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How Kylie Jenner Became A Billionaire From MakeUp
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Hello Aluxers and welcome back! In the past, the cosmetics market has been notoriously difficult to break into,
but in the times of eCommerce and social media marketing, things are definitely changing.
One person who has taken advantage of that shift in a big way is Kylie Jenner.
Kylie’s massive social media following helped ensure her success, but that’s just part of the story.
By the end of this video, you’ll know the whole story of how Kylie Jenner became a billionaire from makeup,
and you might also be inspired to take advantage of the new eCommerce opportunities yourself, but first a little background.
Who is Kylie Jenner?
For many people, Kylie Jenner needs no introduction.
From the time she was 10 to the age of 15, she was featured on the reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians along with her family members.
She also has had a successful modeling career.
Kylie is one among the most followed celebrities on social media platforms with 27 million followers on Twitter and 141 million followers on Instagram.
She has used this incredible platform to promote various products, including The Kendall & Kylie Collection with PacSun,
her shoe and handbag line for Steve Madden, and her line of hair extensions with Bellami Hair.
Today, 21-year-old Kylie is the head of Kylie Cosmetics, and she is hoping to build a beauty empire in the years to come, but where did it all start?
Beginnings
Kylie first delved into the beauty industry with the creation of 2 types of nail polish for the Nicole by OPI nail polish brand in 2013 when she was just 16 years old.
She was paid $100,000 for her endorsement of the brand.
Then Kylie dabbled in clothing and jewelry design along with her sister Kendall followed by shoes, handbags, and hair extensions.
In March 2015, she was named an ambassador for the skincare brand Nip + Fab, which brought her back into the beauty arena.
In June 2015, the Kendall + Kylie clothing line was launched with British fashion retailer Topshop.
But all of these ventures were just building up to her launching her own brand with a product that she felt passionate about.
The Vision
Kylie knew that people looked to her for beauty inspiration, and she had already had great success selling products under other people’s brands.
So she had a vision for creating her own product to sell based on insecurities she had about her lip size as a child.
This is where the idea for Kylie’s Lip Kit came from.
Even though the concept quickly took off, in the early stages Kylie didn’t have any expectations and wasn’t considering the possibility for the future.
She was just concentrated on creating a product her followers would love and finding the most direct path to bring her lip kit to market.
Building A Brand
In 2014, when she was 17 years old, Kylie partnered with Seed Beauty, a company newly founded by Laura Thomas
with a focus on developing and manufacturing global beauty brands.
Kylie refined her concept for the lip kit, which included a liquid lipstick and matching lip liner,
and with the help of Seed Beauty, she manufactured 15,000 kits with a personal investment of $250,000.
The first day she offered the lip kits for sale, she sold all 15,000 units in less than one minute.
Kylie’s manager, her mother Kris Jenner, encouraged Kylie to utilize the e-commerce platform of Shopify to outsource sales.
In February 2016, the company was officially named Kylie’s Cosmetics and production was ramped up to 500,000 units.
After the first year, she had 302 million in sales and another 120 million in revenue over the following six months,
and she was able to pocket a good percentage of that for herself, but how did she do it?
Maximizing Profits
Kylie already had a built-in customer base with well over 100 million followers on social media.
She leveraged her prominent social media presence to market her business by previewing new items,
announcing product launches, and demonstrating her products.
Jenner says that the power of social media gave her such a strong reach before she even started.
Thanks to her followers, she has never had to have an official marketing campaign.
This is just one way she keeps overhead low.
She uses the low-cost eCommerce platform Shopify to handle sales, production is outsourced through Seed Beauty,
and her entire operation is comprised of seven full-time and five part-time employees.
She owns 100% of her business, and her only other expense is her mother’s 10% management fee.
As you can imagine, having 100% equity of her business majorly maximizes her profits.
In 2017, Kylie added 30 new products and experimented with moving beyond the digital platform with a month-long pop-up event
where her products were sold in seven TopShop stores across the US.
But the brand really went to the next level when Kylie signed an exclusive distribution deal with Ulta Beauty in November 2018.
In the first 6 weeks, her products being available in Ulta stores in all 50 states, she sold $54.5 million worth of products through the chain.
This helped to launch her to a new tier of financial success.
Youngest Billionaire In The World
The global beauty industry was valued at over $860 billion in 2018 with about 60 billion of the revenues coming from the US.
For a very young, self-run company, Kylie Cosmetics claimed a significant portion of these sales.
In 2018 alone, the company sold about 360 million dollars worth of makeup.
Her company is valued at approximately $900 million, and revenues continue to increase each year.
In March 2019, Forbes named her as the youngest self-made billionaire.
At the age of 21, this made her the youngest billionaire in the world.
She beat out the previous record-holder Mark Zuckerberg, who became a billionaire at the age of 23,
but she certainly has no plans to stop hustling any time soon.
Build Up
Now that Kylie has experienced this incredible success,
she is looking to the future and is planning on expanding her empire and branching out into new areas.
The wide variety of patents she applied for in 2019 offer clues for the new areas that she may be exploring soon.
These included patents for Kylie Baby, Kylie Home, Kylie Hair, and additional patents for Kylie-based alcohol cocktail mixes,
prepared wine cocktails, energy sports drinks, smoothies, beers, and more.
Also in 2019, Kylie founded her own skincare brand called Kylie Skin, and it’s clear that this is just the beginning.
The Lesson
Kylie has leveraged her fame, popularity, and available resources to build a massively successful business,
but you don’t have to have her level of success to ensure your business will make it off the ground.
No matter what your background, there are now more resources than ever available online for entrepreneurs
who have the passion and drive to build a successful business from the ground up.
And if you're looking to follow in Kylie's footsteps, well you're in luck.
If you go to alux.com/sell and sign up, by the end of the day you could have your very own online store up and running.
Even better, because we partnered with the great folks at Shopify, you'll get 14 days to try out their platform for free.
Launching an internet business has never been easier; you can literally accept payments & sell to people worldwide in a couple of minutes.
Go to alux.com/sell and get started on building your empire today!
The Quote
While researching his story, we’ve come across this inspirational quote from Kylie we’d like to share with you that goes like this:
“Every time I start to get worked up over something, I just think to myself, ‘Is this really going to matter in my life tomorrow, in an hour, in a year?’
You just can’t get stressed about the little things ’cause it’s just not worth it at the end of the day.”
This is great advice for anyone.
How much time and energy have you wasted by stressing over things that don’t have lasting significance?
Redirect that energy in a productive way.
Question
Now that we’re wrapping up this story, we’d like to know:
Do you think it’s fair for Kylie to be labeled as a self-made billionaire when she came from such a privileged background to begin with?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
And of course for sticking with us until the end, here's your BONUS!
Kylie Jenner tried to trademark the name Kylie in the US for use in advertising and endorsement services in 2015,
but this led to a legal battle with singer Kylie Minogue, who claimed that would damage her branding and cause confusion.
Kylie’s request for trademark was ultimately rejected. She then tried to trademark her full name, but it was also rejected.
However, since then she has been granted a number of trademarks in connection with her business.
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