The face of beauty is changing. There was a phenomenal shift to shopping online during the pandemic, with sales of cosmetics, fragrances and other beauty items growing. Despite the return to bricks-and-mortar shopping, digital channels will continue to account for an ever-increasing share of the UK’s total beauty market. So, how can retailers pique interest, and continue to grow sales and revenues?
The trend towards self-care and personal wellness shows no sign of slowing. Consumers continue to maintain habits they started during long periods at home, boosting spend on haircare and skincare.
As beauty brands were forced to close their doors, more incorporated web capabilities to replicate the instore experience. Merchants can allow customers to experience their products with augmented reality and virtual try-on technologies, one-on-one video consultations, and livestreams.
The latest ecommerce sector report by RetailX shows that 46% of sales in the UK beauty market will be online in 2022, and 61% of those purchases will be made on mobile.
Digital is playing a major part in enabling such interactions and turning them from purely transactional into memorable experiences. A new generation of smartphone shoppers now expects retailers to provide engaging, rich content on their ecommerce sites and social channels.
Another trend which is helping the UK beauty industry is the growth of skincare. At retail chain Boots, the expert skincare category is outpacing other areas of facial skincare, with the retailer seeing a 41% increase in sales year-on-year. Within skincare, shoppers are increasingly choosing ingredients that are scientifically proven. Ingredients such as retinol, vitamin C and hyaluronic acid are among the top online searches.
Natural and vegan ingredients are increasingly in demand with consumers looking for evidence of high ethical standards in brands’ supply chains. This trend towards self-care and personal wellness extends to sustainability and products that have less impact on the planet. The value of the UK natural and organic beauty industry is expected to reach £339 million by 2025.
Standout customer experience
For consumers, a major motivation for shopping online is convenience and speed of delivery. When it comes to the direct-to-consumer models favoured by millennials and younger shoppers, it is absolutely vital to be able to offer expedited shipping. Offering fast delivery options at checkout can give you a competitive edge, improve conversion rates, and increase average order value.
Fast delivery is also essential for certain perishable items and liquids, so it’s important to be able to set delivery parameters for those products. That way you can select the optimal carrier service to make sure there are no quality issues with those materials.
One of the main advantages of having the right delivery management solution in place is the flexibility to add new carrier services and switch between them quickly. Without the hassle and expense of having to integrate each new carrier, you have far more delivery services to choose from. It’s this flexibility which allows you to improve customer experience and also negotiate better rates with carriers.
If you’re shipping beauty products outside the UK, you need to have multiple carriers in each market to cater for new delivery requirements. However, there are significant challenges in selecting and integrating with new local carriers.
Find out how Scurri helped membership brand Beauty Pie improve delivery lead times, control delivery costs, and increase their choice of carrier services here.
Fergal O’Carroll is the chief revenue officer at delivery management company, Scurri, with responsibility for sales strategy and execution.
His prior roles include EMEA vice-president for commercial sales with Teradata for eight years; prior to that, he was managing director of business intelligence solutions with Avnet Client Solutions for 13 years.
Fergal holds a BA in Business Studies from the University of West London and is a native of Dublin, Ireland.
