A Former Grazia Beauty Editor And Digital Strategist Partner On Inside-Out Beauty E-Tailer Plentiness

Inside-out beauty has a new home online at Plentiness, an e-commerce destination created by natural beauty enthusiast Simona Tamassìa and expert foodie Linda Romano.

The Milan-based website has launched with 14 brands across the beauty, nutrition and lifestyle categories, including Nucifera, Coola, Plant Apothecary, Grown Alchemist, Four Sigmatic, Kiki Health and Grown. Plentiness ships across the EU, and is available in Italian and English editions.

“Our ultimate goal is not to be just an e-commerce site. We want to be a point of reference for those in search of what we call a happy, healthy lifestyle,” says Tamassìa, a former beauty editor at the magazine Grazia. “We curate and carefully select all our clean products for our customers from beauty to functional nutrition and lifestyle with great attention to ingredients, production chain and sustainability. We are a small discovery boutique, and we are introducing new brands, products and [an] approach to our country.”

For Plentiness’s assortment, Tamassìa and Romano hunt for brands that use organic, scientifically-proven and safe ingredients, and are cruelty-free, fair-trade, gender-fluid, aesthetically-pleasing and enjoyable to apply or ingest. At the moment, the site only carries brands from the United Kingdom or United States, but Tamassìa and Romano are interested in picking up European indie brands.

“Our ultimate goal is not to be just an e-commerce site. We want to be a point of reference for those in search of what we call a happy, healthy lifestyle.”

Early on, sun-protection products are robust sellers, but Romano chalks their strength up to the season. Adaptagens, CBD oil and matcha capsules are finding audiences, too. “Orders, in general, have [struck] a good balance among the three main categories, which confirms to us that users understand our approach and, most importantly, they like it,” says Romano.

Romano and Tamassìa met at publishing powerhouse Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, owner of Grazia and its digital offshoot Grazia.it. Romano, who studied vegan cooking at the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy, was a web project leader there before becoming the head of product for Graziashop.com, an e-commerce extension of Grazia with a dropship structure. Tamassìa worked with Romano at Graziashop.com as a marketing consultant.

Graziashop.com’s offices were in London, and it was in the bustling capital where Tamassìa’s and Romano’s appetites for wellness welled over. Tamassìa says, “We felt like Alice in Wonderland, especially because Italy did not offer cool and enjoyable options at the time, both in terms of products and experiences.” London is a crucial target market for Plentiness as are Paris, Milan and Ibiza.

“Providing information is very important, but storytelling is what really creates an emotional connection with our customers. And, when you emotionally connect, you can start a relationship based on trust. We are building that kind of relationship. We want to turn readers into loyal customers.”

From now through December, Tamassìa and Romano expect Plentiness to hit 100,000 euros in sales or roughly $116,000 at the current exchange rate. “We are now focusing on growing traffic, both in Italy and in the EU, through marketing initiatives and organic reach,” says Romano. “We are building relationships with our audience and are very customer-centered.”

Collaborations and content are integral to Plentiness’s business. Already, it’s developed the Gianni Fontana X Plentiness Bristle Brush for Dry Brushing. “We were looking for a very good quality dry brushing tool and discovered this little local company. They were very committed to give us what we wanted and provided us a personalized version,” says Romano. “Of course, we do envision so much more of these collabs. In fact, we have a close connection with all the brands we work, share the same values and ethics, and we’re keen to work on more projects together.” Events, pop-ups and other partnerships with influencers and small businesses beyond the product realm are possibilities as well.

Leveraging Tamassìa wordsmithing abilities, Plentiness has a blog dubbed #BeautyInsideOutMag featuring interviews with brand founders, product and ingredient spotlights, and beauty tips. Plentiness is moving toward a freemium model combining free content with value-added services heightening the shopping experience and information. An app is a conceivable extension.

“Our inside-out approach is quite new and unique [for the] domestic market. Therefore, we need to explain it and guide our audiences through it,” says Tamassìa. “We have a lot of organic traffic engaging with our content and discovering our products through it. Providing information is very important, but storytelling is what really creates an emotional connection with our customers. And, when you emotionally connect, you can start a relationship based on trust. We are building that kind of relationship. We want to turn readers into loyal customers.”