Beauty & Wellness Briefing: The beauty brands winning TikTok Shop 

Next month, TikTok parent company ByteDance will return to court to continue its fight against a possible U.S. ban on the TikTok app. Pundits have mixed predictions on the outcome, which will primarily impact Gen Z, Gen Alpha and the marketers looking to reach them on social media. 

According to the Pew Research Center, 33% of Americans used TikTok in 2023, up from 21% in 2021. But it’s Gen Alpha and Gen Z that make up the lion’s share of U.S.-based users: Sixty-six percent of American teens aged 13-17 and 62% aged 18-29 used the app last year, while 39% of Americans aged 30-49 used the app in the same time period. Those numbers drop to 24% and 10% when looking at those between 50-64 and above age 65, respectively. 

Despite the risk of a social platform shakeup, brands are continuing to invest in their TikTok strategies by leveraging live selling, evergreen “edutainment,” affiliate marketing, keyword mining and sampling programs, among other strategies, thus fueling TikTok’s growing Shop program. 

Liquid I.V., for example, has found success in affiliate marketing on TikTok. The electrolyte drink mix brand joined TikTok Shop in October of 2023 to diversify its traditional e-commerce sales, including direct sales and sales through retail partners, and to target new customers. To stay top of mind on the platform, the brand posts original content, works with creators via the TikTok affiliate program, hosts live shopping events to educate and engage new customers, and runs TikTok ads, said Aaron Jones, vp of e-commerce and media at Liquid I.V.

One recent success the brand shared with Glossy was May 2024’s soft launch of its Hydration Multiplier Popsicle Firecracker flavor created in partnership with the ‘90s-favorite Popsicle brand. Through TikTok’s affiliate program, which offers creators commissions for mentioning purchasable products in videos, the brand found a new customer base.

“We had an affiliate creator create an honest review that completely took off, resulting in a sales lift across omnichannel and a full sell-out of the flavor,” Jones said. “Nearly all Hydration Multiplier Popsicle Firecracker purchasers in May and June [on TikTok Shop] were new customers to Liquid I.V., which proved to us the importance of TikTok Shop as a sales channel.”

Jones partially attributed the success of this product to being a good fit for the TikTok platform. “[It offers] nostalgia, uniqueness and a personal connection that buyers feel,” he said. 

Content creator and hairstylist Matt Newman, who has 2.2 million followers on TikTok, has noticed an uptick in followership for beauty and wellness creators that have joined TikTok’s affiliate program, reflecting the large push by TikTok to drive sales. He’s also noticed a change in TikTok’s backend system that now prompts creators to add shoppable products to videos through constant reminders. “I think TikTok Shop is the future of TikTok,” he said.

Many brand founders Glossy spoke to agree that e-commerce is the future of the app. “TikTok Shop has the potential to become a significant commerce platform, possibly even the primary sales channel for some small business owners,” said Elina Wang, CEO and co-founder of ESW Beauty, a clean skin-care e-tailer that joined TikTok Shop in the fourth quarter of 2023. 

Meanwhile, Brittany Lo, founder of Beia, a line of intimate and personal care products sold at Neiman Marcus, Amazon and DTC, told Glossy that she sees TikTok looking more and more like Amazon every day. “I believe TikTok Shop will model after Amazon. Like Amazon, they offer more [product and category] filters for bigger brands to have a presence and [eliminate] knockoff sellers, provide fulfillment opportunities, and host live-streaming opportunities to boost sales,” she said. She added Beia to the platform three months ago and has found success through TikTok’s sampling program, she said. As part of the Samples program, brands can seed products to TikTok Shop creators who request them. 

Other brands Glossy spoke to that are finding success with affiliate programs said they’re outgrowing their fulfillment strategies. “We currently manage TikTok Shop in-house but have identified a need for a third party to step in and assist with affiliate inbound and outbound management to give our partners a great experience working with us,” Liquid I.V.’s Jones said. 

Sarah Potempa, celebrity hairstylist and co-founder of the 12-year-old Beachwaver brand, has found the most success on the platform with live selling. With a large following across her personal and brand pages — 1.5 million on her page and 1.2 million on Beachwaver — her experience selling on QVC through the years has allowed her to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers across many streams. In TikTok livestreams, she relies on the same format she used on home-shopping networks more than a decade ago: problem-solution selling. It’s the overall theme that plays out across Beachwaver’s tutorials, boxing videos and launch videos.

Potempa’s team at Beachwaver is managing the growth of TikTok Shop internally, but custom tech stack was required to let shoppers shop directly from the brand’s Illinois warehouse, she said.

But for small brands just joining TikTok Shop, the results are mixed. “Although we’re still early, there’s definitely more platform-specific friction and headwinds than we anticipated,” said Chase Larabee, founder of skin-care brand Pendrell, a line of hydration-focused skin-care products launched in February 2024 DTC and through Amazon. “One of the biggest benefits of TikTok Shop is leveraging the large pool of affiliate creators, but fatigue comes to mind when reviewing conversations we’ve had with hundreds of affiliates looking to strike partnerships — and this is with upward of a 40% commission, far higher than the normal 15-20% on similar order values.” For the emerging brand, the affiliate program isn’t bringing in enough revenue to support the manpower to make it possible.

This is a common theme from other brand founders Glossy spoke to, which find themselves unable to launch or scale their TikTok sales businesses due to overall shopper fatigue in their categories or backend holdups that delay acceptance into the Shop program.

To help, TikTok regularly releases guides to help sellers. In its 2024 guide for business leaders, it breaks down the type of content that works best to grow followership. As expected, this includes exploiting nostalgia, brand values and mood-boosting products. More specifically, financial advice, and conversations about finance and money as a whole, as well as behind-the-scenes looks into a brand’s production process, are top topics to explore. 

Still, TikTok isn’t an easy place to break in, and successful selling relies upon educational visuals not well suited for every product and brand. According to the Pew Research Center, the most active 25% of U.S. adult TikTok users produce about 98% of the content. The same report found that top sellers don’t follow a formula. According to social media management platform Dash Hudson, the five top-performing products on TikTok Shop are Guru Nanda’s Oil Pulling rinse, MySmile’s teeth whitening kit, Veyes Beauty’s lashes, Lattafa’s perfume and Tarte’s Maracuja Juicy Lip Plump.

For successful brands like this — Guru Nada has garnered upward of 170 million mentions, MySmile has garnered 62 million — it’s less formulaic selling or seeding and more secret sauce.

Executive moves:

• On Monday, Estée Lauder Companies announced that Fabrizio Freda, CEO and president of the company since 2008, will be retiring next year. His successor has not been announced. 

News to know:

• The FDA is issuing guidance to consumers that could impact the home and body-care markets. On August 14, the FDA announced there is a lack of evidence to show that over-the-counter antibacterial soaps work any better at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water. In addition, the FDA found data suggesting that common antibacterial ingredients could do more harm than good over the long term for skin and overall health, so it suggests consumers avoid them when possible.
  
• California Governor Gavin Newsom signed 10 bills on Friday in an unprecedented push to curb the ongoing organized retail crime epidemic, which includes retail crime and the sale of stolen goods, across the Golden State. Beauty and wellness are just two industries that have been impacted by the rise in retail crime — as previously reported by Glossy, there’s been an uptick in the makeup-focused fencing operations that fuel illegal resale operations.
  
• Three years after the launch of her first fragrance, country icon Dolly Parton announced she is entering the color cosmetics industry. Named Dolly Beauty, her new brand will launch with four lipstick shades named Jolene Red, Honey Plum, Rosebud and Birthday Suit, each with rhinestone-encrusted packaging. Each lip color will retail for $20 and will be available DTC starting August 22. 

• Maybelline will be the first cosmetics partner of the TCS New York City Marathon. The partnership includes Maybelline-branded activations, including a cheer zone and post-race booth, as well as the founding of a Maybelline Run Club. Club members will include actress Claire Holt, television host and multimedia personality Tayshia Adams, model Haley Kalil, and celebrity makeup artist Karen Sarahi Gonzalez, all of whom will race in the November 3 marathon on the brand’s team.
  
• Indu, a British beauty brand marketed to teens, has secured $5.1 million in a seed funding round led by Unilever Ventures, the VC arm of Unilever. Unilever Ventures’ current brand portfolio includes Trinny London, 7 Virtues and Luna Daily, among others.
  
• Warren Buffet, the American businessman, investor, philanthropist and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is betting on Ulta Beauty. Berkshire Hathaway purchased 690,000 Ulta Beauty shares worth around $266 million this summer. The holding company sold off half its Apple stock in the same quarter. 

Stat of the week:

In Estée Lauder Companies’ 2024 full-year earnings on Monday, the company reported net sales of $15.61 billion for the year ended June 30, 2024. That marked a decrease of 2% from $15.91 billion in the prior year. Bright spots for the company included The Ordinary and La Mer, while the sales of Estée Lauder, Dr.Jart and Clinique declined. 

In the headlines:

Ozempic is changing people’s skin, say plastic surgeons. How wellness brands are trying to elevate the festival experience. Sephora Accelerate brand Of Other Worlds launches online with Urban Outfitters. Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s Lemme teams up with Haricot Vert on a charm necklace that holds vitamins. This new supplement wants to render Ozempic side effects a thing of the past. Georgian skincare brand Senself expands retail with Nordstrom partnership. 

Listen in:

Beautycounter alum and Ritual chief impact officer Lindsay Dahl joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss lessons learned at Beautycounter, the biggest issues plaguing the supplement space and advice on how to lead a mission-driven brand. 

Need a Glossy recap?

In-house content studios are giving Sephora, Haus Labs and Beachwaver a competitive edge. With a new partnership with Charli XCX, K18 pounces on brat summer. Dove champions women over 60 in its latest campaign. Tory Burch has been on a fashion renaissance — is beauty next? Why companies from Cirque du Soleil to Esquire are launching perfume.