The Top Nine Things You Must Know For Beauty Retail Success

Think launching a new beauty, personal care, or wellness brand is easy? Here, the top nine things you must know for retail success in the US market:

1. Find the Fit: Learn the business culture and practices of the retailer you are targeting for your brand. Nothing is worse than wasting a buyer’s time or pitching them a brand that does not fit their culture or their consumer DNA.

2. Wise Up: Get to know your brand’s top three competitors. Study their business history, sales profile, growth, and possible setbacks, social media and PR activities? Where did they fall short and where could they have improved? Incorporate these observations into your launch strategy.

3. Pricing: Make sure your pricing is competitive, but also lines up with your packaging and ingredient story. It’s much better to have this conversation prior to sitting across from the buyer.

4. Branding Assets that Make Sense: Make sure your branding assets speak to the buyer and consumer alike. Is it in line with how other brands are talking about their products and companies? Does it deliver on promises made to the consumer in particular? 

5. Be a Rule Follower: All ingredients must be compliant with applicable US laws and regulations regarding the usage of personal care products. This includes how you write about your ingredients on your packaging, website and all materials. 

6. What’s New? Maintain a product development pipeline and portfolio of new products. Sure, buyers are going to be excited with your initial launch portfolio, but they are also going to want to see what else you’ve got in the works that will keep consumers coming back for more!

7. Money Matters: Make sure you have enough cash! Be fastidious and run the numbers, because starting a beauty company is expensive and you don’t want to set yourself up for failure for lack of cash flow.

8. Over Prepare! Get your branding elements in tip-top shape, so that it is compelling and fun for buyers! This includes a winning presentation or pitch deck for buyer meetings, as well as having a stellar website and social media presence prepared. Be ready to show how your brand messaging is relevant to the US beauty market.

9. Connect! If you are not a US-based company then be sure to set up an office and logistics hub. Buyers want to know they have a personal or stateside connection. 

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