New E-Tailer Coveted Market Wants To Convert Customers To Emerging Clean Beauty Brands

Talia Shiff is aligning her career with her passion at Coveted Market, a forthcoming e-commerce destination dedicated to clean beauty.

The former TJX Canada merchandise assistant’s transition to clean beauty started two years ago after her sister Rachel faced health issues and reevaluated the products she was putting on her body. In April, Shiff took her involvement in the segment from personal to professional by committing full-time to developing a website to help others make the same transition with products from 15 brands, including 8 Faces, Curie, Graydon, Nuori, Goldfaden MD, Twelve Beauty, Woodlot, Meant Simply, Earth Tu Face, Cosmos and Florês Boticario.

“There are a lot of amazing clean beauty retailers out there, many of them selling the big names in beauty, but I wanted to create something that is focused primarily on new emerging beauty brands to provide a platform for people to discover and make the experience of switching to a clean beauty routine exciting,” says Shiff. “I want it to be filled with nontoxic products that they may not have heard of before, so they feel like they just got let in on a little secret.”

Coveted Market is launching on Oct. 9 with a heavy dose of skincare across cleansers, toners, serums, masks, moisturizers and more. It could extend next to hair care, and bath and body care, but color cosmetics are not in the immediate plans. Based in Toronto, the site will ship to Canadian and American customers.

“There are a lot of amazing clean beauty retailers out there, many of them selling the big names in beauty, but I wanted to create something that is focused primarily on new emerging beauty brands to provide a platform for people to discover and make the experience of switching to a clean beauty routine exciting.”

Shiff envisions Coveted Market’s customers as 25- to 45-year-old women that are both clean beauty newcomers and enthusiasts. “We’re really targeting two different groups,” she says. “One is a woman who may already live a clean and nontoxic lifestyle. She lives a busy life and wants to be able to buy her clean beauty products in one place, and she’s a trendsetter looking for brands before they’re big. The second group is looking to make a change and a trusted place that will simplify the switch.”

To assist newcomers with clean beauty switches, Coveted Market invites them to take a quick quiz asking questions about their skin and habits to direct them to products addressing their needs. The site also aims to be an educational resource, and will supply information in a list of banned ingredients such as mineral oil, synthetic fragrance, coal tars and aluminum, to name a few, a blog and newsletters. Although not operable at the beginning, a 24/7 chat service is in the works.

“We want to be a platform for the brands that we carry. We are really here to tell their stories, educate consumers and cultivate a community of like-minded people,” says Shiff. “We have chosen products we believe in and brands with stories we want to tell. We want to be educational without being elitist.”

“We want to be a platform for the brands that we carry. We are really here to tell their stories, educate consumers and cultivate a community of like-minded people. We have chosen products we believe in and brands with stories we want to tell.”

Shiff sought to not scare away potential clean beauty converts with exorbitant prices. She strategically attempted to keep product prices on Coveted Market attainable. The highest product price on the site is around $120. Shiff says, “If you are buying something and you don’t know about it, it’s a lot to spend $165 on a moisturizer.”

A welcoming aesthetic was important to Shiff, too. Coveted Market’s design is farmers’ market comfort meets boutique cool. It uses forest green, pinky nude and white interspersed with pops of yellow. Shiff says, “We want our customers to get the sense that we are trendy, and we know what’s good, but, at the same time, there’s going to be a lot of content to break down things for them.”

Shiff found brands for Coveted Market largely on Instagram and at Indie Beauty Expo Dallas. She picked up minimum orders at the outset and is holding all the inventory. Shiff effuses, “These brands are often very nice and accommodating. It’s not as cutthroat as it appears to be. They are very supportive, and it’s been a pleasure to work with the brands I work with.”