With online beauty brands popping up left and right, navigating the space may seem daunting. While it may feel oversaturated, there are a long list of niches within this industry driving high demand and value towards the average consumer. Once you find your niche, and find the right rhythm for you, you may consider taking your beauty or personal care business to the next level and trying to find the right buyer. In this guide, we’ll walk through the lucrative beauty industry, and look into what it takes to selling your business to a buyer.
With products from hair care to makeup, from men’s, women’s and unisex, to 8 step skincare routines, the number of products within the beauty industry is massive. While it’s easy to create a mediocre product, slap a label on the bottle, and list it on Amazon, you’re not aiming for mediocre. You’re aiming for the best, 5 star Amazon ratings, top referred product type of business. We’re focused on quality products that bring value to our customers – and that will help you stand out from the crowd, especially within the giant that is the beauty industry.
What to consider when selling your beauty business?
Let’s lay out what needs to be accounted for when trying to sell your online beauty business. Make sure you’re in a good spot financially – take a look at your financials from the last twelve months and gauge whether or not you’re ready to sell. If you aren’t sure what that entails, there are tons of free resources online, or you can hire an expert on the topic to evaluate your financials and see where you stand. (P.S. unybrands offers free business evaluations for e-commerce businesses, so feel free to reach out here for more info).
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The overall industry
How is the beauty industry doing at the moment? What are retailers and consumers looking for when it comes to a strong beauty brand, and how does your business fall within that? It’s okay to be different and stick out from the crowd, but make sure you understand the proper trends and the projections of what’s to come for your industry.
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Your specific product market
Are you selling shampoo? Cologne? A specific line of nail polish? Similarly to understanding the industry as a whole, you should understand the specifics when it comes to your type of product. Take a look at your competitors, consumer trends, the consumer purchasing cycle, and what demographic you’re specifically targeting.
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Your lineup of products
How many SKUs are you trying to sell? Are you looking to hit all consumers or do you have a niche line of products? It’s advisable to start small and continue to build out your lineup as you grow your business. While you’re starting out, make sure you have the proper bandwidth to manage all of your SKUs; if your business starts to outgrow you, it may be time to start considering selling your business. This leads into our next consideration, should you sell, or increase the scale?
Should you sell or increase the scale?
Consider whether you should scale your business prior to selling or not. Has your business started to outgrow you? Are you having trouble keeping up with the pace at which your products are being purchased? If you’re nodding your head yes, it may be time to start considering having conversations with potential buyers.
How to increase the value of your business?
You’re intrigued with the idea of selling your online skincare brand. You’re ready to let go of your baby and start a new chapter. But you’re looking to cash in a large check, and want to get a large return. We get it – who doesn’t want to get the greatest return for all of their hard work? For the beauty industry, it all starts with creating a product people love.
Create a product worthy of selling
Make sure people are interested in your product. If your product is common, make sure to highlight what goes into your product that makes it different to convince consumers to switch from their regular beauty routine, to adding your brand into the mix.
Build brand loyalty
Once you establish your awesome product, and have captured some loyal consumers, it’s time to build on that consumer and target similar ones. In this ever saturated market, and fast moving environment, building strong brand loyalty or a cult following can go a long way. TikTok and social media efforts have changed the game. With brands like Paula’s Choice, Glow Recipe, and CeraVe selling out months of inventory in days due to viral videos made on TikTok. Utilize your consumers, influencers, and real people to help spread the word on your product, and maybe you’ll be the next must have product on the market.
Positive reviews
Consumers believe other consumers. Instead of creating the next viral TikTok video, go with a more traditional route and gather positive reviews. According to Inc., research has shown that 84% of shoppers trust online reviews in a similar manner to trusting personal recommendations. Amazon has an awesome program called Amazon Vine where verified customers can review products from new sellers in order to increase the new business’ Amazon ratings.
Find your niche
Consumers are always looking for a product that fits their specific needs. When it comes to beauty and personal care, it’s exactly that – personal. People want to find something that fits their needs and knows that there is a product that will fill their needs. You as a business owner just need to find that niche. Bring something of value to the table for your consumers and soon enough your community will grow to those wishing for a product like yours.
Where to sell your beauty business for value?
As an Amazon seller you have options as to where you direct your sale to. First, do your research as to what sort of buy you’re looking for, and where you’d want to see your business grow in the long run.
Beauty Conglomerates and Retailers
If you’re looking to get off Amazon, start by bringing a larger presence to your Shopify or DTC site. This will give buyers the understanding that you are looking to pivot from Amazon, and want to take your business in a different direction. With lots of hard work and determination, and depending on the business you build you could be looking at being sold in Ulta, Sephora, or any retailer with a beauty department.
E-commerce Aggregators
Amazon is your bread and butter, and it’s ours too. Likely if you’re reading this article, you’re well attuned to the world of aggregators. If not, e-commerce aggregators are businesses that focus on buying Amazon FBA and Shopify DTC brands and building these businesses within their own portfolios. If you’re looking to keep growing your business on Amazon, then you could consider selling to an aggregator (although we like to phrase ourselves as strategic buyers instead). There are tons of us out there, so do your research and see your options. Make sure the businesses understand your specific industry, and what it takes to grow a successful beauty business. Not all departments are created equal. Put in a few hours to find the ones that focus on beauty and personal care, and start a conversation!
Prepare your business for selling?
Once you’re ready to sell, go through your checklist to make sure you’ve done your due diligence. We’ve outlined the necessities below but to learn more, check out our blogs on How to Value and List your E-Commerce Business, and Information on E-commerce Funding Options written by our awesome unybrands team.
- Look at financials
- Grab your paperwork
- Establish your brand story
- Make connections with buyers, brokers, PE firms
- Understand your valuation and how much you’re worth
- Do your research on how to successfully sell and what the process entails
How can you sell your online beauty business to unybrands?
At unybrands, we focus on buying brands within 8 specific product verticals, one of them being personal care and beauty. By narrowing our scope to 8 categories, our team is able to really hone in on our expertise, and make sure we are giving your brand the attention and value that it deserves. We are experts and buying and building brands, and taking them to new heights and this is in part through keeping our reach where we have the most experience.
If you’re interested in selling your brand to unybrands, or simply just want to spark up a conversation and get some free expert advice on how to best position your brand for sale, reach out to our business development team and one of our veteran members will guide you through the process. We understand the hard work and determination that goes into building your brand, and know how difficult it may be to decide to sell your brand. Have no fear – unybrands is here to give you an honest, fair, and efficient evaluation and make sure you have all of the answers prior to giving the greenlight. We’ll work together on building a plan but with how you begin your selling journey, the choice is yours.
Once you have your product, gone through multiple rounds of successful testing, and listed it on Amazon or Shopify, it’s time to see how the public reacts to your brand. If positive, you could be one of Amazon’s suggested beauty products, or become the next viral TikTok product resulting in sell out after sell out. If negative, don’t give up. Nothing is perfect on the first try, so take the public feedback back to the drawing board and modify your product to meet success. Once you’ve mastered your product, this momentum could drive you to continue building your brand yourself, or have you look to an outside source to sell your business to. Your product is good, you just need to put in the hard work and determination to have it achieve greatness.
