TikTok Shop is doubling down on new product drops this holiday season, with items it hopes you won’t find elsewhere.

TikTok wants to offer US shoppers products from lesser-known, smaller DTC brands that may not have the resources to operate on rival platforms like Amazon, among others.

“What we’re doing is product discovery—unique products that you can discover by yourself naturally in your feed,” Nico le Bourgeois, head of US operations for TikTok Shop, told Retail Brew on the sidelines of an event the company hosted in New York on Oct. 23. “That means a lot of small brands, direct-to-consumer brands that don’t necessarily have access to those large platforms.”

New product launches exclusively for Black Friday will be on TikTok Shop shelves in November. Merchants like candy brand I Love Chamoy, will be dropping sugar-free Mexican watermelon candy gummies, Mavwicks Fragrances is set to launch a fabric softener, and period care brand August has plans to introduce cozy winter merch—all exclusive to TikTok Shop for Black Friday.

Le Bourgeois said TikTok is “reimagining” how people shop this Black Friday/Cyber Monday with the exclusive products sold through TikTok’s community of creators, as small businesses create custom products for the platform.

Keep reading here.—VC

The Halloween season is about to wrap up, but new data suggests this week could see a spike in last-minute holiday spending. Bank of America internal credit card data shows retail spending at novelty shops and other popular destinations for costumes increased 30% in the final week of October last year.

If such a surge happens again, it could show that not everyone is following the prevailing trend of doing their Halloween shopping earlier in the season.

Keep reading here.—AV

As a slew of beauty and personal care CPGs reported third-quarter earnings this week, the skin care category has been experiencing some ups and downs driven by drugstore closures and reduced innovation.

Galderma, owner of skin care brands like Cetaphil, reported this week single-digit growth for the first nine months of the year in the US, noting “more cautious consumer consumption” within the dermatological skin care market, according to a company release. Galderma noted Cetaphil grew in international markets during the period, but lagged in the US. It’s working to boost growth by upgrading its merchandising at Walmart and introducing a new Cetaphil Gentle Exfoliating line supported by Gen Z influencer Katie Fang.

While L’Oréal reported a 2.8% rise in sales in its third quarter, growth halted in its dermatological beauty segment, which houses CeraVe, La Roche Posay, and Vichy, with a 1.6% decline. CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said the “biggest culprit” for the slowdown was the US market, which he attributed to Gen Z consumers leaving the segment to try other brands as well as a lack in innovation from CeraVe.

Keep reading here.—EC