Crowdfunding works. And it can work for beauty brands too. But until now, cosmetics, personal care, fragrance, and beauty tech businesses that have successfully raised money, using Kickstarter, Indiegogo, PledgeMe, Seedrs, and the like, have had to put in a tremendous amount of marketing and promotional work (time and money) to attract potential backers to their online fundraising campaigns.
That’s because—until now—crowdfunding platforms haven’t been developed to support the brands and consumers at the heart of the beauty industry. (Campaign categories linked on today’s Kickstarter landing page, as an example, include Arts, Comics & Illustration, Design & Tech, Film, Food & Craft, Games, Music, and Publishing. And it’s no secret how difficult it is for beauty businesses to raise funds from someone with little to no awareness of or interest in beauty. So something is clearly missing in the conventional crowdfunding space.)
A new crowdfunding platform for beauty brands
BeautyBacker.co launched at 5pm EST last Thursday (September 26, 2019). The platform holds the distinction of being “the world’s first crowdfunding platform exclusively for the beauty industry,” as Jacqueline Gutierrez, founder and CEO of BeautyBacker tells Cosmetics Design editor Deanna Utroske in the above video interview filmed at last week’s Beauty & Money Summit in New York City.
Crucially, the crowd that funds brands on these sorts of platform is generally comprised of consumers. And it’s well known that consumers spend generously on beauty in contrast to most other CPG categories, regardless of larger economic realities. This means the opportunity for beauty crowdfunding is very real.
A new way to gain brand recognition
Beyond its primary function as a platform for fundraising, BeautyBacker is a useful tool for new and emerging brands. By creating a BeautyBacker campaign, “you’re gaining awareness…you’re bringing your product to a much larger audience,” explains Gutierrez. And she goes on later to note that these campaigns are also a chance to demonstrate proof of concept and market fit.
The BeautyBacker site features 9 campaign categories meant to address the diversity of the contemporary beauty marketplace: Cosmetics, Skin Care, Hair Care, Bath and Body, Fragrance, Men’s Grooming, Gender Neutral, Beauty Tech, and Wellness, “which makes it very easy for beauty brands to find which category is the best fit for their offering and makes it very easy for backers to find you to support you,” says Gutierrez.
To learn more about crowdfunding and the new BeautyBacker platform, watch the full video interview at the top of the page.
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.
