Brands dream of the moment a product goes viral. Yet when orders flood in, gaps in fulfillment and supply chain readiness can quickly turn a breakthrough into a bottleneck.
“We always brace for it, but sometimes it comes when we least expect it,” said Sarah Bethel, Chief Operating Officer at luxury makeup brand Patrick Ta Beauty — a brand that has experienced multiple viral product moments of its own.
When brands reach an inflection point like this, the ability to scale fulfillment quickly determines whether momentum lasts or stalls.
“The viral moment is really great visibility,” said Kamran Iqbal, vp of GXO Direct, a multi-tenant warehousing solution offered by GXO. “But if the post-purchase experience falls short, it can undermine brand trust and cost you a new customer.”
“Order spikes often leave brands without inventory where it’s needed most — whether in-store or online — and scaling staffing and systems fast enough is often the bigger hurdle,” said Iqbal.
To avoid these pitfalls, brands are increasingly turning to flexible supply chain strategies to stay in control during high-growth moments.
The far-reaching effects of flexible fulfillment
Traditional fulfillment models are built for predictability, but for an industry like beauty that is defined by rapid shifts and viral trends, they often fall short.
To keep pace, many brands are embracing flexible strategies and shared infrastructure, enabling faster pivots and expansion without heavy capital investments. These multi-tenant warehousing solutions provide access to integrated labor pools and flexible scalability while reducing overhead.
“Shared warehousing allows brands to automatically access economies of scale, reducing the burden of managing infrastructure and staff,” Iqbal said. “The long-term value is in the ability to grow. A brand can start at the emerging stage and expand to global enterprise levels without having to change partners.”
This approach enables beauty brands to respond quickly during viral product launches, seasonal sales spikes and other unpredictable shifts in consumer behavior, all while delivering an unmatched customer experience.
Beyond DTC capabilities, omnichannel readiness is equally vital. “It’s about balancing costs per unit with customer experience,” Iqbal said. “Order orchestration and activation of store inventory are critical for brands with retail footprints to deliver true omnichannel fulfillment.”
Finally, integration ties it all together. E-commerce platforms and fulfillment systems must sync to provide real-time inventory visibility and accurate delivery timelines. “What customers see online must match actual inventory,” Iqbal said. “Without that end-to-end alignment, even the best fulfillment strategy can fail.”
Case study: Patrick Ta Beauty — how viral demand reshaped the brand’s fulfillment needs overnight
Two years ago, Patrick Ta Beauty faced the challenge of finding a third-party fulfillment partner who could help the brand scale up to meet increasing consumer demand for its products, driven by viral social media moments and the brand’s retail partnership with Sephora.
“As we began experiencing rapid acceleration, it became clear that we needed a fulfillment partner capable of scaling with our growth,” Bethel said. “Whether it was expanding through Sephora internationally, putting together influencer kits as our influencer base grows or reacting to mega-moments with influencer Alix Earle or fashion model Gigi Hadid, it was really important to ensure operational excellence for all of our partners.”
To address these issues, Patrick Ta Beauty partnered with GXO’s flexible fulfillment solution, GXO Direct. The brand, which recently expanded into Sephora locations in Mexico, needed a fulfillment partner with beauty-specific expertise and international capabilities.
“The beauty landscape moves fast, and a viral demand can transform our forecast and backlog overnight,” Bethel said. “Being in a shared warehouse with teams who really know beauty — they understand the precision, the expiry dates and how important it is to handle the product and maintain lot and batch excellence — we are able to leverage labor and best-in-class distribution and to pivot quickly.”
The partnership has resulted in faster shipping, a better unboxing experience and streamlined DTC delivery, according to Bethel.
“Utilizing GXO Direct not only helps with getting the product to the customer, whether it be Sephora or the DTC side, but they’re also helping with the marketing samples, the swag, everything that’s needed to do a big bang job,” she said. “Whether it’s a product launch like our new Mini Blush Duos or market expansion, execution must be precise from end to end.”
Meeting the reality that ‘customers are predictably unpredictable’
In the rapidly changing beauty market, with increasing consumer demands for quick delivery, brands are under more pressure than ever to move faster and scale without friction.
As Patrick Ta Beauty’s experience shows, flexibility isn’t just about logistics; it’s about protecting brand trust and delivering exceptional experiences when demand surges. For brands navigating volatility and viral moments, scalable fulfillment and integrated networks are no longer optional. They are the foundation for growth.
“Customers are predictably unpredictable,” Iqbal shared. “The brands that build agility into their DNA aren’t just ready for the next sales spike — they’re ready for the future.”
Sponsored by GXO Direct
