Imagine introducing yourself as “Vice President of Beauty.” Kathleen McNeill can claim exactly that. As the resident expert for Beauty.com (acquired by Drugstore.com in 2000) she’s responsible for the overall strategic growth of beauty product sales and maximizing the synergy between Beauty.com and the Beauty and Spa area of Drugstore.com. She joined Beauty.com about a year and a half ago, from Bath and Body Works and before that, Sephora where she spent 6 years leading the skincare, bath and body, hair and men’s division for 130 stores in the U.S. and Canada. With so many women launching beauty businesses, we thought it’s wise to talk to someone who has launched and re-launched, store after store, and tried more product than most women buy in a lifetime. Oh, and she calls this “work.”

Beauty.com has been in building mode and Kathleen is loving the entrepreneurial challenge.

What I learned from Kathleen: “Be Scrappy! You have to come up with innovative ideas and really try to set yourself apart from what everyone else is doing. Whether it’s climbing under the gate or over the gate. You have to be scrappy to achieve your goals.”

A Beautiful Beginning: How I Got Into This Biz!

“You could say it was by mistake, but looking back it was luck and a great opportunity. I was in the fine jewelry business at Macy’s and I wanted to go into buying. There wasn’t an opening for a buyer in jewelry but there was in cosmetics so I leaped and absolutely loved it!”

Navigating The Corporate Ladder

“I believe in being innovative, taking risks, being passionate about my work, with some scrappiness for an edge. You need to keep building. I look for inspiration wherever I go because great new ideas come from everywhere. I tell people to keep their eyes open. You may find the beginning of an idea where you least expect it, say in a coffee shop or a bookstore that you can customize and make it the next great thing in your business.”

One Stop Shopping = Traffic

“People like to shop in drugstores and people like to shop in department stores and specialty stores. The point of difference in Beauty.com is that we have one shopping cart that goes across Drugstore.com and Beauty.com. You can pick up your everyday basics like laundry detergent and your Maybelline Great Lash Mascara and then you can go over to Beauty.com and pick up your Frederic Fekkai Glossing Cream or your Nars Orgasm Blush all in the same shopping cart.”

Recipe for Web Success

“Convenience, navigation and available product information like ingredients, reviews and instruction for use. For Beauty.com, we really looked at the architecture of the site and worked on streamlining the navigation. We wanted to make the website fun. We’re focused on educational and editorial content that makes the site more interactive, informative and cool by providing expert tips, trend spotlights, how-to video’s, and beauty horoscopes. There are also shopping tools to assist customers in finding the right products for their individual beauty.”

Solve A Problem; Gain A Customer

“One of the things we got from our customers is that there are so many skincare products. There’s so much technology, so many ingredients, it’s really hard to shop for skincare. You don’t know which products to choose. We launched the Skincare Diagnostic; we think it’s really revolutionary. You take a simple questionnaire, you put in what your skin concern is, and it comes back with a 4-step regimen. This is a part of the educational approach I was talking about earlier. We have also launched a hair consultation and fragrance finder to help customers wade through the thousands of products to find out what is right for them as an individual.”

Give It Away

“People want to sample products, so one of the things we did was launch an interactive sample center. When the customer checks out, they are given the choice of three samples they want to try. That helps the customer in making decisions so they can actually try, feel and smell the product.”

The Key To Traffic

“We do a lot with beauty editors, a lot of national magazines tag Beauty.com for their products. The editorial component is very important. It really is that convenience factor of one shopping cart that really sets us apart from the competition.”

Attention Beauty-Moguls-In-The Making!

“Prestige beauty products need to have a unique point of differentiation in the marketplace. It could be new technology or ingredients, innovative marketing or packaging. Something needs to set the product apart so it’s not another ‘me too’ brand.”

Kathleen Loves…

“The first site I go to everyday is Women’s Wear Daily, www.WWD.com
for all the fashion and beauty news. It’s my morning newspaper. For shopping I love our sites of course — www.Beauty.com and www.Drugstore.com for the wide selection including great gifts for the holiday season. I also love www.Bluefly.com for fashion. They have all of my favorite designers. I also like to read the discussion boards on Makeup Alley. It’s great to see what beauty junkies are talking about.”

Life Changing Products (And She Should Know)