IN the heat of the seemingly endless pandemic, the beauty product and service industry has been one of the most affected with beauty product outlets having closed down by approximately 30%.
As a result, beauty brands are shifting their business models online to cater to the increasing demands of the e-commerce market and many believe that this new normal will endure post-COVID-19.
In fact, Nasdaq predicts that 95% of all purchases will be made online by 2040. Consumers are now active online purchasers and moving online has allowed for brands to survive amidst the uncertainty.
On top of that, online purchasing habits have also resulted in the ever-increasing use of data analytics by e-commerce platforms so that brands are able to better understand and provide consumers with their true needs.
Through data analytics, brands are able to make necessary adjustments to enhance the overall user experience. Analysing data allows e-commerce beauty platforms to accurately identify the most sought-after products and brands within their catalogue, thus making it more visible and easily accessible for users.
Through these analytics, brands are also able to suggest complementary products at check-out based on user browsing history and cart activity.
Threebs, for example, is an intuitive e-commerce beauty platform that leverages consumer insights obtained through their constant multi-variant testing process, hence allowing the platform to track user preferences.
This enables them to accurately identify the most popular brands within their catalogue and dynamically make it accessible. The platform also incorporates machine learning, allowing it to enhance user conversion rate, ultimately resulting in higher sales.
In-depth studies
With access to analysis technology and site trackers, brands are also able to conduct extensive research into the performance of newly-listed products.
This enables business owners to not only gauge how well each new product is received by their target audience but also to forecast its continued performance over a given time period. For instance, Threebs conducts in-depth studies on each of their newly-introduced products after the first week of launch to understand the needs and wants of Malaysian consumers.
Moreover, e-commerce platforms that implement and leverage data analytics can work with smaller beauty brands by providing them with insights into product favourability, thus allowing these businesses to enhance their strategies and execute better marketing campaigns.
Working together with e-commerce platforms would allow these brands to grow at a faster rate and further comprehend market trends that are easily accessed by and derived from the former.
As e-commerce beauty platforms have steady access to consumer preferences, they are also able to make use of these data to constantly optimise their platforms, resulting in the increase of overall customer satisfaction.
Some of the key metrics used to measure this is having a high number of returning customers and advocacy rate. On top of this, maintaining great customer service throughout is also important to ensure a well-rounded user experience.
This is exemplified through Threebs which has managed to obtain a higher-than-industry-average of over 60% returning customers month-on-month.
In light of the ongoing pandemic placing various limitations on businesses across industries, it is important to leverage as many useful tools and resources as possible to ensure survival and continuous business success.
It is also important for consumers to feel heard by the brands that serve them and have their preferences validated. With an accurate analysis of data, brands will be able to do just that while simultaneously making the process of understanding consumer behaviour as smooth as possible. – Sept 26, 2021
Eyo Zhen Yi is the CEO of Threebs, a beauty e-commerce site built on the aim to empower the lifestyle, health & beauty community to understand products in a new way.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
