Urban Outfitters Isn’t Sleeping On Sleep Beauty: The Lifestyle Retailer Introduces Moonlit Skincare

Moonlit Skincare is turning its retail dreams into reality with a launch at Urban Outfitters.

As the emerging night beauty brand enters its third year in business, the lifestyle chain offers it a prominent stage to showcase its products—specifically, $19 Slumber Bath Salts, $34 Power Down 2-in-1 Mask and bestselling $34 Midnight Shift Overnight Face Oil—in front of its core millennial and gen z consumers. Moonlit has rolled out to six high-profile Urban Outfitters locations in New York, San Francisco and Santa Monica, Calif., and the retailer’s website.

“From the very beginning, before we even had a formula and were working on the concept, we knew we wanted to be in more lifestyle stores rather than straight-up beauty stores. Urban Outfitters was No. 1 on our list. We worked for a year and a half to make this happen,” says Stephy Kim, who founded Moonlit with friend and fellow Parsons School of Design alumna Kriszta Matyi, elaborating, “We were very careful about the national retailers we wanted to partner with. We’ve said a lot of noes, which was really important for us to be able to do this.”

Moonlit has been particularly vigilant about steering clear of mass-market players that could imperil deals with specialty retail companies. The brand focused primarily on a direct-to-consumer model to start to achieve greater margin than it could in a retail environment. Then, several months following its debut, it elevated its retail presence at the likes of Riley Rose and Ricky’s NYC. Currently, Moonlit is available at over 30 retailers in addition to Urban Outfitters.

Amazon has been a pleasant distribution surprise for Moonlit. The brand went live on the giant e-commerce platform a year ago, and it now accounts for roughly 40% of the brand’s sales. The remainder of Moonlit’s sales are driven by traditional retail venues and its site. In January, the brand broke into profitability, in no small part due to its growth on Amazon.

Initially, Kim explains Moonlit considered Amazon principally a search engine opportunity, but it has pivoted to a major sales opportunity for the brand. “We were really smart in allocating dollars for our SEO key words. There are very few people typing in ‘Moonlit Skincare,’ but people are typing in ‘sleep oil’ or ‘insomnia cures,’ and we were able to leverage that,” she says. “It’s not expensive now, but it will get expensive later like Facebook and Instagram ads have. The ROI an Amazon key words is really good now.”

“We were very careful about who we wanted to partner with in terms of national retailers. We’ve said a lot of noes, which was really important for us to be able to do this.”

Moonlit sells on Amazon through thirty-party company Momentum Home. Moonlit opted for Momentum Home because it has a long track record of bringing brands to Amazon. Moonlit products are sold on Amazon at prices slightly above the prices for them at conventional retailers, and the brand will keep a product off of Amazon to concentrate on a retail push. For example, Moonlit’s Slumber Bath Salts stocked by Urban Outfitters aren’t for sale on Amazon. Kim says, “With our brick-and-mortar retailers, of course, they ask us about Amazon, but I tell them it’s a couple of dollars more expensive, and they’re really happy.”

The Slumber Bath Salts are wrapped in a holographic pouch ideal for the visually-oriented, selfie-snapping customers at Urban Outfitters. Kim suggests sleep beauty is on the rise at the chain and elsewhere. “Their audience will be very much into back-to-school and is the stressed-out student, so the category of sleep is performing well for them,” she says. Referring to the category in general, Kim continues, “Every single time winter comes around, it becomes bigger and bigger. I think it will be even bigger this year.”

The sleep beauty category isn’t without challenges, however. Kim acknowledges its heavy dependence on winter to fuel sales can be difficult. To diversify its sales across the calendar year, Moonlit’s assortment spans products such as Beauty Sleep Organic Tea, Sweet Dreams Overnight Lip Balm and Cloud 9 Silk Pillowcase that aren’t overly winter-specific. The brand’s merchandise is handmade in Bali with ingredients designed to aid the face and body during sleep and prior to it. As a category, Kim notes sleep beauty has extended beyond oils to a range of products to suit consumers as they snooze.

While its entrance into Urban Outfitters is a major milestone for Moonlit, Kim is cognizant that being successful at a retailer is harder than entering it. “You have to be able to provide a game plan to support that,” she says. “Your audience needs to know you are there, and the retailers want to know you aren’t going to go out of business. It’s great if you’re an indie skincare brand that has VC money, but, if you are truly bootstrapping, it’s a different strategy.”

“It means a wider audience. We are already seeing a lot of traffic to our website. I also think the visibility is really big, but we are not naive. We view brick-and-mortar as marketing first and foremost versus sales.”

Self-funded Moonlit is employing a scrappy strategy to spread the word about its Urban Outfitters launch. The brand spotlights the retailer on its digital channels, and is teaming up with influencers in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco to raise awareness in the cities its products are inside Urban Outfitter stores. On top of influencers, events will be crucial awareness vehicles. In the past two years, Moonlit has hosted around 75 events. At events, Kim says, “You are able to make a face-to-face connection, but you’re also able to target people who will get outside and do something like shop at Urban stores.”

Going forward, Moonlit expects to increase its retail network in lifestyle stores, build upon its momentum on Amazon and test subscription box services to amplify its reach. The brand participated in Ipsy’s Glam Bags previously. Moonlit is open to experimenting with atypical retail destinations, too. It’s sold via The Grommet, the maker discovery e-tailer owned by Ace Hardware, and SleepScore Labs, a purveyor of smartphone sleep measurement sensors.

Discussing the signficance of Moonlit’s Urban Outfitters launch to the brand, Kim says, “It means a wider audience. We are already seeing a lot of traffic to our website. I also think the visibility is really big, but we are not naive. We view brick-and-mortar as marketing first and foremost versus sales. It allows us to say we are in Urban Outfitters and have that validation from a national retailer.”

Feature image photo credit: Grey and Elle