E-searches for beauty, fashion are rising, cosmetics sector could see fast recovery

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 28, 2020

The lockdown may be easing, but the coronavirus continues to negatively impact many product sectors in the UK. Yet some sectors are already seeing a recovery of sorts with searches for certain products back on the rise.

Reboot Online Marketing Agency has analysed recent Google Trends data and found that rising searches for cosmetics make beauty one of the sectors most likely to recover quickly when stores reopen.

In fact, based on the volume of online searches happening recently, the agency went as far as saying that the beauty and cosmetics industry are calculated to recover in terms of the level of interest in such products "by June 28". Admittedly, that may not immediately translate into actual sales, but following declining interest earlier this month, the segment should be able to “recuperate" during the summer and get back to good health relatively fast after that.

Beauty actually came in third on the list of sectors seeing resurgent interest (car rental and education were first and second).

And it’s significant that leisure/sport was fourth and tourism fifth. Interest in both these sectors suggests that demand for products such as sports shoes and clothing could return fast, and that traffic to stores in tourist destination cities and towns could also rise faster than expected post-lockdown.

Yet overall, clothing remains one of the hardest hit sectors by the lockdown with many consumers having shown a marked lack of interest in new clothes between March and late May. But it’s clear that interest in fashion is growing again. The data Reboot looked at showed a distinct year-on-year spike in searches for clothing in recent weeks, that was well above the search levels of a year ago.

Some of that will be the result of shoppers not being able to go into physical stores to find what they're looking for, of course. But it does still mean that some pent-up demand can be expected when shops reopen next month.