DIGITAL: THE NEW NORMAL IN THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY

Like many other industries, Beauty has been hit hard by the 2020 Covid-19 health crisis: according to the McKinsey report, How Covid – 19 is changing the world of beauty [1], before the pandemic, 85% of beauty product purchases were made in store.

The sudden and unexpected disruption due to the pandemic initially brought to a drop in sales across Europe: according to NDP Group, the prestige beauty market posted a 16% drop in Germany [2], a 20% drop in France [3] and a 24% decline in the United Kingdom [4].

Despite the 2020 numbers, thanks to its flexibility and innovation capabilities, the Cosmetics Industry proved its resilience amid the Coronavirus health crisis and it is now seeing important signs of recovery: in Italy only, Cosmetica Italia [5] predicts +6.1% growth in 2021, with a 5% increase in exports.

Cosmetics: a resilient industry

Companies operating in the beauty business demonstrated strong adaptability skills in 2020.

In just a few weeks, the sector saw radical changes in terms of consumer habits (sales of perfumes were down 13% in the first quarter, while haircare was one of the best-performing categories across all channels and geography [6]) and even more dramatic changes with regards to sales and distribution channels.

Who managed to do well during the pandemic? What was the lesson to learn from the health crisis for many companies also in this industry? Once again, “digital” is the magic word.

Digital: a growth driver for the cosmetic sector

Except for pharmacies and large-scale distribution, retail shops that were forced to shut down for several weeks due to mandated stay-at-home orders, were strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sites specialising in cosmetics, on the contrary, have seen their sale rise by 43% between February 2020 and February 2021 [7].

No doubt beauty businesses already operating online at the time of the Covid-19 outbreak experienced less disruption.

With the pandemic, the online channel has become a sort of life jacket: clearly, not only it is no longer optional, but a company’s e-presence and online offer must now be seamless. User experience, at the core of e-commerce, needs to focus on and ensure three crucial elements: security, ease of use and immediacy.

These three elements are key to brands’ e-reputation and trustworthiness, particularly at e-shops’ check-out: the most delicate phase where orders are confirmed through payment.

Online Payments: a critical differentiator

Without customers’ trust towards the payment tools made available on a website to finalise their orders, no e-purchase would be possible.

Avon, Starline Italia, Ditano, Bottini Profumi, BeOnMe, Oro Di Spello are some examples of beauty companies to have adopted MyBank payments, the immediate wire transfer solution with real-time confirmation that allows users to easily and safely pay directly from their banks’ online banking service.

Its payments are particularly simple and fast thanks to a pre-filled payment form that customers immediately find available on their internet banking for a frictionless transaction with amount limit and no need for new registrations, passwords or accounts.

MyBank allows businesses to offer an alternative payment method and collect payments with no third-party customer data sharing, in full compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) as well as fully in line with PSD2 (Payment Services) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) norms.

As the payment phase on e-commerce websites is the most critical step of the purchasing journey, payment methods require a particularly careful selection to make sure customer needs are met, and, as a consequence, increase retention.

Conclusions

After the difficult 2020 challenges, the resilient cosmetic industry is ready to restart with digital as its top priority and crucial growth driver.

A customer-friendly digital presence and strong e-commerce capabilities, that proved to be key during the pandemic, are a must.

Clearly, for online sales, security and immediacy are the very crucial elements especially when it comes to payments.

The adoption of a payment solution such as MyBank not only significantly improves user experience and customer trust with its smart wire transfer, but also offer businesses an efficient tool to streamline their administrative processes while cutting down costs and boosting their overall competitivity.  

 

 

[1]https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Consumer%20Packaged%20Goods/Our%20Insights/How%20COVID%2019%20is%20changing%20the%20world%20of%20beauty/How-COVID-19-is-changing-the-world-of-beauty-vF.pdf

[2] https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/2021/germany-prestige-beauty-industry-shows-the-smallest-decline-among-five-biggest-beauty-markets-in-europe–reports-the-npd-group/

[3] https://www.npd.com/news/press-releases/2021/the-changing-the-face-of-prestige-beauty

[4] https://www.premiumbeautynews.com/en/prestige-beauty-sales-in-the-uk,17960

[5] https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/rapporto-beauty-cosmetica-e-pronta-ripartire-la-crisi-AESjHWG?refresh_ce=1

[6] https://www.thembsgroup.co.uk/internal/look-but-dont-touch-how-covid-19-has-shaken-up-the-beauty-sector/

[7] https://cosmeticobs.com/en/articles/cosmetics-trends-25/covid-19-good-results-for-online-sales-5848

24 Jun 2021

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