Within the retail industry, digital-first brands have exploded, with many flourishing on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
And their emergence has reverberated the power dynamics within the industry, as legacy brands anchored to large department stores keeping an eye on the rapid nature of some of their new competitors’ rise.
Yet there is still plenty of space for improvement and there are many lessons that can be learned between legacy brands as well as emerging beauty brands. Both business types have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Emerging brands have an active and engaged presence across social media; legacy brands have a physical presence where they can build stronger relationships and brand loyalty and trust.
Emerging brands are agile enough to develop products within shorter development cycles, making it easier to keep on top of latest trends; legacy brands have longer product development cycles, which delays the time it takes to gain trust on new trends and changes such as sustainability and eco-friendliness.
Yet the one common problem among both business types is the loss of ecommerce sales due to abandonment.
Throughout 2020, Statista found that online retailers experienced a cart abandonment rate of 88%. For the beauty and cosmetics industry, the cart abandonment rate was 85%.
So what can be done to reduce the extreme levels of cart abandonment and encourage higher conversions?
Firstly, during 2020 the beauty segment really struggled as demand completely tanked due to the pandemic. Yet with the slow winding down of the pandemic, demand for beauty products is rebounding.
So what are some tactics to suppress abandonment and drive conversions?
Ferment FOMO
A major motivation for many customers is the simple fear of missing out – helping to push those who are still undecided and ambivalent over the conversion edge. As a simple example, alert customers to products that have low stock, helping to force the decision to buy or not.
Targeted discounts
There are key moments during the shopping journey that could turn an abandonment into a conversion. For example, when a visitor displays behaviors that indicate they’re going to leave the site – like a sudden click to a different page, you can make a pop-up appear to offer a discount to ambivalent shoppers.
Move towards subscriptions
Beauty brands find themselves at an advantage because their products have a (relatively) predictable timespan – such as lipstick, foundation, eyeshadow – and so can figure out the average replenishment time.
Then, using this data, brands can get to know when to re-engage with customers and perhaps provide discounts through email campaigns. Or even go further and offer subscription services for customers who tend to make similar consistent purchases.
Smart targeting
A big part of online shopping – which isn’t replicated in the physical store – is putting a product in the cart and then go and abandon it when leaving the site.
In these circumstances, when the shopper returns, prompt them with a message reminding them of their previous cart-full of items and encourage them to continue to checkout.
Send an email
In those instances where shoppers completely abandon their cart, beauty brands can prompt an automated email to beg (ok, let’s say encourage) these shoppers to return and follow through with their orders.
PS: ArganoStudios is one of the world’s leading digital product & experience agencies. Contact us to see how we can work together.
