On average, an adult spends around 95 minutes per day on social media sites. This much interaction with social media on daily basis can have a drastic effect on the purchasing patterns of the users. That’s the reason why almost every business has an online presence. All of them are in a sort of competition to quickly get Twitter followers, Instagram followers, or Facebook page likes as they help with brand reach, exposure, and engagement.
When talking about business, social media is reshaping the beauty industry significantly. The way consumers make a purchase or the way beauty brands advertise themselves and communicate with their customers, all processes have been made more convenient and effective with the use of social media platforms.
So here we want to explore in detail about how social media is influencing the beauty industry.
Influence of Social Media on the Beauty Industry
1. Effective Communication Channels with Consumers
There was a huge communication gap between customers and brands before the age of social media. It can be actually said that the relationship was more like a transactional one. Beauty brands would just put on sales or offers and lure people into buying them. In case of a customer query, customers most probably would have to visit their local outlet and wait for days.
However, the way social media has changed this process is mind-blowing. It helps them connect on a more personal level with their customers, creating loyal customers and generating word-of-mouth. Moreover, customers who are having any sort of issue with a product or even service can easily contact them via DMs or comments. The social media team is quick enough to respond back quickly and take care of the matter.
2. The Power of Influencers
Rather than collaborating with celebrities and sponsoring, social media allows beauty brands to expand their customer base in a more affordable and efficient manner.
This is done by partnering up with influencers. Influencers mostly charge on the basis of the number of followers they have. Influencers with 5 million followers or more (mega influencers) or 100K- 5 million followers (macro-influencers) charge way more than other influencers with comparatively fewer followers.
According to a research ShilpaAhuja.com did this year, Indian Instagram influencers with 140-400k followers charge between ₹5,000 to ₹80,000 per post, and make an average of ₹37,500 per post.
Here, again, brands collaborate with micro-influencers who have around 10k to 50k followers only. Why? They charge way less than bigger accounts and their engagement rate is quite higher.
Brands are paying influencers, so their followers can take action, which can ultimately help with business growth. As micro-influencers have a relatively smaller, tight-knit community, their followers are more willing to check out a brand that they have suggested.
Generally, people trust influencers because they have developed their reputation and trust in the niche over the years. They tend to blindly trust the influencers rather than be led by traditional ads. Here, it’s obviously imperative that beauty brands target the right kind of influencer. If you collaborate with an influencer in the food niche rather than the beauty niche, you can’t expect great results.
3. Hassle-Free Shopping
Nothing turns off a potential buyer more than a complicated or time-consuming buying process. Therefore, social media has also taken this factor into account and transformed the shopping process. Rather than visiting websites and looking for “that” product that you saw on the Instagram story of your favorite beauty company, social media sites have introduced a hassle-free experience.
Facebook marketplace and Instagram shop feature are amazing examples. Facebook marketplace allows consumers to purchase right in the app without having to be redirected to another page. Whereas, the Instagram shop feature allows customers to view items of the beauty brand right on their feed along with prices and even make a purchase quickly.
Some small beauty brands even take orders on Instagram by displaying pictures or videos of their products on the feed or story and asking their followers to place an order either by DMing them or sending a message on WhatsApp.
4. Worldwide Reach and Sales
Another positive effect of social media on the beauty industry is worth appreciating. All the beauty businesses are no more confined to their countries only. Instead, social media has broken the geographical barrier and allowed sales and exposure of their brand all over the world.
More than half of the entire world’s population actively uses social media platforms and they are not limited to a certain region. Using the right social media marketing strategies, a beauty business can go viral across the globe. Although many brands offer worldwide shipping, the import duties and overall shipping costs can come with a hefty price tag.
Therefore, many individuals have opened their own businesses on sites like Instagram where they purchase original beauty products abroad and sell them in their own countries at reasonable prices. This gives beauty brands exposure to almost the entire globe.
5. Consideration of Consumers’ Concerns
While there may be a lot of beauty trends going on that most businesses have to take into account like nude lipsticks and brow gels to increase their sales revenue, social media has allowed this generation to be more concerned and educated about the environment issues.
That’s why you may have noticed that several beauty brands have started producing eco-friendly or organic products, which are good for your skin and the planet as well.
Some people are willing to pay a bit extra too if a product is environmentally-friendly. Otherwise, they may not even invest a penny in a beauty product that causes harm to the environment. That’s why many beauty brands have to consider this factor and manufacture products accordingly to stay “relevant” in the industry.
6. Cost-Effective Marketing Tools
The traditional advertising methods such as magazines and television were not only costly but were not as effective as the social media marketing now.
Some of the social media marketing methods don’t even require beauty brands to pay anything at all. For instance, user-generated content. Brands can simply ask their customers to create a look by using their products and tag them so they can share them on their page and encourage other social media users to invest in the same products as well.
Most of the paid ads such as Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram ads are also still economical as compared to the conventional means of advertisement. They allow you to spend according to your budget while targeting relevant audiences according to different demographics like age, interests, and location.
Read next:
– Future of Beauty Industry: Forecasting the Post-Pandemic World
– Face of Fashion Magazines in the Digital Era
Anika Sachdev is a freelance writer, who writes about fashion and lifestyle. She is currently pursuing her diploma in Fashion Design from iNIFD. She enjoys styling, making fashion illustrations and is a big fan of the work of Coco Chanel. Based in Mumbai, she likes to draw and listen to Bollywood music in her free time. For any questions, feedback or concerns, please email [email protected].