Skin care-infused makeup brand Veil Cosmetics is debuting an inclusive beauty campaign for Amazon, as it hopes to bolster its presence on the platform.
The ongoing campaign began on Jan. 17, appearing first on product information pages. It will expand to Veil Cosmetics’ Amazon homepage in early February. The campaign includes a video and four images featuring seven women between 20 and 60 years old. Each model is meant to showcase a diverse skin tone and wears the brand’s foundation and concealer products. Veil Cosmetics’ target demographic is women 25 to 45 years old, but its shopper spans 18 to 70 years old.
While the company sells through home-shopping network ShopHQ and independent boutiques, Amazon makes up approximately 25% of the brand’s sales, said Sebastien Tardif, Veil Cosmetics founder and CEO. Veil Cosmetics’ Amazon sales grew 30% year over year in 2019, and it is targeting 50% year-over-year growth for 2020, he said.
Veil Cosmetics launched its e-commerce in 2012 and joined Amazon in 2013, well before mainstream acceptance of the platform by beauty brands like Lady Gaga’s Haus Labs and Sunday Riley. Veil Cosmetics opted to start rolling out the new campaign on Amazon before bringing it to its website, due in part to the number of new competitors on the platform, said Tardif.
“The more you invest [financially and physically] in the platform, the better results you obtain,” he said.
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Beginning this week, the campaign will be shared across Instagram and Facebook, where the brand has more than 40,800 followers and 27,000 “likes,” respectively. As a registered brand on Amazon, Veil Cosmetics controls the sale of its products (versus a third-party seller) but remains independent of the luxury beauty, professional and the indie beauty shops on Amazon. The luxury and professional beauty shops are pay-for-play while being a registered brand or part of the indie shop are free. Registered brands have certain privileges, such as adding video content to product pages without paying an additional cost; it is a perk that was made available to registered brands 18 months ago, according to Laura Meyer, CEO of Amazon agency Envision Horizons. She added that a key to any brand’s Amazon strategy is focusing on creating a strong visual strategy to drive conversion on product pages.
“The big thing brands need to realize is that if they can’t compete on price, their products have to have a value add,” she said, noting that Veil Cosmetics could offer more information on Amazon to stay competitive. “It is great that Veil Cosmetics has all these [inclusive] images, but there is more storytelling they could do, such as explaining how long the concealer lasts.”
Tardif said Veil Cosmetics will drive customers to the Amazon campaign and products through its social media channels, and will retarget existing customers through Facebook and Instagram. Veil will also send customers targeted emails to those who visit Amazon. Tardif declined to state how many customers are in the brand’s email database.
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Veil Cosmetics reinvests 4.2% of its Amazon sales back into Amazon advertising, Tardif said, although Meyer said she typically advises existing brands to redirect around 15%.
“In that way, Amazon is becoming a pay-to-play marketplace,” she said. “You have to think of Amazon as a search engine and not a retailer.”
