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The fashion and beauty industries are always a growing factor backed by the increasing adoption of digital technologies and spaces as well as evolving behaviours of consumers. One of the main platforms that helped users discover products from the fashion and beauty sector is the Meta platform, especially the reels of Instagram. There is also a hike in the importance of the creators and augmented reality (AR) in influencing people in their purchasing decisions.
According to the Meta-Commissioned Studies by GWI in India of 2023, 40% of beauty shoppers prefer online channels to buy because of the discounts and deals offered, and another 40% for the convenience of shopping products from their own spaces. 38% of fashion consumers shop online for good reviews and ratings, and 37% for discounts and deals. Around 765 of fashion buyers and 80% of beauty buyers have admitted that they discover their respective brands on social media platforms. Among them, 97% choose fashion and 92% choose beauty brands from Meta platforms. Additionally, the reels play an important role in discovering the products for 33,3% of beauty and 39% of fashion consumers.
But how is Meta empowering fashion and beauty brands to succeed? Here are the features and assistance that it contributes to the sectors.
Specific Audience Targeting
Meta provides advanced targeting features such as lookalike audiences, broad targeting, custom audience, and layered targeting. It allows the brands to target users precisely with information on interests, behaviours, and demographics.
Creative advertising comes in handy in this situation. Dynamic Ads showcases a catalog of product images tailored specifically according to user preferences and browsing behaviours. Around 78% of consumers are influenced by personalized ads while making a purchasing decision. There are also features like an instant storefront, lookbook, customer acquisition, and storytelling. User-generated content has been a knight-in-shining-armour for the brands with beauty labels reporting 28,5% lower CPA (cost per acquisition) through low-fidelity, authentic content while comparing to the well-invested ads. Short reels and stories have been engaging parts for the younger audiences.
Brands such as Nike, The Body Shop, Sephora, Zara, Ralph Lauren, Mona, Maybelline, Guess, Puma, Polo Club, PrettyLittleThings, H&M, L'Oréal Paris, Adidas and Uniqlo are using catalog ads. These ads with customized product offerings and texts reached 37% higher Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) than the normal ads that do not use any personalization options. Zalora, the fashion retailer, used Meta ads to drive more sales and achieved a 6X ROAS. Tira Beauty used dynamic ads to feature best-selling products from brands such as Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Too Faced, and Estée Lauder. Chanel leveraged the insights and analytics from Meta to target high-net-worth clients to boost brand awareness and visibility.
These ads also cater to festival-based and end-of-season sale offers, i.e., Pour Moi’s special Christmas deals, Ralph Lauren’s 50% discount as a part of winter sale, Gant’s season selects with free delivery and return, and Nike’s end-of-season sale with up to 50% offer. Maybelline used an influencer-driven campaign for catalog ads - Maybelline ft. Tini. Sephora increased its discoverability by focusing on user-centric ads such as testimonials and tutorials while Zara focused on reels to display its collections in visually engaging and dynamic ways.
AR and VR Technologies
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have been huge assistants for fashion and beauty brands. 78% of fashion and 75% of beauty consumers are saying that the virtual try-ons have encouraged them to purchase online. AR technology on Facebook and Instagram allows customers to try the products virtually.
Meta also allowed brands to create their own AR filters for stories. Labels like Prada (Current Prada Mode), Dior (Rode Des Vents), Gucci (I See You), Miu Miu (Valentine’s Day special), Versace (Medusa), and Victoria Beckham (Which Victoria Beckham You Are) used the feature to express their identity on Instagram.
However, Meta has planned to shut down its AR studio Spark AR. From the 14th of January 2025, the available AR effects built by third parties on Instagram will be inaccessible. With this, the brands are forced to look for an alternative.
MAC cosmetics have launched virtual try-ons for lipsticks on Snapchat, giving users access to check out more shades and finishes. Maybelline New York has a VR experience on Meta for the consumers to try on makeup looks inspired by New York Fashion Week. Sephora had an augmented reality filter for the Christmas season featuring the star products.
Community Building and Influencer Marketing
Meta has helped the brands build a safe community by providing user networks and features across its platforms to facilitate user interaction. It allows the brand to communicate with the users personally and encourages user-generated content. The aids offered by Meta include a large user base, community group creation, influencer marketing, diverse features such as sharing content, hosting Q&A sessions, live streams, and more, targeted advertising, and useful analysis and insights.
Glossier leverages UGC to promote a community feel and trust among the users. It has a consistent visual style on all the posts with different sets of posts for different products to keep it engaging and fresh. With its community management and authenticity, Glossier was able to have a high level of loyalty and trust among its followers which led to a healthy community.
L'Oréal Paris launched a “Never Your Fault” campaign to empower women to fight against sexual harassment and emphasizing not blaming women’s behaviour, clothing, or makeup as the reason for it. These kinds of educational and awareness-giving campaigns lead to community building and development. The “Never Your Fault” campaign led to more women sharing their own experiences and supporting the message communicated on it. E.l.f. created the E.L.F. Run Club for its Power Grip Dewy Setting Spray in the London Marathon. It included various influencer content and BTS scenes.
Influencer marketing is another important strategy in digital marketing. Brands are actively using influencer marketing to build a strong community on social media. For its Super Bowl stage debut, CeraVe used Michael Cera to create a humorous campaign “Michael CeraVe” which was a pioneer immersive experience that sent an invitation for the people to engage in a pranking narrative. Nivea invited the young influencer Amy Portier to visit the Nivea labs and learn about the sunscreen formulation and its benefits. It hired another influencer Saniya Farrukh to feature the healthy aspects of having skincare on her social media platform. These acted as an educating content for its community.
Fenty Beauty collaborated with the first virtual influencer Lil Miquela to promote its products on her social media page. The influencer has collaborated with around 90 brands in the last 12 months. Some of the brands that partnered with her are Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Prada, Alexander McQueen, and more.
Meta Platforms have enabled the selling of products directly from their spaces to the consumers. The company offers features such as Facebook shops, live shopping, product tagging, Facebook marketplace, live streaming Instagram shopping, hyperlinking, and more. Brands such as Nike, Adidas, H&M, Zara, Nivea, Sephora, and CeraVe have been using these features to sell their products.
Nike has its catalog session on social platforms where users can view the whole collection and purchase the products. Coach has curated guides for special occasions such as Holiday Picks and Valentine’s Day specials to create dynamic ads with features to access its Instagram Shop. Tiffany & Co. has created posts with “View Shop” links to direct users to the shopping page of Instagram. Burberry featured bite-sized videos and Facebook Live to engage with the audience and encourage them to buy the products.
In November 2023, Amazon announced its partnership with Meta to integrate its e-commerce platform with Meta’s social media platforms which will provide the users a distractionless and seamless experience while purchasing products.
Cover Image: Meta California Office, courtesy Propmodo.