TikTok Darling The Beachwaver Co. Grows At Target As It Aims To Triple Haircare Business

The Beachwaver Co., the viral hair tools brand that’s sold 1.4 million products on TikTok Shop, is expanding its assortment at Target as it sets out to multiply its haircare business 3X this year.

Braid Balm, a $24 product that preps the hair for braiding and strengthens it with a bond complex, is entering Target stores chain-wide along with the brand’s $189.99 Midnight Rose Blow Brush and $99 Pink Sunset Beachwaver B1.25 curling iron. They join 14 other products the retailer stocks from Beachwaver, including bestsellers $28 Second Chance Dry Shampoo, $28 Great Barrier Heat Protectant Spray and $28 Shine Squad Spray. 

Known primarily for curling irons and rotating wands like the Beachwaver B1 series, which has sold over 480,000 units on TikTok Shop, the brand’s focus on haircare represents a significant change for the business. Sarah Potempa, the celebrity hairstylist who founded Beachwaver with her sisters Erin and Emily in 2010 and serves as the company’s CEO, believes that concentrating on haircare will boost replenishment, a perennial issue for beauty tools businesses, and make the brand more attractive to possible financial partners in the future. Up until this point, it’s been self-funded. 

“We have huge goals and huge projections for us to increase, and we’re really trying to build our consumable business. That’s why we’re so proud to put Braid Balm in every Target store,” she says. “Once that is at a higher percentage of our sales, then we’re always open to it [investment]. We’re super open to it right now. However, we’re a majority tools business and the tools category is not as viable.”

Beachwaver forecasts haircare will account for 30% of its business by the end of 2025. Ultimately, it wants an even split between tools and haircare sales. Previously, haircare ranged between 8% and 10% of sales. The brand currently sells about 30 haircare products, with another 20 to 30 in the pipeline. In total, it offers over 70 products across tools, haircare and styling products, body care and fragrances priced from $14 to $249 for individual full-size products. Haircare specifically is priced from $18 to $28.

According to Inc. magazine, Beachwaver’s sales increased 30% in 2023 to $100 million. The brand’s website is responsible for 50% to 60% of its sales. Amazon, TikTok Shop and Target make up the balance. TikTok Shop accounted for between 20% to 30% of its business in 2023. That percentage has decreased as sales at Amazon and Target have ticked up. Potempa says Beachwaver’s revenues have advanced at least 20% to 25% annually for the last four years. 

Beachwaver experiences a halo effect at Target driven by its presence on TikTok Shop, where it has 1.2 million followers. “We’re seeing ourselves hit the goals as a retail partner without a huge ad spend,” says Potempa. “We don’t have the money to advertise the way a huge funded company does, but what we have is this community that’s going to tell people that you need to grab a Beachwaver in your local Target.”

With big ambitions for Target, Beachwaver aims to secure an end-cap at the retailer for the last quarter of this year. To support Braid Balm’s launch at Target, the brand is embarking on a digital campaign showcasing braiding tutorials from Potempa’s personal TikTok account, where she has 1.5 million followers, and it’s hosting a braid bar at its first New York City pop-up in Shopify’s Greene Street headquarters from June 20 to 22. 

“We’re really trying to build our consumable business.”

“What we want to accomplish is the experience for the customer. I want that customer to feel proud of the brand,” says Potempa. “I want them to feel like, oh, I learned how to do my hair or braid my hair because of that brand.”

The pop-up shop is part of a larger event strategy. Last week, it held a Waves & Wellness event where press and influencers were treated to hair styling sessions, live demonstrations and yoga classes in the brand’s new Brooklyn content studio. It also hosted an in-person scavenger hunt where customers were given clues to find hidden packages around Brooklyn’s neighborhood Williamsburg.

Beachwaver is keeping its foot on the TikTok accelerator. Handpicked by the social media network, the brand participated last week in TikTok’s Super Brand Day, a week-long promotional event with brand livestreams, flash sales and exclusive products. Chicago-based Beachwaver kicked off Super Brand Day with a 12-hour livestream from its northern Illinois warehouse highlighting the launch of Everyday Hairspray, an $18 medium-hold hairspray that’s exclusive to TikTok Shop. It also offered three exclusive haircare and body care bundles during the livestream featuring an inflatable 18-foot slide and a dunk tank to gamify the content.

Potempa discloses the brand sold 14,000 units in the 12-hour period. She says it didn’t pay to be a part of Super Brand Day. Beachwaver jumped on TikTok before the pandemic and was one of the first brands in the United States to participate in TikTok Shop in October 2022. It hosts weekly livestreams and has had success with a concept it calls “The Packing Show,” where customers join the brand live on Tuesdays to see their orders get packed. The show is accompanied by music, games and exclusive giveaways.

Beachwaver donates a portion of the proceeds from each item it packs to charities. Last year, it donated over $100,000 to nonprofits like Alliance For The Great Lakes. Beachwaver’s team members appear on TikTok. “The more our employees go on camera, the more the community feels super connected,” says Potempa. “There’s this element of reality. It’s not an ad. It’s not a highly produced TV show.”

She adds, “TikTok has been such a cool journey because it’s given us a platform to tell our story and reintroduce ourselves to so many people. As an independent women-owned company, we want people to know who we are, what we stand for and to expand to be more in everyone’s daily routine.”

Early on, Beachwaver caught fire on QVC before expanding into 1,000 retail doors at Ulta Beauty, Target and Nordstrom. Leveraging Potempa’s background working with Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Lea Michele, Emily Blunt and Busy Phillips, the brand handled the hair for Victoria’s Secret’s fashion shows in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, it pulled out of retail to double down on direct-to-consumer distribution, Instagram and Amazon. Beachwaver returned to Target in October last year and landed at Anthropologie, Dillard’s and online at Walmart and Ulta. 

Discussing Beachwaver’s previous retreat from retail, Potempa explains, “We felt like education was the missing link, and we couldn’t spend as much money as some people could at a large-scale advertising level with retailers, but we have to be in these places that our customers are, and that’s why we’re reentering.”