The world of commerce was already shifting heavily toward the digital sphere before the global shutdown. Then, when most people were stuck in their homes with round-the-clock access to the internet, e-commerce exploded. One area that saw a huge increase in revenues was personal care. In recent years, e-commerce has helped shape consumer buying habits in personal care in ways worth paying attention to. Here are just a few: 

1. Product Imagery and Descriptions 

It’s hard to get excited about buying something sight unseen. Before e-commerce, consumers had glossy magazine pages to flip through. But in the early days of the internet, web design didn’t always allow for eye-catching images. And product descriptions left much to be desired, thanks to keyword stuffing and lackluster content creation. Many customers preferred to simply go inside the store to touch the items and ask questions of salespeople. 

Today, however, consumers can watch videos, demos, and view images that pop with color and depth. You can practically feel the texture of panties, bras, and stockings. Retailers will often offer an image of their item from every angle, and even allow you to interact on screen. Product descriptions now include details of ingredients, fabrics, materials, and even use cases and testimonials. Consumers find themselves enticed to buy items aimed specifically at self-care.

2. Sustainable Products and Packaging 

Each generation that comes along seems to be more engaged in the fight to save the planet from destruction. They recycle, they drive less, and they demand sustainable products, right down to the packaging. They’ll even go so far as to boycott companies they discover using harmful products or practices. And because the internet is now a wealth of information, it’s challenging for an irresponsible company to hide its guilt. 

Personal care items especially are required by consumers to be eco-friendly. More people want undergarments, soaps, shampoos, and lotions to be sustainable or come in bars or reusable packages. E-commerce companies capitalize on this trend by writing blog posts about their commitment to being more green. They can include a web-page on their site about their mission to drive sustainability. And they can post on social media about their first-hand efforts to save the earth.   

3. Loyalty Programs 

Loyalty programs are not new, of course. You’ve always been able to get a punch card at your local cafe or earn points at your favorite clothing store. But loyalty programs online take this trend several steps further. Now, loyalty programs are about building community, interacting with the brand, and spreading word-of-mouth about the customer’s favorite products. There are several ways businesses can reward customer loyalty online. 

The most common loyalty program, of course, is one that offers points, but that’s old news. Much more exciting, and engaging, are loyalty programs that require customers to interact with the brand online. This could be through a social media post that tags your favorite shampoo in exchange for a gift card entry or a subscription program that rewards customers who register online for regular soap and lotion deliveries. The goal is to lock the customer into the brand in as many ways as possible. 

4. Frictionless Checkout and Returns

Of course, the real shift that has made e-commerce in personal care so explosive lies in the art of simplicity. When it’s a headache to add to cart, checkout, and schedule a delivery, customers would rather just go to the store. Or, they’ll find a brand that does make it easy. The whole point of buying your personal care products online is that it’s fast, accurate, and easy. E-commerce retailers who nail this element are more likely to win customers to their brand.  

Think about it — no woman wants to buy a bra, a new shampoo, or a new razor only to find she doesn’t like it and can’t return it. Especially with the power of Amazon, where purchases are easy, deliveries are fast and free, and returns are simple, online retailers have to compete. The more painless you make the purchase process, the more likely customers are to try your products out. The easier you make returns, the more likely they’ll be to come back for more.

5. Easy Navigation

Finally, there are few things better for a shopper than flipping through the latest catalog of your favorite brand. This feeling goes back over a hundred years to when the Sears catalog used to go out to homes around the country. Families would choose clothes, undergarments, soaps, and more to be delivered to their homes via train. In those days, navigation was easy. So, you can see why online shopping for personal care has to be easy as well. 

An e-commerce website that’s easy to navigate will be more attractive to users and get more visits, more clicks, and more “add to carts.” Especially when you can add multiples of a single item, get discounts for buying more than one item, or “find more items like this.” Customers want to feel like they’re truly shopping when they’re on a personal care website. If they do, they’ll be hit with retail fever and start adding to care more and more. 

In the end, e-commerce is a strong contender for in-person shopping for many people, even this many years after the global shutdown. This is likely because retailers have made it more attractive for consumers to shop from their phones or desktops than to trek out to the shopping mall. As a result, many men and women today find themselves buying their personal care items online. And they’re likely to keep those habits up as long as retailers can keep making it easy to do so.