30 Brilliant Ways To Improve Online Beauty Store Sales

Great product photos – last-minute deals – snappy descriptions? 

Yes – but that’s just the surface.

We studied 100+ eCommerce beauty stores - people are doing super creative stuff to improve their conversions.

Here are 30 things that we can learn from them:

—

1. Prioritize asking about their preferences

2. A smashing first fold

3. Strike gold with UGC 🙂

4. Shorten product discovery

5. Create evocative product descriptions

6. Back your claims with solid proof

7. Have them try it

8. Offer real help 🙂

9. Go for experts & expertise-rich discussion platforms

10. Power up your beauty brand story

11. Set clear delivery expectations

12. Create a threshold for free shipping / gift

13. Make gifting easy

14. Make checkout smooth as makeup

15. Upsell popular routines (with a little goodie)

16. Help them compare products

17. Let members' benefits drive beauty sales

18. Some great strategic offers

19. Create an ‘intelli’ search

20. Improve your SERP listings

21. Use YouTube to create differentiated beauty content

22. Cross-sell - with some advice

23. Use replenishment nudges

24. Take back expired products

25. Real pictures please 🙂

26. Optimize for mobile

27. Find smarter ways to connect with first-time visitors

28. Don't fake exclusivity

29. Use your emails to close the sales

30. Retarget like a champ

30 Amazing Ways To Improve Your Beauty Online Store Sales

1. Prioritize asking about their preferences

The right welcome speaks to the pain point of a beauty eCommerce customer – and gets a micro-conversion (a smaller goal towards a larger goal).

Laura Geller’s welcome discount pop-up does the same thing with a quiz flow and the promise of a solid discount code: 

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🔥 Quick Tip: You can also try these ideas for your quiz funnels as pop-ups:

✅ ‘Build a vibe’ quiz for pairing products – or coming to a decision (for example, match a fragrance with eyeliner, eyeshadow, and lipstick)

✅ ‘Talk to customers’ flow – ask what products they loved – their opinions of your packaging

Keep reading: 15 Brilliant (Non-Intrusive) Mobile Pop-up Examples In eCommerce

2. A smashing first fold

The first fold is where the most drop-off happens in beauty stores:

→ Get it right: they scroll further down 🖱️

→ Get it wrong: they bounce 🙅‍♀️

Take a look at this above the fold from Dime’s product page:

✅ Get your value proposition clear (quickly)

• Show what kind of ingredients are used
• Highlight return/shipping/money-back policies
• Hint at product manufacturing practices 
• Confirm causes, your brand supports

✅ Make the gallery pack a punch 👑 

• Infographic style display within product thumbnails 
• Iconography for brand USP’s

✅ Build trust first – sell later

• Show trust badges like “National Rosacea Society Accepted”
• Live chat sticky button 
• Microcopy (note the “read reviews”)

✅ Framing is key

• One-time purchase and subscription pricing 
• Incentivizes the subscription (note the "auto-renew")
• Welcome discount on offer as well 

Further Reading: 40 High-converting Health/Beauty "Product Page" Examples

3. Strike gold with UGC 🙂

Social media posts. TikTok-style videos. Photos from reviews. 

All of this UGC helps cement purchase decisions in beauty eCommerce buyers. 

After all, they signal that other beauty product enthusiasts believe strongly in the brand. 

Check how Tree Hut leverages their social media UGC at the bottom of their homepage: 

Here’s the biggest takeaway: 

✅ Cover a number of interesting areas across the featured UGC

Notice how Tree Hut includes gifting, exploring a routine and even restock updates in their UGC spread. 

🔥 Quick Tip: UGC is a go-to conversion tool – use it to create product videos – like a “how to use {product name} for {pain point}.”

4. Shorten product discovery 

Beauty shoppers window-shop a lot – that means: they have done their research. 

Honestly, all you need to do is lead them to the right pages.

Here's how Lush does it with need-based categories in their navigation:

Other than that, you should also consider the following to shorten product discovery on your eCommerce beauty store:

✅ Keep a section on your homepage to help resume browsing activity – like “you had your eyes on these 👀”

✅ Incorporate the latest deals or best-performing products in your hero banners – update them by seasons

Quick Tip: Add icon-sized thumbnails of the best-selling products to extend the visual appeal – which will make shoppers want to click through.

5. Create evocative product descriptions

A good product description justifies your pricing – and reduces product page drop-offs. 

This is why, every eCommerce beauty store’s product descriptions should:

✅ Be descriptive without being boring:

• People don’t get it when you say “muted” or “saturated” 
• Explain the why – like “goes for {skin tone}”
• Show the ingredients (50% of shoppers look for this)

✅ Show ‘how to use it’ – consider adding these:

• Include a video tutorial from UGC
• Photo-based tutorial using tabbed content
• An easily short, crisp, and concise description

✅ Highlight who the product is intended for, saying something like

• “Best for heavy sweaters” 
• “For ages over 40”  
• “Crafted for winters”
• “Tested for allergies”
• Also, show everything as visually as you can—aim for easy comprehension:

🔥 Quick Tip: Practicing inclusivity goes a long way – consider first-time buyers who are transitioning to the next stage – remember this while writing your “how-to” (or, a badge to show support).

6. Back your claims with solid proof

Made a claim? Prove it to them as visually as possible.

Here’s how Living Proof shows it, with a before and after on their homepage:

Other than your homepage, you should display proof on key pages such as your category, product, and about us pages with:

✅ Data and statistics from customer surveys – ensure you provide your sources along with reviews:

✅ Ingredient information – explain how those live up to your manufacturing claims and statements

✅ Show your positive and critical reviews in equal measures – note the average rating with “most liked positive review” and “most liked negative review”:

7. Have them try it 

Virtual try-ons may seem like an expensive affair—however, an interactive virtual try-on like the one below helps create a better value proposition:

To improve beauty eCommerce sales through this tweak:

✅  Incorporate in-page navigation based on a range of use cases / pain points 

✅ Show relevant product recommendations for the above use cases or pain points (skin tone in this case)

🔥 Quick Tip: Pair some form of UGC with the recommendations—this will contextualize them even more. 

Quick Tip: Pair some form of UGC with the recommendations—this will help show your recommendations are on point. 

8. Offer real help 🙂

Long purchase spans – confusing shades – and concerns about quality – are all concerns beauty shoppers share. 

Showing active support helps you catch drop-offs in real-time:

✅ Send a nudge through an in-website push – trigger this on inactivity as a live chat prompt on your beauty product store

✅ Keep some FAQs along with an option for live chat – check how Bio True does this with a virtual chatbot:

✅ Provide updates about shipping delays – remember to update over SMS and emails as well:

🔥 Quick Tip: Consider offering customers ‘book a 1:1 video consultation’ on your chatbot/live chat – this helps move the sales along quickly. Alternatively you can also color-block a section right above the footer and show call-outs for help with a bold headline like: “Want an expert opinion?”

9. Go for experts & expertise-rich discussion platforms

Selling beauty products online has a singular challenge: trust. 

The way out? It comes from the people themselves—tl;dr: your expert reviewers (and the buzz they build) gets the job done. 

Thus, if you want to get talked about and build a buzz, consider:

✅ Getting a feature in forums – specifically niche-based forums or platforms or marketplaces like Templatia or Allure 

✅ Invest in Reddit – act as a user – and ask questions about your own brand on popular subreddits:

✅ Notify subscribers about upcoming live streams – pick topics on common pain points like Act + Acre does:

10. Power up your beauty brand story

eCommerce beauty founders – this one’s for you! 

To get beauty eCommerce sales, you’ll have to:

→ generate brand awareness

→ show that you truly care

→ build social proof 

And it helps that beauty is a storytelling niche rich with possibilities.

@jacattack, for example, runs her own beauty store – she uses her personal TikTok to open up a 1:1 channel and talk about her choices:

Here are a few platform-specific beauty sales strategies we’ve helped clients with:

👉 Website: Tie the founder’s message / about us proposition to clear Before / After sections on high-intent pages. 

eCommerce beauty brand Tata Harper features a short homepage section where existing customers can key in their unique product numbers and look at its journey from inception to end:

👉 Instagram: Show BTS content, if not as videos, as carousels where each image throws light on something different, be it sourcing trips, product formulation or even coming up with the packaging design. 

👉 Facebook: Run creative prompts like “Tell us how you solved your biggest skincare challenge with [brand]” and announce a prize. Later, use the responses as testimonials across channels & even ads!

🔥 Quick Tip: If you work with micro-influencers, rope 1 or 2 of them in to create “Transform With Me” micro-tutorials. These are as good as YouTube shorts and run for up to 45 seconds, and especially attract mobile audiences who’re looking for trustworthy beauty tips without spending a whole lot of time.

Need inspiration for your TikTok marketing? 

We recommend reading: TikTok eCommerce: 40 Brilliant Ideas (With Examples) For 2024

11. Set clear delivery expectations

Hey, we’ve all been there – a last-minute Christmas gift – or worried about the condition of the parcel during summers. 

Which is why, you should always provide clear information about when your products will deliver:

🔥 Quick Tip: Upsell faster shipping during hotter months or before holidays like Easter, Father's Day, etc.

You'd also like to read: How To Offer Free Shipping And Recover Costs

12. Create a threshold for free shipping/gift

Or make it tiered with a progress bar, as Duradry does on their cart page:

The offering is simple:

✅ Add products up to $X and get free shipping

✅ Then, you add products up to $X and you qualify for a free gift of $X Value (and so on)

Doing this helps you bump up your AOV and translate into sales with more revenue. 

🔥 Quick Tip: Limit the recommendations, show only products with a 30% price difference (or show bundles). 

Also Read: eCommerce Tiered Discount: 10 Awesome Examples You'd Want To Copy

13. Make gifting easy

When we visualize the beauty shopper, we often think of a person shopping for themselves. 

However, beauty products are among the most gifted products – it only makes sense to cater to them as well.

Here's what you can consider for shoppers looking for beauty products as gifts:

✅ Upsell a VFM gift card (because the perfect gift is the gift of choice) – consider an offering such as this that acts as a magnificent bundle:

✅ Display popular gift categories on your navigation – for example ‘popular among X ages’:

🔥 Quick Tip: Consider creating  gift guide type posts/blogs before key holiday periods – repurpose through partner creators, YouTube, or relevant channels (for max reach). Make sure each post/guide leads directly to your gift category pages.

You may want to read: 21 Last-Minute Mother's Day Marketing Ideas For eCommerce Stores

14. Make checkout smooth as makeup

Surprise costs are #1 when it comes to cart abandonment. 

Which is why you should add nudges like this one to incentivize the checkout:

Similarly, it’s essential that you remove unnecessary visual distractions from the checkout process. \

This way, chances of them leaving midway reduces drastically.

Here's how Drunk Elephant does it with a one-page checkout:

Remember, your checkout page should have:

✅ An option to edit the order

✅ Autofilled form fields

✅ Multiple payment options 

✅ Show trust badges and support options

✅ Reminder about policies 

🔥 Quick Tip: Ensure there are little to no upsells – if needed, offer smart value upgrades like faster/safer shipping or product insurance.

Keep reading: eCommerce Checkout UX: 13 Tips To Boost Conversions (+ Templates)

15. Upsell popular routines (with a little goodie)

Sure, personalization is one way to go, but putting forward a proven routine is a sure way to get your beauty store to sell more (and increase CLV):

Here’s why this works:

✅ Shows that the combination works – and there’s proof to back it up

✅ Invokes the reciprocity principle – with the promise of a free gift

✅ Opens up the brand to open a feedback loop (if the purchase goes through) – which can help create repeat customers

16. Help them compare products

Beauty products have a longer purchase span – one that involves significant to-and fro’ – a comparison chart cuts that process short.

What you should keep in mind: Remind, reassure, and rekindle—that is all a beauty shopper needs.

It should feel like they have arrived at their own decision – but, that doesn’t mean you can't try upselling (subtly). 

Here’s how you can compare products for your beauty eCommerce store to increase sales:

✅ Use the decoy effect effectively (showing higher/better options). Simply compare the outcomes/use cases. Use visual cues like “bestsellers” or “as seen in” badges on product images.

✅ Compare your own products in similar categories – this helps add weight to your recommendations (and discover products that they would’ve otherwise googled)

🔥 Quick Tip: Don’t compare more than four products at a time. To avoid choice paralysis, duh!

Further Reading: 11 Secrets behind Amazon’s high-converting product comparison charts

17. Let members' benefits drive beauty sales

That means lower pricing – lower waiting periods – lower delivery times (and a lot more). 

You can show it in these ways:

✅ As comparative pricing on the homepage, category, and product pages – use a split pricing to show what members enjoy versus non-members to subtly drive your beauty loyalty program

✅ Displaying it within your notification bar – here’s how Danessa Myricks Beauty does it:

✅ As microcopy below your CTA – as a subtle nudge:

18. Some great strategic offers

Like ‘take x items and get it for FLAT $X off’! 

Check out how Youth to the People does this with a ‘Build your Own Bundle’:

What's even cooler: this bundle can act as a:

✅ Full blown wishlist and lead magnet – add a timed nudge on inactivity or exit intent – say “save these to wishlist & we’ll keep em’ aside just for you” 

✅ A routine to recommend – set them up with a consultation – to personalize the bundle to their needs – you can follow up on emails/a medium of consent

✅ Help achieve replenishment naturally – once they purchase, you can give the option to upgrade the bundle to a subscription – do this in your post-purchase review emails 

🔥 Quick Tip: Custom offers are the gateway to getting more sales.

✅ Highlight the offers on your notification bar & product pages – along with a line about future rewards

✅ Remind once more on checkout with a ready-to-copy code – and get the purchase confirmed

19. Create an ‘intelli’ search

This is an area that most eCommerce beauty stores overlook – your search functionality is THE product discovery machine:

When beauty shoppers arrive at your store, they need cues – which means you should:

✅ Show suggested popular searches – show this as help text – or as drop-down search results

✅ Remember last searches – or recommend on last purchases 

✅ Show product thumbnails – and ensure product titles don’t overflow beyond the search box

✅ Highlight the search bar on mobile – if needed, make it sticky:

We recommend reading: eCommerce visual search: 9 smart optimization tips (+ 4 tools to use)

20. Improve your SERP listings

Search results are critical in the awareness and consideration stages of the customer journey – however, in 2025, it applies to the conversion stage of beauty stores as well.

Let’s take a look at this listing as an example – there’s a coupon on the listing and a price of $5.39:

However, on clicking through the price is $7.99 – this can immediately lead to drop-offs.

Even more so, the “OWN40” code doesn’t reflect in the first fold – which isn’t all that ideal.

However, it does apply on the checkout page – only if a user remembers to do so – which is why it’s critical you auto-apply discounts:

✅ Enable "Business type" in GMC to show-case your business type – like “small-business” or “women-owned” – here’s more information

✅ Make sure coupon codes and prices sync on your listings and product pages – here’s how you can add coupon codes to your Google Merchant Center listings  

✅ Enable checkout on the search results itself – here’s how you can enable checkout on Google Merchant Center

✅ Use the right schemas – for example, product schema, aggregate rating schema, etc.

✅ Upload product review feeds correctly – here’s Google's official take on product reviews on Google Merchant Center

✅ Ensure product descriptions incorporate the following:

• Product size, material, shape, and pattern (include these in the product title as well)
• Intended age range
• Special features
• Technical specifications

21. Use YouTube to create differentiated beauty content

What already works: Getting reviewed by YouTubers opens up your brand and products to the test – and creates a buzz:

The buzz gets your products moving – but, there’s more you can do on YouTube.

The bigger news: There’s now a YouTube Affiliate program – which means you can now have YouTubers as affiliates – selling your products directly on YouTube videos/shorts:

The only catch is that YouTube is slowly onboarding sellers – here’s a link to the YouTube Affiliate seller signup form.

However, if you already have a Google Merchant account and meet the partner program guidelines, you can create a YouTube Shopping Feed.  

The benefit here is that you can partner with eligible creators or connect your own store to showcase your products in YouTube videos/shorts.

Keep Reading: Getting started with YouTube Shopping

22. Cross-sell - with some advice

You can send these through beauty eCommerce emails to existing subscribers and customers – or in-store:

✅ Cleaning advice – Send brush cleaning methods and product recommendations (or similar advice + products) to customers who’ve already made purchases 

✅ Storage advice – Show how to store makeup etc. – show related products – show this to customers with a cart of more than two products (this will prompt an impulse buy)

✅ Pairing advice – Think “Goes perfect with” sections – consider matching by skin tone – use your UGC here effectively – make sure you display a diverse range of customers

Further Reading: How to Cross-sell on Product Pages—Without Being Pushy (+ Examples)

23. Use replenishment nudges

Subscriptions work for beauty stores – as long as you frame them right:

✅ Remind that makeup has an expiration date – talk about setting up a frequency for a subscription (with free samples)

✅ Reinforce popularity with microcopy – stand by for support 

✅ Show the cancellation policy – along with the refund / return policy 

🔥 Quick Tip: Trigger based on average usage patterns of unique shoppers. So, messaging like “Your 50ml serum usually lasts 30 days—time to restock?” feels very personalized. 

Keep Reading: Writing Replenishment Emails That Convert

24. Take back expired products

No one knows what to do with expired or empty bottles – having a recycling program like Beautycycle adds to the brand value:

However, you can go a lot further with a recycling program if you combine it with your loyalty program:

✅ Create a tier to incentivize replenishment – consider throwing in a free gift or redeemable coupon on a $X sale

✅ Reaffirm that they’re giving back to the environment – reducing plastic waste (include beauty industry waste stats and the brand’s own contribution to the numbers)

Further Reading: Inclusive Marketing: 22 eCommerce brands that do it right

25. Real pictures please 🙂

Most beauty eCommerce stores tend to go overboard with product photos. 

Make sure your customers see people they can relate with – which is why it's helpful to have relatable and unedited photos such as this one:

Other than that, here’s what you should consider adding to your product display:

✅ Photos of product labels and packaging – displaying certificates and key ingredients 

✅ Diversity in models (in terms of ethnicity, shape, and gender) – if needed, use customer photos from your product reviews

✅ Be careful of ageism – don't be afraid to use your own images if needed:

🔥 Quick Tip: Additionally, focus on usage-centric imagery in your eCommerce beauty website — look at close-ups that highlight texture, finish, and shade. 

26. Optimize for mobile

Unless you are selling luxury beauty products, your store’s mostly going to be viewed on mobile. 

This is why it's important to consider your mobile UX – particularly product discovery – check how Bambu Earth displays its categories:

What's even more important is that you should have:

✅ A sticky header – make sure it displays not more than 3 items at a time

✅ Mobile payment options – think Venmo, Apple Pay, etc – this is to ensure that users can check out in one click

✅ Intelligent color psychology & design hierarchy – note how the above example leads the eyes to the subscription option – by simply matching the colors on the CTA and the ‘free-shipping’ microcopy

✅ Easy ways to filter reviews – offer a search bar within reviews as well to improve your mobile UX:

27. Find smarter ways to connect with first-time visitors

As much as rising customer acquisition costs are a reality in beauty eCommerce, the antidote too is right there for more such stores to implement. 

The idea is to appeal to the intent with which first-time visitors flock to the store. 

Something that Primally Pure leverages right beneath the first fold on the homepage:

Other ways you can get this right to increase profits from beauty sales:

✅ Maintain a funnel quiz nudge in the first fold across the site — Be it on the hero banner, the main menu or the notification bar, this can really reduce fatigue in stores where larger beauty catalogs are present

✅ Balance recommendations with social proof — No, we’re not saying get rid of the latter. We’re saying there’s enough flavors of social proof across the site for first-time visitors to consider buying your beauty products than they would otherwise have

Coming back to Primally Pure again, check out how seamlessly they show their customer photos along with review snippets:

Further Reading: 18 Brilliant Ways To Convert First-Time Visitors Into Buyers (eCommerce)

28. Don't fake exclusivity

Beauty shoppers can see right through urgency triggers like these – note the “only 16 left in stock”: 

This is why we recommend personalization to create exclusivity—or, going through your sales data to create a claim such as this one:

🔥 Quick Tip: Bring in real-time stock data even if you have to drive scarcity or exclusivity — only “142 units left – restocking in 10 days” is way more transparent than “only 142 units left”.

29. Use your emails to close the sales

People love shopping on eCommerce beauty stores for the deals—and they will wait for it—only if you ask them to:

Thus, your emails are the place to not only close sales but also get them started; take a look at this welcome email:

Here are some more ideas on what you can do with emails for your beauty store to improve sales:

✅ Ask them to complete their wishlist – which is also a way of handling browse abandonment

✅ Create a secret sale – like a back-in-stock sale – or a flash sale

✅ Send early access to high spenders – remind them about loyalty points and more

Want more inspiration for your beauty eCommerce email marketing? 

Read: Beauty Brand Email Marketing: 30 Great Examples (+ Templates)

30. Retarget like a champ

Last, but not least, your retargeting efforts must continue – check how Credo Beauty sends a humorous cart abandonment retargeting ad:

Other than that, you can also use your SMS channels to send subscribers notifications about product launches, or exclusive offers that they may be missing out on:

Need more inspiration? 

Read: Brilliant eCommerce Retargeting (and Remarketing) Examples

4 Ways to Improve Customer Loyalty on Your Beauty eCommerce Website

While beauty products naturally lend themselves to repeat buying, the niche is super congested — and that only means one thing: you’ve got to retain your current customers and drive loyalty, so that acquiring more doesn’t eat into your bottom line. 

👉 Make repeat buying feel like progress

There’s a reason why brands like Ulta and Sephora boast of loyalty programs that shoppers generally love to leverage. When you incentivize repeat beauty product purchases, shoppers are able to see why they should stick around with your brand more. 

Here are a few tactics that never fail to bring in more for our clients:

• Show loyalty progress in-cart every time they buy (this invariably helps them anticipate the value around the next purchase)
• Show loyalty threshold reminders across the buying journey and over emails (since shoppers engage with many brands, they may not remember how many points they’re sitting on in your store)
• Give them perks like pre-order access to new product launches and exclusive access to expert content as they move along the loyalty rungs

Further Reading: 26 Brilliant Ways To Boost eCommerce Repeat Sales

👉 Ramp up your subscription box strategy

It’s great that your beauty product pages are optimized to show that AutoShip or “buy 3 packs for 2 / 4 / 6 months” option. But in 2025, your game plan has to be stronger. Here are a few ways your subscriptions can take shoppers to the next level of buying:

• Create subscription tiers, not just in terms of frequency or quantity but also in terms of targeting early shoppers, mid-funnel buyers and loyal customers. For example, a structure like: Starter (3 minis) → Essentials (5 full-size + 1 sample) → Luxe (premium/full-size + early access items) could help you target more closely across the conversion funnel
• Move beyond static boxes, and let them build a box, while stating pricing thresholds clearly
• Launch limited edition sets for peak buying season, and make sure to create omnichannel hype

👉 Personalize across sessions & across the journey

You see we could’ve just spoken about optimizing recommendations in your eCommerce beauty store. But in truth, shoppers will stick around for repeat purchases only if they consider you a trusted advisor. 

Here’s what you can do to improve personalization across sessions:

• Pick up on data to create persistent profiles based on skin type, concern and even past purchases they made straight from quizzes. Use these to show “find your routine” suggestions when they come back for the next session
• Set up recommendations to be dynamic and progressive across sessions. For example, if you showed best starter suggestions the first time around, surface complementary products the next time
• Also, set up cross-device syncing so that the experience of exploring and considering before buying feels seamless

And, here’s what improving personalization across the journey will look like:

• For first-time visitors, use a light funnel quiz and follow it with instantly tailored recommendations
• For new customers (who’ve bought once), consider sending “Build Your Bundle” emails as well as show it as a discounted option on the website
• For loyal customers (who’ve been around for more than 6 months), offer sudden bursts of exclusivity across emails and even SMS flows, something like: “You’ve been with us for 6 months — here’s an exclusive shade only for members.”

👉 Make your community & UGC game strong

While spending on ads is always an option, beauty stores quickly discover there are more organic ways to improve customer loyalty — the chief of them being finding ingenious ways to have excited shoppers create user generated content. 

• Integrate UGC creation with your loyalty program and use prompts like “Get 50 loyalty points when you snag & tag!”
• Launch a micro-community on FB or Discord and then hype it up within your store - be it on the footer or on the about us page
• Host progress-based challenges like 30-day skin resets so that shoppers can record videos on changes - and the best thing is, you can format these into “before / after” creatives and use them across socials and product pages. 

2x Beauty Sales with Standout UX

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