Beauty shoppers eager to spend, but looking for bargains: survey

As masks have come off (for the most part), the beauty industry is seeing a glow-up.

Still fresh: Skin care, in particular, is on a tear, as nine in 10 consumers are expected to spend the same or more on it this year, compared to just six in 10 in 2020, according to an Alvarez & Marsal’s Consumer Retail Group survey of ~1,000 beauty customers.

• Shoppers are also on the hunt for a bargain: The proportion of respondents who tried a new beauty brand because of promotions and/or discounts was 44% last year, as opposed to 25% in 2020.
• But seven in 10 shoppers still said they spent more on beauty products in 2022 than only three in 10 in 2020.

As some trends become mainstays and others fade faster than lipstick (like being online-only), retailers need to focus on flexibility and responding to needs faster, the report notes. Nearly 90% of those surveyed said they had tried a new makeup brand in 2021 and were 2.6x more likely to try new brands because of product innovation.

The big picture: Target is already shedding pandemic-era inventory for more beauty products since that’s where the demand is, and Klover CEO Brian Mandelbaum recently told Retail Brew that beauty is very much a resilient category amid inflationary pressures.—KM