How a Popular Beauty Blog Turned into Glossier

 

By Tricia McKinnon

Glossier emerged out of the popular blog Into the Gloss which Emily Weiss launched in 2010. Prior to starting her blog Emily Weiss worked at Vogue, Teen Vogue and W magazine. The blog gained traction due to her popular interviews with beauty mavens such as Kim Kardashian who provided insight into their beauty secrets. Over time Weiss became known as a beauty expert who had tested and reviewed hundreds of beauty products. The blog also enabled her to gain a deep understanding of what types of beauty products customers want. Weiss then translated a dedicated millennial readership as well as an Instagram following into a set of loyal customers when she launched Glossier in 2014.  

Instead of launching many products at once, similar to Kylie Cosmetics which started out with a small product line, Weiss launched Glossier as a direct to consumer company with only four items: Soothing Face Mist, Perfecting Skin Tint, Balm Dotcom and Priming Moisturizer. 

One of the key features of Glossier’s initial business model was that it used a peer to peer selling model which is reminiscent of how Mary Kay got its start in the cosmetics business but with a modern twist. Glossier decided to capitalize on brand ambassadors, customers that were already promoting its products online for free. It created a program where after becoming an official brand rep for Glossier, reps were given a code which they could share with friends and family. If a purchase was made using the code they received a commission. Each rep got their own page on Glossier’s website which also includes a video introduction featuring the rep as well as their favourite products.  At one point Glossier had approximately 500 reps and this model proved to be very effective with peer referrals generating 70% of Glossier’s online sales at one point in time. 

According to Glossier’s former chief marketing officer, Ali Weiss: “even when we started ITG [Into the Gloss] back in 2010, it was never about beauty products — it was always about learning about products through people. When we launched Glossier, we adopted the same philosophy. People want to learn about Glossier products through other people, their friends, the people they follow on Instagram or watch on YouTube ... not through an airbrushed ad or a brand-appointed spokesperson in a department store. Our customers are what make Glossier so unique.”

Customer feedback is also an important part of the product development process.  As a testament to this, Glossier invited 100 of its top customers to join a Slack channel in its early days. More than 1,000 messages were exchanged each week on the Slack channel and the feedback provided contributed to the development of new products.

Emily Weiss believes listening to customers is one of the keys to the success of the brand. When working on a new moisturizer called Priming Moisturizer Rich Glossier reached out to customers to ask them what they were looking for in a new product. Glossier received over 1,000 messages which informed the development of this heavy duty moisturizer. Glossier was valued at $1.8 billion in 2021 and now can also be found at Sephora.

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Tricia McKinnoneCommerce, Millennials, Strategy & Growth