First Amazon, Then The World: Herbal Dynamics Looks To Expand From The Web To Retail Distribution

While some beauty companies still shun Amazon, Herbal Dynamics Beauty embraces it wholeheartedly: the plant-based beauty brand launched on the e-commerce behemoth exclusively as it got its own website up and running. Co-Founder Moe Kittaneh’s vast and varied entrepreneurial experience influences the skincare startup’s unorthodox approach to distribution. He built e-commerce, mattress and sunless tanning businesses before launching self-funded Herbal Dynamics last year. Kittaneh is also behind bed company Amerisleep, where he’s focused on the wellness aspects of sleep in addition to creating all-natural mattress offerings.

At Herbal Dynamics, the driving force is ingredients bridging nature and science, and on-trend and approachable products commanding attention online. Rosie Osmun, vice president of operations at the brand, says Herbal Dynamics specializes in products “that are affordable and effective in the natural space that also look good, feel good and smell good.” Beauty Independent spoke to her about the 28-item brand’s go-to-market strategy and what comes after Amazon success. 

When did Herbal Dynamics start?

We launched last summer and, as of December 2017, we officially launched our personal website. We started with Amazon. We launched on Amazon [and] started getting reviews while we built out our website. We were also really heavily focused in social media in beginning. We put a lot of effort and energy into building our Instagram and Facebook community.

Why did the brand choose to sell first on Amazon?

It’s a lot easier to get started. You’re just creating a product on an existing platform. There’s already people shopping on Amazon. You don’t have to start from scratch, driving traffic to a website nobody’s ever heard of. So, it made sense for us to launch on Amazon. It’s a really good way of getting in front of people that otherwise wouldn’t know about our brand, but it [Amazon] can be confusing and difficult at times, so it’s not necessarily the best marketplace overall to really experience skincare, [but] we’ve had pretty good success on Amazon and got a lot of reviews. So, as people search one of our products, they can see reviews on Amazon, which is helpful. They can see reviews on our website as well.

Herbal Dynamics Rose Water Calming Face Toner is the brand’s bestseller across all channels.

What are the drawbacks of selling beauty products on Amazon?

It doesn’t have as robust of a filtering or consumer search function as some of the skincare-focused websites do. You can’t really go in and sort by products for oily skin. It’s a little bit harder for customers to navigate and, as a brand, you have to learn Amazon Seller Central. It’s massive. There’s a lot of rules. Once you hit your stride, it’s not too complicated, and they have a built-in advertising function, which is helpful. Like I said, the reviews are a big thing. I think that’s most of what makes Amazon useful for a new brand is that ability to reach people and get reviews.

Have you found that customers migrate over to your website from Amazon?

There’s definitely crossover, depending on the specials we’re running or where we are with inventory. We also run a lot of promotions on our website with special email coupon codes. We launch products first on our website, and we have exclusive sets and packages on our site that aren’t on Amazon.

Who is the Herbal Dynamics target customer?

Our target customer is between the ages of 18 and 50 for the most part because we do both skincare that’s focused on acne, but also anti-aging. So, we cover the full age spectrum and, being an online focused brand, it makes our target market skew a little bit younger. So, I would say 80% of our customers are between 18 and 35, but we do still get a significant portion of the 35-to-55 market, and I would say it’s about 80% female. Our packaging is very gender-neutral, clean and simple, so it appeals to men. We’ve had a pretty good success with them.

Herbal Dynamics Night Cream
Herbal Dynamics’ packaging is black and white to keep the focus on the active ingredients.

How did you decide on your black and white packaging?

From the beginning, the focus was always on the ingredient inside the products primarily. That was our core focus rather than flashy, extravagant packaging. We wanted to emphasize that on the label, where each has the product name and, then, each product has a few of the key ingredients on the front of the label as well. They [shoppers] can, at a glance, see what they’re getting with the product. Clearly, [Kittaneh’s] aesthetic is modern and simple.

We aim to keep the packaging simple for aesthetic reasons, but also to keep the costs down and minimize the overhead when we launched. The goal is always to bring products that are effective and affordable to market, which is why we were conscious of the cost of creating the line, but we made it a point to get our quality ingredients. When you look at the packaging, there’s nothing to distract you. You see clearly the ingredients, what you’re getting and what they can do for you.

What are some bestsellers?

Our long-term bestseller has always been our Rose Water Calming Face Toner. Then, our second bestsellers are the Vitamin K Eye Cream, the Mango Eye Mask and the Micellar Water.

Are there different bestsellers on your site versus Amazon?

On both, the bestseller is the Rose Water. Our masks tend to do higher on Amazon, the treatment-type products. It could be because you’re more willing to try out a treatment-type product [on Amazon] versus switching out a core product like a face wash or moisturizer.

Over the year that you’ve been in business, have you adjusted the amount of Amazon advertising you’ve done?

We’ve continued to increase our Amazon advertising over the timeframe as we’ve continued growing. So, we’ve had a continuous scale up of Amazon advertising.

Do you have any new product launches planned?

We’re going to have seven new products launching, including an anti-aging and brightening foaming cleanser and a strawberry gentle cleanser. We will also have another eye cream, which is designed to refresh and hydrate, a CoQ10  face toner and a squalane and argan oil serum.

It seems like a huge undertaking to launch so many new products so quickly. Are the launches based on customer requests?

The plan from the beginning was to launch a large amount of products. We still have 20 to 30 SKUs in the pipeline coming out over the next year. The goal is to have a wide variety of options targeted [at adult] acne and oily skin, which is more calming and soothing, compared to the aggressive treatments usually targeting teenage acne. So, there’s two different fields there. Anti-aging is, of course, a huge focus for us. We [want to] provide products to target all the key [elements of skincare] as well as body. Then, we’ll also be looking at more premium lines as we continue building out the range.

Will the luxury line will still be under Herbal Dynamics?

It will still be ours, but a higher range. Right now, we’re mostly mid-range.

Where else are Herbal Dynamics products sold?

We have some partnerships coming up with some subscription boxes, and we’re in talks with a couple of retailers. We’re looking to expand into retail.

Who are dream retailers for Herbal Dynamics?

The ideal retail partners for [us would be] Target, Whole Foods and Ulta [with] mostly younger to middle-aged people that are already looking for natural products that work. Places like Credo or Cos Bar [would also be dream partners], boutiques and shops that cater toward people that are more conscious of ingredients.

Have there been product fails you’ve dealt with? 

In terms of [fails], not yet. We’re pretty new, and every product we’ve launched has 4.5 to 5 stars. We haven’t discontinued any products.

I was really surprised at how popular the Rose Water Toner became. I didn’t expect that product to become a bestselling product, but people love it, especially on Instagram. I think because because it has this cute pink color. Our Rose Water is colored with cabbage extract. It’s not a synthetic color. Cabbage extract is an antioxidant, so it [has] a dual purpose. It also has real benefits for a product. A product like Mario Badescu’s Rose Water is colored with dye. It’s still pretty, but it’s not also beneficial. I think that’s one reason why the Rose Water really took off.

Herbal Dynamics
The Herbal Dynamics range consists of 28 products, including cleansers, masks, body care and more.

How big is the Herbal Dynamics team?

Six people. We have a really close team. Everybody is really good at what they do and at making the company grow.

Herbal Dynamics has a strong social media following for a young brand. What’s the social media strategy?

From the beginning, that was one of our main priorities as a brand. We were focused on posting consistently, posting really high-quality photos, engaging with people that comment on our posts, promoting posts, posting stories often, giving a behind-the-scenes look here and there, doing giveaways of products that people were wanting, [and] keeping our email marketing interesting and exciting. I would say all of these really contributed to growing your following. It’s at [18,500] now. It’s been less than a year. We’re really happy with that.

What is unique about how the Herbal Dynamics team approaches the beauty industry?

We’re a small team. We’re a startup. Each one of us is actively using, trying, testing the products. We all want products that we want to use ourselves, so we’re not going to put out something where we’re like, “Oh, this is OK, but the smell is bad.” We’re going to change that because we want to use each of the products ourselves. We each have an intimate connection with the products that we’re putting out there.