation, and presentation standards remain clear and consistent. Customers still experience a point of view, not just a transaction layer.
That is the real balancing act. Expanded distribution only works when the brand feels coherent across environments. Product truth, pricing integrity, and experience consistency are what protect trust.
Brands grow when access expands and standards hold.
Exactly! “ …growth today often comes from meeting customers where they already prefer to shop.” Sounds pretty simple.
Amazon = Access + Convenience. Access and convenience on a scale no one else can even hint at. In that regard, it’s a no-brainer. Then the questions are about profitability and potential brand dilution. Is it incremental sales volume that is profitable, or is it “instead of” sales with lower margin? Meaning, is the customer buying it on Amazon instead of the parent website and the brand sees slimmer profits…??? Yes, that’s in service to the customer, but is the customer happier with the brand, or Amazon? And if they are happier with Amazon, will they shop Amazon for alternatives? Not easy questions to answer, but if Amazon’s access + convenience means potential profitable sales growth, that’s going to be a tough scenario to not at least look into.