Sell Cosmetics on an Online Beauty Store
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
If you’re thinking about creating a stunning online beauty store or beauty eCommerce website to sell beauty products online, you’ve come to the right place.
If you are looking to create an online fashion store instead, please check out our article on how to create a stunning online fashion store. Visit our one-page non-eCommerce fashion and beauty websites if you are only interested in non-eCommerce simple but professional websites.
First of all, let’s take a look at some online beauty retail sales figures.
IBISWorld reported in June 2019 that the Online Perfume and Cosmetic Sales industry has expanded at a robust annualized rate of 14.3% from 2014 to $16.2 billion in 2019 as more consumers buy online due to growing broadband and mobile internet. The industry is poised for growth from 2019 to 2024.
Common Thread Collective, a digital marketing agency, reported in April 2020 that the beauty and personal care online share is predicted to surge to 48% in the United States by 2023.
eMarketer forecast in June 2019 that US retail ecommerce sales of health, personal care and beauty products would surpass $53 billion in 2019, up 18.6% from 2018.
Why Do I Need An Online Beauty Store?
The fact that the online beauty market grew by 14.3% annually is a compelling reason why you may want to ride that wave, whether you are a brick-and-mortar beauty store and are looking to expand online, or you want to sell your new beauty products online. In summary, below are the upsides of selling your products directly on your online beauty store.
First, you can sell to anyone anywhere anytime. This can boost your sales by leaps and bounds.
Secondly, you can keep your overheads to a minimum while growing your sales.
Thirdly, a beauty eCommerce website with the right content can keep your online store at the top of search results pages i.e. higher SEO ranking on search engines like Google.
Fourthly, many people only shop online. You can reach new audience whom you will not have reached by just selling offline.
Fifthly, you can enhance your customer experience by letting them download product information, answering their feedback, posting how-to videos, webinars, FAQs, etc. from your online beauty store.
Additionally, you may share your posts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. This can funnel your social media visitors and followers back to your beauty eCommerce website.
Finally, you can improve your corporate image and brand awareness by having an online presence.
What eCommerce Platforms Are Available?
Deciding which eCommerce platforms to use to create your online beauty store is the very first and yet the most critical step. However, there are tons of options available. Below is a summary of the most popular eCommerce platforms you may use to create your beauty eCommerce website.
- Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Etsy
- Hosted platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly
- Self-hosted platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart, and PrestaShop
WooCommerce is the world’s leading eCommerce platform for online stores. According to Datanyze (the world’s leader in technographics), WooCommerce is used by more than 28% of all the eCommerce websites.
Most importantly, WooCommerce is built on WordPress, the world’s leading online content management system that powers over 35% of the websites around the world. WooCommerce is simply the best of the best as far as an eCommerce platform.
Besides, regularly audited by Sucuri, an industry leader in security, WooCommerce online stores are in good hands.
Here are the features of a WooCommerce online store.
How To Create An Online Beauty Store
If you want to create a WooCommerce online beauty store to sell your beauty products online, you may follow these simple steps.
- Think of an online store name that is creative and easy to remember.
- Get a domain that matches your blog name.
- Get a hosting plan.
- Install WordPress.
- Install and set up WooCommerce.
- Customize online store design.
- Set up products in your store.
- Set up shipping.
- Connect a payment gateway e.g. Paypal or Stripe
- Start selling.
- Manage orders.
- Analyze sales data.
What Should A Beauty eCommerce Website Have?
To be successful in online beauty business, besides building trust by having good customer reviews and listing ingredients, you ensure your products look as beautiful on-site as in person.
Fundamentals
First, you should ensure the following in your beauty eCommerce website.
- Good UI/UX in terms of design, colors, fonts, and navigation
- Simple and clean design and layout
- Short and concise calls-to-action that stand out with compelling words
- Website performance optimization
- Mobile-friendly responsive design
- HTTPS secure website
Pages
Secondly, to serve the aforesaid purposes, an online beauty store should include the following pages.
- Home
- A slider of high-quality professional images or videos
- A call-to-action button to buy your products like Free Shipping, Best Sellers, Favorites, and Special Offers
- Featured products with high-quality professional images
- A newsletter sign-up form to stay in touch with your consumers by email about new products, offers, and reviews
- Social media icons
- About
- Write your brand story and business values that sets you apart from others by conveying your personality to build trust
- Products
- Write compelling and persuasive product descriptions with details about your brand and products including the product ingredients, and the standards and certificates your beauty products meet
- Highlight product benefits and outcomes with before and after pictures e.g. showing the outcome of their makeup on various skin colors
- A selection of high-quality product images like ones with a model and some pieces on their own in a neutral background, and a well-lit environment
- Product images must be clear and in focus
- Product reviews from your customers after their purchase to share their buying experience with links to your social media channels
- Filter Product filters by category, by brand, by skin type, by price, etc. if you are selling a large variety of products for better conversions
- Returns & Shipping
- Many shoppers would reconsider buying on the same website if product returns are easy so customers need to know if and how they can exchange or return the products.
- Free return is a good strategy to rationalize a buying decision.
- Shipping policy ensures that your customer’s order arrives on time
- Contacts
- multiple ways that your customers can reach you on like email, phone, instant chat, social media
Features
Thirdly, you may consider the below features.
- Quizzes help customers find the right products
- Selling product bundles e.g. skin concealers are sold with skin foundations
- Cross-selling allows you to incorporate relevant products to those already in your customer’s cart
- Multiple payment options for better user experience like credit card, debit card, internet banking (depending on the countries you sell to), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Paypal, Stripe, Afterpay, etc.
- Wishlist does not only allow customers to save the products they want to buy later but also allow store owners to find out what your customers’ preferences for marketing purposes.
Content Marketing
Lastly, you can use content to market your online beauty store. They include blog posts, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, case studies, eBooks, webinars, guides, and checklists.
Conclusion
What is the best eCommerce platform to build your professional online beauty store? In fact, there is no definitive answer which depends very much on what you are looking for in a beauty eCommerce website platform.
For instance, as a startup with not much budget and time, you may try Amazon. First, it is because according to Statista, there were over 2 billion visits to Amazon per month from May 2019 to February 2020. This gives your products great exposure but lots of competition too. Secondly, Amazon can manage your inventory, packing and shipping. This lowers your upfront and operating costs as a startup.
If you have time and a bit more budget, you may consider building a Shopify online store from scratch by using their online store templates and purchase a domain at Shopify.
However, if you are a discerning businessperson with long-term goals, you may want to scale up your online beauty store project with customizations and add-on features to grow your audience and boost your sales using WooCommerce.
