How the #1 Beauty Brand on TikTok Shop Drove Explosive Growth

Liam:

Emela, incredibly excited to have you on today’s episode. The growth stories you’ve been a part of are pretty incredible, and the journey at GoPure in particular is just wild. You would have been through so many trends, so many market cycles — the crunch of up and to the right, TikTok Shop. Excited to dive into all of it. For those who don’t know you, why don’t you give everyone a quick introduction?

Emela:

Sure. I’m currently leading brand marketing for the ecommerce arm of a really large beauty subscription company, but I’m still very new there so I won’t touch on that today. What I’d love to tell you about is my journey and how I even got here. My love for beauty really started when I was in my 20s living in Berlin, Germany. I had a roommate who was a hair and makeup artist. Before I met her I was using the $3 Garnier shampoo and I didn’t even know what blush was. After living with her, that changed very rapidly — and I’m wearing a lot of blush today, so I learned some things. That sparked my curiosity for beauty and I just knew I wanted to step into that industry at some point. But my path wasn’t linear. I spent the bulk of my career in lifecycle marketing — I worked at two really large German online retailers, then a short stint at a fashion company in LA, still focused on retention and lifecycle marketing. After about seven years I decided I wanted to explore brand marketing and get into beauty. That opportunity came in 2020 when I started at GoPure. GoPure is a family-owned skincare brand that became number one in TikTok Shop’s beauty category in 2024. While I was there I led pretty much everything brand-related — positioning, go-to-market strategy for product launches, storytelling across all channels. During my time, the company grew 5x in revenue, which I’m really proud to have been a part of.

Liam:

So you spent five years at GoPure, starting very early. What were you most responsible for?

Emela:

I actually started off in retention marketing — I was employee number six or seven. My role really evolved from there. I took on all of the go-to-market planning for every new product launch, all of the brand storytelling and messaging, I was overseeing social media, managing quite a lot in those early days. Then it evolved to be more strategically focused on the brand marketing lens while still overseeing all the product launches.

Liam:

Five times revenue growth while you were there — double digits to triple digits. Looking back, what would you say was the main contributor?

Emela:

I’ll touch on the first two quickly because they all fed into each other. First was a rebrand — we completely overhauled how the brand looked, from packaging to creative direction to the website. Second was that the rebrand for the website really unlocked subscriptions as a strategy for the whole company, which opened a whole new revenue stream. But the biggest lever by far was TikTok Shop and unlocking success through that channel.

Liam:

How did that happen?

Emela:

It happened very organically in the beginning. TikTok Shop was first in beta and we decided to test it by putting the old packaging — pre-rebrand — on there as basically a clearance method. Just trying to get rid of old stock. And it flew off the shelves because of one woman’s video. Essentially overnight, her life changed and so did the trajectory of the company. She made a video about a neck cream — to help with sagging and wrinkles and what mature skin brings. She was just very honest about her story, posted it, told a few friends who also posted, and it just exploded. That product became our hero SKU. I don’t think that kind of organic moment happens as easily on TikTok anymore — it’s a little more saturated. But back then, we were early movers.

Liam:

How did you capitalize on it when it was supposed to be clearance stock?

Emela:

It really was that one product. We were worried — everyone recognized the old packaging, what’s going to happen when we switch to the new packaging? But honestly it didn’t deter the success. We just leaned into it. It was really about how our founder and CEO mobilized the team to move forward with TikTok Shop. Everything was new, everything was being tested. But we leaned into the creator aspect. We saw how that fire spread — she told a friend, they made a video, and looking back now, that is the bread and butter of TikTok Shop. Getting more and more creators to post about your hero product.

Liam:

What did you get right with TikTok Shop that other brands get wrong? Most brands never crack it.

Emela:

In the simplest terms — looking at TikTok Shop as a full funnel. The top of the funnel is awareness and discovery, leaning into creators with larger followings. The middle is where conversion happens — I call them the special affiliates, the ones who could sell you anything, like a QVC host. They’re driving conversions. Then the bottom of the funnel is ads, price, promotions, and more urgency-driven creator content. All of that working together. We were able to really lean into that and lean into those creators.

Liam:

Were you doing content production in-house, or relying on creator audiences?

Emela:

We were creating some content in-house, but not much, because the affiliate content was just performing so much better. On our branded TikTok handle and on Instagram we had the prettier polished stuff. But what was driving revenue was the affiliate videos.

Liam:

How did you get affiliates to post?

Emela:

It works differently on TikTok Shop than on Instagram — it’s kind of already built into the ecosystem. You seed products and samples to affiliates who sign up to receive them. They get the product for free, they have about two weeks to post content, and that’s how you get it. You’re investing the product cost upfront into seeding and getting the return back when they post. But the real unlock is — you seed at volume, and then you have to elevate those top performers once you see them rising. If they’re only creating five videos a month, how do you get them to create 20? You put them in a community chat — Discord, Slack — and you incentivize them. You create competition. Whoever gets 10,000 views on their next video gets $5,000 cash, or an iPad, or more commission. And eventually, you put your top performers on retainer — basically a salary to post a certain number of times a month.

Liam:

What’s the balance between paying an influencer upfront versus the affiliate model?

Emela:

I think it should be a mix. The traditional influencer play is really more for awareness — it’s not really for selling. Whereas these affiliates, even when you’re paying them a flat fee, they have a different skillset. Whatever you pay them, they’re still putting out content that generates revenue. The pure influencers are generating awareness. Different outcomes.

Liam:

Should brands continue to double down on TikTok Shop today?

Emela:

Oh yeah, for sure. If you’re not on TikTok Shop you’re missing out, you’re behind. TikTok Shop has a massive halo effect on other channels. If you’re not there where the discovery is, you’re missing a huge chunk of eyeballs. I think it’s like Amazon — it’s going to continue. And the younger people growing up with TikTok are just going to use it their whole lives. That’s all they know.

Liam:

Is there more pressure now to also build your own brand on TikTok, not just invest in TikTok Shop?

Emela:

I think that’s important if you can pull it off. What I experienced is that what you’re doing on your organic TikTok feed doesn’t really matter to TikTok Shop independently — I mean, it does because the algorithm boosts your content, but they’re not mutually exclusive. You can be investing in TikTok Shop and the creators while also building a character or face of the brand on your organic channel.

Liam:

Will the website continue to be important, or is social taking over given people purchase directly on TikTok Shop?

Emela:

From what I’ve heard from other brands on TikTok Shop, their website is number three at this point. It’s TikTok Shop, Amazon, and then the website — or Amazon then TikTok Shop for some. I don’t want to say the website’s going into oblivion, but people are just shopping differently. You’re scrolling, listening to someone’s story, and the product is right there for you to buy. That said, with the rise of ChatGPT and other LLMs pulling from your site for search answers, product descriptions and the information on your website are actually becoming really important again — just for a different reason. You’re really leaning into robust product descriptions tailored more for AI to read than a consumer, which is wild, but I feel like that’s where we’re going.

Liam:

Live selling on TikTok Shop — what are your thoughts?

Emela:

At GoPure we leaned into that quite early. It is a whole other niche, a whole other skillset. It’s that QVC style of selling but you’re speaking to the customer in real time, educating and entertaining and selling all at once. It’s really powerful.

Liam:

What team do you need to make TikTok Shop work?

Emela:

You do need a real team. It involves everyone — ops is there because you need inventory and shipping, creative is there, and obviously marketing. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation. At GoPure it came out of nowhere so we dispersed it across the team we had, each owning a piece. What I’m seeing now is brands hiring specifically for a director of TikTok Shop or head of TikTok Shop and tasking that person to build out the team from there.

Liam:

Let’s talk about the rebrand. You pulled it off but there was a lot of complexity, especially going viral almost at the same moment. How did it come about and why was it so important?

Emela:

We overhauled the entire look and feel of the brand to portray a more premium image. The issue was that we had really high-quality products with efficacious ingredients that genuinely performed, but the outside just didn’t reflect that. It looked cheap. We were very candid about it internally — it’s just ugly. And when you think ahead, you ask — is this going to sit on a retail shelf one day? Are people going to want to pick it up? So we committed to doing it before it was too late. It took over a year and a half from planning to launching.

Liam:

What would you do differently if you had to do it again?

Emela:

Shorten the timeline. One of the early mistakes was outsourcing the creative work to an agency. They just weren’t hitting the mark — we weren’t seeing eye to eye. They were presenting mockups that didn’t fit with what myself, our packaging director, and our founder envisioned. We lost a lot of time on that. I’d say keep the first part in-house, or at least find an agency that’s tightly aligned from day one.

Liam:

What signals told you the rebrand was the right call?

Emela:

There was some quantitative uplift on the website, but it was really qualitative signals that stood out. Creators wanting to work with us. Getting into publications. Being able to host an event in New York City. And immediate positive customer feedback. But the biggest thing was the in-real-life moments. Being a DTC brand, you live in your digital world. And then you step out and you’re at the hair salon and a woman’s talking about your product. When you’re only DTC, that’s wild to experience. That was the true signal that the brand had landed in a different way.

Liam:

Any negative feedback or things to avoid from the rebrand?

Emela:

Knowing what I know now — the packaging that was rebranded was not retail ready. So now there’s separate packaging for retail and for the website. I’d caution any brand doing a rebrand to think about all the contexts the product will live in — making sure the product name is big and visible, the logo is recognizable, and that creators holding it up in videos can clearly see what it is. And the barcode mistake is so common — brands do their entire rebrand and packaging and put the wrong size barcode on. Happens all the time.

Liam:

How important did you start to feel about a first-time shopper versus a returning shopper, particularly given TikTok Shop was such a big acquisition engine?

Emela:

It’s interesting because once you’re in the TikTok Shop ecosystem, customers are in that ecosystem. You can’t really get their contact info to message them outside the platform — TikTok doesn’t give you email addresses, it’s really like Amazon. What we did see is that people were making multiple purchases on TikTok itself, so we had repeat purchase revenue within the platform. And TikTok Shop was also building out their own CRM messaging and subscription features, so they were leaning into retention too. I think the ecosystem is just changing so much that you have to meet customers where they are and not be too precious about needing them all on your own site.

Liam:

Were there any sneaky ways to capture customer data from TikTok Shop?

Emela:

TikTok doesn’t allow collateral in packages — it’s very strict, like Amazon. But during lives, you have these billboard stickers on screen next to you. I saw brands putting “text FREEBIE to 5678” to get a coupon on your next purchase. I actually tried it from one brand and ended up on their SMS list. So there are creative ways to capture contact information during a live if you’re thinking about it.

Liam:

How do you think about standing out in beauty today — a highly competitive, highly saturated space?

Emela:

You need the product, the brand, and the marketing to all work together. You can’t rely on just one. You first have to have a product that actually works and delivers on its promise. Then you need people standing behind it. And then — what story are you trying to tell as a brand? Because you might blow up with one product, but can you repeat that success with the next launch? It all works together.

Liam:

How are you thinking about AI over the next 12 months as someone leading a marketing team?

Emela:

I don’t buy into the hype that it’s going to replace every human on a marketing team. My experience so far has been using AI to automate mundane tasks and make things faster — not to replace a brand marketer and their ideas. In beauty specifically, the consumer wants community, they want real touchpoints. I’m already seeing signals where people are getting fed up with AI content and fake influencers created out of thin air. I’m just going to say no to AI influencers — not because it’s not a trend, but not every trend is worth hopping on. I think consumers are craving that in-real-life, experiential, human element, and at some point they’re going to say — we’ve had enough of AI, we want something real.

Liam:

What will AI genuinely help a marketing team with?

Emela:

Reporting, analysis, brainstorming for copy, using it as a sparring partner. In the broader beauty world I think it’s going to be really useful for research and trend forecasting. And something I saw that’s pretty wild but completely believable — using AI for product development, where it generates ingredients and formulas and then creates a total brand around it: name, style guide, everything. For the team day-to-day, marketers will become power users — figuring out how to use AI to amplify their skills and get more output. The repetitive tasks — updating documents in multiple places, creating presentations — those are going to be automated. I love Gamma for presentations. I’m not naturally great with laying out slides, but I write my thinking and tell it what to emphasize and it spits it out. The creativity, the prompting, the human judgment — that stays on the human side.

Liam:

What’s the most overhyped thing about AI right now?

Emela:

That it’s going to replace humans. That you’re just going to have an all-in-one tool and not need people anymore. I don’t agree with that. What might actually change is the agency model — the huge volume of cash spent every year paying agencies to do things that can probably be brought in-house now. That might be where the real disruption is.

Liam:

To close out — what are the top two or three most important things to get right with TikTok Shop if you’re getting started today?

Emela:

First, focus on a hero SKU. Get that right first. Nail the pricing, the promotion, and make sure you’re in stock. You can have two or three hero products, but focus. Second, creators — really diving into that world. Seed at volume first and then go deep into those top performers and nourish those relationships. Those are the two I’d prioritize above everything else.

Liam:

Love it. Incredibly exciting to see your next venture. Thanks so much for sharing your story and coming on.

Emela:

Thank you for having me.

We get into:

How one viral video changed the trajectory of the company

How to turn TikTok Shop into a full-funnel revenue engine

The real driver of growth: creators at scale

What most brands get wrong when trying to crack the channel

If you’re building a brand today, this is one of the most important emerging channels to understand.

00:00 Intro

02:25 Emela’s background in beauty + goPure

05:35 Scaling 5x: what actually drove growth

07:02 The viral video that changed everything

08:36 How TikTok Shop really works (creators at scale)

10:01 TikTok Shop as a full-funnel channel

12:27 The real unlock: scaling top performers

17:08 Is your website still important?

18:03 What it actually takes to run TikTok Shop (team + ops)

22:31 Rebrand deep dive (what changed + why)

27:59 Retention inside TikTok Shop

30:18 Can you own the customer on TikTok?

33:07 Standing out in the beauty category

34:37 AI in beauty: what’s real vs hype

36:18 Where AI actually helps marketing teams

41:00 How to win on TikTok Shop today