Glossier fuels holiday sales with pop-up shops

Dive Brief:

Cult beauty brand Glossier is finishing up a short-lived pop-up in Dallas, with a couple of days devoted to "hanging out" after hours, according to the company’s website.
The location opened Nov. 9 and closes this week, Wednesday, Nov. 15. Tuesday evening, as it did Friday Nov. 10, the brand is hosting an after-party.
The pop-up then moves on to London, where it will be open Nov. 15-22 in the chic Marylebone district. Glossier is headquartered in New York, sold mostly online and ships to the U.S., (including Puerto Rico), the U.K. and Canada.

Dive Insight:

Glossier is benefiting from the current strength in beauty sales, but the brand is also helping to fuel the category growth. The cult brand landed at number 13 of "most disruptive companies this year," according to a list from LinkedIn released earlier this month. Glossier, in fact, was "the fastest-growing company on this list over the past 12 months," according to LinkedIn, which recorded an annual employee growth rate for the company of 257%.

The company sets itself apart from other beauty brands in several ways, including its manufacturing, merchandising and marketing. Glossier develops its own products and specializes in a few categories — it launched with skin care products, added makeup and is now branching into peripheral items like sunscreen. The range remains minimalist, with a basic set of colors and products that each work for diverse skin tones, rather than a large assortment.

The company's marketing is a sort of brand expression of high self-esteem: Vogue magazine continues to email the "Into the Gloss" blog, which features interviews with beauty insiders of all types (including makeup artists, models and others) who often drop names of beauty products that aren’t Glossier — and Into the Gloss provides the links to order those products.

It’s a free-wheeling approach to content that assumes Glossier products fit into a wider beauty routine, with room for many makers. The company has built a loyal following that is now spilling overseas, and appears to be following the growing demand. So far, aside from its New York City showroom and the latest pop-ups, the brand is online only. Nasty Gal, before its sale to U.K. apparel company Boohoo, also sponsored a few Glossier pop-ups in years past.

This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the 2017 holiday shopping season. You can browse our holiday page and sign up for our holiday newsletter for more stories.