LipLoveLine founder and CEO Briana Williams (center) with some of her company’s brand ambassadors. (Photo courtesy of LipLoveLine)
After starting out in 2021 selling only through its own website, a local beauty brand has expanded its presence online and in the physical world.
LipLoveLine made its brick-and-mortar debut earlier this month at retail chain Showfields’ DC outpost, while rounding out its roster of online venues through deals with Urban Outfitters and Thirteen Lune.
The expansions are aimed at leveraging those companies’ customer bases to build the LipLoveLine brand ahead of plans to seek capital from investors next year, founder and chief executive officer Briana Williams said in an interview Wednesday.
“These partnerships are building credibility for the brand and positioning me to plan for that big increase,” Williams said. “I like to say that we’re rich in social capital, because we’re positioned in a way that I’ve built relationships in the industry where a lot of people say, ‘Let me know when you’re ready to take that next. He passed.'”
The Richmond-based company sells lip balms, lip glosses and lipsticks and plans to introduce additional new products next year.
Some of the LipLoveLine products, through its Facebook page.
Williams said that Showfields, Urban Outfitters and Thirteen Lune (an online store focused on beauty products from black-owned companies) approached her about selling their products.
“Showfields contacted me early last year about coming into their New York store as part of a new business campaign. It just wasn’t the right time,” Williams said. “This time, they contacted me again because they had another chance.”
She said the companies have a common interest in seeking out minority-owned brands to join their lineups.
LipLoveLine products began appearing on the Urban Outfitters website last week and on Thirteen Lune and Amazon earlier this year. Williams said the range of online stores will allow him to get in front of different customers and hopefully learn more about how to position his company in the future.
“A lot of the dollars that you spend on marketing today, especially in the world of advertising, is trying to figure out what works for you. Many of these partners have given me the ability to do marketing without paying those marketing dollars,” Williams said.
LipLoveLine started selling their products on their own website in 2021, and continues to do so. The company was founded the year before. Their products are not made with animal products and are produced by a manufacturing company based in New Jersey.
Williams left her public relations job at VCU to pursue LipLoveLine full-time in January. In August, she moved the company out of her home into an office rented from startup incubator StartUp Virginia at the 1717 Innovation Center.
The company does not have employees but it does have contract workers and trainees.
Source: news.google.com