Milani Cosmetics has posted 19 consecutive quarters of growth, and CEO Mary van Praag attributes much of that run to a single shift in how the brand approaches retail partnerships, according to Glossy. Instead of pitching finished products to buyers, Milani now co-develops exclusive SKUs with retailers like Target and Ulta, treating the merchant as a creative partner from formula through packaging.

The mechanic is straightforward. Milani enters the conversation early, before the product exists, and works with the retailer's merchandising and trend teams to identify a white space in the assortment or a customer need the current shelf does not address. The brand then builds a product specifically for that gap, often incorporating the retailer's proprietary consumer data and timing it to a known promotional window. The result is a SKU that feels native to the shelf, not parachuted onto it, and the retailer has a direct stake in its success because they shaped it.

This works because it solves the retailer's curation problem. Merchants at mass and prestige beauty chains now carry hundreds of brands, and differentiation inside the category has become their primary lever for traffic and margin. A generic lipstick launch competes with twenty others. An exclusive shade range developed around the retailer's own insight about undertone gaps in their customer base becomes a reason to visit that chain instead of another. The retailer markets it harder because it is theirs, and the brand earns better placement and promotional support in return.

Van Praag also noted the importance of merchandising innovation, specifically how Milani organizes product on shelf to make discovery easier. That means grouping by use case or occasion rather than strictly by category, and designing packaging that signals the concept at a glance. A small brand can lift the same principle without needing a dedicated endcap. If you sell a physical product through a retailer, ask the buyer what customer question their current assortment does not answer cleanly. Then build a SKU or a bundle that answers it, and propose it as an exclusive test for one quarter. Provide the marketing assets and the shelf signage so the retailer does not have to create them. If you sell direct, apply the same logic to your own site navigation: organize a landing page around a job to be done, not a product type, and create a kit that solves it in one click.

The steal for a small brand is to pick one retail partner, even a regional chain or a specialty shop, and propose a single co-created product. Start with their pain, not your catalog. Ask what their customers request that they cannot currently fulfill, or what adjacent category is growing faster than yours. Design a product or package specifically for that need, offer it as a exclusive for six months, and include co-branded marketing collateral they can use in-store and online. Size the run conservatively so you do not strand inventory, and negotiate a reorder trigger tied to sell-through rate. If you are direct-to-consumer, create a landing page organized around a customer problem and build a bundle that solves it in one purchase, then drive all paid traffic to that page for thirty days and measure conversion against your standard product page.

The broader pattern is that growth in mature categories now comes from curation, not assortment expansion. Retailers and customers both want fewer, better choices that map to specific needs. A brand that helps a merchant deliver that clarity earns the relationship and the repeat order.