Ready to start a lipgloss business?
Ready to start a lip gloss line?
A lip gloss business can be very profitable for quite a few reasons:
- Low startup costs
- Easy to learn
- A growing industry
You can get most of the supplies you need to get started on your lip gloss business for less than $100. In addition, it is easy to learn how to make lip gloss. Create your own signature smell or touch. The lipgloss industry is growing rapidly, so this is a great business to get into before the market is completely oversaturated.
In 2020 just over 122 million women in the United States used lipstick or lip gloss, according to German data company Statista.[1] That number is expected to grow to over 124 million by 2024. From 2020 to 2027 the global lip gloss market is expected to grow 4.7% per year to reach $4.3 billion, according to global research company Market Research Future.[2]
To create a successful lipgloss business, you will need to:
- Determine your target customer/target audience
- Decide on a lipgloss business name
- Secure your lipgloss business social media accounts
- Make your lipgloss business legal
- Find lipgloss inventory and suppiles
- Pricing and selling your lip gloss
- Brand your lip gloss business
- Figure out packaging and get neccessary supplies for your lipgloss line
- Market your lip gloss business
Determining your Target Customer/Target Audience
Before doing anything, you will need to determine who your products will serve. This is what is called a "target customer" or "target audience".
This will help you choose a business name, brand colors and more that connects with your intended audience. For example, you will need to decide if you are selling to a specific age group or creating a lip gloss that solves issues like dry lips. Solving a problem is the best way to gain potential customers and keep current ones.
Your target audience will begin building itself based on responses from your content and marketing efforts. Reviewing your analytics will help you narrow down your customer demographics such as: age, gender, location, etc.
Business Name
In order to choose the perfect business name, you will need to do some research. Start researching your competition and get inspired by other brands similar to yours and prevent you from accidentally using a name another business may already have.
Depending on how far you want to take your business, be sure your business name is available in multiple places like: social media platforms, trademark search, DBA search, etc. Take your time with your business name to ensure you LOVE it.
- Get inspired by this list of free lipgloss business name ideas that havent been taken
- Get inspired by this list of 469 Lip Gloss Business Names
- Lip gloss Business Name Generator: Business Name Generator (namesnack.com). Enter in keywords for your business and the category to get name inspo.
Secure Socials
After choosing your business name, proceed to securing your social media accounts. This will ensure nobody takes it while you’re still in the building phase. At the least, set up your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In addition, you can create a Tik Tok or Pinterest as you continue to get your business together. Be sure to sign up for professional/business accounts so you are able to review analytics and other tools provided in-app. Securing socials early will allow you to:
- perfect your bio
- share "coming soon" announcements
- start building a following with posts centered around your brand or business niche.
- collect emails for preorders
- and more
Getting Legal
If you plan on building a business empire, making sure you have filed the necessary legal paperwork is essential. Before applying for any legal docs, you will need to determine if you want to be a sole proprietor or run an LLC. A sole proprietorship is the most common for new small businesses because you don't have to do much to get started. An LLC will cost you more upfront but prevent you from being sued if something goes bad. In addition, you will need to look into getting the following:
- EIN
- DBA
- Seller's permit (if applicable for purchasing wholesale lipgloss)
- Resale Certificate
- Business License
- Any other legal requirement for your state
In addition to these basic legal requirements, you will need to be sure your products follow FDA guidelines. You do not have to register your business with the FDA, as long as the products is not adulterated or misbranded. In addition, all ingredients must be listed on your packaging. Read more about the FDA official guidelines for making and selling cosmetics products here.
Inventory & Supplies
There are a couple of different ways you can run your lipgloss business:
- Create your own lipglosses from scratch (most common)
- Order premade, wholesale lipglosses and add your own branding
Deciding which is best for you depends on how much time you have, your creativity and business goals. If you are creating your own lip gloss from scratch, you will need to be prepared to spend a larger chunk of money upfront on the things you need to start a lip gloss business vs. purchasing wholesale.
Both options are very profitable in this growing industry. Purchasing supplies and inventory for your lip gloss business is inexpensive, even with you paying for high-quality products.
You can research for hours to purchase the right inventory and supplies, or you can check out our Lip Gloss Business Vendor List for direct links to top-quality products.
Pricing & Selling your Lipgloss
Startup costs are relatively cheap for lipgloss business; therefore, profit margins are high. You will need to price your lip gloss line competitively by researching other businesses similar to yours. To price your products, be sure to factor in the cost of the supplies, packaging and time labor.
$10 more or less is always a great starting point if you have basic packaging (Morphe brand lip glosses are only $10). You can charge a lot more depending on quality of ingredients, products and packaging.
Website. Keep your lip gloss business website simple and clean. Focus on high-resolution photos and detailed product descriptions to get favored by Google and more shares. We recommend using Shopify to create a store. Use my link to try Shopify FREE for 14 days. Take our FREE Shopify Store Setup Course if new to the e-commerce platform. If you sell in a marketplace, you can use your Etsy shop address in place of your website where applicable. Get our website design checklist to ensure you have a great website in our Online Business Toolkit.
Online Marketplaces. Marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon are a great place to launch your products. For starters, you don’t have to pay the monthly fee of a website AND there are already thousands of potential customers shopping for the products you sell 24/7. Save money up front and don't have to worry about paying for a site during those early months of business that you may have little to no orders.
Tip, if you just want to make money selling lip gloss - go the marketplace route. If you want to make money by creating a brand, create a website and sell on a marketplace as well.
Locally, In-Person. Selling locally can be a great way to get cash up front. Check out how you can become a vendor at a marketplace hosted in your city weekly and connect with others in the beauty industry around town. Sell to family and friends, host parties and events, etc. The list goes on.
Branding
Great branding can sell your business before the product does. To stand apart from other lip gloss businesses, your branding should be unique and eye-catching. Your branding should remain consistent across products, marketing materials, social media, packaging, etc. Things like your logo should be visible across all of your products so people never have the chance to forget your name.
Ways to Brand a Lip Gloss
- Catchy lipgloss names
- Unique lipgloss tubes and containers
- Unique logo and optional slogan
- Use the "difference" as a selling point
- Invest in great packaging
In addition to branding visually, your customer service, response tones to comments on social media, etc. also play a part in your overall brand.
Packaging
Packaging is another sales tactic that can help grow your brand because this is what the customer sees from the people “behind the brand”. The presentation of your products is the first impression to customers, especially for online businesses. This goes for both the product packaging itself and the packaging used for shipping.
Packaging is:
- Part of your overall branding
- A great way to increase returning customer rate
- A great way to increase word-of-mouth advertising
Luckily, lip gloss packaging is not very expensive. You can order custom logo packaging or blank packaging you can add your branding too. And of course, you can update your packaging as your business grows. Get our list of vendors offering trendy, unique lipgloss packaging here.
Marketing
You have customers out there waiting for you, they just don’t know you exist yet. You should be marketing your business at any and every opportunity you get. Lipgloss is a great product to promote because:
- it’s small and easy to travel with
- it's easy to self-promote and have others take a photo with it.
- it's for all genders, sizes, races, etc.
- it's easy to sell in person
Get plenty of great content for your lip gloss like and use it on your website and social media. Have fun with marketing and get creative.
Giveaways are one of the best options for growing your social media. Ask users to follow you and tag others to win a free lipgloss. Kindly ask them to post with the tube or wearing it and repost to your page. Tik Tok is one of the newest forms of social media that is blowing up thousands of businesses. Get creative with marketing on socials, selling to friends and family in person and learning SEO for your website.
Tip - Pinterest loves beauty products. Be sure to create a business Pinterest and pin all of your products and blog posts to start growing your account ASAP.
