Following the Amazon launch of Clinique, the Estée Lauder Cos. is debuting another brand on the platform.
Too Faced will be Lauder’s second brand to join the platform, with its assortment debuting Tuesday.
The brand is part of a growing number of prestige brands cozying up to the platform, with Kiehl’s Since 1851 having debuted there last month.
For Tara Simon, Too Faced’s global brand president, the expansion offers greater touchpoints with the coveted Gen Z shopper, in addition to other demographics. “We’re experiencing our most rapid growth for the fourth year in a row in Gen Z,” she said.
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But that’s not all. “Sixty-nine percent of beauty consumers in the U.S. right now are searching on Amazon. We think of going to Google to search and they go to Amazon,” Simon said. “We’re 26 years old, we cut our teeth in specialty and multi[-brand] retail, and now, we have the opportunity to meet our consumer where they are.”
Simon also noted Too Faced’s performance in key segments. Better Than Sex Mascara, for example, is the top prestige mascara in the U.S.; Too Faced is also the top lip plumping brand in the U.S.
Those categories mirror the products performing well for Clinique on Amazon. The brand’s top sellers on Amazon include Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, as well as Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+ and Moisture Surge 100H Auto Replenishing Hydrator — a handful of Clinique’s heroes.
“We’ve learned with Clinique that there’s been a wonderful halo effect that’s happening [across channels],” Simon said. “We have these heroes across multiple categories, we span multiple generations.”
The Amazon storefront for Too Faced will mimic the brand’s whimsical identity. “We’re very playful, we’re like a girlfriend giving you friendly advice,” Simon said. “On the storefront, you can learn as much as you want about the brand, and then dig deeper on the assortment and on all the products. I’ll be curious to see how much of it is a replenishment business, but I know we’re going to get a new customer.”
That echoes what Amazon says its key strengths are for beauty brands.
“It’s all about net new incremental customers, and it’s net new incremental shopping opportunities for the brands that we work with,” said Melis Del Rey, general manager, U.S. stores, beauty, baby and beauty technology at Amazon, at the WWD Beauty CEO summit in May. “When we think about the growth over the past two decades, fundamentally the principle is [that] customer obsession in building that broadest offering to the beauty customers is what’s been driving the growth.”
Marketing of the launch plays heavily to Too Faced’s influencer relationships. Content creator Darcy McQueeny is the brand’s official ambassador for the storefront, and has a robust content plan on her own channels including her favorite Too Faced products on Amazon and a trip to the Too Faced headquarters in Irvine, Calif.
