 "Unlocking The Ultimate Skincare eCommerce Experience")
How skincare brands can help users find their perfect match.
Navigating the world of skincare can feel overwhelming for users, whether they’re seasoned beauty enthusiasts or just dipping their toes into self-care. The wide range and amount of products, ingredients, and benefits on the market can lead to choice paralysis if not presented in an informative but user-friendly way. Skincare brands can build trust, improve conversions, and create loyal customers by addressing customer needs through thoughtful product presentation, clear guidance, and engaging tools. Let’s explore the key elements that make a difference in the skincare shopping experience.
1. The role of ingredients in skincare success.
Ingredients are one of, if not the most important parts of skincare products, and for good reason. Everyone’s skin reacts differently to formulations; what works wonders for one person may irritate another. Some customers actively seek specific ingredients like hyaluronic acid or retinol, while others avoid allergens like parabens or fragrances.
As a skincare brand, it’s crucial to display ingredients on product pages prominently, include them in filtering/navigation, or even feature active ingredients on the product card. Doing so can make it much easier for customers to navigate through a large range of products to find what works for them.
As part of our redesign project for organic skincare brand Green People, maintaining their PDP spotlight on active ingredients was crucial, as well as summarising close to the add-to-bag to ensure the information was easy to find and clearly signposted, helping users make a more informed purchase decision. Read more about the project here.
2. Clarifying product types for easy navigation.
The skincare market contains a lot of subcategories of product types. The list is endless for serums, masks, eye creams, day and night products. This can be overwhelming, especially for users who may be new to the world of self-care and beauty.
Consider implementing clear navigation menus, filters, and categories on your site. For example:
Product cards can specify what a product is (e.g., “hydrating serum” or “oil-free moisturiser”).
Dedicated category pages can break down offerings by type, function, or concern.
Offer filtering or navigation that allows users to narrow their scope to the product types.
By providing a streamlined shopping experience, you’re helping users quickly connect with the right products while reducing frustration.
By adding a tagline on product cards, as well as allowing customers to navigate to (using mega menu links) and filter by product type, this helped the browsing experience so users got all the context they needed before adding to bag.
3. Morals & ethics matter.
A good segment of users want to make sure that a brand has strong values and morals, especially in skincare. Whether that means being vegan, cruelty-free, sustainably sourced, or free from certain ingredients, it’s crucial to highlight this across the site to accommodate conscious consumers.
To cater to this audience:
Add badges or callouts on product pages for certifications like “Leaping Bunny Certified” or “100% Vegan”.
Make sure to highlight these USPs clearly and in short form at all key stages of the user journey (e.g. homepage, collection, PDP).
Create a dedicated section or landing pages going into depth on your brand’s moral commitments and sustainability practices. This is great for SEO as well as providing this information for users who want to read it.
Being transparent about these brand values increases your credibility and helps users better understand and trust you as a brand. For example, sustainable ingredients and science-backed formulations are key components of Green People’s brand. On the Shopify Plus original site, the certification and award logos were featured but not emphasised, so this was a big consideration while redesigning.
4. Navigating different skin types.
Your customers’ skin types vary widely—from oily to dry, sensitive to combination—and their needs will differ accordingly. A user with dry skin won’t benefit from a mattifying product, while someone with oily skin may steer clear of heavy creams.
Brands should make it easy for customers to identify products tailored to their specific skin type. Some effective strategies include:
Again, ensure that filtering and navigation offer routes for the different types of skin to show users where to get products that work for them
Including icons or labels on product cards and descriptions to indicate suitability for certain skin types.
Offering educational content about how to determine skin type and why it matters.
By catering to individual skin needs, you’ll help users feel confident about their purchase and reduce the likelihood of returns.
5. How to use: clear instructions for every product.
Even the simplest skincare products can come with nuances. For instance:
How to use instructions. Even something as simple as a cleanser can be used in many different ways. Some must be washed off, while others can soak into the skin. Providing clear instructions on the product page can help alleviate any user concerns when trying out a new product to make sure it fits in with their requirements.
Routines or bundles. Grouping certain products in a routine can be helpful for users who want to get the most benefits out of their products. Seeing what that specific product works well with could provide an incentive, especially if paired with a savings opportunity, as users will see this as great value for money.
Based on top competitor analysis, we included this on the Green People product page as a client requirement and made sure to surface the information as much as possible.
6. Elevate your offering.
Increase what your website is currently offering to really boost how users are engaging with your site and how they’re finding products that are tailored to their unique needs.
Introduce a personalisation quiz. Product quizzes are very successful and popular with new users who perhaps aren’t familiar with the brand and unsure what to look for. Within this quiz, you can ask very targeted questions (for example, skin type, ingredient requirements, desired benefits) quickly and then suggest products that align with the user's needs. This could be quicker than a standard user flow browsing the collections and jumping in and out of product pages.
Search. Typing in keywords like ingredients and product type (serums, eye cream, etc) can also help.
We designed and built a custom quiz for Green People using Octane.AI, allowing the client to set up their own branded quiz flow. The client found that adding the link to the quiz in the navigation worked wonders.
In conclusion: elevating the skincare shopping experience.
To conclude, enhance your customer experience in skincare shopping by focusing on key areas:
Prioritising ingredient transparency to cater to preferences and allergies and clearly highlighting product types for seamless navigation.
Emphasising morals and ethics, such as vegan or cruelty-free certifications, and offering filtering for diverse skin types to match individual needs.
Providing clear usage instructions to integrate products into routines effectively and promote bundles for value and compatibility.
Showcasing social proof, like awards and best-sellers, and optimising search with keywords.
Implementing engaging tools like quizzes to personalise recommendations and consider offering samples to encourage discovery without commitment, enhancing trust and customer satisfaction.
Need help with your eCommerce site?
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