HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Canvas Beauty Brand hosted a Cyber Monday livestream to boost online sales ahead of the holiday season. But the company itself is unique because all of its sales come from the Internet via the online social media platform TikTok.
The company's one warehouse handles product manufacturing, its packaging and a livestream show stage. It has a whole crew just for operating the TikTok livestream, which gives an inside look at some of the products the company offers. And the brand's owner, Stormi Steele, said using TikTok for her business has made it grow exponentially.
"We were the first brand to do a $1 million livestream on the TikTok Shop platform, which made us number one in the United States.," Steele said. "And then I broke that record again in September, when we did over $1 million. We did about 1.5. And just recently here, with Black Friday, we cleared over $2 million in sales on a single livestream."
But business hasn't always been the brightest. The company made about $20 million in web sales during 2020. But just two years later, during COVID-19, Steele said the brand had to change up its advertising to customers.
"When I got on TikTok Shop, that pretty much revitalized my business. [It] changed everything," she said.
And the company's chief financial officer, Amber Jones, said it's been hard to keep up with the demand.
"It's like a NASCAR race," Jones said. "That's what it feels like, just going around trying to keep up with everything." But she added that the company has been a long time vision of Steele's, originally starting from humble beginnings.
"I've watched her grow this brand," Jones said. "I watched her have this vision ever since she used to do my hair 12, 13 years ago."
But because of the growth, the company now employs up to 70 people in manufacturing, packaging and livestreaming the beauty product show on TikTok.
"If you're working hard, we give you a chance and that has been going really well," Jones said. "So, just being able to provide that. Second-chance employment, too, for a lot of team members, so that's been going really well, also."
Canvas Beauty Brand expects to open more warehouses in the coming years as the company grows. It's now the number one brand to host a TikTok livestream in the United States and the United Kingdom.