Restorsea Sweeps Race For Shelf Space Buyer And Audience Awards At The BeautyX Retail Summit
Clean clinical skincare brand Restorsea captured the audience and buyer prizes at the second annual Race For Shelf Space competition capping off BeautyX Retail Summit last week.
Held at the Fashion Institute Gallery in Dallas, the competition featured three brands exhibiting at Indie Beauty Expo Dallas—new sun-care company Tropic Labs and plant-based adaptogen deodorant product specialist Field Botanicals joined Restorsea—live on stage in a mock trade-show setting pitching their brands to a trio of spa and retail executives: The Spa at the Joule spa director Virginia Acosta, Neiman Marcus beauty buyer Kim D’Angelo and Dermstore vice president of marketing Dawn Serpa.
In their efforts to win over the executives, the brands were coached by expert merchant Kelly St. John, Oyl + Water founder Rachel Roberts and strategic growth consultant Joanie Taylor. The brand founders and advisors worked together to craft their pitches for the distribution partners during the three weeks leading up to the BeautyX Retail Summit.
Kicking off Race For Shelf Space on Tuesday, Nader Naeymi-Rad, co-founder of Indie Beauty Media Group, producer of the conference aimed at beauty entrepreneurs, said, “Now, we get to see if they did their homework. Will they tailor their pitches to each of these three different retailers?”
Once the competition commenced, the brand founders had three minutes to pitch the spa and retail buyers, and the buyers had an additional two minutes to ask the founders questions. In her pitch for Tropic Labs, founder Morgan Ioffe positioned the brand as addressing a gap in the sun-care market between customers who religiously slather on SPF everywhere every day and those who douse themselves in oil to achieve a deep tan. She and St. John focused on the travel-friendly nature of Tropic Labs’ sun-protection products as well.
“If you’ve been in an Neiman Marcus store, you’ll notice there’s a big travel theme,” shared St. John, formerly vice president of beauty at the luxury retailer. “We also know that the Neiman Marcus customer has more than one home and travels a lot. It’s so important to do your homework. Think of the retail organization you’re pitching to. Who is their customer?”
The retail and spa evaluators taking part in Race For The Shelf Space weren’t convinced Tropic Labs’ story was consistent across all aspects of the brand. Serpa suggested its playful packaging didn’t correspond with its high price points. The brand’s three products Over Exposed, Base Tan and Tan Smart are priced from $29 to $49. And Serpa hammered home that Ioffe should emphasize her cosmetic chemistry background.
“You should have mentioned out of the gate you were a [trained as a cosmetic] chemist. You’re this cute, young millennial that also happens to be a chemist,” said Serpa. “You make science cool, and that’s a good point of view for you.”
Field Botanicals founder Jennifer Tinsley knew her colorfully-packaged and moderately-priced brand, which ranges from $18.50 for Smell My Pits to $28 for Smell My Bod, might be a stretch for Neiman Marcus, so she and Roberts devised a pitch that counted on the men walking into the retailer’s stores. “Say a gentleman is going to buy some really expensive Italian shoes in the men’s department. He doesn’t want his nice shoes to smell bad,” said Tinsley. “They fit more in a lifestyle environment, and we’re moving more towards that model in stores.”
On top of her appeal to men’s shoppers, Tinsley asserted Field Botanicals’ adaptogen-driven formulations cater to customers who don’t want to smell while not showering daily. In Acosta’s response to that assertion, she said, “You’re asking me not to shower. I wanted to hear more about those ingredients and make sure I’m good, I’m not going to smell. You need to make sure you’re giving that reassurance.”
Serpa noted the sustainability aspect of being able to skip a daily shower could be appealing to gen Z consumers seeking eco-friendly brands. “I think your brand is well-suited to a gen z consumer who is definitely conscious of water,” she said. “That’s a great consumer to have. We all want that consumer. I would lead with that more than the body-odor angle.”
Even Pao, who won over the three Race For Shelf Space retail and spa executives, received constructive criticism from them. “You have a really solid product development story,” said Serpa. “The challenge for you is that those stories are a bit dated. I would lean into, what you are doing on social? What are you doing to attract millennials?” Seven-year-old Restorsea’s formulas are fueled by an enzyme released by salon in the hatching process.
“We tried to make it easy for the buyers to see why Restorsea was very likely to be a success in their doors and that Restoresea could quickly bring in incremental sales.”
Critiques aside, Pao and Taylor were elated with Restorsea’s win. In its pitch to the retail judges, Taylor explained the brand decided to highlight its hero stockkeeping unit, Rejuvenating Day Cream. She said, “It helps buyers access your brand and, then, you can bring them in deeper.”
Timeliness was important to the pitch, too. “It helps when a pitch includes a ‘why now’ element,” said Taylor. “For Patti, it was that she is now open to selling through select retailer partnerships after proving the concept in such a compelling way with her dermatologist partners. We tried to make it easy for the buyers to see why Restorsea was very likely to be a success in their doors and that Restoresea could quickly bring in incremental sales.”
Pao credits Taylor with helping her hone a triumphant pitch. “The idea of pairing a brand with a coach is genius,” she says. “Joanie was unbelievable. She focused on making sure the key points in my pitch really came out, and she was right every time.” As a result of her Race For Shelf Space victory, Pao secured official meetings with Dermstore, Neiman Marcus and The Spa at the Joule, and a free ticket to a future BeautyX of her choice.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.