The beauty industry is competitive, with many brands entering the market with innovative products.
To make your brand stand out, you must offer a unique value proposition and follow the latest beauty ecommerce trends.
Staying on top of trends will help you understand the current market dynamics and steer your marketing efforts toward what’s working.
In this guide, we’ll cover the top beauty ecommerce trends, list marketing strategies you can use, and give examples of brands to inspire you. Let’s get started.
Use Omnisend’s automated emails to drive sales for your beauty ecommerce brand
Here are our top five picks of the best beauty ecommerce trends you should watch out for in 2024 and beyond.
1. Sustainable products and packaging
One of the most prominent beauty ecommerce trends in recent years is the increased focus on sustainability.
As far as sustainable packaging is concerned, here are some common trends to watch out for:
Use of sustainable materials: Many beauty brands use co-products from the agriculture and food industries, such as bamboo, sugarcane, and wood
Refillable packaging: Product refills made of sustainable materials reduces the need for main packaging, which may not be as eco-friendly
Recycled packaging: This involves using recycled materials, such as recycled glass bottles and plastics, for product packaging to reduce their use
Returnable packaging: Some beauty brands allow customers to return empty product containers for recycling, either reusing the containers or working with third-party companies to dispose of them
The Dior Addict refillable lipstick is a popular example of the refillable packaging trend in the beauty industry. Consumers can try all 25 shades using just one lipstick bottle.
The days of selling beauty products based on a few predefined skin types and colors are long gone. One of the most revolutionary beauty ecommerce trends of recent years is hyper-personalization.
Beauty brands are now helping customers find personalized beauty and skincare routines. These include products that best suit an individual’s needs and preferences.
According to a recent survey by Bolt, 75% of customers will even pay more for personalized online shopping experiences.
What does hyper-personalization look like in the beauty industry?
Here are some examples:
Asking consumers to take a quiz to get personalized product recommendations
Using artificial intelligence and virtual reality to help consumers find the exact shade of cosmetics like foundations and lipsticks
Creating individualized custom-made product formulations based on a person’s specific needs
3. AI, VR & virtual try-on
This is one of the beauty ecommerce trends that aid hyper-personalization. More importantly, it also improves online shopping experiences for consumers.
This involves using AI and VR to let consumers virtually try on products before buying them. This could be anything from finding the right shade of foundation to choosing a lipstick color based on how it looks on a person.
These technologies allow consumers to upload their pictures and see how a product suits them. This makes the buying process engaging and removes any hesitance to buy.
Too Faced, for example, offers a virtual try-on for many of its products, to help consumers find the right products.
With the rise of beauty influencers on social media, it’s no wonder more brands are leveraging this new beauty ecommerce trend.
There are many types of beauty influencers on social media. Some share makeup tutorials, while others give practical tips or review products.
Brands like Glossier have long relied on influencers to promote their products. Glossier uses a network of influencers to swatch, review, and promote its products.
Here’s an Instagram post where two influencers promote its latest lipstick shade:
Fenty Beauty, NYX, and many other beauty brands work with influencers regularly. Clearly, this is a trend that is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.
5. Brand partnerships
The concept of brand partnerships, where two brands work together to leverage each other’s audiences, is not new. It’s become more prominent in the beauty industry of late, making it one of the top beauty ecommerce trends.
You can partner with brands that offer complementary products or even those from other industries. You can also work with celebrities to co-create product collections.
The key is to partner with brands or individuals who have a similar audience to yours for it to be effective.
Fenty Beauty, for example, has partnered with brands within and outside the industry. Some examples are Heytea, Sephora, and Ulta Beauty.
Partnering with multi-brand beauty retailers is the simplest and most effective way to cross-promote content and products. Here’s an example where Fenty Beauty mentions Sephora and Ulta Beauty and asks its customers to buy its products from these retailers:
What are the main beauty ecommerce marketing strategies?
Here are five marketing strategies you can use to market your beauty ecommerce brand.
Social media marketing
One of the most lucrative beauty ecommerce marketing strategies is posting content on social media. This is an organic way for beauty brands to reach a relevant and engaged audience. According to a PYMNTS report, 43% of consumers use social media to find new products and brands.
Not surprisingly, beauty products are the second-most popular products people buy via social media. It’s second only to apparel and clothing.
Image via PYMNTS
Here are some social media content ideas for beauty brands to get you started:
Post tutorial videos showing people how to use your products while also showcasing your products’ effectiveness
Share product swatches or product images to pique audience interest
Ask for and post user or influencer reviews of your products
Leverage social media contests and giveaways to drive engagement from time to time
Huda Beauty, for instance, is one of the most followed beauty brands on Instagram. It posts a variety of content ranging from makeup swatches and tutorials to giveaways and contests.
Here’s an example of a giveaway announcement post that got over 52k likes:
This is one of the most cost-effective beauty ecommerce marketing strategies, with brands realizing a high return on investment. Omnisend’s US merchants have achieved a phenomenal 72x ROI.
Here are some common types of emails beauty brands use to engage their prospective and existing customers:
Welcome emails for new subscribers or thank you emails for new customers
Transactional emails to provide order updates
Promotional emails with deals and offers to nudge consumers to buy
Emails announcing new products or collections
Omnisend can help you with all these types of email campaigns and more. It provides ready-to-use newsletter templates to help you craft engaging emails.
The best part is that it integrates with various ecommerce platforms so that you can sync your customer data and email lists.
It also offers advanced segmentation to help you run high-converting ecommerce email marketing campaigns.
INGLOT Cosmetics, for instance, is a beauty brand that uses Omnisend to run integrated email, SMS, and push notifications campaigns. It ran an abandoned cart recovery campaign and achieved a 117% increase in conversion rate.
“In terms of ROI, even if we spent the same amount, or much more, on social media or any other type of advertising, email always brings the highest revenue. We also see it in the long-tail: the sale may not happen in that exact moment. But building information in the client’s consciousness as they receive several emails over time to get them to purchase, we see that too.”
According to a recent survey, 84.3% of marketers find influencer marketing to be an effective marketing strategy. It’s especially effective for industries such as beauty and fashion, which are more visual in nature.
Here are some ways to leverage influencer marketing for your beauty ecommerce business:
Share your products with beauty influencers and ask them to review them
Work with a network of influencers to create buzz around new products or collections
Create long-term relationships with a few influencers and ask them to regularly post content with your products, such as tutorials and makeup videos
Co-create a product or a product range with a mega influencer and cross-promote it to reach their audience
Loyalty programs
Customer loyalty programs work well for almost all types of brands, as they incentivize repeat purchases. These programs offer rewards, often based on a tiered system, for each new purchase a customer makes or any desired action they take.
Beauty brands like Sephora have long utilized this strategy to build a loyal audience and get repeat business.
Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program is one of the best and most well-known in the industry. It uses a tiered system where people get better rewards with each higher tier, as shown below.
Other than savings, it also offers free samples and experiential rewards, engaging all types of beauty shoppers.
If you want to use this beauty ecommerce marketing strategy, follow these tips:
Create a tiered reward system to motivate customers to reach higher levels to get better rewards
Add some gamification elements to make it a fun and engaging experience for customers
Offer a mix of monetary and experiential rewards
Paid advertising
If you want to drive quick results, then paid ecommerce advertising is one of the best beauty ecommerce marketing strategies for you.
However, we recommend opting for social media advertising on visual platforms like Instagram to get the best results. As already mentioned, many consumers use these platforms to buy beauty products and discover new brands.
Social media ads can help you reach specific audiences who are likely to be interested in your products, driving a high advertising ROI.
Here are some tips based on the latest trends in paid product advertising for beauty brands:
Show products in use, such as showing what a product looks like on various skin tones
Use tempting product pictures and lucrative deals to drive more clicks and boost ecommerce sales
List clear product benefits for premium products with more advanced formulations to sell on value, not pricing
We’ve discussed beauty ecommerce trends and marketing strategies so far. Now, let’s look at the websites of some real-life beauty ecommerce brands and understand what they’re doing right.
Thrive Causemetics is a luxury, vegan beauty brand that donates a part of its earnings to help local communities thrive.
In the beauty ecommerce space, it stands out by effectively promoting its latest seasonal collection and ongoing deals on its homepage to direct site visitors to the products they’re most likely to buy. Currently, it’s promoting its summer collection and mystery bundle to cater to customers’ seasonal beauty needs.
By focusing on cosmetics ecommerce, the brand ensures its offerings are attractive to its audience. One way it does this is through the color palette and design, conveying summer vibes to further pique consumers’ interest.
Beauty Heroes is a natural skincare brand with an online store. It also offers a monthly subscription service to help customers discover new products.
Its homepage packs a lot of information and links without being cluttered. The top menu provides easy navigation to all products and pages on the site. There’s also a call-to-action button for subscription services, a current beauty ecommerce trend.
The company also mentions its shipping costs and ongoing deals right at the top of the page, aligning with best practices in cosmetics ecommerce.
Drunk Elephant is a skincare brand which uses bright candy colors on its website and product packaging. Using a consistent color palette helps create a distinct brand image.
On its homepage, you’ll find links to its top products, a brand introduction video, customer testimonials, and a lot more. It also lists the benefits of its rewards program, which encourages people to shop more to get better rewards.
The top menu is also detailed and easy to navigate, making the shopping experience easier for consumers, which is a key feature of top beauty ecommerce sites.
Kylie Cosmetics is a premium beauty brand owned by the American socialite and businesswoman Kylie Jenner.
Its website uses a minimal design and sophisticated rose gold theme to highlight the brand’s premium status.
The homepage lists the brand’s top products, with direct purchase links to direct site visitors to the product pages. It also highlights the brand’s latest products or collections.
The page features videos from social media influencers using the brand’s products, which is a powerful tool for beauty ecommerce websites to provide social proof and encourage buying.
Blume is a skincare brand known for its hydrating products with gentle, active ingredients.
On its homepage, you’ll find an option to shop for products by skin concern and type. It also features an interactive tool that recommends products based on your needs.
All these help site visitors find the right products and buy them.
On the top banner, it promotes its latest product, which is perfect for the current season. It also offers a 15% discount to consumers through a strategically placed CTA button that’s visible even if you scroll down the page. This offering can lead to increased customer engagement and encourage conversations, making it an effective tactic in cosmetics ecommerce.
Wrap up
There you have it — a complete guide covering beauty ecommerce trends, marketing strategies, and examples. Use it to optimize your ecommerce marketing strategy and hop on the latest trends in the industry.
If you need a marketing platform that can help you run successful email, SMS, and push notifications campaigns, try Omnisend. It offers advanced segmentation and targeting to help you reach the right audiences with the right messages at the right times.
With its email marketing and ecommerce tools, you will be able to engage your audiences and drive repeat business.
Use Omnisend’s robust email and SMS marketing tools to market your beauty brand through targeted campaigns
Bernard is the Sr. Director of Communications & Creative at Omnisend, with a passion for good research, helping ecommerce businesses with their marketing automation needs, and beating absolutely everyone in Mario Kart 64.
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