Good morning. This is Megan Graham filling in for Nat Ives. Today, Walmart will let shoppers buy through ChatGPT, LVMH sees sales growth improvement; and Rhode bucks the typical celebrity brand. 

Walmart is forming a partnership with OpenAI to let shoppers buy its products directly within ChatGPT, the artificial-intelligence chatbot, a signal that online shopping is going to become a different experience from the retail websites we are used to, Sarah Nassauer reports.

For years, shoppers have used a search bar and browsed a long list of items, Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said Tuesday. “That is about to change,” he said.

Within the next few months, U.S.-based ChatGPT users will be able to buy Walmart products instantly and directly in ChatGPT. The products will include nearly everything available on Walmart’s website, except for fresh food. Walmart+ members will still get their benefits such as free shipping when making purchases through ChatGPT.

Walmart and other large retailers have traditionally worked to keep purchase data for themselves, using it to expand sales or sell to advertisers. OpenAI will now have access to that data for Walmart’s sales on ChatGPT.

Luxury giant LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton, reported an improvement in sales growth, a sign the sector could be reaching a turning point from a protracted slump in demand that has taken a toll on most high-end brands, Andrea Figueras reports.

The French luxury-goods conglomerate, which is considered a bellwether for the sector, on Tuesday logged revenue of 18.28 billion euros ($21.15 billion) for the third quarter, 1% higher organically than in the same period a year earlier. In the previous quarter, the group recorded a 4% drop in sales.

The result was slightly ahead of analysts’ forecast of 18.24 billion euros, according to a poll of estimates compiled by Visible Alpha, which also anticipated a 0.6% decline in group revenue.

As the sector continues to suffer from a lingering slip in demand, a number of luxury names are shifting the direction of their brands in an effort to revamp sales and regain appeal. On Tuesday, LVMH appointed Maria Grazia Chiuri as chief creative officer of Fendi, months after the Italian designer stepped down as creative director of Dior’s women’s collections. Jonathan Anderson, who had previously held the top creative job at LVMH’s Loewe, assumed the creative helm of Dior, a key label for the group that had recently underperformed.

In the three years since Hailey Bieber debuted her brand, Rhode has become one of beauty’s undeniably influential labels, Chavie Lieber writes. 

Shoppers buy its milky facial tonics and sticky lip glosses for the chance to smear Bieber’s vibes into their skin. It’s the same allure that has shoppers dropping $20 on a Hailey Bieber Erewhon smoothie, or buying any piece of hot-girl clothing she’s photographed wearing.

Rhode entered a crowded market of celebrity cosmetics in 2022 and rose above the tide. By March of this year, the brand said it had hit $212 million in annual net sales. In May, Elf Cosmetics announced it was acquiring the brand for $1 billion, adding Bieber to a growing class of beauty supermoguls.

“Most celebrity brands fail because it’s just a celebrity lending their name,” says Elf CEO Tarang Amin. “This is a real brand. She’s all in.”

This Nov. 18 and 19, CMOs will gather in New York for The WSJ CMO Summit, featuring marketing leaders such as Vanessa Broadhurst of Johnson & Johnson, Cheryl Krauss of Chubb, Alicia Tillman of Delta Air Lines, Laura Jones of Instacart and Taylor Montgomery of Taco Bell. Together, they’ll explore fan-fueled growth, AI in marketing and the evolving CMO-CEO partnership. Join the CMO Council and be part of the conversation shaping the future of marketing leadership.

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