Gabby Barikian is the Director of Marketing for Fortress Brand, a full-service Amazon agency based in New York City that represents acclaimed beauty, health, and wellness brands on the Amazon Marketplace platform. With nearly a decade in business and over 45 exclusive partnerships with names such as Glow Recipe, Versed, Youth to the People, and HUM Nutrition, Fortress Brand’s core strengths are channel control, protecting brand integrity, and driving growth for brands on Amazon. The agency stays on top of today’s rapidly changing market by investing deeply into technology, data, and research. In this article, Gabby discusses how the online retailer has become a hotspot for beauty and personal care and identifies some of the most notable trends of the last quarter.

The beauty world is an ever-evolving industry with new trends emerging every year. Despite last year being a challenging one, 2020 truly changed the course for beauty trends and shifted not only the way consumers think about their beauty routines, but the way they shop for their most desired products. It catapulted an unprecedented e-commerce movement that allowed online retailers such as Amazon to become the go-to destination for all things beauty. In 2020 alone, Amazon captured 32 percent of all beauty and skin care bought online with $23 billion in total sales, a 45 percent increase over 2019.

In 2021, customers are still taking charge of their beauty routines. With the convenience of online marketplaces, especially during a global pandemic where people aren’t shopping in-person as much, consumers continue to turn to retailers such as Amazon to shop for their beauty and personal care needs. As Amazon continues to rise as one of the key players in beauty and personal care, Fortress Brand uncovers the trends that have surfaced across a variety of beauty-focused industries — cosmetics, skin care, hair care, and wellness. The research provided by Fortress’s proprietary data technology gives insight into what’s next for Amazon in the world of beauty.

Cosmetics

With more people meeting face to face, cosmetics are seeing an increase as people wear more makeup. The eyes and lips may take center stage in this trend, but products like body makeup are also on the rise by 17 percent from the previous quarter. The heatwaves of 2021’s summer suggest that people let their skin see the sun and are using body makeup to prolong the tans of summer skin. Shoppers also aren’t forgetting the importance of cleaning makeup off, as makeup remover is also on the rise as one of the year’s top-performing products.

Eye-focused beauty products such as lash oils, eyebrow stencils, and mascara are also being sought out for a statement eye, while lip plumpers and lip stains are high in demand for the perfect pout.

Skin Care

Whether it’s a basic skin care routine or a rigorous 12-step regimen, taking care of skin is of the utmost importance. Consumers are looking for multitasking super-ingredients that pack a punch. While tried and true classics such as retinol, caffeine and collagen continue their post-pandemic rise, green tea, turmeric, and exfoliating acids such as BHA, glycolic acid, and AHA are seeing spikes as well.

And while the face gets a lot of attention within skin care, the body is now receiving the same special treatment. From moisturizers and body oils to butt scrubs and tanning creams, people are putting just as much care and attention into their bodies as they are their faces. Hygienic body products such as body wash and deodorant are in demand, and even more wellness-focused body products such as bath soaks are trending.

Hair Care

It’s no secret that hair and scalp health is the secret to shiny, unbreakable and growing locks. Much like the skin on the body, the skin on the scalp can become dry, clogged, and dull which leads to damaged hair. Consumers are focusing on reversing damage and taking care of their hair from roots to ends. Reparative products such as scalp scrubs, anti-frizz serum, damaged hair oil, and leave-in conditioner have been the go-to’s for keeping hair healthy and fresh this year.

Since long hair is also having a moment, products such as hair growth shampoo and extensions are becoming increasingly popular, both up 25 percent and 97 percent, respectively, from last quarter. People are also starting to have a lot more fun with their hair with hits such as silk scrunchies, wigs, and hair accessories as people look for ways to style their hair and add more personality to their looks.

Wellness

At a time where consumers are taking their health and self-care more seriously, wellness plays a huge role in beauty today. Focusing on being well within allows people to feel their best selves inside and out. This holds especially true when it comes to supplements, which are a huge part of the wellness world.

It’s clear that consumers are prioritizing how they feel on the inside — mood-boosting and female sex drive supplements are leading the way in wellness supplement trends. Additionally, the importance of gut health isn’t going anywhere — digestion, gut health, and inflammation are some of the most sought after functions in the supplements category.

As for which powerhouse ingredients that are having a moment in the wellness world? Consumers are looking for everything from ashwagandha and turmeric to gaba and algae, with the top-trending ingredient being chlorophyll.

Once Hesitant, Beauty Brands are Ever-Present on Amazon

Online marketplaces have come a long way to provide the right type of experience consumers are looking for — convenient shipping, seamless returns, excellent customer service and more. As trends and consumer behavior evolve, it’s evident that the fortitude of Amazon in the beauty space will only continue to grow. Even premium beauty brands like Sunday Riley, Olaplex, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Peter Thomas Roth, and even celebrity brands like JLo Beauty have included Amazon in their e-commerce approach in order to anticipate the needs of shoppers at every pivotal moment of their customer journey.

Beauty brands are realizing these shifts in consumer behavior are a prediction of how the e-commerce landscape is rapidly changing, as they are now increasingly embracing online retailers as a part of their omnichannel e-commerce strategies and following more opportunities for growth on Amazon. The marketplace accounted for over 40 percent of e-commerce sales in the U.S. in 2020 with revenues reaching $386 billion (a jump of 38 percent from 2019), proving that the marketplace’s dominance of the online retail space is here to stay.