The cosmetics sector
In the cosmetics industry, selling products online is very different from selling in-store. Buyers of beauty products in shops are used to being able to get advice, to see the product, touch it, and even test it before buying. Online, all this is not possible, and the customer is quickly left with a lack of guidance and advice.
So what motivates customers to shop online?
According to a study by Digital Beauty, the motivations for buying cosmetic products online are promotions for 70% of respondents, price comparison for 66% and finally the purchase of usual products (for which one no longer needs advice or a tester to decide) for 53%.
However, e-commerce is becoming more and more important to consumers. Although the health crisis has had an impact, forcing people to buy online due to restrictions, consumers appreciate the advantages of e-commerce such as the freedom from opening hours and the ability to shop from home. So how can online sales be adapted to the cosmetics sector?
What are the challenges of an e-commerce site in cosmetics?
Because of its differences with physical sales, the construction of an e-commerce site in cosmetics involves several challenges to adapt to consumer expectations and inspire confidence. The main efforts will have to focus on the user experience.
Some challenges in the sector :
- Optimal user experience: the customer journey on your site must be carefully designed. From the home page to the shopping cart, you must provide your customers with the most fluid and pleasant experience possible. Indeed, the Digital Beauty study showed that many websites have a high bounce rate, which can be explained by a homepage that does not inspire confidence, or a non-optimised customer path.
- A mobile version: as mobile traffic is predominant on many beauty websites (such as Yves Rocher or L'Occitane), having a mobile version of your website is essential. Even more so, this version must be optimised and just as fluid as the desktop version.
- Good catalogue management : cosmetics companies generally offer numerous product references, with many variations (different formats, different shades). These sites must be able to manage large catalogues and their stocks, which are constantly updated.
- Support and advice : if product testing and personalised advice cannot be fully reproduced on the Internet, it is important to find a way to provide users with as much information as possible about the products on sale. In order to bridge the gap between physical shops and e-commerce, very detailed product descriptions, shopping guides and online chat are important options.
How does BigCommerce respond to the challenges of the beauty sector?
As you can see, cosmetic e-commerce must inspire confidence, and the user experience becomes a pillar of success for your online shop .
Why choose BigCommerce for your beauty or cosmetics website?
BigCommerce is a very complete Open SaaS e-commerce solution, which offers many features and ready-to-use tools to manage such issues.
Customisation
BigCommerce offers a lot of possibilities to create a fluid and personalized experience. Thanks to its headless structure, it is possible to develop a front-end decoupled from the back-end with frameworks such as Vue.js, React, Next.js or even some CMS like WordPress. In addition, its more than 90% open API offers numerous customisation possibilities. All these elements allow the creation of unique customer experiences to meet your customers' expectations.
Mobile first
BigCommerce also allows you to optimise your users' mobile experience with a number of responsive themes created for mobile. BigCommerce natively integrates Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), so BigCommerce customers can take advantage of the improved visibility of their site on mobile searches.
Promotion and product recommendations
The interface allows for a personalised customer experience by enabling the setting up of customer accounts, with targeted promotions, or product recommendations based on users' previous purchases.
Product catalogue
BigCommerce allows companies to manage catalogues of over 600 products (SKUs), with nearly 250 options (formats, colours, shades, etc.). The product catalogue also includes custom fields. Thus, BigCommerce makes it possible to manage large and complex catalogues.
Omnichannel
Thanks to BigCommerce, you can develop an omnichannel strategy. BigCommerce offers the possibility to develop a strategy on the different offline and online sales channels of your company: e-commerce, social networks, marketplace, physical points of sale.
On social networks, you will be able to synchronise the product catalogue with platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, which allows you to gain visibility, advertise and track your impressions. Connecting e-commerce sites to their social networks is an important element in the beauty sector.
In short, it will be possible to offer a consistent customer experience across your different touch points while optimising the management of these different channels. This omnichannel approach makes it possible to synchronise sales across all channels, stock management and your company's accounting.
Finally
With BigCommerce, you will have the means to create a smooth and pleasant e-commerce site adapted to the cosmetics sector. Suitable for any size of business, BigCommerce will adapt to your needs and follow all the stages of your growth. The solution offers many specific features to design a powerful site and offer a personalized user experience to fill the absence of human contact online.
For more information, please contact us!
