When O’o Hawaii launched in April last year, founder Holly Harding wasn’t expecting to sell the brand’s products abroad, at least not so soon. Expectation and actuality aren’t, thankfully in this case, always aligned.
The luxury skincare brand has secured a distributor in Hong Kong, which is exposing it to China via an e-tailer with cruelty-free beauty lines, and is negotiating with three distributor possibilities in Japan to extend further into Asia. In O’o Hawaii’s home state of Hawaii, where it’s based in the North Shore community Halewei, the brand is reaching international travelers at two duty-free stores: T.Galleria by DFS in Waikiki and From Hawaii with Love in the Honolulu International Airport.
“It has been a robust and fun year. This particular business has taken on a global approach, and I’ve been able to travel,” says Harding. “I was doing all the business development in the beginning. Now, more of my efforts are on duty-free stores while (my) sales partner focuses on expanding in the U.S.” Maureen Molloy, managing director at Pure Product Brokers and part owner of O’o Hawaii, heads sales at the brand.
Aside from the duty-free stores, O’o Hawaii is available at Indie Beauty Market, Neiman Marcus, QVC, Urban Outfitters and Amazon in the United States. The brand is also found in spas like The Kahala Hotel and Resort in Honolulu and No. 11 Spa in the Cayman Islands, and its products are featured in spa services.
O’o Hawaii’s duty-free and international distribution trajectory has largely been driven by the tourism industry in Hawaii, and the results the brand has seen from Instagram marketing. Since Japanese tourists are the third-largest group of visitors to Hawaii and the top visitors from Asia, Harding says she thought, “We’re going to come back to our own backyard and open up in duty-free stores. These are our biggest and best accounts that we’ve been focusing on.”
“The reality is there’s so much groundwork you have to do first. You have to get out there and be hands on.”
Instagram is at the core of O’o Hawaii’s social media marketing. Harding shares, “When we first started, we were working with a digital agency, but I felt we were dumping so much money into Facebook advertising [that] didn’t seem to be converting. It didn’t seem successful for us, but I found that running ads on Instagram and putting focus there has been more successful.” Retailers and Asian distributors have been contacting the brand through the social media platform.
O’o Hawaii’s international move is a significant shift from the mass-market strategy Harding took with her previous company Bubble Shack Hawaii, which she sold in 2016 before introducing O’o Hawaii two years later. Bubble Shack Hawaii’s candles, lotions and soaps are carried by chains like Target, Walmart and ABC Stores.
“It was like a ‘school of hard knocks’ learning with Bubble Shack. We were able to grow it organically to a couple of million dollars and sell it. I’m so glad we built it, but, at this point, we were able to start so differently,” says Harding. At O’o Hawaii, she’s zeroing in on older millennials. To cater to them, Harding lowered prices that originally went up to $130 to keep the products under $100. She says, “We found we get a lot of interest and purchases from that group now. I would say the sweet spot is between $45 to $55 for the clientele who want anti-aging products.”
O’o Hawaii’s number-one product is Golden Nectar Brightening and Firming Ferulic Serum, a product particularly popular with Asian customers. Other bestsellers are Birdseed Detoxifying Facial Scrub, which was an Indie Beauty Best in Show 2018 pick, and Birdsong Eye Remedy.
“I’ve never really thought about regions and demographics in terms of skincare, and it’s sort of been an eye-opener. In the Asian market, we found toners are a really big thing.”
No matter the product, Harding’s experience at Bubble Shack taught her that in-store demonstrations are key to fueling sales. Inking deals at retailers doesn’t mean products will immediately fly off the shelves. Harding says, “You have to get in there, have your own people multiple times there a month and push the product. The reality is there’s so much groundwork you have to do first. You have to get out there and be hands on.”
In addition to Asian distributors, O’o Hawaii has expanded outside the U.S. to Amazon and The Green Jungle Beauty Shop in Canada, and European retailers such as Brùme in France and Feelunique in the United Kingdom. With its 12 retailers, O’o Hawaii has met projections for its first year of operations, which Harding estimates was close to $300,000. This year, Harding forecasts sales will increase to around $800,000, but suggests the company may have to raise funds to continue to amplify growth.
As O’o Hawaii’s Asian customer base mounts, the brand has to stay adept at adjusting to Asian preferences to boost sales. “I’ve never really thought about regions and demographics in terms of skincare, and it’s sort of been an eye-opener,” says Harding. “In the Asian market, we found toners are a really big thing. I had no plans to put a toner in our line, but, with the Asian market, we need a toner. We’ve been developing two different toners.”
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