EXCLUSIVE: Gwen Stefani’s Gxve Beauty Launches Social Selling Platform
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Gwen Stefani believes you get what you give.
When she began plotting the launch of Gxve Beauty more than four years ago, her long-term vision for the brand always included a space that would allow Gxve shoppers to interact and even make money as brand ambassadors.
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Enter The Gxve Community, the brand’s proprietary digital platform launching on Tuesday, five months after the brand’s March debut.
Through Gxve Community, users of all walks — regardless of follower count or previous work experience — can become Gxve brand ambassadors, or “Gxvers,” earning 30 percent commission from Gxve products sold via their personalized ambassador link.
The platform also offers Gxvers an inside look at exclusive content from the brand and Stefani herself, including makeup tutorials and product education, and has open forums where users can discuss their passion for makeup with each other and with the brand directly.
“To be able to create a community and an opportunity where people can take what I’ve created, make it their own and actually make money off of it — that was the dream,” Stefani said in an exclusive interview. “I also want people to be able to come to a safe place where they can learn, share, teach and express themselves through makeup.”
This launch is a natural extension of the brand and Stefani, who is no stranger to the art of the side hustle herself.
While rising to stardom with her musical prowess in the early Aughts, Stefani also launched her L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers apparel and accessory lines, eventually debuting her first fragrance, L by L.A.M.B, in 2007.
“We all need a family, a community,” said Stefani, who got her official start in beauty working behind the counter at Ultima II, where she said the most rewarding aspect of the gig was helping clients feel beautiful.
She seeks to spark that same joy with the launch of Gxve Community, while simultaneously passing the mic to others to do the same. “If someone says, ‘Oh, you’re just selling something,’ — I’m selling this feeling, which I know I can give to you, and which you can give to somebody else.”
Consumers can sign up to join Gxve Community by selecting the “Ambassador Program” tab on the Gxve Beauty website, which will direct them to a form where they can input their social media handles and a brief response detailing why they would like to join.
“You don’t have to be a mega or a microinfluencer,” said a spokesperson for venture capital firm and Gxve brand partner New Theory Ventures of why the brand sought to tap consumers as ambassadors. “You can be a mom with three or four kids and just be passionate about wearing makeup — whether it’s to leave the house or not — and engage with people who are like-minded.”
In tandem with the platform’s debut, Stefani, who again will appear as a coach on the upcoming season of NBC’s “The Voice,” premiering Sept. 19, is also launching Gxve Anaheim Line Pencil Lip Liners, which come in three shades and retail for $20 each.
She also released two new shades of the brand’s Pout to Get Real Overlining Contour Lip Pencil, which cost $22 per pencil and are available for purchase on the brand’s website and at Sephora, Gxve’s exclusive retail partner.
“It’s not a new way to necessarily sell makeup, but it is a new way for Gxve to sell makeup,” said Allison Statter, chief executive officer at Gxve’s partner, Blended Strategy Group, regarding Gxve Community.
“We are the first celebrity-backed brand to have a proprietary tool that we own and have created to build our community and build out who can sell our makeup. This is our differentiator. This is what is going to make us stand out,” Statter continued.
While Gxve Community is browser based for now, plans to launch an app version are on the horizon.
“Traditional retail and buying are always going to continue in multiple forms, whether that’s through department stores, or the Sephoras and Ultas of the world,” the spokesperson for New Theory Ventures underscored. “But there is also an entire economy of commerce happening which is done on the phone, or on a computer, and I think brands who do that right can add value and gain access to consumers who might not be stepping into a brick-and-mortar-store.”
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