This Vegan Beauty Brand Is Flipping the DTC Model

Unlike the usual direct-to-consumer narrative of starting with just an online audience, Versed—which first rolled out in Target stores—is now pushing into ecommerce.

The beauty line, a new skincare line only five months old, filled shelves in 1,850 Target stores. Then, the brand arrived at Revolve, Riley Rose and Dermastore shops in July. Now, after testing out the retail part of the business, Versed is introducing its DTC website experience.

Part of Versed’s advantage is knowing what its offline and wholesale customers want, and what they are looking for that in that experience—namely product bundling and education.

“Our first goal was to really disrupt that mass skincare aisle that hasn’t changed in decades,” said Melanie Bender, GM for Versed. “But if you look at skincare ecommerce, it also hasn’t changed.”

Bender explains that as part of its wholesale strategy—which included 15 Riley Rose shops and online at Target.com, Dermastore and Revolve—gave the brand insight into how it wanted to build its ecommerce experience. For example, it found that customers wanted to bundle products and build a regimen. So, for its ecommerce site, Versed is bundling three product sets under $50, and four-product sets under $75. Customers can shop prebuilt bundles, or take a skin decoder quiz and bundle from there.

Versed is soon rolling out a texting service at the end of September to guide customers in the right direction about using skincare products. Details around the texting program aren’t totally in place, but Bender said it will be handled by someone with an editorial and beauty background…..[Read More]