The Power of UGC to Transform Your Beauty Brand’s Customer Experience

The evolution of the “new” consumer, technology and shift in mindset has transformed the way people shop. As brands strive to find an edge over their competitors to become authentic, efficient, and personalized, more and more brands feel the urgency to adapt customer-centric technologies. With the rise of YouTubers and other digital platforms, consumers have a variety of brands to choose from. The industry response to this is adapting dynamic algorithms, and AI to provide a better shopping experience.

With the right tools, your brand can increase visibility, customer retention, and sales conversions. Invest in everything from live shopping events to product co-creation utilizing customer feedback and feeds filled with authentic user-generated content (UGC).

Social media plays a key role in the beauty industry, and its power isn’t going anywhere. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are all highly engaged platforms for beauty discovery and communities. Skincare, makeup, haircare, and other beauty trends pop up and grow rapidly across these platforms. Consumers care with 68% of them reporting authentic social media posts as their top inspiration to make purchases (source: LEK).
Video is perhaps the most engaging, persuasive format to date. It is ideal for promoting beauty products as hosts can feature tutorials, before/after reveals, and other unique ways to demonstrate the products’ effectiveness.

Micro-influencers are key players in building awareness, reaching larger audiences, and providing social proof about products. These influencers have smaller, highly engaged communities on their platforms. They are key opinion leaders (KOLs), trendsetters, and guarantors of the quality of the products in their communities. Working with them sets your brand up for successful campaigns and social media moments.

You can also partner up with these KOLs to host live shopping sessions, which have a strong impact on conversion. Now is the time to invest in this digital experience. Live shopping is predicted to account for 10–20% of e-commerce sales by 2026 (source: McKinsey).

In a dynamic and competitive market, such as the beauty industry, standing out and reassuring consumers is essential.
There are constant new cosmetic brands emerging, especially Digital Native Vertical Brands (DNVB). These social-first companies often highlight their strong social and environmental commitments through innovative product compositions and concepts.

Customer reviews play a key role in ensuring that your site is well referenced and optimized for SEO. Quality consumer reviews also considerably improve your product page conversions. Note that 83% of consumers report product reviews as the most influential part of their purchasing decisions (source: LEK).

You can also ask customers to share their feedback by creating videos. Consumers consider videos to be even more authentic than written reviews. In fact, 88% of consumers were influenced by a video before buying a product (source: Marketing Insider Group). There are multiple benefits: consumers are reassured through social proof; you generate engaging, reusable content to add to your product description pages, and your customer community feels valued.