Editor of Circular magazine Ian Farrell speaks to the founder of Boop Yasmine Amr about how her online store is reducing waste by selling excess product that would otherwise be scrapped.
Having worked extensively in the beauty industry, Yasmine Amr couldn’t help but notice the problem of waste: products being thrown away because of overproduction, last-season’s packaging or “packaging imperfections” that mean a product won’t make it to the shelves of a luxury boutique.
Her solution is Boop, a company founded in October 2023, that takes such products and sells them at a discount.
“It’s quite similar to what fashion has been through, where waste is just a part of the business and that was always the norm, but brands are wanting to clean up their act and tackle this reputation,” Amr says.
“But, when I started to dig a little deeper into the beauty world, I realised that much of this ‘waste’ shouldn’t really be classified as that, because there is nothing wrong with it and people still want it.”
She continues: “I spoke with a brand recently who had set a date by which their products would be sold in 100% recycled packaging, but is now faced with the problem of what to do with their old stock. They could destroy all of those units? Or we can sell them through Boop.”
Amr says that around 10% of beauty products will end up in the bin at some point in the supply chain, with 6.2% of this being due to overproduction.
“That can be for all kinds of reasons,” she says. “It can be a new product which is popular all of a sudden – like vitamin C serums – and which manufacturers all rush to market. Or errors in the amount of a product needed for holiday periods such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas. And the brands are always thinking they don’t want to be in a situation where they could produce more but haven’t produced it. So, you always have this oversupply. It’s almost cultural.”
The idea behind Boop is that beauty products such as these should not just be left collecting dust and waiting to the thrown away, but sold at a discount.
The idea was almost universally popular in surveys carried out by Amr in Boop’s early days. About 95% of respondents said they would happily purchase beauty products that were imperfect on the outside because it’s the product inside that matters.
“We reached out to brands, too, and that was so encouraging,” Amr recalls. “A lot of them were saying, ‘Yes, we need something like this. We have all this stock and we don’t know what to do with it’.”
“Some are juggling stock that’s obsolete, owing to reformulation or packaging changes, while others have items that have been knocked about by a courier and have damaged packaging. I even spoke to one brand that operates a sale-or-return policy with retailers.
“When they get unsold stock back, they don’t know what to do with it because it has been on the shop floor and might have picked up slight imperfections. We will take all of that stock because it’s not waste – it’s product,” she says.
Fast forward to 2024, and much of that stock is now in Boop’s warehouse, waiting to be ordered from its slick-looking website.
Other products remain on the original manufacturer’s website and are “drop-ship”, delivered directly from there when a customer orders through Boop.
Just how much products are discounted on Boop turns out to be absolutely crucial.
When they get unsold stock back, they don’t know what to do with it because it has been on the shop floor and might have picked up slight imperfections.
“There are retailers such as TK Maxx that could take these products, but then there is the possibility they would be sold alongside a bottle of £2 high street shampoo, and that would devalue the brand for a lot of these manufacturers. Before Boop came along, there wasn’t really an outlet store that allowed the beauty industry to sell clearance items in a premium setting. That’s the space we have set up in,” says Amr.
There are parallels here with the fashion world, with organisations such as Outnet or Bicester Village offering premium products at a discount without harming the brand.
“They’re surrounded by comparable brands, and are not devaluing them,” Amr says.
An added bonus for brands is the extra marketing reach that discounted products give them: by its very nature, Boop may not carry an item for very long, but someone who has tried a discounted skin cream, for example, may now feel it’s worth paying full price for another one.
“And don’t forget,” says Amr, “this is about helping brands with their sustainability commitments, too. We’ve also partnered with charities so we can help brands rehome items. We’re trying to tackle this from as many angles as possible to prevent product destruction.”
So, is there an emerging trend for “imperfect”? Is “slightly damaged” the new black?
“Yes, I think so,” Amr says. “It’s become so with food, thanks to organisations such as Too Good to Go, Oddbox and Dash Water, which uses wonky fruit in their products. Beauty is playing catch up, but we are a young company – it’s early days.”
Right now, Boop is still a UK-only offering, but Amr plans to open up internationally when she can.
“It’s a big scale-up operation, so it might take a little time to get to the world stage, but that’s our aim,” she says.
