Clark’s Botanicals is in expansion mode.

The brand, founded by Francesco Clark, is in the throes of significantly expanding its retail footprint, including more distribution with existing partner Bluemercury and an entry into Credo Beauty.

“We’ve spent the last few years building our performance engine for reactive skin. That’s our space, we’re doctor-formulated, clinically proven, no-irritation results,” Clark said. “We’ve partnered with retail partners, first with Goop and then Saks in Greenwich [Conn.] and Bal Harbor [Fla.] and after that, Bluemercury put us in 24 doors.”

Since then, Clark has upped the Bluemercury door count to 32, and Credo is taking the full range of products. “We’ll be making some exclusive products for them,” he said. Part of his retail ethos is his hands-on approach. “We have a team that goes in-store as well, but I personally go in-store, and that gives you a complete and instant awareness of what people react to and what customers want.”

Likening his ear-to-the-ground approach to a consumer perception study happening in real time, both the products’ performance and price points are resonating. “We’re not the most expensive brand in Bluemercury,” he said, “But we have this balance of being physician-formulated and clinically proven while also being clean by default.”

The brand boasts an 82 percent customer retention rate on its website, and those shoppers are generally 25 and older. “They’ve tried more expensive brands, they don’t buy into marketing, they don’t care as much about influencers,” Clark said. “They want realness, they appreciate how we started. They are 80 percent female, 20 percent male, and in the end, they connect with how the brand started.”

On average, that client’s basket size is around $130 online, and slightly higher in-store. Another key behavior is that each shopper is generally looking for fewer products that each do more, as opposed to the 12-step routines of years past. “Maybe it’s because we’re living in this AI-driven world where everyone’s expected to know everything, you’re expected to be more productive. There’s this notion of being more productive with the same amount of time we had for more, and that translates to less time for ourselves,” Clark said. “Our skin care allows you to do that in just five minutes. It’s not these 10-minute-long ‘Get Ready With Me’ videos.’”

The brand’s bestsellers follow suit. Clark said that among his top sellers at Bluemercury are the Retinol Rescue Overnight Cream — “The only product you need to use at night because it has patented time-release” — and he’s doubling down on his sourcing for new products, too.

“We’re now thinking about traceability, having tighter control of our actives and lower variability from batch to batch,” Clark said. “We’re in advanced diligence in finalizing 44 acres of land in the Amalfi Coast where we can grow our ingredients.”