Even if the word “Blursh” means nothing to you, you may have heard of Made by Mitchell.
The British brand’s owner—entrepreneur, influencer, and TikTok Shop seller Mitchell Halliday—has been a record-breaker since the start of his career.
His latest milestone was becoming the first UK seller to hit $1M in sales on TikTok Shop in a single day. His story’s one that’s inspiring sellers well beyond the cosmetics industry. There’s a lot to be learned from his meteoric rise to success, so let’s take a look at his strategies to see what you can implement to boost your own brand’s performance.
Profit from multi-use products
One reason why the cornerstone product from Made by Michell (MbM), Blursh, is so popular is that it does the job of two products for the price of one—customers can use it as a blush or lipstick.
Products like Blursh have been on the market for a while. Max Factor originated the concept—at least in the cosmetics industry—in 1937 when they combined foundation with powder to create their Pan-Cake.
If you’re not too au fait with makeup and need some further convincing, a study from GFK may help explain why this is so attractive. According to their research, buyers are willing to pay more for multi-functional products that make their lives easier. They found this to be true even when consumer demand is declining overall.
With that in mind, there’s extra revenue to be found if you stay on the lookout for items you can sell that combine the best of multiple products: think Ninja’s multi-use appliances or multi-charger cables. Products like this are even the subject of multiple news round-ups, such is their ability to attract buyers.
Stoke the FOMO fires
Not one, not two, but eight. That’s how many new products MbM dropped during the legendary £1M live stream. The kicker? 600K people saw their unveiling.
Exclusivity has always been a big seller, but it’s come to a head in the digital age. Live streaming—and the build-up to live streams—help build brand hype like no other medium. First, they play into impulse buying, which makes up between 40 and 80% of all purchase types. Second, leverage the power of product discovery, something shoppers actively seek out on social media.
Experiment with live streaming on a small scale first. Even if it’s just you and a handful of your TikTok followers, building momentum with the format gives potential customers insight into your brand in real time and helps them grow an affinity with it.
Nurture 5 star reviews
Beauty Bay, one of the UK’s most prolific online cosmetic retailers, gives a snapshot of the rave reviews the product’s received. Not only do product reviews and testimonials prove the quality of your products to other potential buyers, you can nurture them to get even more and spread the word further.
Feedback Express is one platform that gives you the option to automate review requests to your happiest customers so your standard can always be on the rise.
You can also send free samples of products to influencers to solicit reviews. While they may not always be positive, legitimate feedback either gives you the info you need to refine product specs and formula, or the amplification your brand needs to reach more audiences, making it a win-win situation.
Integrate your eCommerce channels
MbM don’t just sell on TikTok. To boost business, they’re omnipresent on social media platforms and dedicated marketplaces, including Amazon. The business case is obvious: the more places you sell your product, the more people see it and, ultimately, buy it.
Plus, if you can interlink where folks can purchase your products, and the channels where you promote them, you make it easy for viewers to buy immediately after watching content about it, driving sales and virality.
However, it gets challenging when you have to keep track of each platform, especially when it comes to customer communications and support queries. eDesk lets you consolidate all the messages you get from customers and potential customers in one place. That way, you never miss their questions, or miss out on their sales.
NEW: eDesk/TikTok Shop integration
Focus on visual appeal
Everything the Made By Mitchell brand sells is visually bold, leaning into its color-focused aesthetic. In the cosmetics industry, how attractive a product is greatly impacts how well it sells.
KathleenLights, one of the most popular YouTube make-up influencers with an audience of 4M+, created a video on the topic that amassed 140K views to date, so it’s obvious that buyers can relate.
It’s a trend that’s reflected across product categories. One study by ShipStation showed that 72% of American consumers are influenced by product packaging when making purchasing decisions. So, when choosing which products to sell, consider their packing and visual appeal along with their functionality to increase the number of clicks on Add to Cart.
Tailor your marketing to TikTok
As well as the live streaming tactics we touched on earlier, marketing on TikTok offers even more unique ways to reach new customers. In terms of the Made By Mitchell strategy, their TikTok page showcases a few easy-to-start tactics you can try for yourself.
Firstly, they package content into playlists on TikTok to repurpose instead of having to constantly pump out new videos. Also, they repost an abundance of user-generated content which has the double benefit of helping them keep fresh, positive content coming up in user feeds. Plus, they run flash sales to keep up the momentum of orders from their Shop.
It’s clear that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to TikTok marketing, but by exploring different approaches used by successful brands, you can analyze their success as you run each campaign to see which is the best fit for your customers. We’ve got a dedicated breakdown on how to get more sales from TikTok Shop ready for you if you want some more in-depth advice too.
Sharpen your social media savvy
Facebook, Instagram, X… Beyond TikTok Shop, there are so many options when it comes to which social media platforms you can sell on these days. However, they all come with their own nuances and types of users, so you’ll want to tailor your selling strategy for each so you’re not missing the mark.
By doing your research on who’s hanging out and, ultimately, willing to spend on each, you can make sure you’re spending your resources in the most efficient way. Here’s a high-level breakdown of who you can expect to sell to on each social media platform—based on data from SproutSocial—to get you started:
Facebook:
- Number of monthly active users: 3.065 billion
- Largest age group: 25-34 (29.9%)
- Gender distribution: 43.7% female, 56.3% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 30.9 minutes
X (ex Twitter):
- Number of monthly active users: 368 million
- Largest age group: 25-34 (38.5%)
- Gender distribution: 37% female, 63% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 34.1 minutes
Instagram:
- Number of monthly active users: 2 billion
- Largest age group: 18-24 (30.8%)
- Gender distribution: 48.2% female, 51.8% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 33.1 minutes
TikTok:
- Number of monthly active users: 1.7 billion
- Largest age group: 18-24 (36.2%)
- Gender distribution: 49.2% female, 50.8% male (no data on other genders)
- Time spent per day: 53.8 minutes
What’s the next step for TikTok Shop sellers?
While it’s rare to make £1M overnight from TikTok Shop, the journey is as important as the destination in this story. By adapting your selling strategies to fit with how the average customer consumes product content on TTS will help increase your conversion rates.
Whether you have the capacity and desire to deliver on live streams, influencer collaboration, or any of the tactics we’ve covered in-between, focus on quality customer experience. Overall it’s the common denominator for all successful online stores.
As you aim for greatness in that regard, don’t let customer support hold you back from sales. No matter where you do business online, try eDesk for free to see how easy it is to bring comms from all your stores together so you never miss a sale.
