This #BoFLIVE event was based on the ‘How Glossier Lost Its Grip’ article. Click here to read our full analysis.

The beauty industry transformed in the last decade, with the rise of social media and acceleration of e-commerce fundamentally changing the way consumers buy cosmetics and skin care. Glossier, the direct-to-consumer pioneer that popularised dewey, natural skin and Millennial pink, led the way with community-based and social-heavy marketing strategies, innovative products with witty names, and fun store concepts.

But the company has lost its grip. In 2021, Glossier’s US sales decreased by 20 percent year-over-year, according to Bloomberg Measure, and in January, it laid off about a third of its workforce. At the time, chief executive Emily Weiss wrote in a letter to employees that Glossier “got ahead of ourselves on hiring,” and “that strategic projects that distracted us from the laser-focus we needed to have on our core business: scaling our beauty brand.”

On the latest BoF LIVE, following BoF beauty contributor Rachel Strugatz’s article “How Glossier Lost Its Grip,” BoF chief correspondent Lauren Sherman and contributor Cheryl Wischhover breakdown what went wrong at Glossier and chart a potential path for the brand’s recovery.

“This was not the company I thought we would be having this conversation about … Glossier was one [start-up] that it really felt like they were so ahead of the curve and that they would be able to see the challenges ahead and pivot when they needed to” said Sherman.

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