BelliWelli is on a mission to refresh the fiber aisle.
The brand recently secured a $10 million series B investment from Invus, also a previous investor, to build out its team and support continued retail expansion. The brand’s growth is due in large part to BelliWelli’s success on TikTok, which has been led by cofounder Katie Wilson.
“We’re spending $0 on ads. This is just taking off, and it’s because of TikTok,” Wilson said.
It’s not the brand’s first time tapping into a viral moment. A few years ago, BelliWelli achieved a similar viral status across social media for its “Hot Girls Have IBS” campaign, though TikTok has taken it to new heights.
BelliWelli continues to be a top performer on the platform, per Wilson. It all started with Wilson going up to and filming customers in Walmart who were shopping in the fiber aisle. She’d convince them to put down the brand they were buying, and try BelliWelli’s Daily Fiber, $23 drink powder, which comes in flavors like Wild Berry and Tropical Breeze, purchasing the products for them. The concept has quickly taken off. Sometimes, she’ll even drop a scoop of the powder into people’s drinks, first getting their shocked reaction and then telling them about the brand.
“I spend 60 percent of my life at Walmart. I go to Walmart every single day, and I film content with people in the aisles,” Wilson said, noting this has become the brand’s core social strategy. “We did 37 million views on TikTok organically in seven days last week.”
Wilson (right) selling BelliWelli live on TikTok.
BelliWelli TikTok
Wilson is also selling products livestream via TikTok in a studio with the platform’s team — last week, Wilson was on live for 11 hours. TikTok is still the brand’s smallest channel in terms of sales, but its impact on other retailers has been massive, according to Wilson.
“What’s very exciting and actually was new information for us is that we could make a piece of content on TikTok and see those impressions show up in every single one of our channels.…I think that has a lot to do with the specific TikTok content format we’re using, which is me at a store talking to customers,” Wilson said. “We sell out Walmart every 24 hours.…We get to build those relationships [on social media] and send customers to our brick-and-mortar stores.”
The brand has more than doubled its Walmart distribution to more than 2,600 doors and has launched at Target. The brand will also have displays at Walmart now.
BelliWelli Daily Fiber
Courtesy
Although BelliWelli started out with its signature fiber bars, its drink powder, which launched this year, has quickly become the hero product.
The brand’s rise comes at a time when people, retailers and brands were focused on fiber intake. According to the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, only 5 percent of Americans consume an adequate amount of fiber daily.
But the BelliWelli team is on a mission to change that, while also creating a brand that feels fresh and cool. According to Wilson, her cofounder Tyson Woeste often says the goal is to “shake up big fiber.”
“We went fiber for the Stanley cup generation,” said Wilson. “We made a better fiber with cleaner ingredients that actually tastes good, so you look forward to drinking it [with] better ingredients and additional things that you’re also probably missing: probiotics, collagen and electrolytes.”
In the next phase, new fiber formats may be on the horizon.
“We are not coming out with brand new products in many aisles in the grocery stores,” Wilson said. “You will continue to see us double down on fiber and continue to perfect [it].”
