Bath & Body Works is expanding its fabric care collection to all stores across the US. Beginning September 30, customers can get laundry detergent and scent boosters in 16 of the brand’s most loved fragrances wherever they shop.
Bath & Body Works debuted its fabric care collection just one year ago with a small pilot in around 80 retail locations. The success of the new product category with customers led to its nationwide rollout to the brand’s more than 1,870 stores across the country.
In this Q&A, our Chief Merchant Betsy Schumacher shares insights about this new collection and details how Bath & Body Works is tapping into the power of fragrance to elevate the mundane and transform the laundry experience from a chore into something more luxurious.
Why did Bath & Body Works develop a fabric care line?
We’re a global leader in fragrance and continue to anticipate and meet consumer demand through newness and innovation. Our customers were asking us to dive into the fabric care category—we know that they want their favorite fragrances to touch every part of their lives. It made perfect sense for us to bring our expertise to this space by offering a different, more elevated laundry experience through fine fragrance.
What sets Bath & Body Works apart in the fabric care category?
As with all our products, we work with the top fragrance houses across the globe to bring a luxury experience to our customers. We approach laundry with that same fragrance-first mindset and a key differentiator is that we partnered with Master Perfumers to develop this line, that’s unique in the industry. In fact, we traveled the world to identify new olfactive spaces specifically for fabric care—we've visited France’s bergamot and mimosa fields, learning about their oils, harvest and peak growing conditions so that we can leverage this authentic fragrance experience for our products.
And importantly, we offer this luxury laundry experience at an accessible price point for our customers.
How many fragrances do you offer today? Will this grow?
Today we offer 16 fragrances across the line, but we continue to inject newness into the category by branching out into special seasonal releases. For example, we recently introduced our Vampire Blood fragrance to laundry as a test and it was a big hit with our customers. We will continue to experiment and stretch our expertise in this space to bring excitement and newness to the collection.
How are customers responding?
Customers are sharing their love of the long-lasting fragrance experience and the efficacious cleaning formula in these products. Combined with our scent boosters, they’re able to extend their fragrance experience even longer.
We’re also finding that they’re using different fragrances depending on the fabric—for example, they might use one fragrance for sheets and another for their favorite sweater. The way you might layer your favorite scents across body mists, washes and lotions, we’re seeing a similar behavior in fabric care.
Some of the fragrances that were developed specifically for laundry, like our Amber Blush, are doing so well that we’re expanding them into our body care and candle collections.
How does sustainability fit into this collection?
Our commitment to ESG remains a priority for our business--each product we bring to our customers is crafted with sustainability in mind.
Our laundry detergent is a concentrated formula that cleans in cold water and is compatible with high efficiency washers. The bottles were also made with at least 85% recycled plastic and our dye-free scent boosters are made with a coconut base.
What’s your favorite fragrance in the fabric care line?
My personal favorite is Sunwashed Santal—it brings together notes of bergamot, white violet and amber wood into a warm fragrance experience with a touch of floral.
What’s next for Bath & Body Works and fabric care?
Fabric care has opened our eyes to other opportunities and white space within home fragrance and we’re committed to bringing even more newness to our customers. While we can’t share specifics, we’re looking forward to expanding our home fragrance footprint even further—stay tuned!