Macy's teams up with grooming services provider in beauty push

Macy's Inc will partner with beauty services provider beGlammed to provide at-home grooming and makeup services, as the department store operator focuses on beauty to help arrest a slide in sales.

Customers will be able to book beGlammed services ranging from $25.00-$185.00, including bridal makeup, on macys.com, on-demand beauty service provider beGlammed said in a statement on Thursday.

The service will be launched in 22 U.S. cities that beGlammed operates in, including Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas, the company said in a statement.

BeGlammed was founded in 2014 by Maile Pacheco, a former Mac cosmetics employee, who created the on-demand platform to connect clients with professional stylists.

Department store operators such as Macy's and J.C. Penney Co Inc are trying to grab a bigger slice of the fast-growing beauty products market as their mainstay apparel business comes under pressure from online giant Amazon.com Inc and off-price rivals including TJX Cos Inc .

Sephora counters inside J.C. Penney stores have been a huge hit for the department store owner and among the company's best-performing sales categories in the past few quarters.

J.C. Penney, which has more than 500 Sephora counters within its stores, said in April it would quickly open more such counters this year. Sephora is owned by French luxury company LVMH .

Sales of premium makeup, fragrances and skin-care products that are generally not sold at drugstores rose 7 percent to $16 billion in 2015, according to research firm NPD.

Macy's, which reported its sixth straight drop in quarterly sales last month, has called beauty one of its "significant growth opportunities".

The company bought beauty retailer and spa chain Bluemercury last year for $210 million and has said it would focus on expanding the chain.

Macy's tie-up with beGlammed is the second partnership announced this month. Macy's has said it plans to open an Apple Inc store inside its flagship Herald Square store in New York, as it tries to tap into the iPhone maker's big customer base to boost traffic in its stores this holiday season.

Macy's made a similar partnership agreement with consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co Inc in September.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh)