Insights into the Average Time Taken to Decide to Purchase a New Skincare Product

The American Time Use Survey report of 2018 noted that Americans spent, on average, 0.33 hours (about 20 minutes) everyday shopping for consumer goods and services. In the skincare beauty categories, exploration of new products, connected beauty systems, and acquisition of smaller brands are examples of notable trends in the mass market, prestige, and ultra-prestige categories, respectively. Regarding market growth, more prominent are facing growing competition from smaller brands focusing on a single product line.

1. Insights into the Average Time Taken to Decide to Purchase a New Skincare Product

Average Time for Deciding to Buy Beauty Products

• According to the American Time Use Survey report of 2018, Americans spent approximately 33 hours (bout 20 minutes) everyday purchasing consumer goods and services, with men spending 0.25 hours and women 0.41 hours.
• Marketing Dive also reported that during the beauty purchase journey, consumers spend, on average, 80% of their time researching about the beauty products they intend to buy. Thus, if consumers are spending 80% of their time in the pre-search phase, then it is assumed that the remaining 20% of the time is spent on the actual shopping activity.
• Going by the assumption, then 80% of 20 minutes = the time spent in the pre-search phase, while 20% of 33 hours (20 minutes) = the time spent on the actual shopping activity; therefore, according to these assumptions and calculations, on a given day, beauty consumers spend, on average, 16 minutes to decide to purchase or be convinced to buy a new skincare product, and 4 minutes on the actual purchase activity.
• The time spent to make an actual purchase falls within the time range consumers spend on the websites of the top five beauty brands, i.e., as of May 11, 2019, consumers spent, on average, 75 minutes on Sephora, 3.5 minutes on Bath & Body Works, 4.7 minutes on Hot Pepper Beauty, 4.9 minutes on Ulta Beauty, and 4.72 minutes on Cosme.

Average Time Spent Consuming Beauty Products

• According to research published by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, women spend, on average, 8 hours per week consuming general YouTube videos, of which 3.9 hours per week (about 40%) is spent on cosmetics videos on YouTube.
• In this regard, women spend about 40% of their average YouTube time viewing beauty-related content. Moreover, as women stay longer on YouTube, they consume more beauty content. The research also concluded that consuming beauty content on YouTube had a positive correlation with purchase intentions.
• Other research found out that women using YouTube AR Beauty Try-On spend over 80 seconds testing different virtual lipstick shades.
• As of February 2020, an estimated 68% of U.S. women were using YouTube, and the average YouTube session lasted 40 minutes. Considering women spend approximately 40% of their time on beauty-related content, then, on average, they spend about 16 minutes, i.e., (40% of 40 minutes) every day consuming beauty-related content on YouTube.

1. Current Trends in the Mass Market, Prestige, and Ultra-Prestige Skincare Categories

New Product Exploration

• Unlike their older counterparts, younger consumers are on a journey of exploration in the mass market skincare category.
• Younger shoppers are rejecting the larger brands their parents favored, and instead are exploring newer, locally manufactured, artisanal, and organic skincare products.
• These younger consumers are experimenting with new products, which must also be Instagrammable.
• The trend stems from a generational shift, whereby young consumers are exposed to numerous skincare products and are willing to try them out.

Connected Beauty Systems

• The prestige (approximately $80) skincare product category has also recently exploded with many connected beauty systems and devices. Most of these beauty devices are priced from $50 to just under $300.
• The popularity of these devices within the prestige category is influenced by pricing, the growing treatment of skin problems, awareness regarding how hormonal imbalances affect the skin, and the exhibition of skincare products.
• Several brands have developed such systems; for example, L’Oreal created a wearable sensor that can track the sun damage and skin pH levels.
• Shiseido is another brand that is leaning into the trend of connected beauty systems. The company has an IoT (Internet of Things) system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to detect skin conditions and provide a personalized formula.

Acquisition of Smaller Brands

• The top-end brands in the ultra-prestige category are acquiring smaller beauty brands and spurring more creativity.
• The big brands are being threatened by the increasing consumer demand for products from young and independent brands.
• In 2018, L’Oreal acquired Pulp Riot Hair to leverage its creative social media strategies, artistry content, and stylist powered educational resources, which would inspire the whole division of L’Oréal’s Professional Products.
• Equally, in January 2019, L’Occitane acquired Sunday Riley and Elemis, which have established partnerships with British Airways and United Airlines, respectively, to provide premium passengers with beauty kits.

1. Insights Comparing Demand Growth in the Skincare Categories

Mass Beauty Brands Growth

• Research published by Euromonitor indicates that in 2018, the mass beauty and personal care segment witnessed its most substantial value growth in over ten years. The increasing demand for mass skincare products that are more natural and reasonably priced drove growth in this category.
• From 2015 to 2018, the prestige category exhibited more growth compared to the mass beauty segment; however, in 2018, the mass beauty sector took a rather unprecedented shift in performance, resulting in increased demand globally, except in Eastern Europe.
• According to Cosmetics Design, the North American mass beauty and personal care market doubled in 2018, witnessing a 3% increase, while Western Europe grew at 2%. Experts assert that 2018 was the first time since 2012 that both the mass and prestige categories expanded at almost the same rate.
• Ethical consumerism within the skincare beauty market has opened up opportunities for mass brands. About 62% of consumers are purchasing vegan beauty products. In this regard, mass brands have improved on their performance and are offering quality products that are accessible via ethical and health claims.
• In the ultra-prestige category, the makeup subsegment declined by 6.7%, according to data published by The NPD Group (a provider of industry analysis and advisory services), as many consumers are shopping for ethics and values versus brand heritage or prestige.

Market Sales & Share

• Larissa Jensen, an analyst of the beauty industry working at the NPD Group, notes that the skincare market is becoming more fragmented and crowded. In the skincare category, brands outside the top 20 in the prestige channel hold the most significant share of market sales.
• In the past two years, approximately 100 new brands have debuted in department and specialty stores and are focusing more on a single beauty category. Meanwhile, in the skincare category, these newer entrants are slowly accumulating more market share from larger legacy brands with assorted product categories.
• These smaller brands are positioning themselves as brands providing solutions for the various skin conditions of customers, and are sharing in-depth and trusted reviews on all products because about 93% of consumers read reviews before purchasing beauty products.
• In the UK, the top five prestige skincare brands decreased by over 5% between 2016 and 2019 because of increasing competition from smaller brands, according to The NPD Group’s data. Experts expect newer brands to continue disrupting the industry as consumers continue experimenting with new products and solutions.
• Despite the U.S. beauty market aiming to reach sales of $93.1 billion in 2020, marking a growth increase of 2%, the major retailers in the region, including Coty, L’Oréal, and Ulta
  • missed earnings targets due to a decrease in the purchase of color cosmetics and the rise of skin-first beauty.

Research Methodology

To uncover insights into the skincare consumer behavior, demand growth, along with trends across the skincare categories, your research team explored industry, business, & market research reports, government data, beauty articles & blogs, social media analysis tools, along with expert interviews and opinions. On that note, we examined compilations of information published by reputable and trustworthy sources, such as Euromonitor, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CB Insights, Marketing Dive, SimilarWeb, Cosmetics Design, Forbes, NPD.com, Fashionista, TechCrunch, among others. These resources contained information focusing on the entire beauty and personal care industry, along with comprehensive sub-sections focusing explicitly on the skincare subsegment. We leveraged the findings in these reports with a specific focus on the demand growth of the skincare categories, trends exhibiting differences in these categories, and the average time consumers take to decide to buy skincare products.