The global beauty industry has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, including weak first-quarter sales and widespread store closures.
This sector generates $532 billion in sales annually and accounts for millions of jobs. While lives come first, livelihood also matters.
The beauty industry, including skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetics, and personal care, has positively responded to the coronavirus crisis in a number of ways. Here are just nine of them.
1. Hand Sanitizer is a Hero
With soap and hand sanitizers flying off the shelves as people try to fight the spread of the virus and flatten the curve, big-name beauty companies are taking notice.
EO Products, a company that specializes in natural and organic body care, quadrupled its output of hand sanitizers without raising prices.
LVMH converted three of its perfume factories to make more hand sanitizers. They were expected to make more than 12 tons of hydro-alcoholic gels that would be given at no charge to hospital workers and French authorities around Europe.
Additionally, Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned fragrance and flavor company, made 20 tons of disinfectant solution.
2. Helping with Vaccines
The personal care and medical multinational company, Johnson & Johnson, partnered with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on vaccine development.
Moreover, Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech company that has dabbled in innovations in fragrance ingredients, shared its facilities and technologies with experts to develop inputs needed to combat the coronavirus.
3. Making More Virtual Events
To keep associates and clients safe and sound, more online events are taking the place of live ones. Base Beauty hosted their Virtual Beauty Events, which are live virtual events with curated and contracted beauty influencers who shared their product stories via social media.
Additionally, Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) created a line of webinars to keep their audiences informed and connected to a community during this prolific time.
4. Working Remotely
To ensure their employees stay safe, many companies are allowing their staff to work from home, when applicable. For example, Unilever, who owns the beauty brand Dove, is having all of their office-based employees work from home.
5. Innovative Beauty Events
With new challenges come new opportunities for innovation. The beauty industry is finding new ways to help corporate leaders and business owners survive, if not thrive, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Women’s Wear Daily hosted a series of webinars that were dedicated to the coronavirus and crisis management.
The Glow Getter Collective ran a virtual event called The Breakthrough Brands for D2C brand leaders seeking ways to help their brand get attention in the current marketplace.
And Salon Today hosted a webinar for stylists to help their businesses weather the crisis.
6. Independent Beauty Brands Matter Now More than Ever
Indie beauty brands across the world are facing unique challenges because of the pandemic. Many brands are taking to YouTube and other social media channels to try and increase sales, and the Indie Beauty Media Group is working around the clock to help beauty entrepreneurs stay informed and connected as much as possible.
7. Focusing on Growing Digital Business
To help their brands stay afloat, beauty professionals are focusing on growing their digital business and presence. As we mentioned earlier, many indie brands are reaching out to social media influencers on YouTube to do collaborations with them in videos where they test out and wear their products.
Beauty brands are also turning to other social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to help spread the word about their products and create a community for clients.
8. DIY Tutorials
Besides reaching out to social influencers, beauty experts are also taking to these platforms themselves to connect and help their clients. Many hair stylists and makeup artists are creating tutorials on YouTube to help clients look and feel their best while in quarantine.
This includes showing clients how to trim and touch up their own hair, explaining the best products that they can purchase in the supermarket or pharmacy, and how to apply flawless makeup even if you’re not a beauty expert.
9. Coming Together
As millions of beauty brands and professionals are suffering from a huge disruption due to the coronavirus, they are seeking solace in each other. From attending virtual events to creating communities on social media platforms to share inspiration and hope, the beauty industry is coming together to provide support, empathy, and guidance for everyone affected.
As you can see, the beauty industry is not only creative, but it is super resilient. From helping to mass produce much-needed hand sanitizer and soaps to providing online guidance for each other as well as clients, the beauty industry is learning new and improved ways to function (and flourish) during this crisis.
