It’s a crappy situation.
The Honest Company — founded by Jessica Alba in 2012 with a mission to provide clean and sustainable baby and household products — has shut down its app and stopped all product sales through its website.
Rather than direct sales, the company will now sell its product through other retailers such as Walmart, Target, Amazon and Kroger.
The company aspired to simplify its supply chain, improve operational efficiency and strengthen profitability in an effort to stay alive.
Back in November, Honest appeared to be downsizing, rolling out an updated business plan that included shuttering its website fulfillment and apparel operations, as well as closing its brick-and-mortar and online stores in Canada.
The program will focus on what it dubbed its “core categories” — wipes, personal care and diapers — while exiting categories such as the website, the apparel provider relationship and Canada, according to the company.
“Because these categories are lower margin, exiting them only has a modest profit impact in the short term,” Honest Company CEO Carla Vernón said in the company’s Q3 earnings release. “We are confident these changes will drive greater focus on our core product categories and enable continued growth and improved profit margins.”
“We believe these actions will reduce complexity, drive sharper focus on our core product categories and strengthen our profitability.”
Honest’s decision to stop direct-to-consumer sales is part of their hopes to deliver on their mission, the company said.
“These updates were made with you, our loyal Honest family, at heart and will allow us to focus on what matters most: developing and designing products that meet our rigorous Honest Standards for you and your loved ones,” the company said in an email to its customers in late December.
Since the company went public in 2021, it has increased its number of retail partners. In 2022, Honest products started being sold at Walmart, and they expanded their partnership with Ulta Beauty, putting products in stores and selling an exclusive line with the store, Retail Dive reported.
There has been a wave of internal changes at the company as well. In April 2024, Alba stepped down as chief creative officer. They also named a new senior vice president of supply chain and a new chief financial officer this year.
The company noted that while fans won’t be able to shop directly from them anymore, the website will remain as a place to explore the brand’s products, see new launches and find retailers to shop their products.
Honest stopped offering new Diapers + Wipes subscriptions on Nov. 12, 2025, and active subscriptions halted on Dec. 28, 2025. After the cutoff date, all subscriptions automatically ended.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan downgraded Honest Company (HNST) to Underweight, expecting it to underperform compared to the broader market, citing tougher competition and diaper prices, Yahoo Finance reported.
The Honest Company’s demotion was a double-downgrade, going straight from Overweight to Underweight, bypassing the neutral rating.
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