Globally, beauty customers spend $450 billion on the consumer goods category every year, but the retailers who serve them need to source their inventory from somewhere. Enter: business-to-business (B2B) beauty brands.
The challenge? Traditional wholesale methods that B2B beauty brands once relied on can’t keep up with buyer expectations. Stakeholders driving B2B purchases expect the same experience they’d get when buying products for themselves—no phone calls or lengthy email chains in sight. Buyers are increasingly comfortable making large purchases online, yet they still value interpersonal relationships with their suppliers.
This guide shares how to capitalize on the B2B beauty market with an ecommerce strategy that exceeds buyers' expectations.
What is B2B beauty commerce?
B2B beauty is a business model in which brands sell their products directly to other companies, rather than to the end consumer. These sales can take place online through the brand’s online storefront,a B2B marketplace, or in person at trade shows or beauty conferences.
For example, a cosmetics manufacturer might sell their makeup in bulk to spas, salons, retail partners, or ecommerce distributors. Products are sold at a lower cost per unit than with direct-to-consumer sales, but higher order values and longer relationships with B2B buyers help balance the trade-off.
Essential B2B beauty business models and strategies
Traditional wholesale model
The wholesale ecommerce model describes the typical approach to selling beauty products B2B. In this scenario, manufacturers sell their cosmetics in bulk, at a discounted price, to other retailers. These brands add their own markup and resell the cosmetics to make a profit.
Beauty wholesalers use volume-based pricing to make up for the lower cost per unit. They also rely on long-term relationships with retailers. Instead of finding hundreds of new customers per month (like a DTC beauty brand would), B2B beauty wholesalers might have a smaller selection of retail customers who make larger, regular purchases.
Pros of beauty wholesaling include:
- Benefit from economies of scale with larger wholesale orders.
- You can outsource distribution to a specialist company that manages the logistical operations of selling beauty products in bulk.
- Expand overseas without the complexity. You ship your products to wholesale partners and they handle the rest.
Cons of beauty wholesaling include:
- Relying on a small handful of wholesale partners can be risky. You could be left with surplus inventory if a wholesaler stops placing their regular orders.
- Wholesale partners are responsible for setting your product’s retail price and positioning in marketing campaigns.
Direct-to-professional model
Ever visited a salon and noticed a shelf of products recommended by the stylists? This is an example of the direct-to-professional model. It happens when B2B beauty brands partner with industry professionals—be that hairdressers, makeup artists, or aestheticians—who use their products and resell them to clients.
The direct-to-professional model often includes training and education to help your retail partners resell your products in their spa or salon.
For example, the skincare brand Dermalogica invites beauty professionals to join their B2B program. They have over 100,000 skin therapists in their program, with an online “business center” powered by their Shopify B2B storefront to connect retailers with a dedicated team of business consultants.
Pros of the direct-to-professional model include:
- Higher profit margins are achievable by cutting out wholesalers, distributors, and intermediaries..
- Direct access to professionals can help spotlight beauty industry trends you can consider for future product development.
- You have the option to niche down and build a brand reputation in a specific niche—like Dermalogica and their registered “skin therapists.”
Cons of the direct-to-professional model include:
- Without distributors, you’ll need to handle sales, marketing, and logistics in-house.
- It can take a while to establish enough credibility for professionals to recommend your products to their own clients.
Hybrid B2B/DTC model
The hybrid B2B and DTC model serves both wholesale and retail customers. It blends both sales channels and allows you to tap into two markets, experiencing the benefits of each while mitigating the risks of sticking to just one.
Bear in mind that managing pricing, inventory, messaging, and fulfillment across both B2B and DTC is more resource-intensive. Consider a unified commerce platform capable of handling both operations on the same storefront.
Shopify, for example, creates a password-protected B2B portal on the same storefront that powers your DTC ecommerce website. Once approved, B2B buyers can sign in to:
- View customized product catalogs
- Access wholesale price lists
- Understand minimum order quantities
- Check out and pay for B2B orders with flexible payment terms
- View order history and make repeat purchases
“It was very easy to understand Shopify’s B2B setup,” says Vishal Nanda, cofounder and CEO of cosmetics brand SWATI. “It used to be so difficult to support business customers on our old platform, but now we’re building a much more streamlined process to support our customers more effectively.”
Building your B2B beauty platform: Technology requirements
Many beauty retailers struggle to build the technical infrastructure required to sell their products to other brands. This is especially true if you’re operating a B2B business alongside your DTC storefront.
The traditional approach was to have two separate platforms that power one or the other sales channel—each with their own inventory and order management systems. But this disjointed strategy is fraught with challenges.
B2B customers might place a large order and sell out your inventory. But because your DTC storefront isn’t working within the same system, the product still shows as “available.” You have to go back to the customer to explain the product is actually out of stock, and risk ruining that relationship.
With Shopify’s unified commerce platform, inventory, order, and customer data from B2B and DTC channels flows back to one centralized business “brain.” You’ll get access to an enterprise ecommerce platform that covers these core components as standard:
- Unified data to act as a single source of truth for your entire beauty business operations
- Integrations with enterprise resource planning (ERP), inventory management, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems
- Security and data compliance for both sales channels
- Automated workflows to handle repetitive tasks and free up resources
- Detailed analytics and sales reports for either channel (or both combined)
Fewer patchy integrations and less middleware means better operational efficiency—and more importantly, lower costs. Retailers reduce total ownership costs by up to 36%, on average, when they adopt Shopify.
“For companies like us that don’t have lots of technical people they can call upon, having an off-the-shelf solution that does 75% of what you need means we’re saving thousands in development costs alone,” says Kevin Rowlands, associate digital director at Dermalogica.
Customer success story spotlight: AMR Hair & Beauty
AMR Hair & Beauty has come a long way since their inception by then-16-year-old entrepreneur Ammar Issa. They previously relied on two separate systems—WordPress and WooCommerce—to manage its DTC and B2B operations. But as Ammar says, “The site would crash in the middle of Black Friday and it would take us hours to get it back up.”
B2B operations were just as complex. Poor site-search functionality made it difficult for wholesale buyers to locate the products they were looking for in a catalog of over 6,000 SKUs. As a result, most buyers placed orders in more traditional ways, including phone and email, which put a strain on operations.
AMR Hair & Beauty migrated to Shopify to improve the user experience for both DTC and B2B buyers. They saw a noticeable improvement in page-loading speed and average session duration. Better search and filtering also helped wholesale beauty buyers narrow down their product catalog and complete transactions online.
Now one of Australia's leading hair and beauty suppliers, Shopify helped AMR Hair & Beauty:
- Triple sales
- Increase B2B average order value by 77%
- Boost conversion rate by 93% year-on-year
“Right now, we have two login options, one for public consumers and one for B2B customers,” Ammar says. “We have 10 different pricing tiers for B2B customers, and Shopify automatically shows them the right one based on their customer status.”
Pricing strategies for B2B beauty success
B2B pricing strategies differ widely from DTC as buyers expect lower prices, flexible payment terms, and minimum order quantities.
The traditional approach is volume-based pricing, in which a product’s unit price decreases as the order quantity increases. It encourages bulk purchasing and incentivizes wholesalers to place large orders. The more products they order, the less they’ll pay for each one.
However, you could also consider customer-specific pricing, in which product prices are customized to each individual buyer. For example, you might have specific tiers for retailers and another for professionals, or higher wholesale prices for overseas customers to account for international shipping.
How to keep B2B beauty sales profitable
The key difference between B2B and DTC sales is that beauty products are sold at a lower unit price. To remain profitable:
- Set minimum order quantities (MOQs). Just because you’re incentivizing large order quantities, doesn’t mean wholesalers will take you up on your offer. Implement MOQs to ensure you still turn a profit after accounting for B2B expenses such as marketing, shipping, and manufacturing costs.
- Use tiered pricing structures. For example, if a spa buys 100–249 units, each moisturizer might cost $13. If they place an order for between 250–499 units, the cost per unit might drop to $10. This incentivizes buyers to place larger orders.
- Make seasonal pricing adjustments. Use pricing analytics tools to dig3est large datasets and estimate how much a B2B buyer would pay. Do they have an excess budget to spend before their financial year is up? A more urgent need for cosmetics to resell during Black Friday Cyber Monday? Both of these factors influence how much a buyer is willing to spend.
- Negotiate other deliverables—not just price. Discounting can convince on-the-fence buyers to place an order, but it’s not the only way to negotiate with B2B beauty customers. Protect profits by offering other deliverables such as delivery speed, product training, or flexible payment terms (e.g., Net 60).
Supply chain and inventory management for B2B beauty
Beauty product fulfillment is a beast of its own. Products must meet compliance and labeling laws, which get complex if you’re selling B2B internationally in regions with their own regulations. Plus, most cosmetics have a limited shelf life and unique storage requirements, such as away from heat, light, or air exposure.
As you expand your B2B beauty operations, think about how you’ll manage your supply chain:
- Inventory management: Integrate each sales channel into a unified inventory management system (like the one found in Shopify). Whenever you receive a new shipment of inventory, use custom metafields to add the expiration date. Use the first-in, first-out method to sell your oldest products before they expire.
- Inventory storage: Most beauty products degrade if they’re exposed to excessive heat, light, or air. Implement smart storage solutions in your warehouse to limit exposure. Also consider partnering with a third-party logistics (3PL) company or shipping carrier that specializes in temperature-controlled storage to prevent spoilage in transit.
- Compliance considerations: Any beauty products you sell in the US—both wholesale or DTC—must meet FDA requirements related to their labeling, ingredient safety, and manufacturing. If you’re selling B2B internationally, this can get complex as every government has their own beauty regulations.
- Returns and exchange policies: Cosmetics and beauty products can be tampered with if they’re opened. As part of your B2B returns policy, clarify whether you accept returns or exchanges—and if so, the criteria that must be met. For example, you might choose only to allow returns if the product is still sealed in its original packaging.
Marketing your B2B beauty business
The B2B customer journey is vastly different, meaning the marketing strategies relied upon by DTC-only brands don’t work as effectively as you lean into B2B. Here are some proven marketing strategies for beauty wholesale.
Content marketing for beauty professionals
Content marketing offers educational content to beauty professionals, with the goal of positioning your beauty brand as a trusted voice and helping professionals expand their own product knowledge to make them more effective resellers.
B2B beauty content marketing can take many forms, such as:
- Ingredient guides
- Product training and certification programs
- Industry trend analysis and insights
- Webinars to help resellers improve product sell-through rates
Plus, the beauty sector is known to be incredibly fast-paced. New trends emerge every year—for example, the craze of overdrawn eyebrows and excessive “baking” is no longer in fashion as consumers opt for cleaner, more natural beauty regimes.
Content marketing helps educate your B2B buyers who want to be seen as experts in their own right. You can spotlight new trends and teach buyers how to lean into them, ultimately helping them achieve their own goal: to become a trusted voice in their industry.
Trade show and event strategy
Wholesalers make regular orders from suppliers they trust. Some need face-to-face time with those vendors before they’re confident enough to make a bulk order online. Trade shows allow you to do this and spread awareness about your wholesale beauty products. Trade shows you might consider include:
- Cosmoprof Worldwide
- International Beauty Show
- International Esthetics, Cosmetics & Spa Conference
- Expo Beauty Show
Even if prospective clients don’t place an order there and then, collect their details and task your B2B sales team to follow up with them in the weeks or months following the conference. Staying top of mind means you’ll be the first port of call when they need the wholesale beauty products you’re selling.
But beauty trade shows aren’t just for B2B lead generation—they’re a great way to find potential partners. Open the door to collaborations, like an influencer partnership with a pro makeup artist, by networking with fellow industry professionals at these events.
Digital marketing channels
Wholesale beauty buyers are still real people who rely on digital channels to be educated and entertained, and connect with vendors. Although these differ from DTC-focused channels like TikTok or Instagram, your B2B beauty business should be active on platforms such as:
- LinkedIn marketing: Connect with beauty professionals, such as spa and salon owners, to nurture relationships with potential clients.
- Email marketing: Use data you’ve already collected on a potential wholesale buyer—like the pain point they told you about at a trade show—for more personalized outreach.
- Affiliate or influencer partnerships: Entice industry professionals to promote your business for you, either through sponsored posts (akin to influencer marketing) or commission through an affiliate program. Shopify Collabs helps you scale both.
Scaling your B2B beauty operations
You might have grand plans to sell overseas or form strategic partnerships with industry professionals, but if you don’t have the infrastructure in place to handle more complex operations, implementation becomes a long road. Costs also inflate—sometimes making the project a nonstarter before you get off the ground.
The most important consideration: Can you rely on your B2B ecommerce platform to serve an influx of new customers, particularly during peak sales times? Outages result in lost revenue. Consider migrating to an enterprise platform like Shopify to avoid this scenario from the outset.
Shopify Managed Markets helps you expand internationally with ease. From the same storefront already powering your DTC and B2B beauty business, Managed Markets can translate website copy, convert currencies, and display international shipping rates at checkout—no need for B2B sales reps to jump in and manage the process.
Luxury fragrance brand WHO IS ELIJAH, for example, migrated to Shopify to unify their B2B and DTC ecommerce operations. They now have eight expansion stores to serve buyers in key overseas markets—an approach that’s helped increase DTC ecommerce sales by 400% and drive 50% YoY B2B international growth.
“One of the reasons we needed custom pricing for our wholesale customers was that many of them fall into different B2B categories; some have hard margins, and some we can control,” says technical leader Brylee Lonesborough. “The custom catalog capabilities in B2B on Shopify meant we could set individual pricing categories and attach them to the various types of B2B customers we have so they get a more personalized experience.”
Future of B2B beauty commerce
AI and personalization in B2B beauty
Beauty is inherently personal. Not everyone wears cosmetics for the same reason—some want to feel good about themselves; others use makeup as a form of self-expression. Artificial intelligence helps retailers cater to these individual preferences without proportionally increasing their investment in human support.
McKinsey estimates that generative AI could add up to $10 billion to the global economy based on its impact on the beauty industry alone.
Here’s what that might look like in practice for B2B brands:
- Using AI to analyze ingredient efficacy, regulatory data, and market gaps to guide product research and development
- Forecasting demand to avoid overproduction of seasonal SKUs or skincare products with short shelf life
- Creating AI tutors or learning assistants inside beauty education platforms—for example, a chatbot to make product knowledge training more engaging and interactive
Sustainability and clean beauty trends
Long gone are the days of layered foundation and overfilled lips. The beauty industry has evolved to focus more on natural looks, evidenced by a clean beauty market that’s expected to hit a $21.29 billion valuation by 2030. Two things are driving this change.
First, there’s Gen Z—30% of whom spend more on beauty and personal care than on any other product category. “There are such strong skincare brands out there,” says Kara Brothers, president of Starface, in a Shopify Masters episode. “Of course there's several, and it's only getting more crowded day by day. But we feel and felt that there is an opportunity for something that speaks directly to our Gen Z consumer. They're very into self-expression. They love to have fun.”
Also driving the shift to clean beauty is the demand for sustainable products. A recent report found almost three-quarters of consumers consider organic ingredients important in personal care products. Some 45% are even willing to pay more for these items.
Building your B2B beauty success story
The legacy infrastructure required to sell B2B online no longer involves phone systems and lengthy email chains. As beauty buyers get more confident making self-serve purchases with vendors online, a B2B ecommerce platform is the most valuable investment you can make.
Shopify’s B2B ecommerce platform has everything you need to sell wholesale beauty products online. And it’s powered by the same infrastructure that serves DTC customers—giving you one centralized operating system for every aspect of your business. It's already helped B2B beauty brands like esmi reduce web maintenance costs by 85% and increase returning customer rates by 19%. Are you next?
