Beauty businesses shine spotlight on education as shutters stay closed

Beauty businesses across the UK are helping to future-proof the sector and maintain customer loyalty with a keener than ever focus on virtual consumer education, following the start of the second national lockdown last week.

Recent days have seen an explosion of online tutorials, virtual masterclasses and consultations, in a bid to keep brands and services front of mind for shoppers while shops and salons remain closed.

Eilidh Smith, founder and chief executive of SkinWork at Alex Eagle, which has posted a number of new skincare tutorials in recent days, said: “We want to be available for our existing and new clients to provide solutions to their skin concerns, in the ways we can at present - posting content on skin concerns and products, answering questions, recommending homecare products and routines and offering Skinworkshops over Zoom. We have also created home treatment kits based on our most popular facials."

Aromatherapy Associates chief executive Anna Teal added: “People within the industry must hold on to the fact that the need for us exists more than ever and to try as best as possible to use other resources such as online, collections and keep the conversation going with customers.”

The brand has recently launched an online gift guide to help shoppers take the pressure out of festive gifting along with a number of online promotions for its self-care kits.

Clarins has also launched a new Virtual Boutique and a Virtual Consultation service which allows shoppers to book a one-on-one personalised virtual consultation with one of its “Beauty Coaches” via live chat, audio only or video.

Free live virtual masterclasses with skincare experts are also scheduled to take place throughout the month.

Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council, said she expected the trend to continue growing in the coming weeks and also, “for and for e-commerce to continue to rise and generate more engagement.”

“We managed to get the click and collect pushed through in Lockdown 1.0 so this, whilst not a huge revenue generator, can help businesses serve customers from the front door.

“Equally we continue to lobby government for a VAT reduction which is essential for us to keep our doors firmly open in 2021,” she added.

Education of staff and beauty industry students is also continuing during the current lockdown, albeit with a number of key restrictions in place.