How age impacts beauty shopping behaviors on Amazon

The beauty industry continues to evolve its Amazon strategies, leveraging new learnings about how different age demographics shop and what factors each group finds the most valuable in assessing a prospective purchase. 

As more beauty brands join Amazon — including Too Faced, Clinique, Kiehl’s, Scarlett Johansson’s The Outset, Corpus body care and skin-care brand Pendrell, all this year — brands must become increasingly aware of changing consumer behaviors on the growing marketplace retailer. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, Amazon will overtake Walmart as the country’s top beauty retailer by 2025 with 14.5% of the market share. 

“The biggest difference we have observed between generations is, surprisingly, not what they are buying, but how they are buying,” Emily Safian-Demers, director of insights at Front Row e-commerce and marketing agency, told Glossy. “The biggest difference saw [in our Amazon research] is the path to purchase.” 

Safian-Demers and her team found that, while younger shoppers often discover products on social media, they are increasingly more motivated to purchase the product on Amazon instead of a social app or following a link to an outside retailer. According to Front Row, half of skin-care shoppers aged 13-18 have purchased skin care on Amazon in the last six months. 

This behavior appears to be tied to access. According to Front Row, 43% of skin-care shoppers aged 13-18 have their own Amazon account, which jumps to 69% for 18-year-olds. And a third of skin-care shoppers aged 13-16 have access to their parents’ account.

“Younger consumers aren’t thinking about your brand differently on all these different platforms, so it’s important to have a consistent brand experience,” Safian-Demers told Glossy. Younger consumers are also driven by reviews on Amazon product pages and testimonials found on social media, whereas older consumers use Amazon more like a search engine. For example, a Gen-Z shopper comes to Amazon knowing exactly what they want, whereas a Gen-X consumer may start on Amazon by searching a product category or brand. 

“Younger generations are discovering products off-channel and coming to Amazon to buy, while older generations are more likely to discover products on Amazon,” Safian-Demers said. “It’s reflective of the mindset of different generations when it comes to beauty shopping on Amazon or elsewhere: Older generations tend to [prefer] more of a one-stop shop.” 

This is paired with an overall increase in older generations’ gradual migration into digital shopping. For example, according to data collected by Circana market research firm over the 12 months ending in May 2024, consumers ages 55 and over were the only generation to have a year-over-year increase in online-only beauty purchasing, shifting away from the more traditional physical retail.

Meanwhile, younger generations, who are more likely to be jumping between platforms, are looking for third-party validation. For example, 49% of teen skin-care shoppers say social media plays a factor in their skin-care purchasing decisions, Safian-Demers told Glossy. 

As more and more brands jockey to reach these shoppers, Amazon ads are an alluring prospect. According to performance market research company Tinuiti, its clients increased their ad spend over Amazon Prime Day by 200% in 2024 versus 2023. Joe O’Connor, senior innovation and growth director at the firm, partially attributed this growing trend to the rising cost of customer acquisition online. The result has been more brands traveling up their marketing funnel to increase their reach on Amazon. 

It’s also tied to competition in July. According to consumer insights and data company Numerator, more than half of Prime Day shoppers compared prices with other retailers before making a purchase. Retailers like Target, Walmart and Dermstore all ran promotions during the two-day Amazon Prime Day sale. 

Still, physical retail remains the top beauty retail destination despite a shift away from in-store-only beauty shopping, according to Circana. According to the firm, just under 25% of beauty shoppers purchase beauty products online only.

Executive moves: 

• Vinima Shekhar is the new vp of beauty at Walmart. She has been with the company since 2018 and replaces Creighton Kiper, who has been promoted to svp of the retailer’s home business. 

News to know:

• The alleged leader of an $8 million cosmetics theft ring in Southern California has pled guilty to charges of organized retail crime. As previously reported by Glossy, this bust was part of the California Highway Patrol’s Organized Retail Crime Taskforce program, which has recovered more than $41 million worth of stolen goods since the program launched in 2019.
  
• Estée Lauder-owned La Mer is launching a $450 night cream this week. The new Rejuvenating Night Cream features a new star ingredient from the brand called MRA-3, which is designed to be a retinol alternative. It comes on the heels of the European Union’s new regulations that limit the amount of retinol in skin- and body-care products.
• Bath & Body Works announced another Netflix-powered partnership with a new line of candles inspired by “Stranger Things.” The retailer also released a line of “Bridgerton”-focused products earlier this year.
• After seven years in business, indie beauty e-tail and brick-and-mortar retailer Clean(er) Beauty Shop will close its doors at the end of this month.
• Clean beauty skin-care brand Indie Lee, which is sold at retailers like Credo Beauty, Nordstrom and Ulta Beauty, has been acquired by American Exchange Group. This is the group’s second beauty purchase after last year’s acquisition of AX Beauty Brands (formerly HatchCollective), which owns NatureWell, Orlando Pita Play, Txtur and Paint & Petals. 

In the headlines:

Channing Tatum is the new face of Versace Eros fragrances. CAA brand incubator Creative Beauty and Pley Beauty’s collapse leaves contractors unpaid. The beautification of bug repellent. SK-II unveils immersive concept store in Kuala Lumpur. This functional onesie suit aims to provide the same benefits as a pricey lymphatic drainage massage. Influencer-founded Divi, which plans to be a $100 million hair-care business by 2025, enters Ulta Beauty at Target. More teen-focused period-care startups are entering wholesale. 

Listen in: 

Tweens talk beauty on the Glossy Beauty Podcast this week, including their skin-care routines, social media must-follows and Sephora shopping habits. 

Need a Glossy recap? 

Why dating apps are the new hot spot for beauty brand marketing. Lisa Rinna and Elsa Hosk join Glossy Beauty Pop speaker lineup. Inside Lush’s brick-and-mortar store remodel. Estée Lauder is betting on the business of sleep with new night launches. Sienna Naturals, fronted by Issa Rae, launches at Sephora. Patrick Ta is (also) quietly building a blush empire. Substack is boosting sales for young brands. With department stores in transition, Macy’s puts the focus on fragrance.