d of September, the collection will be available in stores nationwide alongside ELF Cosmetics, Neutrogena, Touchland, Patchology, Tree Hut and Tonymoly. The rollout follows Gap Inc.’s September 2025 announcement of plans to diversify its offerings. Deb Redmond, Gap’s head of beauty, said the direction grew out of a broader view of how customers express themselves. “It isn’t just about what you wear; it’s how you express yourself,” she said. “We wanted to do that obviously for beauty.” Gap Inc.’s beauty offering is unlikely to compete with Sephora, Ulta Beauty and other specialty retailers. Still, many industry experts believe it is likely to succeed, as beauty often offers a more accessible entry point to the company’s other offerings. Can Old Navy become the next big beauty retailer? Kimber Maderazzo, professor of marketing at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School and a beauty industry expert, sees an opportunity for Old Navy in accessible luxury. “Old Navy has a real opportunity to own a space that I would call accessible luxury fragrance and body care. Their customer is youthful, playful, value-conscious and increasingly sophisticated about beauty and fragrance,” she told Inside Retail. “These consumers know fragrance notes, follow beauty trends on social media and recognize the difference between a generic body spray and a well-developed scent. They want that elevated experience, but they do not necessarily want to pay prestige prices for it.” Maderazzo noted that perfumer Jérôme Epinette’s involvement in developing ONBC gives the retailer an important point of differentiation. His track record includes developing fragrances for brands such as Byredo and Nest that resonate with this type of consumer. With ONBC, Old Navy is making that level of fragrance creativity available at a mass-market price, potentially generating excitement and lending credibility to the collection. “The strategy I suggest for Old Navy would be to stay very close to the formula that has made the apparel business successful: great quality, accessible prices, constant newness and a sense of fun. Beauty should feel like a natural extension of the Old Navy brand rather than an attempt to become a traditional beauty retailer,” said Maderazzo. She suggested that Old Navy approach beauty drops as it does its fashion collections: introduce new scents seasonally, create limited editions and merchandise beauty by mood and occasion. “Most importantly,” Maderazzo warned, “Old Navy should resist the temptation to move too upscale as the category grows. The winning proposition is not luxury beauty. It is the feeling of luxury at an Old Navy price. If they can consistently deliver fun, discovery, quality and newness at an accessible price, beauty could become a meaningful incremental category for the brand.” Retail brand strategist and marketing consultant Bethany Paris Ramsay, meanwhile, also sees potential, provided Old Navy gives shoppers a reason to buy beauty there beyond convenience. “Old Navy can totally establish itself as a trusted beauty retailer, but it has to give shoppers a reason to buy beauty there beyond convenience.” Ramsay pointed out that the brand already has enormous reach, strong awareness and credibility around accessible products for the whole family. The risk is that beauty could feel like a collection of impulse items near checkout. “Trust will come from clear curation, thoughtful merchandising and consistency. Old Navy should define exactly what it wants to represent in beauty, whether that is affordable everyday essentials, family-friendly personal care or fun, trend-aware discovery, and ensure every product supports that positioning. Testers, accessible product education, reliable inventory and a strong digital shopping experience will also be essential,” said Ramsay. She would also be interested in seeing Old Navy create dedicated beauty accounts on Instagram and Tiktok. Separate channels would give it room to act as a beauty brand and retailer in its own right, she explained. They could feature tutorials, product education, trend commentary, routines and creator-led storytelling that might feel out of place alongside its traditional fashion content. The channels would also signal that Old Navy sees beauty as a meaningful long-term category rather than a temporary basket-building experiment. “Of course,” Ramsay added, “those channels would require a distinct POV and sustained investment; simply reposting product imagery would not be enough to build authority with beauty consumers.” Old Navy’s edge in the beauty space Old Navy is better known for affordable back-to-school outfits and denim. But Naomi Omamuli Emiko, founder of marketing agency TNGE, sees several advantages it has over other players in beauty. “Old Navy has an advantage most beauty launches don’t get: nobody has to be convinced they belong in the category. Parents already trust this brand with everything else in the cart, so hair and body care isn’t a stretch; it’s just the next aisle,” said Emiko. She also sees an edge in Old Navy’s curation of third-party beauty brands. “Old Navy’s whole identity is ‘We already picked for you’, value without the decision fatigue. If they bring that same instinct to beauty, a tight, opinionated edit instead of a wall of SKUs, that’s real differentiation in a category drowning in choice. The minute it starts looking like a mini-Sephora, they lose what makes people trust them. “The play isn’t to look more like a beauty retailer; it’s to stay unmistakably Old Navy and let beauty prove it belongs there.” Further reading: Can Old Navy’s new CEO Michael Francis relight the brand’s fire?