Across retail categories, execution inside the store is still driving a huge share of revenue, despite e-commerce growth.
For beauty in particular, the market is projected to grow steadily over the next several years, but brands are operating in an increasingly complex reality:
-More doors and regions to cover
-Higher expectations from retail partners
-Uncertain consumer spending and shifting demand
-Limited visibility into what’s actually happening on the shelf
That combination puts a spotlight on how brands manage their field and in‑store teams. Do you have the right people in the right stores at the right time, as well as the data to prove it?
In a recent AllWork webinar, Amber Weinfurtner, Chief Revenue Officer of Skinfix, shared how she’s using a flexible, fractional field model to align field coverage with performance.
Who Skinfix is, and why in‑store still matters
Skinfix is a clean, clinical skincare brand built around barrier health. Originally developed with a pharmacist in Halifax, Canada, the brand is exclusive with Sephora in physical retail and uses Amazon as a replenishment and discovery channel.
When Amber joined as CRO in September 2024, she explained, she stepped into a market that had changed significantly since 2019: e.g., post‑pandemic shopping behavior, as well as the rise of affiliate and influencer marketing.
Importantly, what hadn’t changed was the importance of in‑store execution:
“If someone takes the time to get into a car and physically leave their house—when they could buy something at the click of a button—there’s a reason why they want to be there,” Amber pointed out. “They want to learn. They want to discover. They want to touch and feel the product.”
For any retail brand—beauty, CPG, or beyond—that creates a challenge: How do you keep up with store‑level expectations without endlessly expanding your full‑time field team?
The problem: static coverage in a dynamic market
Like many brands, Skinfix’s field structure didn’t always match where the business was actually growing.
Amber inherited a team where some stores had heavy coverage but weaker results, while other stores with great potential weren’t getting as much attention.
“We were, quite honestly, overstaffed in places where the brand wasn’t resonating. I think the hope was that we would resonate better in those areas, but it just wasn’t happening. You have to kind of go where the puck is,” she explained.
The core issues may sound familiar to anyone in retail:
-Too many doors, not enough coverage in the right ones
-Inconsistent execution and education across regions
-Limited feedback loops from the sales floor back to HQ
-Pressure to do all of this with a lean central team
Skinfix needed a way to right‑size and redeploy field resources based on data (not assumptions).
The shift: a fractional, flexible field model
Skinfix partnered with AllWork to move from a static, mostly fixed field model to a fractional workforce that could scale up or down where needed.
- Right people & right stores at the right time
Instead of trying to maintain full‑time coverage everywhere, Skinfix now:
-Uses a fractional team across the U.S. and Canada
-Prioritizes metros and specific doors where the brand is resonating
-Has the flexibility to lean into “non‑obvious” markets that show strong potential
Amber shared an example of smaller markets like Wichita, Kan.: They may not be on every brand’s radar, but with the right coverage, they can become top‑performing doors.
“If you have a flexible fractional team, you can lean into that,” she said. “We could become a top‑five brand in that particular area and really gain market share by being able to flex in that way.”
This is a transferable lesson, too: Whether you’re in beauty or another kind of retail, your best-performing doors aren’t always in the big coastal cities. A flexible model helps you invest where the data actually points.
- Treating flexible staff as a true brand extension
Amber noted that Skinfix invests in its fractional workers as an extension of the brand team, in part by focusing on:
-Monthly virtual training calls
-Consistent updates on new products, campaigns, and priorities
-Role‑play and selling practice to improve on‑floor conversations
-Ongoing education and product sampling
This ensures that whether someone is in the store five days a month or 20, they can tell the same brand story, answer questions, and support store staff effectively.
- Sharing the operational load
To keep HQ lean, Skinfix also trains its fractional team to handle some administrative and scheduling work:
-Using retailer scheduling portals
-Booking themselves into stores
-Logging key activities and feedback
“We’re teaching them and expecting them to do some of that administrative work so that they can go in and book themselves in those portals so we don’t have to have as many full‑time AEs,” Amber explained.
AllWork’s platform supports this by centralizing workforce management, scheduling, and reporting in one place.
The glue: data and visibility
Another big piece of the puzzle is data. With AllWork and retailer reporting, Skinfix has more clarity about what’s happening door by door: e.g., performance data to see where coverage is paying off, store‑level reporting and photos to confirm merchandising and execution, and consolidated retailer surveys and feedback. Ultimately, when brands can see all of this data at once, they’re able to quickly pivot staffing as needed.
For Skinfix, this means field coverage becomes a dynamic lever that the team can adjust in response to what’s working and what’s not.
“Having that ability to pivot and be flexible is extremely important,” Amber said. “That’s why AllWork has been my solution for multiple brands over the years.”
In other words, retail execution equals revenue—but only if your field model is built to move as fast as your market.
Want to learn how AllWork can help do the same for your brand? Check out a demo here.