Revolve is evolving its beauty category six years after its launch.
When expanding into beauty in 2018, Revolve began with a small curated assortment of beauty brands, eventually expanding to 35 brands in 2019. Now, Revolve carries over 350 brands across beauty categories.
At the helm of Revolve’s beauty growth is Trudy Arnold, the company’s director of beauty and home. Before joining Revolve in November 2022, Arnold held roles at JCPenney, The Estée Lauder Companies and Ralph Lauren.
“Our customers have requested beauty from us, but also, over the years, beauty brands have requested it from us, too,” Arnold said.” Historically, we would partner with beauty brands on different events like Revolve Festival or New York Fashion Week, so we knew for some time that our customer was a beauty customer. … We’re in a unique position, in that there’s opportunity across the board [in beauty] — but there are certain areas where we know there’s greater opportunity.”
To that point, Arnold said she has streamlined Revolve’s beauty growth strategy to focus on three key pillars. The first is a desirable product assortment. Through its proprietary research and also consumer data — through social media interactions, surveys and forums — Revolve determined that carrying internet-buzzy brands, like Charlotte Tilbury and Dibs Beauty, is important to its shoppers. Revolve was Dibs Beauty’s first retail partner. Clean and earth-conscious brands, emerging brands, and niche brands also rank high in importance to the Revolve beauty customer, Arnold’s team learned.
Strategic pricing is another area of focus, Arnold said. “We know our customer shops across the board, but our assortment is skewed toward masstige because that’s where we’re seeing the opportunity and that’s where the majority of our customers shop,” she said. However, incorporating both mass and prestige brands that are big on social, trending or “having a moment” is a priority, she said.
Last is effective marketing, for which Revolve is leaning heavily on social media. In June, Revolve beauty launched on TikTok Shop. “Sales have blown our expectations away, and all the feedback [about the assortment] we’re reading from TikTok Shop customers [in post comments] has been phenomenal,” Arnold said. She declined to share specific revenue figures.
In September, Revolve hosted its first media trip to promote its beauty business. The Revolve team invited a select group of editors to Nantucket for a weekend to learn more about the company’s beauty assortment and beauty plans for the rest of this year and the first half of 2025. Plans include increasingly incorporating beauty into Revolve’s influencer and cultural events and introducing beauty-focused customer events and experiences early next year.
In addition, Revolve has leveraged beauty boxes as an awareness initiative. Earlier this year, the company rolled out its beauty bridal ($100) and bridesmaid boxes ($75), which include products from brands like Osea and Summer Fridays. The boxes’ product assortment will be updated next year, Arnold said. And in July, Revolve rolled out a beauty box called the Summer Beauty Bag ($140), which sold out in three weeks. The summer beauty box edition featured 18 total products, including 10 full-size products and a Business & Pleasure Holiday Cooler bag in an exclusive print.
This month, Revolve will build on its beauty box strategy with the launch of its first Holiday Lux box. It will feature prestige beauty brands alongside a curation of luxury home and accessories brands. The $300 box will have a value of over $800, according to the company.
Moving forward, Revolve beauty shoppers can expect to see new beauty brands hitting Revolve’s sales channels and more Revolve beauty partnerships, one of which has been in the works for 10 months and is expected to be “a big moment,” Arnold said. Making site enhancements and improving the user experience for the beauty category will also be priorities.
“There’s so much opportunity for us to replicate the success we’ve seen over the last 20 years in our ready-to-wear business, in beauty,” Arnold said.
On Tuesday, Revolve revealed its third-quarter 2024 earnings, reporting $283.1 million in net sales, a year-over-year increase of 10%. The company credited its growth to its international and physical retail expansions and its merchandising and marketing enhancements.
