The online cosmetics market is booming, and virtual makeup trials are becoming a new trend

In the past , cosmetics sales mainly came from offline stores, and consumers preferred to try products in stores before purchasing them. As offline stores were closed one after another during the epidemic, consumers began to turn their attention to online channels, and the online market for cosmetics also ushered in a booming development.

According to Digital Commerce 360 , during the COVID-19 pandemic , the online sales of the 53 health and beauty merchants they tracked increased by 37.4% year-on-year in 2020 , and the penetration rate reached 4.7% . In addition, the median conversion rate of online merchants in the health and beauty category in 2020 was 4.3%, and the median average order was US$88.

Although the pandemic has boosted the growth of the online cosmetics market , it has not changed the fact that shoppers want to seek guidance and advice when purchasing beauty products. According to an earlier consumer survey conducted by Digital Commerce 360 ​​and Bizrate Insights , 46 % of consumers said they want to try beauty products in person, and 18% of consumers want to seek advice from in-store staff when purchasing cosmetics .

In this context, more and more cosmetics retailers are looking for new ways to improve consumers' online shopping experience, and virtual makeup trial tools are beginning to become a new trend in online cosmetics sales. These tools provide consumers with a series of services such as online makeup trial, interactive product matching, and virtual consultation through VR and AR technology.

Consumers are also increasingly using these tools and features to help them choose beauty products online . According to a Digital Commerce 360 ​​survey in August this year , 22 % of consumers use color matching tools when shopping for cosmetics online , 15 % use virtual try- on tools, and 6 % use augmented / virtual reality tools.

Benefit Cosmetics, a cosmetics retailer, improved its AR -based Brow Try -On tool as early as September 2019. The tool allows shoppers to try on makeup online by superimposing eyebrows on their faces through augmented reality . Facts have shown that shoppers began to use such tools more during the epidemic , and the daily usage of Brow Try-On from April to the end of July increased by 43% compared with the same period last year .

Benefit isn’t the only cosmetics retailer to offer a virtual try-on tool. Of the 55 cosmetics retail websites analyzed by Digital Commerce 360, 14.5 % of merchants offer a virtual try-on tool , including big-name cosmetics companies like Estee Lauder, Ulta Beauty , Urban Decay , and MAC .

It can be seen that with the development of the online cosmetics market, virtual makeup trial services will become a good way to encourage consumers to buy beauty products online. At the same time, virtual consultation and augmented reality functions are becoming more and more popular among consumers. Sellers in the beauty industry can work harder in this regard to improve consumers' online shopping experience.

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