The Evolution of Bluemercury’s Digital Strategy

Barry Beck and Marla Malcolm Beck have been selling luxury cosmetics online since before the new Millennium. Now an omnichannel business carrying 115 brands, Bluemercury was born as a digital-first company. In 1999, the Becks secured a million-dollar investment from Steve Case, a cofounder of AOL; Ted Leonsis, a former AOL executive, and Edward J. Mathias and Richard Darman of The Carlyle Group, and used the money to build a web site and assemble a digitally savvy team. “We had 20 employees before we even had our first sale,” recalled Beck. Two months after incorporating the company, the Becks became aware of three competitor web sites with 10 times their amount of funding. They had already spent the majority of their investment on building Bluemercury’s web site — these days you can build one for free — and were down to their last $150,000. Unable to secure more funding, they did a 180 and bought a store. “We never actually planned to own a store, but we were up against two problems,” Beck said. “Number one is the very ubiquity of what the Internet or e-commerce would bring to luxury brands like Chanel and Kiehl’s. And customers weren’t really accustomed to buying products online.

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