The move marks a major operational step for the brand, which must now support large-scale retail inventory while continuing to serve its e-commerce business.
For stakeholders in the personal care industry, the expansion highlights the infrastructure required for a digitally native brand to transition into mass retail.
Preparing formulations and supply chain for national retail
Before pursuing retail distribution, the company focused on strengthening several operational areas, including formulation controls, supply chain capacity and internal systems. For a brand positioned around products for sensitive skin, maintaining formulation consistency was a central concern.
“Our community relies on us for sensitive skin solutions, so every bottle on shelf needed to be exactly what they’ve trusted for years,” Andrea Faulkner Williams, co-founder and “Head Mama” at Tubby Todd told CosmeticsDesign.
Scaling for retail also meant preparing the supply chain to support multiple sales channels simultaneously.
In addition to Target, Tubby Todd continues to sell through its direct-to-consumer platform and on Amazon. “We worked hard to build in redundancy and fine tune our forecasting so we could show up for Target, Amazon and our DTC community without missing a beat,” said Williams.
Internally, the company also evaluated whether its operational systems could handle national retail logistics and higher production volume to ensure “our systems could scale with us as we opened a nationwide retail channel,” she added.
OTC products add regulatory complexity
Some of the products included in Tubby Todd’s Target assortment fall into regulated over-the-counter categories, including items designed for skin conditions such as eczema and diaper rash.
These products, like the brand’s All Over Ointment, Sunscreen, and Sweet Cheeks Diaper paste, carry additional compliance requirements compared with traditional cosmetics.
Preparing those products for retail involved several years of regulatory work around ingredient sourcing, testing protocols and labeling, and the brand worked “closely with experts to make sure each of our products meet all regulatory requirements, labeling standards, ingredient sourcing and testing protocols well before launch,” Williams said.
The initial assortment reflects products that already perform strongly with the brand’s consumer base with a goal to “meet our community where they shop with the products they love,” she added.
Manufacturing scale without changing formulations
Transitioning from a primarily DTC business to omnichannel retail required adjustments across production planning and manufacturing partnerships.
For example, Williams illustrated, “we worked closely with our partners to ensure they could scale up production while maintaining tight process controls and consistent batch validation to protect formula integrity.”
Internally, Tubby Todd expanded its forecasting and production planning capabilities to manage higher demand, she added, but clarified that scaling operations did not involve changing the brand’s formulations.
“Scaling meant getting better operationally, not changing what’s inside the bottle,” she said.
Retail placement reflects growth in baby skincare
Tubby Todd’s Target launch includes a dedicated end-cap display, a placement that often signals retailer confidence in both a brand and a product category.
“The end cap was a BIG moment for the category,” Williams said, adding that the display reflects growing consumer demand for premium skincare products designed for babies and families.
“To us, it signals that retailers are seeing what we and our community have been saying for years: parents want premium skincare products that are gentle, effective and FUN to use for the whole family,” she explained.
Community insights shape retail assortment
The brand’s online parent community also influenced how the company translated its products into an in-store retail environment. For the Target rollout, the company prioritized everyday routine products and items designed to address common skin concerns.
Packaging and messaging were also adapted for a retail setting, where shoppers may encounter the brand for the first time. For example, “for our Regulars 3-step solution packaging, we made things clearer and more intuitive for an in-store moment,” Williams said: “routine ready, quick to understand, easy to shop.”
As the company expands in retail, Williams said supplier and manufacturing partnerships will remain central to supporting growth, and operational scale will require partners capable of maintaining quality while supporting innovation across ingredients, packaging and production processes.
“We’re focused on continuing to find partners who can help us keep getting better at what we do, whether that’s better packaging, improved ingredient processing, or new ways to serve our community,” Williams said.
