Website Closers® presents a leader in the niche and highly profitable beauty care field. Over the course of nearly a decade, this brand has built up a thriving B2B & DTC eCommerce Sales base for its line of eyelash extensions for both professional users and individuals. With more than 50,000+ customers on the company’s Shopify Website and a 65% Repeat Customer Rate, the brand has expanded its sales channels to include listings on Amazon and is also generating a percentage of revenue from their popular eLearning classes for lash artists.
Within the beauty care industry, the eyelash extension market is now worth $1.5 billion in annual sales, with a fast-growing number of customers turning to beauty professionals for help with their eyelash extensions. While the eyelash extension industry usually targets women, a growing percentage of customers are now men. For many of these customers, getting their lashes worked on in a salon is as common as getting their hair done by a stylist.
Studies indicate that 70% of the eyelash artists in the U.S. today earn more than $50,000+ annually, making this a booming industry, and 74% are now either a licensed cosmetologist or esthetician. Lash extensions are popular because they add volume to one’s natural eyelashes and can have a transformative effect on one’s appearance.
These lash extensions have drawn high praise from customers who say that once they get one, it’s hard to not have them on anymore, and some women insisting they will get their lash extensions before they pay their phone bill.
The natural lash hair shed cycle, with a lash hair falling out every 4-6 weeks, has turned this into a naturally reoccurring revenue model for the lash artist and ultimately the lash product supplier. These trends are key reasons why this brand is doing so well. Their customer base is typically beauty parlors, salons, individuals pursuing a career in this red-hot field, and Do it Yourself customers as well. This has broadened the company’s customer base, sent sales higher, and positioned them for solid growth.
This brand markets its own formulated products. Launched in 2014, the company began sourcing its high-quality products formulated specifically for them. Sourcing diversification was key to the brand planning, and their products are procured through 5 main countries including the USA. Their adhesives and glues, which are 4 of their top 6 products, now represent 33% of their sales, which are otherwise divided among more than 300 SKUs now available on their website.
With their products sourced from manufacturers in five countries, the high quality of what they sell has enabled this brand to expand its B2B sales to more than 50,000+ clients. No one client makes up more than .05% of total revenue making this a very diversified customer base. With the popularity of beauty care today, many new lash artists and “lashpreneurs” are getting into this field and the company has established itself as a reliable source for these products highly in-demand among the beauty salon customers. The business recorded its highest ever monthly revenue in November 2021. Sales today remain consistent throughout the year, with no real seasonality factors.
SKUs and Sales Channels have diversified. The company has also become more diverse in terms of what they offer. They have included DIY products including eyelash extension cleansers, eyelash growth serum, eyelash extension mascara and liquid eyeliner pens which are a primary focus on their Amazon platform. They now offer eLearning classes for entrepreneurs interested in learning the specifics of applying lash extensions for their customers. The company now has 8 classes on its eLearning platform.
The company’s shift to Amazon in February 2021 has also been profitable. With 60 products now available on that eCommerce giant’s platform, their Amazon store markets to both beauty professionals and DIY customers and represents an expanded sales opportunity for them.
While the Average Order Value on their website is $100, the DTC sales on Amazon have an AOV of $15, and both sites are attracting new customers. Amazon has been a boon for the company in several ways. Operating on Seller Central, they have used PPC ads on Amazon to attract new customers, and this has helped Amazon become a rising percentage of their overall profits. Amazon also offers this company major expansion opportunities, both through an increased PPC ad spend and an international expansion on Amazon’s foreign platforms.
As their sales channels have become more diverse, the company now gets 10% of its revenue from subscriptions and an additional 10% from their Mobile App. They also have a rewards program which boost customer loyalty on their Shopify site.
The fulfillment process for the website is currently handled in-house but historically was with a 3PL. All SKUs are light and small (about the size of a deck of cards) making then cheap to ship and easy to store in a warehouse. Total warehouse space needed to store the 400,000 total units currently in stock takes up a floor area of 20 feet x 40 feet. Fulfillment for Amazon is handled as FBA.
Their marketing has contributed to sales growth. The brand has an impressive array of marketing tools that they have deftly used to attract new customers and promote upsells, something they now do exceptionally well with their Repeat Customer Rate getting closer to 70% YTD.
This is anchored by its cultured brand strategy and messaging that resonates with its core demographic, the beauty professional
The company has run PPC ads on Amazon and Google, and with a huge email database of 50,000+ subscribers, the company has an effective email marketing campaign that sends out 2-3 emails each week. They do the same with their SMS text messaging campaigns. These campaigns are set for flows designed to auto-manage client behavior.
Their social media campaigns include 120,300+ follows on Facebook, 95,000+ on Instagram, and 78,000+ monthly views on Pinterest, giving the brand a high amount of organic traffic to promote their products and boost sales.
The same is true of their SEO program. The company has optimized its website for SEO several times and has a keyword strategy for its PPC campaigns.
The company also has a popular blog on its website with more than 150 articles, and these tactics are working: the company now gets more than 200,000+ unique monthly visitors.
This is a strong turnkey operation; one the current owner spends just 6-8 hours per week operating. The company has four employees who handle daily operations, including a customer success manager, a marketing project manager, a supply chain manager, and an employee who oversees their warehouse.
If the fields of beauty care and cosmetics remain profitable, this business will as well, with plenty of satisfied customers for both B2B and DTC sales. Quite simply, this company is a real beauty, and an attractive one for an ambitious buyer to keep their eyes on.
Contact Website Closers today to learn more about how this company will send your business portfolio skyrocketing, without you batting an eyelash.
