Strategies to Building Your Beauty Ecommerce Empire

Business trends have been changing over recent years. In particular, entrepreneurs have been utilizing eCommerce which gives established beauty companies an edge in the online world to supplement traditional brick-and-mortar stores, but also an exciting opportunity for new beauty players to compete in the market while minimizing costs and effort. 

Read on to know more about strategies to build your beauty eCommerce empire like Asian Beauty Wholesale:

eCommerce and the Beauty Industry: A Perfect Match

eCommerce is a revolutionary way of doing business that allows for better convenience, creativity, and accessibility. With eCommerce, aspiring entrepreneurs can now create their own business even with minimal costs, basic logistics, and oftentimes within the comfort of their own couches and time schedules. All it takes is a working knowledge of website building and effective marketing strategies to successfully navigate and ride the waves of online markets.

One of the most successful industries to adapt to the emerging eCommerce technology is the beauty industry. In fact, the beauty industry is a pioneer in creating trends and strategies that both creates and adapts well to evolving market trends and demographics. It is a very competitive industry that definitely levels the playing field, where both big-time and newbie players are given equal opportunity to be creatively strategic in wooing consumers.

Here are some of the top strategies you can use for building your beauty eCommerce empire:

• Subscription-Based Product Sampling. Beauty companies Birchbox and Ipsy pioneered subscription-based product samples that proved to be effective in boosting brand visibility and gaining customer interest and loyalty. Customers who receive curated product samples delivered to them feels like receiving presents (on a monthly basis) and definitely adds excitement and further interest into their other products. 

• Online-First Brands. Many beauty start-up companies have become wildly successful by employing an internet-only shopping experience. Even though products were only accessible via online purchase and weren’t sold in mainstream stores, it didn’t stop them from gaining huge sales (even sold-outs), thanks to eCommerce technology. 

These brands operate mostly (or entirely) online and invest in various online gimmicks like collaborating with beauty influencers, having a strong social media presence, and invest in making their online stores accessible and beautifully designed. These brands also strategize in creating a fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) that keeps customers engaged and on-the-lookout for the next product launch, sale, or re-stock.

Online-first beauty companies also invest heavily in good shipping and logistics services, since this is the only way their products makes its way to their customers. A bad shipping policy can mean a dissatisfied customer, bad feedback, and lost sales, so these companies have to make sure they have good delivery shipping options, timetables and be able to deliver the products as promised.

• Crowdsourced Reviews and Comments. Gone are the days where sales representatives trying their best to hook-in customers was the marketing norm. Nowadays, sourcing reviews from consumers themselves, for good or for bad, is becoming an established alternative to traditional advertising. Having crowdsourced reviews on your business page is actually a useful tool in boosting your online business because it gives the impression of being an authentic company where customers are heard and can voice out their honest opinions and feedback. A business that relies only on self-generated advertising looks biased and untrustworthy, compared to a company that opens up to customer reviews. This gives consumers more freedom of choice and if they do buy your beauty products, they have done so with full awareness and trust in your brand.

• Money-Back Guarantees. Some online beauty companies take the trustworthiness factor to a notch higher and offer a money-back guarantee to dissatisfied customers. Money-back timetables can vary from thirty to sixty days within the purchase, and for valid reasons. This increases brand credibility and makes customers feel like your business is taking responsibility for your products.

• Augmented Reality and Customization. Customization is becoming a very engaging and profitable trend in the online beauty community. Beauty brands like Sephora have an app called Visual Artist (™) that enables users to virtually ‘try on’ various makeup shades before purchasing a product that they feel suits them best. This technology is called augmented reality and uses wearable and semi-wearable technology that allows users to see what a product would look like on them before actually purchasing it.

Many beauty companies also offer expanded customization such as allowing customers to choose color palette shades and even packaging, which makes them feel like they have control over their purchases and suit the products based on their preferences.

The beauty eCommerce industry is a dynamic arena of evolving trends and gimmicks that makes this industry competitive and engaging. To thrive in this industry, entrepreneurs must be creative enough to implement strategies that fulfill market needs and adapt well to rapidly changing trends.