Professional beauty industry rides the online trend rise
THE Professional Beauty World virtual event that ran earlier this month is rightly so, riding the rising online trend with more than 100 countries taking part, logging in, asking questions and supporting six content programme experts over two days.
The event, spearheaded by the Professional Beauty Group insured that the world sat up and took notice that the online way is the way to go in this brave new, post-pandemic world.
“It is already here,” said Sensei wellness brand senior vice-president Andrew Gibson during the depths of global lockdown last April. “It will just become more prevalent.”
Already this year in spite of the global lockdown event or perhaps because of the pandemic, the rise in interfacing with digital platforms along with beauty e-commerce and digitally native brands across all consumer categories has been meteoric, and the trend is due to continue and evolve as beauty brands jump more and more to the online bandwagon. Social media platforms are investing in partnerships with beauty and wellness brands to better monetise their platforms with in-app checkout capabilities for shoppable posts while newer developing features include AR or augmented reality shopping with new product drop features and virtual try-ons.
Further developing trends have already rolled out fully automated convenience stores with tech-enabled ‘makeup booths’ placed in high foot traffic public locations such as shopping centres and transport hubs. The trend extends to vending machines with contactless touchscreen capabilities.
“We are making each person’s Pinterest experience more relevant to them through new technology and ways to control the beauty results they see,” said Annie Ta, Pinterest product manager. “With these updates Pinterest is becoming a more inclusive place to discover and shop for beauty ideas.”
Looking ahead, the social media platform compiled search items with the highest number of views and results indicate that consumers want personalised advice while embracing their natural beauty with bold colour experimentation. Trending upward has been freckles, the soft glam aesthetic look, coloured eyeliner and bold monochrome lips while the men are looking for beauty routines to enhance their grooming and skincare regiments with natural products and creative makeup looks.
