Beauty and its resilience – an inspiring model

Not all sectors have suffered the consequences of the pandemic to the same extent. Cosmetics in particular has proved to be extremely dynamic.

Thanks to its past experiences and “secrets”, the Beauty sector is managing the COVID post-lockdown period.

A historically strong sector

The cosmetics and beauty products sector is not new to tests of strengths, even in the hardest moments. During previous crises, such as the one in 2008, it registered only a single-figure drop in turnover, while losses in other sectors were much bigger.

In spite of the complex nature of the current context, Beauty has passed the test yet again. Based on the contents of the “Altagamma Consensus 2020” report, written by the Altagamma Foundation, compared to a drop in luxury products that stands at an average of -20%, cosmetics have managed to limit the impact to -13%, which is the lowest figure of all the ones measured.

The success of online beauty

In a sector where, as we will shortly see, not even physical commerce has raised the white flag to Coronavirus, the e-commerce segment could only explode. Between the end of February and the middle of April, web sales of cosmetics chalked up an unbelievable + 93%.

In interpreting this success in a research entitled “The Online State Of Skincare Brands”, Digital Luxury Group hints at what the key factors are. The consultancy company identifies seven pillars to excel in: 

  • Product search; 
  • Customer feedback;
  • Customer service;
  • Incentives to buy;
  • Payment methods;
  • Use of all channels;
  • Check-out experience.

The above are elements that create a successful User Experience on a website. Luxury brands must make the consumers’ experience simpler, cleared, more transparent and focus on loyalty programmes to involve their customers.

Encouraging data from physical retails

The pillars above can however always be easily moved to the world of “offline” stores. Beauty has adopted them totally, reasoning in an all-channel perspective and preventing the physical from lagging behind compared to the virtual. Just a couple of examples can prove this.

The handmade cosmetics brand Lush didn’t delay the reopening its 31 stores in Italy. Their secret is a review of the shopping experience, making it more safe and integrating on-line and off-line. Ethos Profumerie looks like it has already returned to normality, with sales up by almost 50% in the first 15 days post-lockdown. This latter case seems like it never had a real crisis, thanks to a multi-channel strategy that included initiatives such as home delivery, webinars and TV presence.

With its own applications that manage all the Retail processes, Bizeta can implement a full, successful User Experience perfectly suited to any vertical market.

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