Most brands treat TikTok Shop as a sales channel. At OSEA Malibu, it’s a discovery engine. Founded by Melissa Palmer’s mother in 1996, the clean beauty brand grew from a 99.9% wholesale operation into a nine-figure business under Melissa’s leadership. It crossed $100 million in revenue by selling where its customers are: direct to consumer, Amazon, and more than 1,500 Ulta stores. But the real value of TikTok Shop, Melissa argues, isn’t the revenue it brings in. It’s the branded search, trial, and discovery it drives into every other channel. Melissa runs growth; her mother still runs product.
Below, she breaks down how OSEA Malibu’s omnichannel approach actually works—why different products win in different places, how creators unlock demand the brand couldn’t, and why she’s convinced early-stage founders have more resources than they think.
On why TikTok Shop’s real value isn’t revenue:
What got me excited about TikTok Shop is that it’s new. One of the things I love so much about ecommerce is the constant unlocks—new ways to message, new audiences to find, new tools to try. A couple of years ago, TikTok Shop was just the Wild West, and it reminded me of the early days of direct to consumer (D2C).
It does drive revenue, and it’s a healthy channel. But that’s not really where we see its value. It’s driving so much branded organic search, so much trial and discovery. As we sample and grow through TikTok and TikTok affiliates, we watch it drive our D2C, drive Amazon, and drive customers into Ulta. That’s the real unlock.
On the two products TikTok turned into hits:
We have this body polish—the Undaria Cleansing Body Polish. It’s such a great product, but we just cannot get it to work on D2C. On TikTok, it’s been going bananas.
Then we have a pillow mist that was a really low performer, and it went completely viral. I have that pillow mist—it’s been sold out for three months now, and it’s driving us crazy. Now everyone is going into all of our channels looking for it. We see the same thing on Amazon, where totally different products take off.
On how creators sell products in ways the brand never could:
Part of it is virality. But a big part is that these creators on TikTok find new ways of talking about products that we can’t think of. That’s what unlocks it.
They’re speaking to their own audiences, through their own lens—fundamentally the same core messaging, but they reach for it in a way we never would have. Suddenly a product we couldn’t move is the thing everyone’s searching for.
On why the same product wins on one channel and flops on another:
The way different products perform in different channels always surprises me.
That’s exactly why a diverse product portfolio matters so much. The omnichannel approach—figuring out which products succeed on which channel—is going to be a huge unlock for us. Different products carry different channels, and together they cover far more ground than any single hero product could.
On sequencing the channel unlocks:
The way we’ve grown over these 10 years is one unlock at a time. First, we unlocked D2C—that was really 2015 to 2020. We had so much growth building a really loyal, high-value customer on our own site. This is different from most beauty brands, since a lot of them went straight to retail.
Then 2020 to 2025 was the retail unlock. We’re in more than 1,500 Ultas and all the Nordstrom stores, so a lot of that was learning to balance a really robust D2C business with a really robust retail business.
Then we started opening Amazon, TikTok Shop, all these new channels. Each one built on the last.
On testing a new hook by changing one word:
With paid ads, it’s constant. You have to keep ideating new creative—try new hooks, try changing one word. Use AI to change the image, change the color of the sky, change the background color. If you just keep trying, you don’t know what’s going to hit.
And often it’s not really the most perfect thing that works. It’s just something that you tried. We’re so responsive with constantly ideating our ads, and it’s instant feedback—if something’s taking off, we know what messaging is working right away.
On editing the OSEA Malibu homepage banner from her phone:
I love the details. I saw our homepage banner on Shopify yesterday and I didn’t like the image. I was on my phone, and I thought, I’ll just go change it. Then I realized there’s now an AI tool to edit your images right on the site.
From my phone, I uploaded a different image, extended the sky, and totally cropped and reshaped it within three minutes, and it was live.
On why AI gives small founders more resources:
People assume they don’t have the same resources I do, and I’m not totally sure that’s true anymore. Because of what’s available with AI right now, there’s so much ability to ideate creatively.
These resources let single entrepreneurs, founders, and small startups move at a completely different scale than before. So my biggest advice is to use every resource available and just keep ideating. Yes, we have an incredible team—but a lot of the tools that democratized this are the same ones you have access to.
Hear Melissa’s full conversation on Shopify Masters for more on the viral hula hoop company that taught her ecommerce, the sun-protection product 15 years in the making, and why hitting $10 million didn’t make anything easier.
