Small Business Success Story: Make It Locally, Market It Globally

In support of the Small Business Breakthrough movement during the month of May, we're sharing the stories and advice of small business owners who have grown their companies on OpenSky.

Whip Hand Cosmetics, a Detroit-based cosmetics company, produces its products locally but markets globally using the Internet, social media and old-fashioned word-of-mouth. While the company sells its products online to a growing customer base around the world, founder Riese Lauriat will tell you that the company’s success is ultimately measured by how many jobs it can create for the Motor City.

What makes your business stand out from your competition?
From the start, we deliberately set out to do the opposite of what most big cosmetics brands do. We produce all of our cosmetics and skin care products in Detroit in small batches, and we market and sell directly to the customer online, which is the opposite of how most big department store brands distribute their products. Their distribution model made a lot of sense 30 years ago when there was no Internet, but now we can reach our customers directly online and in social media, which we think changes the game.  

Aren’t cosmetics a “touch and feel” product? It seems like selling them online would be really challenging.
People once said that about buying shoes and high-end designer apparel online, and Zappos and Net-A-Porter have built very successful businesses selling “high-touch” products online. So it can definitely be done. The trick is to take the risk out of it and make it more personal than offline. That’s why we offer free shipping with no minimums and a no questions asked return policy. We try to remove all the barriers to trying us. If the product doesn’t work out, you can just send it back. It’s as simple as that. In a year, we’ve only had two returns, which we’re pretty proud of.

Also, not everyone wants to run the gauntlet at the department store. We have a lot of customers who prefer to shop online because it’s less intimidating and more pleasant than dealing with the counter. From a five minute conversation on Twitter or the phone and a couple of pictures sent to us, we can make a pretty good recommendation on what products she should try. Even better, she can do it from the comfort of her home or on the subway or on her lunch hour.

What have you found works in terms of attracting and retaining customers?
As a local company that markets and sells globally, we put a lot of our focus online. We generate the majority of our sales directly through our e-commerce site, but we’ve also had fantastic success working with websites like OpenSky.com, which allows us to get our products in front of people who are looking for new, emerging niche brands. OpenSky is a great channel for us, because we can interact directly with the costumer and still “own” the relationship, and they are fabulous boosters for small and early-stage businesses with unique and interesting products.

In terms of retaining customers, it’s really all about providing exceptional customer service and high-quality products. These are the basics of any successful business, but in our case, they’re even more important because we may never actually meet our customer face-to-face. So we are measured almost entirely on the experience we provide to them in email, on chat, Facebook, Twitter, the phone and even in the box they receive from us that contains their Whip Hand products.  

Every interaction is a chance to show that we’re different and that we care about the details and the customer. For example, we put a lot of attention on the shipping box. We print four-color labels featuring our latest photography and products. We have to pay for the shipping box anyway, so we might as well make it beautiful, right? You’d be amazed at how many people take pictures of our boxes and post them to Instagram or Twitter. That’s the kind of PR and marketing you can’t buy, because it’s authentic and directly from the customer.

How have you marketed your business online?
Online is our primary marketing channel, although PR plays a huge role, as well. Social media, especially Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have been really effective channels for us to connect with potential customers. Part of that is because this industry is very word-of-mouth driven and social media tends to amplify that. When you are small like us, you also have the advantage of being able to see first-hand how the conversations you had last week with someone on Facebook translate into business this week in your e-commerce store.

We also do a lot of online PR and blogger outreach. For the cost of a few samples, you can quickly build credibility and reach for your product through bloggers. Even though we market nationally, these same tactics can work for a local, small business. It’s about connecting with people, regardless of where they are. The Internet and social media are just other ways for you to take the relationship you build in your physical store and extend it to a person’s iPad. We’ve even done consultations over text.

What has been your toughest challenge?
In the early days, it was simply getting people to know that we existed and to trust this new brand with the provocative name. But over the past six months, that’s become less of an issue as our customers tell our story for us. We’ve also received some great national press coverage, which has really helped.  Now it’s really about growing the business and keeping up with demand and still maintaining that high level of customer service as we grow. It’s a good problem to have, even though it keeps us up at night.

What was something unexpected that you didn’t plan for, good or bad?
Our top-selling, most talked-about product is our “Set The Stage” makeup primer. When we created it, we knew we had made a great product, but we never anticipated that it would become our best seller. It’s a skin prep product, so it’s not as glamorous as a lipstick or eyeshadow, but it has quickly developed a cult-following among professional makeup artists and skin care lovers. We featured it on OpenSky last fall and it sold out in under three days. That was completely unexpected and caught us off guard.

Why Detroit?
The first reason we chose Detroit is because it’s unexpected. People associate Detroit with automotive manufacturing and not beauty and cosmetics. So when people hear “Makeup Made in Detroit” it makes them stop and take notice. And for a small, emerging brand, that’s half the battle. Our customers like that we’re the underdog, in an underdog city. We really believe Detroit is going to be the turn-around story of this decade. There is something incredible happening here, and a lot of it is being fueled by entrepreneurs and tech start-ups and small workshops that are making really high-quality products – everything from denim jeans to chic, eco-friendly clothing to bicycles and watches. It’s really inspiring and if we can add cosmetics to that list, all the better. 

What is success for Whip Hand Cosmetics?
Success for us is to put Detroit on the map as a major center for high-quality cosmetics and to build a loyal following of enthusiastic fans around the world. If we do this, we’ll also create jobs, which this region desperately needs. The way we produce cosmetics is labor intensive, which means it requires people to mix, pour and box orders. So as we grow, the opportunities to hire people in the community grow as well. In ten years, we’d love to look back and say we played a small, but meaningful, role in the rebirth of Detroit. Of course, we’d also love to see our made in Detroit cosmetics used on a cover of Vogue!