Make room for wellness! Beauty’s meaning has evolved to become wide-ranging and is no longer exclusively dedicated to products that can enhance your appearance. The beauty of today follows a more holistic approach that intersects with the movement toward health and wellness. The integration of wellness in the beauty industry will only become more mainstream as more brands and retailers are looking for an opportunity to capture this category.
Going beyond self-care and clean beauty
With shifts in self-care and clean beauty emerges the realm of wellness. Coming out of the pandemic, consumers have valued wellness more than ever, but they are now digging deeper. According to GWS and GWI’s Beth McGroarty, “In 2023, wellness will be more serious, more science-based, more social and more sensory”. Science is entering the wellness sphere already with the spread of pharmaceutical-grade ingredients in beauty formulations as consumers are looking for scientific solutions that work. It’s important to note the shift from clean to biotech beauty as well. Looking to the future, clean beauty’s claims will be put to the test with the move to lab tested, science-forward biotech beauty. The role of science and technology in the beauty industry will be critical when it comes to creating innovations that are effective, sustainable, and trustworthy.
Challenges tapping into the wellness space
Because the category of wellness is so vast, it can prove challenging to find a place for it if there is no strategy behind the approach. Wellness encompasses health, beauty, fitness, sleep, nutrition and mindfulness, presenting retailers with a myriad of routes to fuel sales. It is no easy feat to have consumers trust beauty brands and retailers enough to the point where they become the go-to for products designed to improve health. For this reason, it is crucial for brands to stay true to their core vision and identity when deciding what types of wellness offerings to introduce to customers.
Another challenge faced by beauty retailers specifically is educating staff how to properly sell assortments of wellness products, ranging from supplements to spa tools to intimate care products. In a beauty setting accustomed to selling traditional makeup and skincare products, offering the appropriate education to understand wellness products can make assisting customers a little less tricky.
There is no master blueprint for beauty brands and retailers to follow in determining the best approach to add value for customers. Although navigating the integration of wellness in beauty will undoubtedly take time, the possibilities the category can offer are endless.