Emily Weiss was 29 when she founded beauty brand Glossier and was named on Forbes US 30 under 30 soon after. In the decade since, Glossier products have amassed a cult-like following globally. Now, for the first time, they can be purchased in Australasian brick-and-mortar stores.
It’s 5:40 pm Monday in the tony – but chilly and rain-soaked – south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The Mecca store on Armadale’s prestigious High Street closed 10 minutes ago, but inside, two dutiful employees dressed in head-to-toe black are tending to pink-hued product displays in the front windows. Tomorrow is ‘Glossier day’ one of them tells me while locking the glass front door, and the staff can’t wait for Mecca to open to customers keen to get their hands on the coveted products the next day.
The Armadale location is just one of 70 Mecca stores across Australia and New Zealand that are stocking Glossier products. It is the first time the brand has been available for purchase in brick-and-mortar stores in this part of the world.
According to Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy, Mecca – Australia’s most popular beauty store – was the obvious choice for the Australasian roll-out.
“We have been so lucky to consistently hear from community members across Australia and New Zealand about their love for Glossier, so it was critical to find the right wholesale partner to launch our brand in the region,” says Leahy.
Glossier x Mecca: A match made in Australian beauty heaven
While Glossier products are sold in Sephora stores in the US, the company chose to pair up with Sephora’s local competitor in Australia.
“We are thrilled to have found that partner in Mecca – a company that truly understands the power of brick-and-mortar retail and consistently delivers exceptional experiences for its customers. With our shared values and devotion to all things beauty, we couldn’t be more excited about this launch and our bright future together,” says Leahy.
An IBISWorld report reveals that Mecca holds 17 per cent market share in Australia’s $4 billion beauty industry. Sephora may be the go-to beauty store in the US – where Glossier was born – but here it has captured just 4 per cent market share.
Founded in 1997, Mecca has a 17-year first-mover advantage over LVMH-owned Sephora, which entered the Australian beauty market in 2014. Australian customers have largely stayed loyal to their homegrown beauty retailer in the decade since.
Mecca now turns over a billion dollars a year, according to Business of Fashion calculations, and its 4-level Sydney CBD location holds the title of the largest beauty store in the Southern Hemisphere. It is not an accolade the George Street store will hold for long – Mecca is currently developing a larger store in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall.
It seems fitting that Melbourne will again be home to Australia’s flagship store, given it is the hometown of Mecca CEO Jo Horgan, who founded the beauty juggernaut when she was 29.
Horgan was born in the UK, raised in Perth, and opened the first Mecca store almost three decades ago in the vibrant inner-city Melbourne suburb of South Yarra. The conglomerate’s head office is now in Richmond, a 7-minute drive from the original outlet. Horgan’s husband Peter Wetenhall joined the company in 2005, and the co-CEOs live and work in Melbourne.
Horgan and Weiss both started their empires at 29
Glossier was also started by an ambitious 29-year-old. Emily Weiss was born in Connecticut, studied studio art at NYU, and was a fashion assistant at Vogue. She started the beauty blog ‘Into the Gloss’ in 2010, after appearing on the popular tv show ‘The Hills.’
Four years after building a highly engaged digital audience through the blog, Weiss began selling to them. She launched four beauty products under the name ‘Glossier’ in 2014.
Weiss’ deep understanding of the visual medium – gleaned via studying studio art and working at beauty-bible Vogue – contributed to the early traction of the brand. She launched ‘Into the Gloss’ when social media was exploding, and amassed a millennial and Gen Z audience willing to spend their disposable income on aesthetically pleasing beauty products.
Forbes published an article in 2016 where Weiss spoke of the importance of designing products to appeal to an Instagram generation.
“We spent an enormous amount of time with an illustrator designing a really ornate, colourful illustration and sticker for the top of the product,” Weiss says about pastel-toned face mask jars. Like most Glossier products, the product offering was conceived with smartphone photography in mind.
“You’re so excited to see that, and take it out, and take a picture of it like you would food — the perspective of holding your iPhone over a plate of food,” Weiss told Forbes 8 years ago.
The traction the company found on social media, and was able to translate into sales, was a recipe for success. In 2021, Glossier was valued at $2.6 billion, well and truly giving it unicorn status.
Weiss’ resigned from the CEO role in 2022, four months after a third of the Glossier workforce was laid off. Leahy was appointed as CEO in her place, and has held the role for two years. Glossier ‘superfans’ are a part of a beauty-obsessed, social media fed generation, Leahy says.
“As a brand born on the internet, Glossier has had a global community base since day one, regularly speaking to beauty-obsessed consumers around the world about their routines and favourite products,” Leahy says.
It is a global phenomenon that also rings true in Australia. Mecca customers have long been asking for Glossier products to be stocked in stores, according to executive Marita Burke.
“We want our customers to experience the very best in global beauty, so bringing the world of Glossier to Mecca couldn’t be more of a dream come true,” says Burke.
“Our customers are the beating heart of everything we do, they’re all about dreaming big – just like us – and Glossier was at the top of their wishlist.”
Are you – or is someone you know -creating the next Afterpay or Canva? Nominations are open for Forbes Australia’s first 30 under 30 list. Entries close midnight, July 31, 2024.
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