The recent worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses in almost all sectors and industries, big or small, in some form or another. From production and logistics to sales and customers, and reputation. The coronavirus lockdown has made it very difficult for some companies to thrive and has had an especially severe impact on the multi-billion pound beauty industry. So, in this blog article by online hair and appointment booking service, Glamdeva, let’s take a dive into how the COVID-19 era has taken a toll on the beauty industry, and how we’re bouncing back with a passion.
Impact of Lockdown
The beauty industry thrives on physical stores and mobile beauty services, each of which brings in tens of thousands of pounds in revenue every day, and it has been this way for decades. Stores providing beauty products, and both chain and independent beauty salons, all crucially depend on their physical presence on the high streets of the United Kingdom to attract old and new customers and bring in regular sales. In the most significant way imaginable, the coronavirus pandemic has entirely undermined this model. Lockdown.
In the past the beauty industry has exhibited a remarkable display of resilience to crises, such as economic disasters and declining consumer spending in many countries. There is a powerful and continuing demand for beauty products and an endless well of consumer attention has made it possible for beauty stores to ride through hard times quite a bit more easily than some other businesses, like real estate brokers, which depend more heavily upon the economy to sustain their income streams.
Moving to a new model
The coronavirus pandemic is quite different from the challenges the beauty industry has faced in the past, though. For many companies in Britain, as well as independent salons, the lockdown has tossed their entire business plan out of the window and forced them to uproot and find new ways to survive during the past few tough months.
And even after many of the restrictions have been lifted, the impact of the pandemic has made some huge and noticeable changes to the way consumers buy makeup and other beauty products.
Some companies have moved entirely to the cloud and doubled down on online sales, beginning new marketing schemes to push their products to consumers through the web rather than in-store, and others have chosen to integrate online technology with their existing physical selling models, by offering handy services such as the ever loved ‘click and collect’.
With these new systems in place, the beauty industry has been moving forward to working closely with technology and establishing stronger presences online. By distributing information about store restrictions, offering click and collect services, and encouraging consumers to purchase products online, there is now a growing dependency on SaaS, or software as a service, technology to keep beauty businesses alive!
How the beauty industry is using the cloud
Now that the coronavirus pandemic has forced the beauty industry to adapt to new selling models to keep their consumers interested and buying, those companies that have not kept up are feeling the pressure to make broad changes too.
Cloud software offers a wide range of tantalising options for the beauty industry and allows businesses to maintain consumer demand and provide a huge offering of products and services with ease of purchase. Product centered companies are using cloud software to enact better, more efficient marketing schemes, reach people online, manage clients and customers, and accept payments, allowing them to protect their staff and consumers and hang onto their physical presence too.
The story is very similar for freelancers and independent beauty salons. Though they arguably suffered the most at the start and peak of the pandemic, as they don’t have a wide range of products and the leadership needed to adapt to an online selling model quickly, they’re finding innovative solutions to market themselves through the web and keep in store restrictions in place so they can stay open, too. The pandemic has also encouraged many of these independent salons to begin offering their own, home brand products online, as well as beauty tutorials, which many consumers happily pay for!
Conclusion
Moving to cloud software and improvising to continue reaching consumers has been an integral part of the beauty industry’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and we can only see these new, online-based trends continuing into the future as more salons and beauty companies invest in marketing their products and services on the web.
And because cloud software makes it super easy for consumers to research brands and spend online, with time beauty companies will lean more into building relationships with consumers through technology. Glamdeva is all for this!
