How Direct-to-Consumer Brands Can Continue to Grow
Summary.
Emily Weiss’s personal blog was never supposed to become a $1 billion brand. The 24-year-old Condé Nast assistant considered Into the Gloss a hobby, a stage for her personal beauty recommendations for fellow Millennials. The blog, which she started in 2010, featured how-to tips, daily routines, and information typical of beauty publications. By 2014 it was attracting more than 10 million page views a month. Using Into the Gloss as a springboard, Weiss founded Glossier, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) line of beauty products. By providing both recommendations and home delivery of the products they featured, Glossier disrupted the traditional two-step distribution chain, in which a customer might receive advice from a department-store beauty consultant and then buy a product from the shelf. Endorsed by Kim Kardashian, and with product waiting lists that have been more than 10,000 customers long, Glossier has surpassed $100 million in annual revenue and has been valued at more than $1 billion.