- Kyle Leahy, the CEO of Glossier, took over the beauty company amid weak sales and layoffs.
- Leahy told Inc. Magazine listening to customers on three key issues helped her turn the brand around.
- By offering customers more selection and wider distribution, Glossier is profitable and expanding, she said.
Kyle Leahy, the new CEO of Glossier, described her secret for overhauling the cult-favorite beauty company’s strategy and driving up profits after several years of turmoil for the brand: listen closely to your customers.
Leahy took over as chief executive of Glossier in May 2022, stepping into the role previously held by the company’s founder, Emily Weiss. The transition came as the billion-dollar beauty brand‘s sales were plunging, forcing staff cuts.
With Weiss shifting to become the company’s executive chair focused primarily on product, Leahy aimed to preserve the image of the baby pink brand while overhauling its strategy, she said in a recent interview with Inc. Magazine.
Leahy explained why listening to the brand’s customers on three key issues has been key to her success.
First, customers wanted more new products — so she said Glossier overhauled 90% of their product team. Customers will also tell you when they liked an old version of a product better, Leahy added, so the brand restored the original formula for its Balm Dotcom lip balm in May this year.
“I often say to our team, if you step back and you look at the brand, it’s up and to the right, but when you zoom in, it’s always a bunch of up-and-down volatility,” Leahy told the magazine. “We tried to relaunch it with the humility and transparency of, ‘We made a mistake, and that’s OK.’ Brands are going to make mistakes.”
Customers also wanted to buy Glossier products at familiar, ubiquitous beauty retailers like Sephora and Ulta, so the brand became available in 650 third-party stores in North America.
And finally, their loyal buyers — who The National Retail Federation reported have propelled Glossier to become the top-searched beauty brand within Sephora — also wanted to be able to get Glossier products overseas, so the company expanded international distribution.
Earlier this year, Glossier’s viral “You” perfume spread wildly across TikTok and caused sales to jump by 10 times, Business Insider previously reported.
In the last three years, the brand’s sales have increased by 80%, the chief executive said, and brought the company back from what Redditors once described as its “flop era.”
Representatives for Glossier did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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