Honeybee Lip Balm & Skincare DTC eCommerce Brand – 22% Month-over-Month Growth – Strong Social Media Following on TikTok & Instagram

Pending

Website Closers® presents a DTC eCommerce Brand that is operating successfully in one of our most profitable industries, the Beauty/Personal Care Vertical. This company set out to make their mark in the Lip Balm & Skin Care niche and accomplished that goal by establishing their own proprietary set of lip balms that are drawing rave reviews from customers on Social Media — not only for how effectively they work but also for their amazing, unique packaging.

As the company notes on its Shopify Website, once a customer falls in love with their lip balm, it could become the last one they ever need to buy. But it’s even more appealing once it’s been delivered to their home in charming honey pot packaging. And a subscription option is available on the website to ensure continual recurring revenue for the customer base.

The honey pot is a significant symbol for this company. It was designed to complement the natural honey theme and flavor of their lip balm, and as part of that, the honey pot also symbolizes their commitment to the cause of preserving bees and highlighting their connection to the environment. This brand has been making monthly donations to the Planet Bee Foundation, and their SKUs help raise awareness of this environmental cause. This ESG Company and its “give back” culture is very important to the particular demographic buying their products.

That commitment to a social cause enabled this company to link its products to both personal care and the rising number of customers looking for eco-friendly products that promote sustainability, and for products made with an effective formula. This company checks both boxes, and that represents a major factor in their success.

Studies today indicate that for the past 5 years, there has been a 71% rise in online searches for sustainable goods globally. Customers are now engaging with and buying from businesses that promote sustainability in ways they once ignored. Other studies show that 66% of all respondents and 75% of millennials say they consider sustainability when they make a purchase.

The brand is also boosted by the fact that lip balms remain one of our most evergreen products on the market, and sales have been increasing in the past few years, soaring past $793 million in global sales and projected to increase to $1 billion by 2023. Lip care products remain in very high demand, which is why this brand has enjoyed 22% month-over-month net margins and gross profits. Who wants chapped lips? Nobody.

The current owner decided to launch this business after repeatedly suffering from dry, chapped lips, and couldn’t find a product on the market that worked. So, they researched effective skincare ingredients and developed their own formulas, with their honey and strawberry-flavored lip balms becoming an audience favorite. Customers are providing the brand with highly enthusiastic reviews that compliment both the taste and quality of their SKUs.

Launched just under two years ago, the company has watched its revenues soar past $1 million, and their Repeat Customer Rate has already shot up by 10%. Customers are already urging the brand to add new flavors, giving the company one of the numerous enviable options for scaling quickly. Upsells now make up 5% of their sales, and that percentage is rising quickly.

Depending on the buyer, lip balms are normally most popular during hot, humid summers or dry, cold winters, but their SKUs – at an Average Order Value of $28.38 — are already selling well year-round, with no seasonal factors.

While there are a lot of lip balm products on the market, this brand has virtually no direct competitors offering one with their specialized ingredients or attractive packaging.

Social media has been a strong tool that the company is using quite effectively to expand their customer base. The brand posts daily on TikTok, where they have 51,000+ followers, and on Instagram, which gives them an additional 22,000+ followers. The company employs a VA who manages their collaborations with social media influencers, a tool bringing them a massive amount of new exposure.

They have the added benefit of possessing a huge amount of quality content ready to be posted on these sites.

The company also runs PPC ads on TikTok, Facebook, and Google to drive sales higher, and they’re getting the same positive results from their email marketing campaign to the massive database they have of 67K+ subscribers.

A good scale opportunity for the company would be to launch an SEO program that takes full advantage of popular keywords to boost their ranking in search engines. A blog on their website focusing on both lip balms and on efforts to protect the bees would go a long way toward boosting their organic traffic even higher.

The company operates through a very efficient inventory model, keeping ample items in stock at their agent’s warehouse to fulfill the 350 to 1,000 daily orders. Since the items are small, the cost of shipping, storage, and packaging are lower, which helps drive a strong margin for the brand.

The current owners are spending between 20-25 hours each week running this business, focusing on tasks that include creating new PCC ads, media buying, and social media management. Several virtual assistants are on board to conduct customer support and influencer outreach.

Without a doubt, this brand has distinguished itself as being the only lip balm on the market with their highly unique, custom packaging, which helped them draw reviews from customers who say they’re encouraging their friends and family to buy their products. When you pull a lip balm out of your purse – people will be watching. Do you want a boring stick of ChapStick, or an amazing Honey Pot design?

Increasing their SKUs and shifting their listings onto new sales platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart would all contribute to a massive increase in sales, and the packaging design is giving the company a vibrant presence on viral videos posted to TikTok and Instagram.

Most importantly, their customers are saying their balm heals their lips better than any other product.