In January last year, Shopify CEO Harley Finkelstein predicted that the future of retail would be defined by a post-omnichannel strategy. This year, he is instead focusing on another movement within e-commerce: content creators building their own companies from the ground up. A trend we have seen frequently in Sweden with influencers starting e-commerce businesses and their own brands.
In a LinkedIn post, he points to 25-year-old Alix Earle and her newly launched skincare brand Reale Actives, which unsurprisingly is powered by Shopify, as a concrete example of this trend. Alix Earle has built a following of 8 million people via Tiktok and recently launched her own company.
Sales reached one million dollars in under five minutes after the launch. Within ten hours, the entire stock was sold out, despite the company having doubled its planned inventory volume in advance.
The journey from creator to entrepreneur is one of my favorite things happening in commerce right now, writes Harley Finkelstein on LinkedIn and continues:
Not a licensing deal. Not a name on someone else's product. A real brand that she has built from the ground up together with her dermatologist.
Built Without Incubators
According to the American magazine Inc, Alix Earle has worked on the brand in secret over the past two years. Unlike several other profile-driven ventures, the company was not launched via a brand incubator. Instead, an independent organization was established, initially consisting of five full-time employees and four consultants.
To lead the e-commerce company, Andrea Blieden, with a previous background from Kiehl’s and The Body Shop, has been recruited as CEO.
Transparency as a Conversion Driver
The fact that the initial pace of sales was so high can be linked to the relationship Alix Earle has with her target audience, where she has documented her own skin problems for several years. This process has been integrated into the company's marketing leading up to the launch.
Alix has been open about her acne journey for years. Her audience watched in real time, notes Harley Finkelstein and adds:
When it finally launched, her audience didn't need to be sold. They were already in.
He summarizes the launch with the following conclusion:
That is what happens when the product is real, the story is real, and the founder actually lives it.