E-commerce for cosmetic and beauty products has never been better.
Recent research by IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index showed that in July 2009 the Health and Beauty sector recorded a 21% year on year growth.
With consistent and projected growth anticipated, now is the key time to optimise your website, align your marketing strategy and ensure you can ride this surge.
Unlike other sectors that are affected by seasonality, cosmetic beauty by and large is year round. Exceptions such as fake tan may have slight seasonal trends. Equally, high ticket products may experience growth nearing Christmas as customers add these to their wishlists.
Cosmetic beauty – why so successful?
Cosmetic beauty product sales tend to succeed because:-
- Online is generally so much easier, it avoids the hustle and bustle of high street crowds.
- e-commerce cosmetic beauty sites aggregate many brands into one site and provide a ‘one-stop’ solution.
- Prices can be competitive by removing the ‘brick and mortar’ costs.
- Delivery costs are limited.
- Brand loyalty is high.
How to succeed in cosmetic beauty products
Taking many of the key success factors above it is easy to start building strategies to ensure your online success.
- Take the hustle and bustle away and create a welcoming website that oozes luxury and pampering.
- Be human. Offer plenty of ways for customers to contact you, ideally by phone.
- Make sites easy to navigate and group products together ensuring that you build functionality such as “Customers who bought [this] also like [that]”. Instil the urge for people to try other products, ideally by brand.
- Transfer the cost savings to your customers, let them know you are passing on discounts but steer away from words such as cheap or bargain as beauty products should make your customers feel like gods and goddesses.
- Make sure delivery costs and terms are clearly placed on your website.
- Try varying the positioning of key aspects such delivery terms, offers and contact options. Our M-VAP product can help convert visitors into customers by testing subtle site design changes.
- Tempt customers further… offer discounts on delivery over a certain amount. Entice them to make that further purchase to offset delivery.
- If you sell high ticket products let customers build wishlists so that they can plan and budget ahead.
Build loyalty
As mentioned above, cosmetic beauty consumers tend to be very brand loyal. Equally your e-commerce site should have loyal followers if you can work on the key points above.
Make sure you:
- Write blog articles and rich content that inform customers on products.
- Build a newsletters or opt-in email marketing strategy. WebMarketing Group can help you with this.
- Allow customer feedback, reviews and comments. This works to build loyalty to both your site and products, comments by like minded people add reputation and are very much liked.
- Try modern, more subtle marketing such as press releases and social media engagement. Research where your brands are being spoken about engage with this audience.
- Make sure all your products have a wealth of information. This not only adds relevant content that works well for SEO but also engages visitors. Reports show that internet users research products many times before making a purchase. In addition to being competitive, ensure you have all the answers people need.
Overwhelmed?
The WebMarketing Group do all of the above, not just do but excel. We are experts at getting your website the visibility and success it merits.
Contact us now to talk about your website requirements on 0845 555 5040.
Tagged with :