A passion for skin care passed down from her mother inspired Veronica Pedersen to create Timeless Skin Care in 2009. Since then, Timeless Skin Care has become a household favorite found in American retailers Target, CVS Pharmacy and has a growing presence on Alibaba Group’s marketplaces in China.

Word-of-mouth marketing grew much of Timeless Skin Care’s loyal, American-based following, but four years ago, Veronica decided it was time to go global and chose to partner with Hangzhou-based Alibaba.

Since Timeless Skin Care was founded, China’s beauty products market has ballooned, particularly for the US firm’s hero product, hyaluronic acid serum. In a report dated 2020, data provider MarketReseach forecast a compound annual growth rate for hyaluronic acid across industries of 10.3%, or $436 million, between 2020 and 2026.

“The success we’ve had partnering together with Alibaba has been phenomenal,” Veronica said. “Our partnership with Alibaba and the success we’ve seen in China has helped us hire more employees and open a new manufacturing facility.”

Tmall Connection

Timeless Skin Care’s distributors in China introduced the brand to Alibaba in 2017 and listed its products on Taobao Global, a shopping site dedicated to small businesses selling in China.

Start-ups can list products directly on marketplaces, but the path Timeless Skin Care took—through distributors—is the most common. That’s because the size and sheer complexity of the Chinese market is more than most fledgling outfits can handle on their own. Distributors play a critical role for foreign merchants looking to take advantage of an opportunity already enjoyed by much bigger companies, even going as far as handling the marketing for all of a brand’s products on marketplaces.

As Timeless Skin Care grew, its route into China also evolved. It joined Alibaba’s Tmall Global, a platform through which overseas brands and retailers reach consumers in China without physical operations in the country.

Jobs in Texas

Although Timeless Skin Care was founded in Southern California, the company now calls Texas home. “We’re now based in Houston, Texas, and manufacturing our products in a warehouse over double the size of our original facility. We had to move to a bigger location to help support and sustain all the orders that are coming in.”

Quality remains Veronica’s top priority, so she insists that Timeless Skin Care makes its products in small batches. “The key to our growth and success in China with Alibaba is the quality of our products. It’s always been about the product.”

By opening the door to consumers in China and removing barriers that have made it challenging for companies to do business abroad, including logistics support, translation services, and inventory management, Alibaba has helped Timeless Skin Care and many other American businesses grow internationally.

Below is a transcript of this video, edited for clarity and brevity

Timeless is manufactured here in the great state of Texas, in Houston, Texas.

I am Veronica Pederson, and I’m the CEO of Timeless Skincare.

We launched in 2009. The idea really came from a love affair of skin. I grew up around skincare, facialists, and estheticians… so when we started coming up with this idea of a skincare product that was an affordable luxury, we started formulating.

The hyaluronic acid serum is our base product, and it’s our hero product. We wanted a higher concentration of the active ingredient. We didn’t want fillers; we didn’t want anything extra.

Word of mouth has been the key growth to Timeless.

We started getting a lot of inquiries for international distribution. Our distributors in China in 2017 introduced us to Alibaba. It was absolutely phenomenal. They understand their demographic; they understand the Chinese consumer. And because of our partnership with Alibaba and their expertise, it is a partnership that can be very successful together.

The Chinese market resonated really well with the hyaluronic acid serum. It was important for the Chinese consumer to have transparency, to understand quality, and to understand effectiveness.

The success in China has definitely allowed us to grow a lot more, having that capital to use as a reinvestment opportunity.

With Alibaba, we’ve definitely been able to add more employees. We moved our warehouse here to Houston, Texas, to a bigger location in order to help support and sustain all of the orders that are coming in.

I’m really excited to see our growth and where we will be 5-10 years from now.