Consumers express elevated concern over counterfeit beauty, health and personal care products when shopping online and place their trust in online reviews of these products
A new consumer survey from Ideoclick, Inc., the provider of the industry’s leading e-commerce optimization platform, reveals the top e-commerce trends impacting purchases of beauty, health and personal care products. Findings indicate that 67% of beauty consumers and 80% of health and personal care consumers shopped online for these products in the past year.
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“Consumers are becoming more comfortable shopping online for items traditionally purchased in-store, such as makeup, medicines, and hair care”
The research also found that over half of consumers (56%) plan on spending more on beauty in preparation for upcoming holiday gatherings. Additionally, almost half of consumers (40%) working fully in-person expect to shop for beauty products more frequently over the next three months due to the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Consumers are becoming more comfortable shopping online for items traditionally purchased in-store, such as makeup, medicines, and hair care,” said Ben Winters, Chief Operating Officer, Ideoclick. “However, with increased opportunities offered by e-commerce comes increased competition from other brands. Beauty, health and personal care brands need to know who their true competitors are and understand how consumers search for products online as opposed to in-store. For example, Amazon is search-based, meaning brands must focus on keywords relevant to their target audience to make products stand out.”
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Counterfeit Products Raise Concerns Among Beauty, Health and Personal Care E-Commerce Shoppers
As online shopping increased throughout the pandemic, so did the attempts to counterfeit products. According to Amazon’s inaugural Brand Protection Report, the company detected and seized more than 2 million counterfeit products in 2020. As counterfeiting reaches an all-time high, Ideoclick’s survey found that over half of consumers are concerned about lookalike/counterfeit beauty, health and personal care products when shopping online. As a result, nearly half of consumers turn to and trust online reviews of these products:
- 54% of online health and personal care consumers are either concerned (35%) or very concerned (19%) about lookalike/counterfeit items.
- 52% of online beauty product consumers are either concerned (32%) or very concerned (20%) about lookalike/counterfeit items.
- 49% of beauty product consumers and 42% of health and personal care product consumers say they have a somewhat high or very high level of trust online reviews for these products.
Online Activities Positively Affect Purchases of Beauty, Health and Personal Care Products
The survey also identified that social advertising is positively influencing purchasing habits for these products, and consumers are seeking advice primarily from online reviews, influencers, and product pages. Still, adoption of social commerce is lagging:
- 41% of beauty consumers and 33% of health & personal care consumers said they were more likely to make a purchase because of ads seen on social media platforms.
- Beauty product consumers primarily get advice from online reviews (39%) and social media/online influencers (23%). Only 19% said in-store associates (19%).
- Health & personal care product consumers primarily get advice from online reviews (42%) and online retail product pages (22%). Only 20% said in-store associates.
- Only 7% of beauty consumers and 5% of health & personal care consumers said social media is their preferred e-commerce platform for buying these products.