Combining quantitative consumer research with specialist site performance research has allowed Organic to assess which beauty brands are dominating the digital communications space. Organic surveyed 1000 nationally representative customers to ensure the data reflected who is purchasing makeup, and how best to communicate this audience.

While 66.5% of shoppers identified as female, 33.5% did not. Organic warns that makeup brands must not make assumptions about its key audience as this may isolate a wider consumer base.

In terms of digital purchasing behaviour, 67.8% of respondents said they have bought makeup online in the last month, but only 4.28% said they would purchase without researching first. YouTube and social media were found to be an effective social comms streams in the research process, with 15% researching this way. Retailer websites and search engines were by far the most used research channels, with 20.6% and 19.5% of respondents using these streams respectively.  

These findings are beneficial for communicators within the beauty industry to plan digital strategy. Content needs to focus on specific audiences, but brands need to improve on the diversity of their comms to more accurately represent the demographic of shoppers.

Simon Dale, group account director at Organic says, “The pandemic has raised consumer reliance on and expectations around ecommerce. Makeup – a category that is notoriously difficult to get right online – is no exception and succeeding online has never been more important.”

Superdrug was found to have the most effective site performance according to 60% of respondents. Organic has put together five steps for brands looking to improve its digital performance: understand the market, understand the opportunity, understand the customers, be where the customer is, and create an amazing experience.

Find Organic’s whitepaper on how to achieve a winning website here.