Glossier strength Melissa Eamer joins her position as director of operations

Glossier, the $ 1.2 billion online beauty brand, has recruited Melissa Eamer, one of Amazon's top executives, to become chief operating officer, CNBC has learned.

Eamer finished a 19-year race on Amazon last week. Most recently, she was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amazon Devices. She joined the company three years after her IPO and led teams of hundreds of people.

As Glossier's COO, Eamer will be responsible for overseeing growth activities, which are key to growth, the company said. Emily Weiss, CEO and founder of Glossier, will continue to focus on branding, product expansion, content and community building, he said.

"When I got in touch with Emily, I was immediately hit … by the [Glossier] Customer obsession, "Eamer said in an interview. It's something that was really consistent with Amazon when I was there. "

Eamer noted that her two teenage daughters are "addicted" to the Glossier brand.

The company started online in 2014 and quickly attracted a large audience among Generation Y, which has recovered its balms, lotions and soft-pink eyelash products.

He has managed to reach buyers through digital media, like his Instagram account "@Glossier", which has more than 2.3 million followers. (Another Instagram account called "@GlossierBoyfriends" – which is not run by the company but has more than 20,000 active subscribers – makes fun of men who have to wait for their friends while they select their products. .)

The growth of Glossier since then has been somewhat remarkable, knowing that the company has only a few physical stores, all bathed in the millennial rose. There is one in New York and one in Los Angeles, then ephemeral stores previously in Miami and Seattle, and currently in Boston.

"Go back to business status at this point, at this size … it's something that fascinates me the most," she said. "For me, it's an opportunity to try what I think is the second wave of e-commerce."

An average of 50,000 people a month goes through his store in lower Manhattan, the company said. We often see lines that envelop the block. And on a recent scorching summer day, Glossier was distributing umbrellas to shopping enthusiasts – tourists and locals – to protect themselves from the sun.

In 2018, Glossier said it has exceeded $ 100 million in annual revenue and acquired a million new customers. Last year, she sold one of her Boy Brow eyebrow training products every 32 seconds.

"Beauty and e-commerce in general are evolving much more slowly than other categories," said Weiss. And as no company has managed to master online makeup sales, "I think the potential is huge."

To fuel this growth, Glossier received $ 100 million in new funding, led by Sequoia Capital earlier this year, bringing its valuation to $ 1.2 billion. It raised $ 186 million in venture capital with Tiger Global Management, Spark Capital and others.

Glossier occupies a larger share of the beauty market as consumers move more and more to where they buy makeup.

Beauty counters at department stores are struggling, women are turning to Ulta, Sephora and even Target, which has expanded its makeup rays to offer a wider variety of products containing cleaner ingredients. The first digital beauty brands, such as Kylie Cosmetics and Il Makiage, are also experiencing phenomenal growth. Lady Gaga recently launched a line of beauty products called Haus Laboratories, exclusively on Amazon.

Eamer will help Glossier build "not just a brand but a business," Weiss said. "We are entering this new phase of growth at Glossier – we have the resources, the team and the business in place to build this future beauty business."

The year 2019 was a great year for Glossier, which has built a group of leaders. She hired Vanessa Wittman as the financial director of Dropbox. Edith Chen has been appointed Vice President of Supply Chain Operations. Chen was from the beauty industry supplier, LF Beauty. And Nick DeAngelo has been appointed Vice President of Jet.com Operations at Walmart.

The company also confirmed Thursday that it hired Diane Vavrasek as director of human resources. Previously, she was Vice President of Human Resources for Jet.com and Walmart Global eCommerce.

Asked about Glossier's plans for an initial public offering, Weiss did not count it, but would not call it a top priority either. "We continue to focus our efforts on building an iconic, long-term, sustainable company," she said.