The business of beautiful, including skincare, cosmetics, hair products, toiletries and fragrances generated $80.73 billion in sales worldwide in 2020, and is expected to to hit $145.2 billion for skincare sales alone by 2025. 

In the U.S., beauty e-commerce sales generated $54 billion in revenue, or 11% of total retail e-commerce sales. Much of that has been driven by interest and demand generated by beauty influencers who use social media to review products, post makeup tutorials and create buzz about new products. 

With that kind of revenue potential, the industry is highly competitive and any advantage is essential.

Enter conversational commerce. Conversational commerce uses two-way dialogue such as SMS, chat and social media platforms to communicate with clients via messaging and enable sales. 

Why Is Conversational Commerce Important for Beauty Brands?

Conversational commerce engages your customers from their first encounter with your brand. If they opt-in to receive SMS messages from you, that will allow you to personalize future interactions with them based on their search and purchase history. 

Your customers can also ask questions about your products and get instant answers that can drive conversions. Instead of leaving your platform to research whether a skincare line is good for sensitive skin, for example, a customer can ask the question in chat (or SMS) and get an immediate answer. 

Plus, you can make additional recommendations, suggest complementary products or alternatives that can increase the order value and build customer loyalty. 

Statista reported that 66% of customers said their loyalty to a brand increased when they received personalized recommendations based on previous purchases, while 62% said “remembers my shopping preferences and customizes my shopping experience accordingly.”

One of the keys of successful conversational commerce is to use the right platform. You can learn more about choosing the right messaging platform.

3 Ways Beauty Brands Can Use Conversational Commerce to Drive Revenue

Here are three ways that beauty brands can add conversational commerce to the marketing mix to drive sales. 

1. Enable “Reply to Buy”

In 1999, Amazon introduced one-click buy, and became the first retailer to allow consumers to enter and save purchase information for future transactions. 

Reply-to-buy takes one-click to the next level. Using conversational commerce via a messaging channel like SMS, for example, the reply-to-buy tactic enables customers to make the purchase simply by replying to an SMS text without leaving the app.
 

2. Get Your Customers to Reorder

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a calculation of the revenue a customer will bring in the course of the business relationship. The Pareto principle, aka the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of your profit will come from 20% of your customers, and repeat sales is a straightforward way to increase revenues.

Since most customers would rather stay with brands they know, building CLV through conversational commerce makes sense.

As you build detailed customer profiles, conversational commerce becomes a more effective marketing tool. How? One of the easiest ways to increase your revenue is through customer reorders.

Conversational commerce allows you to track customer’s purchase history, which you can use to send reorder reminders based on individual preferences. One customer may reorder every 30 days, while another may only order every three to four months. 

Tailoring reorder suggestions to each person’s history increases the likelihood they will make a purchase, especially if you throw in free shipping, a discount or a freebie. 

Another easy way to build reorders is giving your SMS customers VIP access to upcoming sales, special promotions or restock reminders for popular products. Tack on reply-to-buy and you have a winning strategy.

3. Drive More Subscription Sign-Ups

In 2010, Birchbox launched a subscription beauty box with curated beauty items that people could receive quarterly, semi-annually or annually. The target audience was people who loved beauty but were intimidated by the industry and the choices, so they could try things in the comfort of their homes with suggestions from experts. 

Since then, hundreds of beauty box subscriptions have been created, and the market is expected to hit $65 billion by 2027. 

There are a number of ways you can use SMS to build and retain your subscription customer base: 

• Start your relationship off on the right foot with a welcome SMS. Explain what the customer has signed up for, what they can expect from their subscription, including when they can expect their first order, when it will be billed and how they will be able to track their shipment.
   
• Send a reminder text close to the order deadline to nudge people to get their order in. 
  
  
• Allow customers to make changes to their order by SMS. Set a deadline (24 hours before expected shipping) for customers to change or cancel their order. 
  
  
• Start building excitement with sneak peaks about the contents. You want your subscribers excited and happy about your subscription service, so make them feel special. 
  
  
• Send an SMS when their shipment is on the way, and include the tracking number so they can follow the progress. 
  
  
• Create an “unboxing hashtag” and include links to your social media so subscribers can share their unboxing videos and first impressions to encourage others to sign up. 
  
  
• Send subscribers a “share and save” code to send to friends and family. When the new subscriber enrolls, both the existing customer and new subscriber receive a discount on the next box, or a special upgrade or gift.
  
  
• Send VIP discounts, special access events or sneak peaks for subscribers only. Personalize the message to the types of item the customer includes in their subscription, or searches for on your site. The more information you gather, the better an individual customer experience you can create.
  
  
• Deal with issues or refund requests quickly and efficiently. Allowing customers to contact you via SMS speeds the process, gives you an opportunity to convert the cancellation, and also to obtain information about what worked and what didn’t. Always include the option to escalate to a live agent at any point in the chat.
  
  
• Allow customers to skip a month without penalty. It’s better for them to skip than cancel completely. Send them a VIP discount code or offer free shipping on the next one. 
  
  
• Solicit feedback from your customers to help curate future boxes.

Final Thoughts

With billions of dollars in revenue at stake, the beauty industry needs to use every tool available to attract and retain customers. Combining conversational commerce with reply-to-buy can boost your bottom line.