Personal care replenishment programs bring consumers online

01-Sep-2015 - Last updated on 02-Sep-2015 at 16:39 GMT

Thanks to ecommerce platforms, 38% of beauty and health consumers are now signed up for a subscription service, according to a new report from Business Insider Intelligence.

The research firm anticipates that online sales will grow at a higher volume than drugstore sales in the years ahead: “We forecast that the online health and personal care market will grow at a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 13% between 2015 and 2020,” states BI Intelligence in a report preview.

Convenience stores

Many consumers opt to reorder favorite products by subscription to save time and money. The BI data shows that free shipping, best prices, and preferred brands are among the top five factors online beauty shoppers identify as reasons for using auto delivery services.

The data shows that 67% say that free shipping is very important, 66% say the same about best prices, and 60% about favorite brands.

More beauty boxes

The BI Intelligence report shows that new product discovery is very important to 37% of consumers. That’s good news for the ever increasing number of sites and retailers offering beauty boxes of sample products intended to entice shoppers to buy more online or in-store.

Beauty Heroes, one such subscription box, sends out a single, select “non-toxic” product each month. The ecommerce site distinguishes itself not only by focusing on clean beauty but by sending full-size samples to its subscribers.

Many of the popular monthly boxes deliver an assortment of sample- or travel-sized products. And, consumer appreciate those tester seizes too.

The BI Intelligence report found that of those shoppers who are signed up for product replenishment services, 34% say free samples are very important and an additional 37% say those samples are somewhat important.

Evolution in action
The report looks at how some personal care categories are outpacing others when it comes to business online. BI Intelligence “[expects] this to change as retailers tweak their business models” and that all categories will be well represented in the ecommerce space as time goes on.

Whether beauty brands or multi-brand retailers will dominate this space is yet to be seen. “While Amazon is the clear leader, a good number of consumers do their online health and personal care shopping on a variety of websites, including buying directly from brands that otherwise would not have a direct channel to consumers,” observes the research firm.