Consumers are increasingly shopping for beauty products online — and they want help doing it. But that doesn’t mean they want emails from store associates. 

In fact, 75.49% are not interested in having a store associate reach out via email, text or social media regarding beauty products, according to a new study from Salesfloor.  

Yet 47.55% say they are buying more of the beauty products online during the COVID-19 pandemic. And 50% have little confidence in selecting a product without a sales associate (presumably in-store). 

Moreover, 50% see the value in engaging with a virtual sales associate, although only 20.85% have done so. 

In addition, 54.93% agree that having a knowledgeable associate assist in recommending products is preferable to shopping online without such help. 

However, 75% are planning to shop in-store for beauty products this holiday season.  

Meanwhile, 33.62% have changed the types of beauty products they are purchasing.  

Shoppers in this sample are interested in BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store), by the following margins:

• Very likely — 13.15%
• Likely — 26.01%
• Somewhat likely — 30.70%
• Unlikely — 30.14% 

On another front, 27.23% have bought a beauty product online from multiple brands, and returned the ones they didn’t like. But 30.60% of those would not have returned them if  a virtual associate was there to help.  

How much buying power is going into beauty products? The respondents are allocating these percentages of their total holiday buying:

• Less than 10% — 64.98% 
• 11-30% — 27.79% 
• 31-50% — 5.82%
• More than 50% — 1.41%

The respondents are using these devices: 

• iOS Phone/Tablet — 51.74% 
• Android Phone/Tablet — 35.87% 
• Other Phone/Tablet — 0.00% 
• Windows Desktop/Laptop — 8.92%
• MacOS Desktop/Laptop — 3.00%
  
• Other — 0.47%

Salesfloor surveyed 1,065 consumers.