Thumbs up from the few consumers to have bought at-home beauty devices, research shows

Although few consumers have invested in at-home beauty devices, those that have bought them are overwhelmingly pleased with the outcome, research from Kline Group shows.

The market research company conducted a study that asked the opinions of women in China, US, UK, Japan. France and Germany, showing that nearly 70% of respondents who owned beauty devices reported that they were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’.

So far beauty devices have been fast to catch on in Asia, where they are proving to be increasingly popular in countries such as Korea and China, but in Japan, Europe and North America, adoption of the technology has been slower.

In China a high penetration rate has already made the market the number one target for beauty device makers, with Global brands such as L’Oréal’s Clarisonic and Nu Skin’s Galvanic Spa continuing to expand their presence in the market, and in the Asia Pacific region in general.

Asian players are expected to grow in the future

The Kline research also underlines that a few Asian players are expected to come to the fore in the future, with names such as Talika and SKG forecast to perform positively up to 2018, with the report also underlining that the market for beauty devices grew by 20% in 2013.

However, underlining the problem of lower take up, the research showed that awareness about beauty devices generally remains ‘low’, with most of the survey respondents reporting that they ‘didn’t know about them’.

The findings from the survey have been published in a report by Kline called ‘Beauty Devices: Global Market Brief’, which sheds light on this small but fast developing category.

High Satisfaction rates need to be communicated

“Our research shows that women who use skin care devices have a high level of satisfaction. However, the penetration rates of these high-tech gadgets are low across most regions due to lack of awareness about them, indicating significant opportunity for marketers to attract new consumers,” notes Karen Doskow, Director of Consumer Products at Kline.

The survey found that penetration rates indexed highest in the China market, where well above the global average at 60%. Conversely, the study found that adoption rates of cleansing devices were particularly low in both the Japanese and UK markets.

Highlighting the problem of lack of awareness of beauty devices, is a simply a matter of highlighting just how effective the technology can be by underlining consumer satisfaction.

“Building greater awareness of device benefits and growing consumer confidence in the efficacy and value of devices is essential for market growth,” suggests Doskow. “Leveraging the satisfied customers and getting them to talk about devices within their social circles could be a key factor for success,” she continues.