Has the coronavirus pandemic impacted people's beauty buying habits?
Has coronavirus lockdown changed clients’ beauty buying habits? According to new research, consumers are now more interested in factors such as brand loyalty and family recommendations when purchasing products during the pandemic, while pricing has become less of a concern.
Data by The Skin Health Alliance discovered subtle shifts in consumer behaviour when it comes to their health and beauty needs during coronavirus lockdown in April 2020. For example, brand loyalty experienced the greatest change at an increase of 12% compared to figures from 2019, while positive reviews from family and friends also mattered to consumers more – rising from 37% in 2019 to 44% in 2020.
Meanwhile, even though price remained the top factor, its influence dropped by 2% in April 2020 to 88% (it was 90% in 2019), the data found. Other factors such as environmental friendliness and celebrity endorsement experienced slight reductions too, while the impact of allergies and the media’s influence were shown to remain the same.
2020 figures – consumers top eight personal preferences when choosing health and beauty products:
2019 figures – consumers top eight personal preferences when choosing health and beauty products:
Hand cleanliness has also become a beauty hot topic for 2020, with “more people seeking out products they believe work, in turn making them feel more secure, safer,” said Skin Health Alliance spokesman James Stalley. “The narrative around hand cleanliness has become one of scientific fact rather than a marketing or media driven message.”
More about the survey
In 2019, The Skin Health Alliance commissioned design agency Boyd & Coyne to complete consumer research on personal preferences when choosing health and beauty products, asking what influences the public the most when buying.
503 consumers between the ages of 18 and 79 were asked to take a survey in both late 2019 and April 2020, by which time the country had entered the Government-commissioned lockdown due to Covid-19, hence, the data coming to reflect changes happening in these unprecedented times.
These figures support recent data which revealed that UK online beauty sales have soared 53% during Covid-19.