As Covid-19 and its hold on the world’s health and economy continues, research—and personal conversations—show that at times of uncertainty, businesses and consumers tend to align with their tried-and-true partners.

Bluecore, a retail technology company that tracks consumer buying trends—and which works with over 400 retailers and brands, including Sephora and CVS—has been closely monitoring the beauty market as well as other channels, since the start of the pandemic.

Some of their latest data (as I write this in month 6 of Covid!) shows that while shoppers have spent the last several months finding new sites from which to purchase articles such as clothing, when it comes to their beauty routines, they’re sticking with their preferred brands or retailers they’ve bought from in the past. If they’re trying new products at all, they’re buying them from the sellers they trust.

In fact, Bluecore reports that Beauty has seen a 341% one-week spike in online sales (as compared to the same week last year)—and very few of those sales have been from first- and second-time buyers.

While Beauty has generated the largest increase in sales compared to other retail categories, it saw the sharpest decline in first-time buyers (67% less than the same time period last year) and a 69% decrease in second-time buyers.

This doesn’t mean they’re not curious about new products though: Bluecore says consumers are viewing beauty products 297% more in one week than usual and adding them to their cart 324% more often than the same time last year. So there are lots of opportunities to get a compelling message across—including, of course, through dynamic packaging. (For more insight from Bluecore, including thoughts on how to turn browsers into shoppers, please see Experts’ Views at BeautyPackaging.com).

Following this same vein of loyalty, Beauty Packaging’s publisher Jay Gorga and I, along with our incredible staff of print, online and social media specialists, want to express our sincere gratitude to our audience and partners for your trust and support during these unprecedented times as we work toward keeping you in the focused eye of the industry.

Moving forward, and in light of the many industry trade show cancellations and postponements this year, we have developed a number of targeted vehicles to visibly bring together buyers and suppliers, including up-close interviews, new product video reveals and virtual booth eblasts. (To find out more, please contact [email protected].)

Stay safe and well—and we hope to see you soon!!