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Beauty Ecommerce: How Online Beauty Stores Can Find a Place in the Tough Market
Editor’s note: In the article, we do our best to cover all the essential and some non-trivial design rules for beauty ecommerce websites. If you take interest in the topic with the goal of business launch in mind, we are also pleased to offer you ecommerce consulting services and help to secure market entry success.
As of late, the beauty industry has seen a rapid growth in online sales. A share of ecommerce revenue made up 6.17% of total US ecommerce sales in 2019 and is predicted to grow up to 8.6% by 2024. While the health and beauty market does look promising, retailers surely need to be prepared to face quite a tough competition and build on some evident brand strengths to win customers. Experts in ecommerce website design, we can’t advise you on what kind of beauty things to sell but can really help with tips on how to design a converting beauty website.
7 key features every beauty ecommerce store needs
Elegant design. Sufficient attention to visual design is not something new for ecommerce, though it takes on even more importance in the beauty sphere as customers may intuitively associate the website look with the quality of products. What counts as appealing design is subject to trends, but some general rules exist. Modern shoppers value branded, rather minimalistic, creative design in neutral colors. The goal is to present the products beautifully.
Quality product descriptions. Customers are careful to buy new beauty and care products, so you need to provide a full list of ingredients, explain how to use the products, emphasize precautions, and even share expert tips.
Ethical side of your business. With the rise of conscious shopping and consumption, people like to know if cosmetics have been tested on animals and if the ingredients are sourced organically.
Customer feedback section. Real feedback from people already using a product may be the strongest argument for trying it too. Comment sections and user ratings exist to help customers make a more informed choice while the opportunity to say an opinion after the purchase is also a good sign of confidence in the products and strong brand authority.
Influencer marketing. Beauty brands increasingly engage influencers for brand promotion in social media. If you decide for influencer marketing as a customer acquisition channel and a possibility to reach a wider audience, make sure your website speaks about this collaboration too. The easiest way is to place the information on the homepage, but you can also collect all products recommended by the influencer in a separate menu section.
Subscription opportunities. Offering to subscribe for scheduled delivery of tried and beloved products is getting popular in beauty ecommerce. You get steady sales while your clients win a more attractive price and guaranteed product availability.
Beauty boxes. The idea of beauty boxes is to let customers try as many of your products as possible without spending up for that. You can either reduce price for a product bundle in a box or sell smaller volumes of beauty products exclusively as a beauty box.
5 successful online beauty stores to learn from
Thrive Causemetics
https://thrivecausemetics.com/
Thrive Causemetics has a very strong mission statement behind their brand – from each sale, they donate to nonprofit organizations supporting women. They also stand for the idea of conscious beauty and announce that their products are cruelty-free and formulated from clinically proven ingredients. As for the website design, it’s appealing: calm color palette, clean layout, and easy-to-use navigation across all product offerings. The company employs a fresh approach to prove the effectiveness of their products – on product pages, they show photos with before/after result.
Pat McGrath Labs
A brand by a famous makeup artist. The website has a dark background with bright imagery making for excellent color contrasts. Customers must be appreciating greatly expert tips for using the products correctly added to each product page.
Dermelect Cosmeceuticals
A cosmeceutical brand formulated by medical professionals and licensed estheticians. The company puts much effort to convey the value of their products – they add a detailed explanation to each ingredient as for its exact role in the skin care. Having decided for a particular product, customers are offered to choose one-time or scheduled delivery, which is an excellent way to turn repeat customers into loyal ones.
Sephora
One of the biggest players in beauty ecommerce, Sephora sets the standard for how an online beauty shop should look and behave. They recognize that one of the most difficult aspects of choosing beauty products online is being overwhelmed with options. To help, Sephora organizes properly a large catalog, promotes all time-limited deals on the homepage and offers mini versions for many products. Also, the company does a good job with upsells recommending a complementary product on each product page.
Makeup Geek
Makeup Geek goes an extra mile to educate customers about the ins and outs of the makeup art. On their ecommerce website, the company offers video tutorials and masterclasses helping customers to apply the makeup correctly and soft-selling their products.
Don’t be afraid to tap into ecommerce
While offline is still the dominant form of beauty retail, online shopping is finally being recognized as a viable alternative by businesses across the world. When done right, a beauty ecommerce website can achieve equal or better business results taking into account the cost of maintaining a retail store. If you are thinking of entering a beauty e-market, feel free to contact our team to design an ecommerce website for your beauty brand.