Why DTC brand Skimpies is launching in TJ Maxx and Marshalls
These days, the growth playbook for many digitally-native CPG brands is to sell online then enter a chain like Target or Walmart. One TikTok-viral brand is bucking the big-box trend and launching in off-price retail.
Skimpies makes organic cotton liners that stick directly to the inside of leggings or pants to replace underwear, for those seeking a pantyline-free look. The brand has cultivated a cult following thanks to its viral TikTok Shop sales, with the liners now used by red-carpet stylists and costume designers on Marvel films. According to Bentley, Skimpies is now the top live-seller brand in the disposable underwear category on TikTok. This month, the brand is trying to replicate this flash sale model by releasing a limited-time product drop at TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores nationwide.
Since officially launching in September 2024, Skimpies has quickly grown through TikTok Shop live sessions, hosted by founder Bette Bentley. Skimpies experienced 10X in month-over-month sales in March, with the bootstrapped brand growing without a paid ad budget.
Bentley’s initial launch idea was an old-school in-person debut, where she distributed products to people at places like gyms, clothing stores and parks. “I’d go to SoulCycle or to a Bloomingdale’s and set up a table,” she said. Eventually, customers would recognize Bentley as “the redhead from TikTok who sells leggings underwear.”
So when she began to ramp up the brand’s social channels, TikTok seemed like the ideal platform for this discovery-focused dynamic.
“Then we had one video go viral, with something like 6 million views,” she said, which led to thousands of orders before the brand’s TikTok Shop was even integrated with Shopify. After officially integrating Skimpies’ fulfillment with TikTok Shop, Bentley said the brand took off through her. In March, for example, she went live for three hours per day, every day.
It was these live sales when the brand’s fans began to ask about being able to shop the Skimpies deals without having to tune in in real time. With TikTok Shop Live, Bentley said there is typically a limit on the number of products a brand can offer on flash sales per day, in order for TikTok to subsidize the promotional pricing. “We had people tell us their friends got them for $11 during the live sale, when they had to pay $30,” she said.
The treasure hunt experience of shopping at TJX-owned stores is meant to mimic the TikTok Live’s sense of urgency.
Having initially spoken with some big-box retailers, Bentley said she had the idea to test retail by reaching out to TJX and pitching them on a limited-edition product drop, where only a few thousand boxes are distributed in TJ Maxx and Marshalls locations across the country. As it turned out, she said, “The buyer had already seen us on TikTok and was excited to work with us.” The sale run will last until stores are sold out of Skimpies boxes. No additional product drops have been planned.
“This is an IRL flash sale with no secrecy,” Bentley said. Customers “get to have that FOMO rush that you get on a TikTok Live sale.”
Bentley is betting on TJ Maxx and Marshalls being the right setting for experimenting with physical retail, by reaching Skimpies’ self-described Maxxinista customers. “The brand is community-driven — we call our customers the Skimpies Sisters,” she said. “This is our first retailer, and we’ve been the opposite of coy about it.”
There is a risk in going from DTC straight to off-price retail, and Bentley said she had multiple people warn her against this strategy. “They’re like, ‘You can’t tell people you’re selling at Marshalls. That’s something brands do but don’t talk about,’” she said.
Katie Thomas, leader of the Kearney Consumer Institute, explained that the stigma of selling in off-price has died down in the last five years. It used to be that startups and DTC brands would quietly offload excess inventory at discount and value retailers.
However, one of the biggest challenges that DTCs face is simple awareness and eyeballs on the brand, Thomas said. That often leads companies to ramping up wholesale partnerships and physical distribution. However, Thomas said that playbook has become challenging to execute and support without robust marketing dollars behind these launches.
“It’s advantageous for a brand like Skimpies to tap into the treasure hunt element of TJX stores, where consumers go for product discovery,” Thomas said. “It is a more engaging shopping experience than what you’re getting at a lot of big-box [stores] right now.”
On the other hand, pricing perception can be risky once a brand sells at an off-price retailer. Bentley said that Skimpies will sell single boxes at a price that TJ Maxx and Marshalls will set. Typically, the brand sells three-box packs on TikTok Shop and its DTC website. “Overall, I see this strategy having mostly pros,” Thomas said.
For Bentley, the TJ Maxx and Marshalls test run is as much of a marketing play as it is a sales channel. “I’ve gone with my gut and it hasn’t led me wrong so far,” Bentley said. So far, so good. “I have so many Instagram messages of people showing us they’re at their local Marshalls trying to find us.”