What the Beauty Industry is doing to gear up for Millennials

By Rupa Ganatra, Co-Founder, Millennial 20/20

As every industry gears up for the millennial consumer, an array of beauty start-ups are benefiting from this ever-increasing digitally-savvy millennial customer that looks for authenticity, quality and experiences.

On-Demand Generation Businesses like Blow Ltd are offering Fast Beauty on Demand which enables customers to book expert blow dries, make-up & nails to their home, office, hotel or event through the app and furthermore can enjoy their fast beauty services in their standalone Fast Beauty bars in London.

Personalised Subscription Services While the likes of Birchbox and Glossybox have become well-known players in the industry, subscription services have just become more personal. Scentbird, a subscription service for fragrances, caters for the millennial needs for authenticity, variety and experiences. The company conducted a survey that found only 3% of millennials had what they considered “a signature scent”. “We not only make the process of searching for fragrances online very visual but also make it a fun exploration catering very much to the millennial psychology of seeking experiences rather than products,” says Rachel ten Brink, Scentbird CMO and co-founder.

Product Crowdsourcing “In order to successfully market to millennial consumers, they need to be invited to co-create your brand story,” says Hannah Ward, Marketing Manager at Story Stream. Digital Beauty brands like Julep and Glossier who raised $30 million and $8.4 million respectively in their recent fundraising rounds, are leading the way with Julep launching over 300 beauty products last year on the back of customer feedback and Glossier launching their first crowd-sourced skincare product in 2016 based on recent feedback from their digital community.

Bricks & Mortar: Unique and Selfie-Worthy Experiences As millennial consumers spend an increasing amount of time online, they still want to have physical access to their favourite brands along with unique and “Instagram-Selfie” worthy experiences. Marc Jacobs launched the world’s first fragrance pop-up tweet shop, Birchbox have launched their first bricks and mortar store in New York and Glossier launched a pop-up in collaboration with online fashion brand Nasty Gal and a Summer Friday’s pop-up store.

Leverage YouTube With the rise of the beauty vloggers and their strong influence on the purchasing decisions of millennials, even though beauty brands have been building their own followings, the real power still sits with influencers. This has seen brands like L’Oreal launch a new brand Em Cosmetics with vlogger Michelle Phan.
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For more information on The Millennial 20/20 Summit, please visit: www.millennial20-20.com