The covid-19 pandemic hit all areas of commerce and industry hard. The retail sector has been forced to resort to limited or no opening in some cases, and the high street has suffered badly. Services in the health and beauty industry have also been badly affected, with salons having to close for the duration of lockdowns and where restrictions on movement are imposed.
It’s been a difficult year for many of us, yet there are certain areas that have endured a boom. Online retail has been one of these, with consumers stuck in their homes turning to the internet for their necessary – and luxury – purchases. In the following article we look at how the pandemic has affected the health and beauty industry, the changes it has introduced, and what the future holds for the industry as a whole.
Covid-19 and the Beauty Industry
The health and beauty industry is divided into two main sectors: the salons that provide one to one treatment and the retailers selling a wide variety of beauty products from lipstick and make up to skin care and more. All have suffered a downturn during the last year, and it’s been one that has been inescapable.
However, what has been noticed is that consumers are buying fewer of the traditional purchases – mascara, lipstick, other make up products – and this is something that should have been expected.
Established online retailers such as Myuz Artistry Makeup, Skin & Beauty Shop noticed that with most people working from home and clubs, pubs, restaurants and the entire hospitality sector shut down, their usual make up sales dropped away fast.
Women no longer needed to get made up to go to work or go out on the town; they were simply not going out. With people also avoiding the shops and doing their grocery and utility shopping online there has been a vastly reduced requirement for beauty products.
However, another side of the coin is that online make up retailers have gained a lot of fresh custom from people who would not previously have shopped online. This has helped level out the losses they expected. There is one other area in which a major boom in online purchasing has been experienced, and this is the skin care sector.
The Skincare Boom
The enormous change in daily habits has been something of a problem for many people. Anyone who went to a gym, enjoyed a walk or a bike ride or indulged in any one of many outdoor pursuits found they were unable to get the exercise they needed.
This has led to an increase in sales of home gym equipment, which is just one area of online retail that has benefited from the change in shopping habits.
It’s notable that there has been a massive surge towards skincare products among the online beauty retailers, with men as well as women now joining the market. The covid-19 scare put a lot of weight on the importance of hygiene, with hand sanitiser and other products becoming household items.
Perhaps people found that these products were having an adverse effect on their skin – some are alcohol-based and will dry the skin – as sales of moisturises and exfoliants, among many other skincare items, have been sky high at retail stores.
Being indoors all the time is not great for our skin, which needs sunlight and the vitamins it brings for ideal health, and with great changes in daily habits come many different alterations in the way the body provides its nutrients. Hydration of the skin has become an issue, and this is the main reason why online retailers are seeing a boom in this market.
Of course, those customers who have moved from high street to online shopping during the pandemic have also helped the figures, but will they remain committed to online shopping when the pandemic is finally under control and restrictions are lifted? Let’s finishing by considering what the future holds post-covid-19.
What the Future Holds
There are signs across the world that governments are on the way to getting the pandemic under control. Vaccines are showing success and will begin to reduce the spread of the virus in time. The next few months will reveal the full effect of covid-19 on retail both in the high street and online, as businesses begin to open up and people return to close to their normal daily lives.
There are some changes that we believe will remain after the pandemic has moved on, including remote working which has proven potential in cost and energy saving.
We also expect the online retail sector – including the health and beauty retailers – to continue their recent success as consumers have experienced the simplicity and convenience in buying these goods from the comfort of their homes.
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