One live stream allocated $30,000 GMV! How does the international cosmetics brand Benefit establish its live streaming operation on TikTok? | EchoTik Live Streaming Insights

EchoTik data reveals that recently many internationally renowned Beauty & Personal Care brands have entered TikTok Shop in the United States. In terms of operational strategy, these brands are diversifying their approach on TikTok Shop. Besides actively inviting influencers for video product promotions and regularly updating their own account videos and advertisements, some brands have already taken the lead in live-stream sales.

Benefit Cosmetics is one of these pioneers. A part of the world-leading luxury group LVMH, Benefit Cosmetics is one of the fastest-growing authoritative beauty brands. Founded in 1976 by a pair of American twin sisters, it now expands to 59 countries across five continents, with over 3000 Brow Bars and 6000 brow experts. It’s a dual benchmark in eyebrow makeup products and eyebrow beauty services.

This week, EchoTik takes the Benefit Cosmetics on TikTok Shop as a benchmark case to analyze the brand’s live-streaming operation methods on TikTok Shop.

TikTok Shop Data Analysis

01 Basic Data

In April this year, Benefit Cosmetics obtained the beta test qualification for TikTok ShopUS and began setting up its online shop, primarily selling the brand’s star products. The shop has achieved remarkable results: as of December 24th, the shop exceeded 83,000 total sales, an estimated GMV of over 2 million USD. In the past 30 days, it ranked 19th in the GMV rankings of Beauty & Personal Care category, reflecting a continuously growing sales trend, with future category rankings expected to rise further.

The shop’s product arrangement in the past 30 days included up to 152 items, mainly in Makeup & Perfume, along with some Men’s Care and Nail Care products.

The shop’s best-selling products include mascara, eyebrow pencils, and powder. The price range is from $9.10 to $100.00, with an average price of $28.09. Periodic discount activities are held, with the average price sometimes around $25. The main sales method is through batch influencers and video promotions.

According to EchoTik’s recorded sales growth trend, the shop’s overall sales have been steadily increasing since its opening, especially in mid-December, during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, when sales growth was rapid. On December 13th, daily sales reached 3400, approximately a 303% increase compared to 843 units on December 12th.

02 Live-Streaming Analysis

Currently, on TikTok Shop, the majority of Beauty & Personal Care shops mainly use influencer videos to convert sales. Few shops have started live-streaming marketing and maintain regular operation. Benefit Cosmetics’ operation team places great importance on live-stream marketing: in the past 30 days, the shop has conducted 35 live streams, involving 13 influencers, with an average of 68 units sold per live stream and an average sales amount of 1500 USD. Over 90% of the sales are generated by the store’s own live stream account.

EchoTik data monitored the shop’s recent five live streams, finding that the audience peak in the latest live streams has exceeded 1000, with a high average of online viewers. Notably, compared to the week before the live streams began, the shop’s total sales nearly tripled, and the estimated GMV also doubled, clearly demonstrating the significant role of live streaming and subsequent traffic in sales conversion.

Regarding live-stream timing, the shop often chooses to start around 18:00 local time in the U.S., with a duration of about 2–4 hours. The live stream features 40–80 eye makeup products, priced between 10–25 USD, covering most young women, college students, and working-class families. The streams are timed to coincide with viewers’ leisure time after work or school, establishing a habit of watching the live streams.

The average viewers in each live stream is around several hundred, accounting for 50–60% of the peak, with a total viewership of 10,000–70,000 per stream. Each stream consistently gains more than a hundred new followers and maintains a steady increase in comments, likes, and shares.

EchoTik data shows that the most popular recent live stream was on December 12th, hosted by a female beauty expert from Benefit Cosmetics with ten years of retail experience. The total viewership reached 64,700, with a peak of about 1100 viewers 8–10 minutes into the stream, and an average of 698 viewers, exceeding 60% of the peak viewership. The live stream performed well in terms of viewer engagement.

In this live stream, 43 products were featured, with the duration mainly spent on explaining product features, discount information, and a four-part sales pitch logic consisting of price comparison, selling point introduction, detail demonstration, and limited-time pricing. The stream generated 1200 orders, resulting in a GMV of 26,000 USD, with a conversion rate of 1.907%.

The pace of the live stream was fast and information-dense, and traffic analysis also showed not only a single stream gaining over 300 new followers but also a continuous increase in comments, likes, and shares. This indicates that the content of the live stream was precise in terms of both attracting viewers and converting sales.

In terms of scene setup, the shop used a common closed live stream room, with a simple whiteboard background and a glowing large-font logo, providing a visual effect for brand display and lighting.

Throughout the process, the host introduced her identity and promotional activities at the start, directly comparing the highest unit price eyebrow pencil product at 50% off with the original price as a hook product. The host continuously emphasized the short duration of the live stream and limited-time discounts in interactive scripts, creating a sense of urgency to attract viewers to stay.

Throughout the event, the host interacted with viewers in a “friend conversation” style, positioning herself as a close friend of the audience, constantly using affectionate terms like “sisters” and “dear” for interaction. Responding to fan comments and answering questions increased viewer participation and retention. The host’s use of altruistic scripts, such as “I hope you can own our quality products” and “To allow more people to enjoy our products at a low price,” showcased a consumer-centric mindset, evoking viewer empathy.

When the viewers reached its peak, the host immediately started product-focused sales pitches. By mentioning her identity as an eye makeup expert introduced at the beginning, the host established her credibility and quickly highlighted the product’s ease of use, strong penetration, prominent color, ease of drying, and easy cleaning as selling points. She demonstrated the makeup application on camera for a visual effect.

The host then spilled each product on her arm to show the differences between styles, cleverly combining selling points, detail display, and discount information to make the content more persuasive and guide consumers to order according to their needs.

Promoting scarcity was one of the advanced scripts used by the host. She continuously emphasized the short duration of the live stream and rapid limited-time discounts, counting down or announcing remaining time during discount periods to highlight the scarcity of time and price. She frequently mentioned that products often sell out quickly and expressed regret after the rush to buy ended, cycling through the names of sold-out products to emphasize product scarcity and enhance their appeal, thereby stimulating impulsive purchases among viewers.

In addition to scarcity-driven sales, the host occasionally mentioned that after selling a certain number of one product, she would introduce the next product. She continuously reported sales figures to create a visual impression of successful transactions, creating a hot-selling atmosphere for the products, giving viewers visual targets, and using product transitions as conditions to attract viewers’ achievement psychology and curiosity for impulsive purchase guidance.

Data indicates that this live-stream sales operation method has garnered the shop account a significant amount of traffic and exposure, and the shop’s sales have quickly grown in a short time.

On a social e-commerce platform like TikTok, understanding consumer needs and interests is key to achieving sales conversion and brand exposure. Live-stream sales, a participatory form for both sellers and consumers, are more likely to establish emotional bonds between the brand and consumers, leading to sales conversion through content and value advocacy.

Benefit Cosmetics’ successful case shows that a high-quality live stream requires: the host’s ability to ensure viewing effectiveness with scripting logic, interact with viewers to retain them, naturally transition from content output to sales promotion with rhythm control, refine selling points and enhance product appeal with content creation, evoke viewer empathy for emotional conversion, and use consumer psychology to drive impulse purchases.

Beauty & Personal Care is the best-selling category in TikTok’s e-commerce market. According to research, such category accounts for 84% of TikTok Shop’s sales and 70% of GMV. Nearly 80% of the platform’s best-selling products belong to this category, thus attracting more attention from brands and merchants wanting to enter TikTok’s e-commerce space. According to EchoTik’s “TikTok Beauty & Personal Care Industry Trend Report,” since the beta launch of TikTok Shop in the U.S. this year, the hot-selling shops in Beauty & Personal Care mainly consist of DTC small/medium brands and white labels, showing a diversification in the niche market. International beauty brands are expected to launch gradually.

For brands, social e-commerce is not only a distribution channel but also one of the best ways to increase brand awareness and directly interact with consumers, especially for well-established national brands, maintaining a trendy and modern image to attract young people’s attention is a major challenge. According to TikTok’s North American user profile in 2022, nearly 50% of the users are under 24, and nearly 40% are aged 25–44, precisely in the Gen Z and Millennial demographics.

According to Feedvisor’s “2023 Trends and Predictions for E-commerce,” Gen Z (born 1995–2009) and Millennials (born 1981–1996) are more likely to engage with brands through social media. Therefore, the entry of well-capitalized, historically significant consumer brands like Benefit into TikTok Shop is becoming an unstoppable trend, presenting challenges for new brands.

However, this does not mean that the market is saturated for new brands. Chinese e-commerce market has a more mature live-streaming sales environment and experience than other countries. Sellers with the capability can consider leveraging live-streaming sales marketing, like this shop’s case, to gain more traffic, sales conversions, and brand exposure.