Glamsquad, the at-home beauty services platform, is rounding out its business with the launch on Thursday of four beauty products, including a setting spray, lip balm, highlighter and primer.
Founded in 2014, Glamsquad has steadily expanded its business from purely providing hair and makeup applications in the homes of customers. It added both nail and bridal services to its offering in 2015, and last year, it added express services through four CVS locations in August and launched hair products in December. Glamsquad retains over 1,700 stylists on its platform and has completed over 700,000 appointments, according to the company. It declined to state any sales or growth figures, but Forbes estimated gross sales of about $8 million in its first year.
“When we talk about Glamsquad, we talk about the connection we facilitate between beauty enthusiasts,” said Poupak Sionit, Glamsquad CMO. “All the facets of [our] business can do that. The next five years, we want to be a dominant force in all categories within the home, in the U.S. and internationally.”
The development of the makeup line was born out of conversations between customers and stylists. For example, having healthy-looking skin was a common concern of customers, so Glamquad wanted to provide universal products that provided a more natural look, said Kelli Bartlett, Glamsquad’s artistic director. Additionally, customers found most highlighters too strong. When the brand surveyed its 1,700 stylists, they learned that a good lip product was considered more important than mascara. Eventually, those stylists also helped choose the selected lip balm colors — there are four options offered — based on client feedback. Glamsquad stylists carry a variety of beauty brands with them, based on preference.
“Because we can connect on a more intimate level, we can step back and ask, ‘What have we learned?’ Our products are a result of that,” said Bartlett.
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Glamsquad plans on selling its makeup similarly to how it sells hair care: Customers can currently place hair-care product orders post-appointment online at Glamsquad.com or through the Glamsquad app. After a service, a stylist enters the products used on a customer along with tips and tricks to use them again. Customers receive in-app notifications and follow-up emails with click-throughs to order products and have them delivered to their homes.
Glamsquad stylists do not sell the product directly, nor do CVS locations. This is a conscious decision to not disturb the at-home experience, explained Bartlett, not to mention the impracticalities of having stylists carry around product. However, she said that the company would re-evaluate this based on feedback from customers and stylists. She declined to provide any sales or growth figures for hair products.
“With this edited collection, we are hoping women will use these products along with what they own. We are able to respond differently than a traditional retail environment where the goal is always sales,” said Bartlett.
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When it came to social and digital marketing, the makeup launch has been more robust than Glamsquad’s hair-care approach. The pre-launch plan, which started up to six weeks before launch, enlisted both social media influencers through the brand’s “Glambassadors” program, which has 60 to 100 unpaid influencers in it at any given time, as well as beauty stylists. In April, influencers like Jasmine Tosh Stewart (@jasmine_tosh, 805,000 Instagram followers) and Paola Alberdi (@paolaalberdi, 1 million followers) received one-on-one appointments to get their feedback on the products and create content that was repurposed for Glamsquad’s social channels and blog. Beauty stylists began using products six weeks before launch in order to quietly share the news with their clients, even though they could not yet be purchased. Instead of a click-t0-buy link, customers were served a “swipe up to learn more” feature on the app, where they could provide their email for the launch alert. This was not done for the hair-care debut.
“We wanted to create this groundswell of interest and give products to them early on,” said Sionit. As Glamsquad continues to grow, it’s also exploring new services. It receives frequent requests for massages, men’s grooming, eyebrows and facials.
“When people ask for more services, we ask why, and they say they trust us. So whether it’s hair or makeup, they look for us to bring high-touch services,” she said.
