The one thing Click Frenzy showed us is the demand for online retailing.”
adorebeauty founder Kate Morris’ words articulate a resounding truth in the wake of last week’s Click Frenzy event. And the stats echo her words: Click Frenzy recorded 2.5 million visits to its site last week, 1.5 million of those unique. That means nearly 10 per cent of Australians at least tried to get involved in the online sale that stops the nation”. It’s a reflection of growing consumer demand to be able to find their favourite products online. And the beauty industry is paying attention, with more and more companies investing in their e-commerce options.
How has it evolved?
Having been in the online beauty game for 12 years now, Morris is in a unique position to offer an opinion on how e-commerce has changed in the last decade. When we started [adorebeauty], pretty much everybody said no to us,” she admits. Back then, I think everybody was frightened of the internet and were kind of hoping it would die down. Now most brands realise the internet is here to stay and people are going to need to interact with their brand online in some way.”
No longer an outlier, the online consumer could be anyone from a number of demographics, all wanting in on the retail action but perhaps for different reasons. Tristan Fahey, founder of , identifies two types of online shopper: Some consumers are merely looking for the latest discount, no matter what the brand, and will be fickle in their choices,” she explains. Others are looking for a brand they connect with – this is who we try to target.”
And despite the consumer’s intentions, there’s no doubt they’re becoming more discerning about the way they shop online. Our online consumer has definitely become more confident with buying online over the past few years,” confirms Shelley Barrett, CEO of . She’s savvy on how to get the best return for her money.” Barrett ModelCo’s growing average cart value as an example of this - it shows their customers aren’t just buying one or two products, but multiple items to save on shipping costs.
Katherine Mamontoff, corporate e-commerce manager for , believes consumers are also feeling safer when it comes to online shopping. I think consumers are becoming much more open to buying online as there’s not as much fear around credit card fraud. People are becoming more trusting of the sites.” Mamontoff also credits companies for making the experience of online shipping easier by offering free shipping and free returns, thereby taking away barriers that have stopped people from buying online in the past.
This increasing consumer confidence is showing up in the numbers, too. Priceline launched the e-commerce component to its website this October and has seen a 65.9 per cent increase in visits to compared to the same month last year. And prestige brands are also benefitting from the confidence boost, with Mamontoff revealing the Estée Lauder portfolio of brands has seen a 45 per cent growth on last year.
The department stores
Australian department stores are now responding to consumer demand by becoming omni-channel retailers. Our customers are increasingly demanding choice in how they shop and interact with us – in store, online and with mobile devices,” says Myer’s general manager of cosmetics Liz Webster. We are adapting in this fast-changing environment, building an effecting online presence and embracing social media and digital in our everyday marketing and retail activity.”
David Jones is also stepping up to the plate, having launched its new e-commerce site earlier this month. With the introduction of e-commerce, we’re allowing customers to choose how they interact with David Jones,” a spokesperson told beautydirectory.
The brands investing
It’s not just department stores and e-tailers investing in the online consumer, with many brands introducing or revamping their e-commerce stores to meet higher expectations. The Purist Company launched its new and improved website in October this year, now offering and products online. The brand’s communications and digital marketing manager Caroline Hoegh Groth says they wanted to offer more than just an online store. Our key objectives for setting up a new website with an integrated e-commerce store function was to create an online information source about natural effective beauty, how it works, ingredients and the possibility for our consumers to directly ask questions they want answered,” Hoegh Groth says.
Although it’s been selling products via its site for seven years now, ModelCo is relaunching its site in March, giving it a new focus on content and commerce. Currently, 60 per cent of the brand’s revenue is driven via our ModelCo’s website, but the brand is aiming to treble its annual sales in coming years. Our new website will feature more than just beauty, with a number of industry experts that will be contributing features and guest editing content for us,” says Barrett.
Planet Eve Organics launched its online store at the end of 2009 before the full range was launched in retail outlets. The brand’s founder and managing director Lorelle Yee says the intention was to help educate customers who wanted more information about natural and organic products in addition to providing online convenience for product purchases.”
New Zealand-based brand AWA Creations also retails via its website, citing that it’s a more economical way of retailing with less overheads and also the ability to reach a wider market. Our objective for the consumer is the ease and time efficiency of purchasing, as well as the economical advantage.”
Mobile sites
A recent study by Nielsen and the Australian Centre for Retail Studies has shown that 47 per cent of Australians are using their smartphones to search and discover products and services. That’s a huge percentage of customers that if you’re not providing a good experience on the mobile device that you’re potentially losing out on,” says Mamontoff. For this reason, Estée Lauder has worked to develop mobile sites for five of its brands – , , , and .
Webster echoes Mamontoff’s sentiment, promising that Myer will continue to enhance and evolve the platform. We have recently launched a new e-commerce platform to positive customer response,” Webster says.
The bricks & mortar retailers
With all this positive sentiment surrounding consumers’ online shopping habits, what’s stopping some brands from heading online? Well, besides the ever-challenging problem of competing with overseas sites and controlling the grey market, some brands feel their product simply doesn’t belong in the online retail environment. Guinot is one such brand. The brand’s Australian distributor Jonathan Pritchard explains how, in order to build the successful brand that Guinot is today, the brand’s president has implemented a prescriptive approach from day one. Unlike other brands that educate consumers through advertising and promotional material, Guinot’s approach really allows education and correct solutions by using the expert, which is the skincare doctor or beauty therapist. And it’s fundamental to Guinot’s effectiveness.”
It’s a sentiment general manager Olivier Duvillard shared earlier this year in an . We really have looked very hard on how to best represent our products and how to sell them in the best way,” Duvillard explained at the time. Being a professional brand that works hand in hand with professional treatments, Ultraceuticals recently made the decision to pull out of online retailing altogether. Manufacturing very high-strength products that need professional recommendations, we feel they cannot live online properly. So we pulled out of online to re-focus our energy on bricks and mortar stores, so we could support them and sell our products in the best way possible.”
Pritchard argues that people’s skin changes seasonally, due to personal cycles and due to the environment, so it is remiss of people to have a favourite product and keep buying it repeatedly without the advice of a skincare expert.
Where we stand as a global company, remaining salon only is very close to our hearts and brand position,” Pritchard concludes. Our products really do circle around the concept of the beauty treatment, and that’s the difference between us and what’s online.”