01

Glamlite: A Niche Beauty Brand with Monthly Sales of Over a Million Dollars

In the field of cross-border e-commerce, choosing the right category, sales channels, and effective marketing strategies are key to success. Many people in cross-border business should understand this.

Just as the old saying goes, the right thing should be placed in the right place to make sense.

Obviously, Glamlite is now that “thing”.

According to recent data monitored by Echotik on TikTok US e-commerce, Glamlite ranked eighth in the top 10 list of care and beauty categories, with an estimated GMV of $408.01K.

Source: Echotik

Weekly Top 10 Sales Chart Source: Echotik

This is clearly a dazzling achievement. It’s worth noting that before Glamlite became famous, it was just a niche beauty brand popular in the US market. Its founder, Gissell (a Caribbean immigrant), launched it because of her childhood experiences. She dreamed of creating a cosmetics brand where everyone feels welcome, represented, and accepted.

However, starting out with compact makeup mirrors, it didn’t make much of a splash at first.It wasn’t until the appearance of the “Pizza” style eyeshadow palette that it truly began to gain recognition.

This Pizza eyeshadow palette, with its standout colors and suitability for playful makeup, sparked a wave of creative makeup trends on social platforms like TikTok.

Glamlite Pizza Eyeshadow Palette Source: Glamlite

However, Glamlite was not content to rest on its laurels. It began to incorporate various elements into its cosmetics packaging to further attract consumers.

For example, it collaborated with the childhood snack icon “Cheetos” to launch an eyeshadow palette, making the entire packaging and color scheme look very “delicious”; it also partnered with the American adult sci-fi comedy animation series “Rick and Morty” to launch a makeup collection (including setting spray, lip gloss, lipstick, eyeshadow palette, etc., all cruelty-free and vegan), once again winning over a large group of consumers.

Glamlite x “Rick and Morty” Collaboration Source:Glamlite

02

Is Glamlite’s Success Really That Simple?

As a beauty brand active on TikTok since its early days, Glamlite’s success is not just due to simple imitation and collaborations. There are actually multiple factors behind it that are worth learning from.

First, in terms of channels.

Glamlite chose multiple social media platforms including TikTok, leveraging their wide reach to accelerate brand growth. Specifically, Glamlite collaborates with several well-known overseas TikTok influencers (KOLs) every month to release new videos. On TikTok, the hashtag #glamlite already has over 20,000 user-submitted posts.

Moreover, when selecting partners, Glamlite not only focuses on influencers within the professional (vertical) field but also values cross-field influencers (non-vertical), and organically combines with user-generated content (UGC) to effectively promote the brand.

Currently, it has373.8K followers and 6.7M likes on TikTok, and 570K followers on Instagram.

Source: TikTok

Glamlite’s TikTok Account Source: TikTok

Glamlite’s Instagram Account Source: Instagram

Second, in terms of region.

Since the launch of TikTok Shop in the US, daily GMV data for US stores has soared, reaching $8 million, with some top sellers achieving monthly sales of over $5 million. Socurrently, the most profitable TikTok Shop region is the US.

Glamlite also chose the US market, which is why its GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) in the past month quickly reached $1.1 million, something that may be hard to achieve elsewhere.

Furthermore, in terms of category.

Glamlite chose the beauty track, which, although competitive, is an evergreen category with little impact from external fluctuations. Its strategy of collaborating with various foods and IPs precisely filled a gap in the beauty market, successfully developing its niche features and winning the love of many consumers.

These are valuable lessons for Chinese brands Tuke. They teach us that while making good products, it’s even more important to find suitable sales channels and marketing strategies, and actively interact with consumers, which is the key to effectively boosting sales.

At the same time, constantly trying new channels and models and finding the most suitable development path is the only way to stand out in a fiercely competitive market.