Natural ingredients and sustainability are issues concerning consumers all over the world. This was the conclusion of market research institute GWI and the media platform Teads's joint study "Fresh Faces", asking women about their online behaviour when shopping for beauty and skincare products.

Conscious consumerism: An international phenomenon

Around 4,500 consumers from eight different countries (Germany, France, UK, USA, Italy, Brazil, Japan and Mexico) were surveyed. It clearly showed that the conscious consumption of beauty products appears to be a global trend. Overall, 78 per cent of respondents valued environmentally friendly packaging, and 58 per cent were even prepared to pay more money for products packaged in this way. Every other person asked (47 per cent) paid attention to the animal-free manufacturing of the products.

Personal research outweighs the judgement of influencers

43 per cent of respondents were influenced by high-quality content when making their purchase decisions. That could be for example an article or advertisement. In comparison, influencers performed worse. Only about 1 in 10 (9 per cent) attaches value to the opinions of social media personalities.

Purchases are made in store rather than online

The majority of the participants indicated that they prefer to shop in local stores rather than online. However, when they do purchase something online, this is largely due to the wider selection (42 per cent) and the ability to compare prices (41 per cent). Consumers rarely turn to large online retailers, buying directly from the respective brand instead.

Germany: Significant scepticism about new technologies

In comparison to other countries, German respondents were more sceptical of technical novelties like face filters for product testing. Only the Japanese and the French expressed more hesitation. Older respondents tended to be more averse than millennials. The biggest reservations were concerning chatbots, followed by face filters and virtual assistants.

Source: Teads, photo: Adobe Stock/ paulynn