Sell makeup & cosmetics online

How to Start a Makeup & Cosmetics Company

Have you ever found yourself wasting hours of spare time combing makeup tutorials on YouTube? If so - you might have a passion for cosmetics. Unfortunately for you, passion doesn’t always translate into skill. For the less artistically-inclined cosmetic enthusiasts, the dream of being a successful makeup artist can seem all too distant. But fear not makeup aficionados - there may be a place in the beauty industry for you yet.

In the last couple of years, the cosmetics industry has become increasingly independently-owned as small retailers carve out niches for their products on social networks and online communities. With consumers becoming more savvy about the chemicals in their products and big business unable to accomodate a growingly diverse market - there’s never been a better time to try your hand at owning your own cosmetics brand.

But where to start? Well if you’ve stumbled onto this guide, then you’ve come to the right place.

Why sell cosmetics online?

Cosmetics is a growing industry. A wide array of product categories - from skincare, makeup and perfumes, to toiletries, hair products and deodorants - have all seen substantive growth in the last year. In fact, numbers for the cosmetics industry have been climbing steadily over the last decade and are expected to grow another 5% by next year.. Skincare especially, has become especially lucrative in recent years - accounting for 36% of the global market growth.

On top of this, cosmetics is an industry that offers up a lot of room for growth into niche product categories. This essentially means that even though there are a lot of big players, the size and diversity of the market makes it easier for smaller retailers to cut out a slice of the pie. If this is your first business venture, makeup is a great industry for getting your entrepreneurial feet wet.

Starting your own cosmetics line on social media

Makeup and cosmetics lend themselves to visual advertising, so if you want to start marketing on social media, it’s best to choose a social network like Instagram or Pinterest. Keep your audience in mind as well when you choose which social network to use. Pinterest users tend to be older than Instagram users, so choose a social network that’s age appropriate. You can try to build a following on both networks but we wouldn’t recommend this unless you have a handful of employees. Running two social accounts is a lot of work, and if you’re stretched for time it’ll be more valuable to focus your attention on one.

But before you do that, you’ll want to take some time to research your niche so that you have a understanding of what kind of posts are more likely to engage your audience. Start by selecting and researching a niche. A “niche” is an identifiable group of users on social media that share an online sub-culture. Some niches have a particular voice & language so you’ll want to make sure to research your selected niche extensively.

Explore users and hashtags on social media where you believe your audience is likely to congregate. Many communities and groups will use hashtags in their posts that are understood by their audience to categorize certain aesthetics and communities. Often times, finding good niches to sell to involves finding customers generally underrepresented by current brands. New niches are springing up all the time. If you’re not sure of what niche to sell to, pay close attention to emerging trends in the beauty and cosmetic industry to get the creative juices flowing.

Once you’ve explored some online communities for your niche, you’ll get an idea of the voice, content, and interests that will be more enjoyable for your audience to follow. Remember that no one wants to follow an account that just posts ads. Think about what kind of content your audience is likely to engage with (like, comment & share). Don’t underestimate the importance of your content. Users can follow and unfollow with the click of a button, so you need to give them a reason to keep following you.

Try to get inspired by other accounts on Instagram that are similar to the niche you’re going after. Take a look at how already successful brands are engaging users to get a good idea of what your Instagram feed needs to look like to grow. Building a brand on social media can take a while, but if done correctly it will be worth the amount of sales and engagement you’re able to get.

Be careful of taking easy-sounding shortcuts like buying followers or hiring bots. These tools can give you a high follower-count fast, but fake-follower shortcuts risk triggering social media spam-detection mechanisms and rarely provide any engagement or value. Success on social media is about building real relationships with real people - something bots aren’t particularly good at. Building trust takes time, but it’s necessary for a brand’s social media popularity to translate into sales.