What the business is
A video shopping app for beauty: creator videos, brand stores and in-app checkout, monetized by commission on every sale.
The bet
That US beauty shoppers will buy through personalized video — a mix of live and recorded content on phones and connected TV — rather than through static product pages.
How it started
Alex Perez-Tenessa, former VP of Prime Video US and head of beauty at CVS, co-founded Trendio with startup veteran David Olmos, hiring Amazon Live alum Julie Novak and ex-Glossier makeup category head Leah Grubb to reimagine beauty e-commerce with video.
What happened
At launch the TikTok-like feed of short previews, full videos, live streams with chat and brand stores went live in the US on iOS, Android and Roku; content is manually curated now, with AI editing and personalization models in training.
What has to be true
Beauty products are complex and need demoing, but digital retail evolved toward static pages that make demonstration harder for brands and shoppers.
Live video shopping had taken off in Asia but remained experimental in the US, leaving room for a format redesigned around US content expectations.
Connected TV adoption, observed from inside Prime Video, argued for Roku as a launch platform rather than mobile-only.
What can be applied
Commerce formats do not transplant: a model that works in one market must be rebuilt around local content expectations, and distribution should follow attention.
Aftermath
As of the December 15, 2022 launch, Trendio was live in the US on iOS, Android and Roku, with plans to expand to more countries and to automate content editing with AI.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE