Do you have beauty and cosmetic inventions that you want to sell into retail chains? Have you ever wanted to sell to Sephora, Ulta Beauty and More? 

If so you will love this new training on Beauty and Cosmetic Inventions – How to Sell Your Beauty Inventions to Retail Chains! No Experience Required! 

In this video, we explain what to do and how to get started today!

Beauty Inventions – How to Sell Beauty and Cosmetic Inventions to Retail Chains!

With that said, let’s talk about the beauty category for retailers and some strategies that will help you get started today. There are a lot of product types within this category. Obviously, if you have a cosmetic product it’s a little bit different than an eyeliner and this type of thing, but generally speaking a lot of retailers tend to combine these products into one area of the store. And the reason why that’s important is because buyers purchase for different product categories in general and so if you have a beauty product look for the beauty buyer and so forth that could support you. As I mentioned, it depends on retailer and so forth but ultimately they have buyers for every product category and they’re looking to purchase new things.

Competitive Market

It’s a very competitive market, I’m sorry to say this to you guys. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go after stores it just means that there’s a lot of people creating beauty products in all those different categories and you’re going to have to differentiate yourself. One of the problems people have is that there’s just these major brands and they’re out there and they are dealing with the retailers consistently whereas other categories you’re not dealing with as much competition with big corporations and so forth. So all the L’Oreals and the Elemis, they’re all coming up with variety of different products as well as their higher-end stuff and so forth.

Whatever it is for you just be aware that if you’re going to come up with products that are for the cosmetic and beauty industry you’re just going to have to really reach out to retailers, very strategically come up with your best story and your best foot forward so that you can support yourself. There are people out in the world who can help you come up with your pitch and your story. We do stuff like that but just because of the nature of this audience you’re just going to have to deal with the fact that you’re going to have to come up with a really, really attractive story for the buyers to be interested in your product.

Sephora Buyers 

Sephora is an example of that. Every person who has a cosmetic or beauty product really wants to sell to Sephora. It’s a great store, it’s a lot of fun and it’s always a dream retailer. The problem with retailers like that in niche markets is that all people who are reaching out to them so all of your competition is contacting them and so forth. I’m not trying to be negative here I just want to give you some things to consider and then help you kind of think this through in a positive way as well.

But anyway, Sephora is a retailer that every single beauty company is reaching out to. So if I had a beauty or cosmetic company, yes, I would reach out to Sephora, however I would probably lean toward anybody else initially, because if Sephora says no to you, most people get rejected, they feel awful, they don’t want to continue on, they think there’s something wrong with their product. It’s really not true. Imagine every single major company, small company, everybody’s contacting that same retailer and so Sephora gets a little snobby about that.

Diversification is Key

If I were you I would diversify, if you had a cheaper product maybe consider going out for the Walmart’s or Targets of the world or the CVSs or Walgreens of the world versus the department stores, there’s so many different ways to sell them, but don’t forget supermarkets and drug stores and stuff for your product. There’s a lot of ways to sell a product into retailers and so it doesn’t have to be the one that everybody wants to sell into. Again, you should go after Sephora but just be aware that they might reject you a little bit more and they’re looking for sales and more revenue from you a lot of times just because the nature of their business. There’s nothing wrong with going after other retailers and maybe coming back to them once you’ve got some more sales and stuff if they do say no to you.

With beauty products, packaging is key to your success because as you’ve seen they’ve come up with outlandish packaging for the beauty industry. And there’s a reason for it. There’s just a lot of noise so how are you going to come up with something that’s really going to be spicy and exciting? And it doesn’t have to be complicated but I would put definitely some more effort into packaging and making it more pop off store shelves so that the retailers would be more inclined to work with you. Again, it’s hard to share all this stuff based on categories if I haven’t seen your particular product but it’s just trying to give you some ideas, things to think about.

Brand is obviously important. If you’re going to try to sell to Macy’s or something like that, they’re definitely going to want to have a variety of different products that they buy at the same time and a whole assortment, whereas you can sell to Walgreens and just sell one unique product. So also if you have an entire product line versus a product it does depend on which retailer you want to go after, and the higher ticket retailers, the more they expect really well-known brands and stuff to be in their stores so definitely you need to do your market research to figure out which direction to go.

Again, you can go after the department stores, you can go after the online retailers, you can go after supermarkets, you can go after the drug stores, it really depends on your product and your category and your pricing, how popular you are. If you’re just getting started maybe try not to go after the retailers, they’re just going to want a whole series of products versus individual stores. These are the things to consider.

Diversity Divisions

By the way, a lot of these retailers love diversity so if you are a diverse supplier and so forth definitely you want to explore getting a certification to be a diverse supplier. This basically means you’re a minority-owned company, they love stuff like that. There are organizations and I have separate trainings on certifications and so forth in other recordings of mine so you can always take a look at our free 90-minute training that we have listed on retailmba.com. We have it on every page so if you want to just opt in to get access to a full training on everything there is to know about selling to retailers we talk about certifications and so forth if you want to learn more.

But generally they love diverse suppliers and so forth because a lot of times in certain industries, certain retailers, diversity is common with their audience and so they care about their audience. Places you could conceivably sell to are Groupon or HauteLook, depends on if Groupon is still selling stuff. Currently they are, they do change and so forth, but there are retailers that you can sell to but then there’s also websites that you can sell to.

The bottom line is, if I can give you any quick tips and strategies, it’s just to really think about which direction you want to go based on your price, based on how many products you have and so forth, and then create a plan to go after them and choose accordingly because it’s really going to matter because of the fact there’s a lot of competition. There’s so much more to say about the beauty industry. If you want to learn exactly how to approach, pitch, and sell the retail chains, we actually have, as I mentioned, a free training on retailmba.com/free. Just sign in and you’ll get access to a webinar that we do to teach people how to get products into stores and we get into much more details if this is of interest to you.

If you want to go to one of our upcoming live events virtually or in physical sense, we have events. We do masterclasses quarterly, we have a year-long coaching training system do-it-yourself programs, done-for-you services, all sorts of things listed on retailmba.com. Feel free to reach out to us, we’re happy to communicate with you and we work with so many different brands. Definitely take a look at our testimonials and see how much success people have had with our information and courses and services and so forth. And please subscribe to our channel and like this and support us. We appreciate you, share with your friends, and thank you so much for your time. 

To Your Success,

Karen Waksman, Retail MBA Brands