Is it only a matter of time before online beauty sales dominate – over brick-and-mortar stores? According to the date from a recent Harris poll, consumers may be gradually shifting toward online merchants.

14% more consumers who were surveyed said they are shopping more online for beauty products than two to three years ago, although the top merchants are still brick-and-mortar stores, and these are limited to 3 main types: “big box” retail stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores/supermarkets.

The majority of shoppers utilize “big box” retailers for each type of cosmetic and grooming product surveyed –  sunscreen 64%; shampoo and conditioner 62%; hair styling product 62%; hair color product 60%; non-sunscreen product with SPF protection 59%; facial/skin care product 54%, and cosmetic 54%.

Certain product categories stand out – facial/skin care products and cosmetics had the most diverse responses.

• For cosmetics, online merchants (28%), department stores (24%) and grocery stores (23%) round out the top five after “big box” retailers (54%) and pharmacies (39%). Other popular channels outside of these include in-person at a specialty beauty products merchant (19%) and in-person/not in a store (15%).
• Similarly, for facial/skin care product purchasers, online merchants (27%) rank third, after “big box” retailers (54%) and pharmacies (31%), along with outperforming grocery stores (23%). Department stores (17%) are another popular channel, while another one-in-ten turn to an in-person specialty beauty products merchant (11%).

Online merchants are currently most popular for purchasing cosmetics (28%), facial/skin care products (27%), hair color products (22%), non-sunscreen products SPF protection (21%), and hair styling products (20%). They are less popular for sunscreen (14%) and shampoo and/or conditioner (12%) purchases.
• Looking at the different types of online merchants, online mass merchandisers are the most popular online channel for the majority of surveyed products (facial/skin care products 17%, non-sunscreen products with SPF protection 13%, hair color products 13%, hair styling products 12%, shampoos and/or conditioners 8%, and sunscreen 8%), with the exception of cosmetics, where online specialty beauty products merchants take the top spot (17%). 

Here’s the full results of this study, including data tables. The survey included 2,068 U.S. adults, which were surveyed online between June 16-18, 2014.