Digital Dive: Top stories on digital developments making waves in the APAC beauty industry

More mega sales events can help beauty brands get new customers and drive sales​

The success of e-commerce mega sales days have created even more demand for such campaigns, creating more opportune moments for beauty brands to acquire new customers and increase baseline sales.

According to Damisa Tseng-Prompoj, of e-commerce enabler Intrepid Group, the relationship between consumers and mega campaigns have evolved significantly in the past decade.

She highlighted that the goals of these mega shopping events have also shifted. While it used to be all about driving gross merchandise value (GMV), it was now the opportune moment to acquire new customers.

How to win over… beauty consumers in a rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape​

The beauty sector might be one of the hottest arenas in e-commerce, but there looks set to be boundless new opportunities on the horizon for digital-savvy brands, from social commerce advances to the metaverse.

According to a consumer study by e-commerce firm Lazada, 73% of consumers in South East Asia identify online shopping as ‘integral to everyday life’, with almost half (46%) going online to shop at least once weekly.

Nearly 60% of respondents said they embraced online shopping as a part of their daily lives just less than two years ago.

‘Ready to adopt’: AI skin analysis firm Haut.AI aiming to tap into ‘tech savvy’ Asian market​

Estonian beauty technology firm Haut.AI is aiming to expand its AI skin analysis tool in the Asian region, particularly in China, South Korea and Indonesia.

The company has observed more beauty brands trying to bridge the gap between offline and online by including new tools like chatbots to mimic the engagement consumers would experience in a brick and mortar.

However, she noted that beauty consultants could not rely on consumers to give accurate descriptions of their skin as they were most likely to be too critical.

Ange Gardien says sales have risen 50% in 6 months with social commerce approach​

Singaporean beauty brand Ange Gardien Paris says its sales has grown 50% in the six months since it started to take a social commerce approach to selling.

Today, conventional marketing approaches, such as influencer marketing, was no longer as effective, said brand director Claudia See.

The changing landscape pushed the brand to tap into the growing popularity of social commerce, a rising and important force driving the development of e-commerce.

Sa Sa HK can now fulfil delivery orders in as little as 10 minutes​

Beauty retailer Sa Sa International has begun on-demand delivery services in partnership with foodpanda in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong authorities recently imposed new restrictions including a strict 6pm dining curfew to tackle its fifth wave of COVID-19 infections.

The group expects that this would negatively affect its sales for the next quarter.