Beauty without boundaries: creating growth in a data-driven world
Beauty brands are everywhere - in stores, everywhere online, and around the world. The winners will be those who can use their fragmented data to make better decisions and create an exceptional customer experience while driving profitability
A point of view by Tereza Lickova (CTO Calon Analytics)
The beauty and skincare industry is in a fascinating situation in 2025. With global sales approaching $500 billion per year and growing, brands face both enormous opportunities and complex challenges. Digital sales now account for 30% of revenue, part of a broader $4 trillion yearly global eCommerce market. However, gaining insights from data from multiple channels is an ongoing problem that causes significant competitive issues.
Today's beauty brands must master a complex web of sales channels:
Traditional retail stores
Brand-owned websites
Online marketplaces
Social commerce platforms
Mobile shopping apps
Each channel brings its own rules, systems, and customer expectations. The shifts in technology and regulations that we have seen already in 2025 - from TikTok's changing presence to new tariffs - add another layer of complexity. While U.S. and Chinese tech platforms remain dominant, new regional ecosystems are emerging in Africa, with Europe likely to follow.
Physical stores and salons remain crucial, especially in beauty and skincare where customers want to touch, feel, and try products. This creates a true omnichannel journey - customers might discover products on social media, research online, try in store, and purchase through a marketplace.
The Challenge Ahead
To succeed in this environment, brands must connect data across all these touchpoints. This means:
Delivering consistent customer experiences
Managing inventory across channels
Maintaining profitable pricing
Optimizing supply chains
Controlling costs
About Calon
Calon is the first complete analytics platform built for consumer brands. We connect all your data - from stores to supply chain - helping you serve customers better and grow profits. With 40 years of experience serving global brands with analytics and data , we make it simple to turn data into results. www.calonanalytics.com
Market Context and trends driving change
Channels are changing, consumers are more demanding, leading to major changes in skincare and beauty business models as well as increased regulatory requirements. Lifetime value is a crucial metric to take into account across all these channels
Channel disruption
Beauty brands now market and sell through more channels than ever before. Traditional stores and salons are competing with direct-to-consumer websites, social commerce, and marketplaces.
Most brands now operate across multiple channels. They must manage distributors, physical retail, hybrid models, their own D2C, as well as online marketplaces and social commerce, creating new challenges connecting customer data and managing inventory.
Each channel demands different operations and economics. TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping have changed the game, requiring new approaches to inventory and fulfillment. Amazon Premium Beauty and Sephora bring their own strict packaging and compliance rules.
Consumer behaviour
While advice is going online - whether virtual consultations by Charlotte Tilsbury or skin colour matching by Trinny London, the physical retail channel is still a major player when selling new products or to new consumers. Personalisation
Beauty consumers today are more knowledgeable than ever before. So-called 'Skintellectuals' understand complex ingredients and demand detailed product information and expect clear evidence that products work.
User reviews and social proof are seen as much more trustworthy than brand claims. Consumers research across multiple platforms before buying. TikTok and Instagram are driving rapid trend cycles, creating overnight demand for specific ingredients or products, putting pressure on the supply chain.
Personalization, such as that offered by Function of Beauty and PROVEN Skincare has become essential, not optional. Consumers expect custom product recommendations and tailored routines. They want products that match their skin tone, ingredient preferences, and lifestyle needs.
Business model evolution
Beauty brands are reinventing how they create and capture value. Traditional product-only models now compete with subscriptions, services, and community platforms. Brands like Beauty Pie are disrupting pricing models, while Glossier builds community-driven product development.
Product development cycles have accelerated dramatically. Brands must move from concept to market faster than ever. Community feedback now drives innovation. The Ordinary and Good Molecules show how rapid ingredient-first innovation can build market share.
Supply chain transparency has become crucial. Consumers want to know where ingredients come from and how products are made. Youth To The People have a clear sustainability agenda and Biossance lead with their transparent supply chains. This requires sophisticated tracking systems and clear communication.
Data drives everything now. Brands need to understand customer preferences, predict inventory needs, and track performance across channels. Tools that worked for single-channel brands can't handle this complexity. Data-driven decisions are needed to scale a beauty business.
Supply chain complexity
Raw material sourcing has become increasingly challenging. Natural ingredient supplies face climate impact and seasonal variation. Single-source ingredients create supply risk. The rise of "hero ingredients" like bakuchiol or niacinamide can strain global supply affecting availability and price / margin.
Manufacturing requires new levels of flexibility. Brands need both mass production and small-batch capabilities. Korean manufacturers lead in innovation but have high minimums. European manufacturers offer prestige but at premium costs.
Speed-to-market pressure strains traditional supply chains. Trend-driven products need faster development cycles. Contract manufacturers struggle with small runs. New brands compete with established players for production slots.
Inventory management has become more complex. Multiple sales channels need different packaging formats. International expansion requires market-specific manufacturing. Sustainability goals often conflict with practical supply chain realities.
Packaging challenges
Sustainability goals are reshaping packaging strategies. Premium brands struggle to maintain their luxury feel with recycled materials. Refill systems like those from Le Labo create operational complexity. Multi-layer packaging needed for formula stability conflicts with recycling goals.
Supply chain disruption has become the norm. Glass shortages affect luxury skincare brands. Custom component lead times stretch to 12+ months.
Digital commerce changed packaging requirements. Products must survive extended shipping chains. Unboxing experiences drive social media engagement. Brands like Charlotte Tilbury set new standards for protective yet Instagram-worthy packaging.
The most important analytics focus areas to drive growth
Analytics will separate market leaders from followers in beauty and skincare - knowing your customer, market and maximising margin potential, along with being sustainable.
Get the full 15 page PDF point of view here! Includes
The most important analytics focus areas to drive growth covering customer, market, margins and sustainability
The different analytics needs of companies as they scale, including the pain points, hidden costs and missed opportunities that we always see
The data and analytics challenges at different stages of growth and ways to overcome these challenges
The crucial two cultural things you need to get right
Our vision for how beauty brands can leverage analytics for sustainable, profitable growth
