Coco & Eve Bolsters Its Omnichannel Presence By Launching At Ulta Beauty And Boots Stores

Coco & Eve, the brand that made a splash in direct-to-consumer distribution and social media, is getting physical.

It’s rolling out to 440 Ulta Beauty and 120 Boots locations. The launches accelerate a push beyond Coco & Eve’s website that started with entrances into e-tailers and retailers the likes of Amazon, Revolve, Myer, Priceline, Adore Beauty, Douglas, Beauty Bay, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Sephora Europe.

“We are very much classified as a direct-to-consumer brand, but we have a strong omnichannel strategy because the consumer wants to touch, feel and smell beauty products,” says Emily Hamilton, co-founder of Coco & Eve parent company Supernova. “It’s been such a journey because e-commerce was the leading channel through COVID, and now consumers are back in stores, so you have to have an omnichannel strategy, but social media is still at the heart of it.”

In stores, Boots and Ulta will have distinct selections. Ulta is showcasing self-tanning in its locations by selling Coco & Eve’s Sunny Honey Bali Bronzing Foam, Bronzing Face Drops, Antioxidant Face Tanning Micromist and Self Tan Travel Kit. Boots is leaning into haircare with products including Like A Virgin Hair Masque, Sweet Repair Hair Masque, Bond-Building Pre-Shampoo Treatment and Miracle Hair Elixir. Ulta carries Coco & Eve haircare products online, and Hamilton hopes they’ll break into its stores in the future.

“What’s interesting in the U.S. market is self-tanning as a category is growing, and you have so many new users, whereas in Australia and the U.K., the majority of people have tried self-tanning, they are regular users of the product or they do spray tanning,” says Hamilton. “It’s about getting people to step into trying it because there is a barrier. So, we are planning masterclasses to teach people to avoid streakiness. We have lots of tools and accessories that are a key part of getting the products to work the best they can.”

“We are very much classified as a direct-to-consumer brand, but we have a strong omnichannel strategy because the consumer wants to touch, feel and smell beauty products.”

While Coco & Eve came of age in the Instagram era, it’s segued to TikTok to spread its self-tanning message. For the release of Antioxidant Face Tanning Micromist, the brand teamed up with TikTok creators in December to demonstrate the results of the product. In TikTok videos, it showed them spraying the product on their faces prior to heading out to holiday parties. Currently, Coco & Eve has 217,500 followers and 2.2 million likes on TikTok. On Instagram, it has 946,000 followers.

Haircare and self-tanning products each are responsible for around 45% of the brand’s sales. Body care makes up the remainder. In total, Coco & Eve has roughly 16 individual products priced from $6.90 to $39.90. Hamilton previews that the brand will be delving deeper into hybrid products and is branching into sunscreen this year. In particular, she says Coco & Eve aims to build its body care and sun care business.

In partnership with her twin sister Sarah, Hamilton’s first beauty venture was subscription beauty box Bellabox. After introducing it in 2011, she established beauty incubator Supernova in 2013 with detox tea brand SkinnyMint. The brands BodyBoss and Sand & Sky followed before Coco & Eve premiered in 2018.

Hamilton, an Australian who’s lived in Singapore for a dozen years and has traveled extensively in Asia, drew inspiration from Bali and infused Coco & Eve with ingredients common in Bali such as coconut oil, mango, papaya and guava. Bathed in pink and green hues that popped on social media, the brand’s Like A Virgin Hair Masque was its hero product, and Hamilton called it a “runaway success from the beginning.”

“The retail portion of our business is up 180% this year, and we are looking for a partner who can really help with that growth. We have the community, the fans and the market fit.”

Leveraging that success, Ulta picked up Coco & Eve for its website in 2019. Although Hamilton says Coco & Eve was excited to go into the chain’s stores back then, it couldn’t keep up with demand to have sufficient inventory for them. In 2020 and 2021, the brand’s sales spiked about 400%, according to Hamilton. She says, “When you grow so quickly, every dollar is reinvested to buy stock and trying to figure out the rate of sale and trajectory. In 2022, we kept stock, and we grew 76%.”

In November 2021, publication The Australian Financial Review reported Coco & Eve had hit $45 million in sales. This year, Hamilton expects the brand’s sales to climb 30% to 40%. Its core consumers are 25- to 35-year-olds interested in vegan and cruelty-free beauty products that perform. The United States is Coco & Eve’s biggest market, driving about 50% of its sales. Texas, California and New York are the biggest states for Coco & Eve customers within the U.S. Globally, it’s accumulated a database of 800,000 consumers across email and SMS texting, about half of which are in the U.S. It will reach out to them to inform them of its latest retail rollouts.

Headquartered in Singapore, Supernova has more than 80 employees primarily in Singapore, but also in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France and the U.S. Its primary focus, Coco & Eve is Supernova’s fast-growing and largest brand. The self-funded company is on the hunt for a strategic financial partner to take its brands to the next level.

“Our strengths are building products, really understanding consumer needs and delivering those products in the hands of customers, mostly in the e-commerce channel,” says Hamilton. “If you are looking at a typical beauty brand, at minimum 50% of sales are happening in the retail channel through physical stores. For us, it’s about 10% and growing to 20% to 30% this year. The retail portion of our business is up 180% this year, and we are looking for a partner who can really help with that growth. We have the community, the fans and the market fit.”