Top beauty brands pair retail media with rich content to drive sales

Beauty and personal care brands are at the vanguard of innovation in e-commerce, experimenting with immersive content to sell personalized products in a virtual world.

A new WARC Digital Commerce report, Category Insight: Beauty & PersonalCare, reveals that the $430bn global beauty market is increasingly dominated by brands pairing retail media with innovative content to drive sales.

Why paid media matters

From the use of video content to promote self-care regimens, to addressing microtrends like Blueberry Milk Nails on TikTok, beauty and personal care offers insights for marketers across the spectrum. 

Key findings

• The category has proven to be largely resistant to inflationary pressures. Only 13% of US consumers have reduced spending on personal care items in the past 12 months, according to McKinsey. 
• Beauty is also moving online at a rapid pace: in 2022, e-commerce became the category’s leading channel, claiming 21% of sales. Amazon is set to overtake Walmart as the top US beauty retailer by 2025, according to analysis by Morgan Stanley.
• Analysis of WARC’s dComm Index, in conjunction with Perpetua sales estimates, found that brands including Maybelline New York, Lume and Versace are among the top category performers on Amazon. Their success has been underpinned by investment in retail media to increase paid share of voice (SOV), and conversion-driving enhanced page content.

Category Insights: Beauty & Personal Care is the first in a new series from WARC Digital Commerce. Twice quarterly, we will publish a report exploring the current state of a category from three perspectives: the retailer, the consumer and the brand.