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TikTok Shop is quickly becoming Gen Z’s preferred way to buy beauty. Fenty, Tarte, and Maybelline have all seen rapid growth on the app. And now DTC darling Glossier is joining their ranks. The move marks the brands latest attempt to court Gen Z consumersmore than half of whom have made purchases via TikTok Shop. Roughly a third of Gen Z consumers say TikTok is their preferred shopping channel, and some 60% are on TikTok Shop daily. On top of that, last year beauty and personal care was the top-selling category on the platform, generating $2.5 billion in gross merchandise value. Since it launched in the U.S. in September 2023, TikTok Shop has become the countrys eighth-largest beauty retailer, according to a NielsenIQ report. A consumer trends report from the New Consumer and Coefficient Capital even found that TikTok Shopwhich, as of 2024, counted an estimated 150 million daily active userswas more popular among Americans than Shein and Sephora. Already, brands have seen success on the platform (Tarte, for example, brought in $4.85 million in sales via TikTok Shop in May alone). The move is part of Glossiers multi-platform expansion that includes its online store, 11 permanent retail locations, and a presence in retail wholesale. The company started selling at Sephora in 2023its first major move to a wholesale retail model. The brand saw a $100 million lift in sales in the first year of the partnership. The transformation we’ve driven over the last four years has been deeply listening to [our] community and watching and seeing where they are going and how Glossier meets them, says Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy, who adds that the company decided to sell on TikTok Shop now because of feedback from its fans and customers. The news comes after many brands, including E.l.f., LOréal Paris, and The Ordinary joined TikTok Shop last year. Leahy says Glossier has 3 billion hashtag views on TikTok. That engagement could create a direct pipeline from conversation to purchase. We are seeing with how our consumers are engaging on this platform that this is where the next generation is continuing to move in beauty, she says. It seems like the logical and very authentic next step for us to continue [to] connect with our community where they’re shopping for beauty. Glossier has already surpassed 1 million TikTok followers and has seen 15 million likes on its posts. Glossier’s brand-page TikTok content includes day in the life and get ready with me-style videos as well as influencer collaborations and behind-the-scenes content from the company’s lab. While Glossier has carefully curated its in-store presence, with custom-made gondolas to create a consistent visual identity, the brand will have less control over its appearance in the online store, though it will still be heavily curating its posts. Glossiers always been about the community. It’s always about people’s stories. A platform like TikTok Shop where we are partnering with creators is actually a very uniquely Glossier thing, Leahy says. That doesnt mean the brand is going all-in on its digital presence. Leahy says Glossier receives hundreds of handwritten letters and cards monthlyfrom wedding invitations to thank-you notes for being there at events like high school graduations and first jobs. [Photo: Glossier] Glossier’s next phase Joining TikTok Shop can provide a huge lift to brands. Hailey Biebers cosmetic and skincare brand Rhode has yet to launch at a retailer, but it has sold more than 112,000 units via TikTok Shop. In May, partly on the strength of its popularity attracting Gen Z customers on TikTok, the company was acquired by conglomerate E.l.f. in a deal valued at $1 billion. Rhodes products will be sold at Sephora starting in the fall. Other brands sold in retail have also created TikTok-specific drops on the platform, before the products enter retail. Leahy, who spearheaded Glossiers multi-platform sales approach after she joined in 2022, announced in June that she is leaving the company by the end of this year. Under her leadership, Glossier also expanded its successful fragrance business, which continues to dominate the category at Sephora. Still, the company has found it difficult to maintain the momentum it once had. In June, Rachel Strugatz at Puck reported that Glossieronce valued at nearly $2 billion and rumored to be going publicis struggling to attract capital, with some investors saying the company is overvalued. A couple of months ago Glossier was raising a down round. According to Puck, the company was seeking $250 million, comprised of a $100 million investment into Glossier and a $150 million in secondary to buy out existing stakeholders. With the right marketing, a move to TikTok Shop may juice its sales enough for investors to rethink their stance.
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E-Commerce
Last week, President Donald Trump signed his One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. The legislation is unpopular with Americans across the political spectrum, primarily because it will cut critical social and health services for more than 10 million people while at the same time giving the countrys wealthier individuals billions in tax breaks. However, the law’s critics are not just everyday Americans, but also include Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world’s richest man. Musks public objection to the bill has more to do with the fact that it will raise the U.S. deficit by trillions, something he is fundamentally opposed to. And in response to the passage of the lawand his unhappiness with the Republicans who supported itMusk announced he would form a new political party. What happened next is pretty predictable: The price of Tesla stock (Nasdaq: TSLA) declined in premarket trading on Monday, with markets set to open after the long July 4 weekend. Heres why and what you need to know. Musks new ‘America Party Shortly after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, Musk announced that he would form a new political party in America. It’s called the America Partyand thats about as much as we know about it. Musk has so far not provided any information about the partys main policy objectives, whether that includes supporting universal healthcare, tech entrepreneurship, or other priorities. However, given that the party is being formed in response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the increased debt that it’s expected to cause, it’s a good bet that fiscal conservatism will be one of the primary tenets of the American Party. Announcing the new America Party, Musk said on X: When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom. Tesla stock sinks after Musks return to politics Americans who agree with Musk that there is essentially little difference between Democrats and Republicansand, therefore, a new third party is needed to challenge the status quomay be cheering his decision to launch the America Party. Tesla investors, however, have a different take. As of the time of this writing, shares in TSLA are slumping in premarket trading on the first morning of trading after Musk made his announcement. Currently, TSLA shares are down around 6.5% to just under $295 per share. But why? Because whenever Musk gets involved in politics, Tesla seems to suffer. Earlier this year, Tesla stock sank for months on end after Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The departments ruthless cutting of supposedly wasteful spending divided the nation. It also made Tesla a target for those who disagreed with Musks involvement in politics. Teslas sales and its share price both sank once Musk’s DOGE activities began. Tesla shares recovered in June when Musk announced that he was stepping away from politics and would again focus on his businesses, including Tesla. But now that Musk has announced the formation of a new political party, Tesla investors seem worried that, at best, it will take Musks attention away from running the company and, at worst, it will serve to further alienate consumers who disagree with his politics. Year to date, Teslas stock price has already cratered 21% as of market close on July 3.
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E-Commerce
Alphabet’s Google has been hit by an EU antitrust complaint over its AI Overviews from a group of independent publishers, which has also asked for an interim measure to prevent allegedly irreparable harm to them, according to a document seen by Reuters. Google’s AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages and are shown to users in more than 100 countries. It began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May. The company is making its biggest bet by integrating AI into search but the move has sparked concerns from some content providers such as publishers. The Independent Publishers Alliance document, dated June 30, sets out a complaint to the European Commission and alleges that Google abuses its market power in online search. “Google’s core search engine service is misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the form of traffic, readership and revenue loss,” the document said. It said Google positions its AI Overviews at the top of its general search engine results page to display its own summaries which are generated using publisher material and it alleges that Google’s positioning disadvantages publishers’ original content. “Publishers using Google Search do not have the option to opt out from their material being ingested for Google’s AI large language model training and/or from being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear in Google’s general search results page,” the complaint said. The Commission declined to comment. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority confirmed receipt of the complaint. Google said it sends billions of clicks to websites each day. “New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered,” a Google spokesperson said. The Independent Publishers Alliance’s website says it is a nonprofit community advocating for independent publishers, which it does not name. The Movement for an Open Web, whose members include digital advertisers and publishers, and British nonprofit Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, which says it advocates for fairness in the tech world, are also signatories to the complaint. They said an interim measure was necessary to prevent serious irreparable harm to competition and to ensure access to news. Google said numerous claims about traffic from search are often based on highly incomplete and skewed data. “The reality is that sites can gain and lose traffic for a variety of reasons, including seasonal demand, interests of users, and regular algorithmic updates to Search,” the Google spokesperson said. Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling said journalists and publishers face a dire situation. “Independent news faces an existential threat: Google’s AI Overviews,” she told Reuters. “That’s why with this complaint, Foxglove and our partners are urging the European Commission, along with other regulators around the world, to take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out,” Curling said. The three groups have filed a similar complaint and a request for an interim measure to the U.K. competition authority. The complaints echoed a U.S. lawsuit by a U.S. edtech company which said Google’s AI Overviews is eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers’ ability to compete that have resulted in a drop in visitors and subscribers. Foo Yun Chee, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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