Half of US Women Buy Beauty on Amazon
In this brief report, we review data from our recent US consumer survey to explore who is buying beauty and personal care products on Amazon. Our survey was conducted among 1,699 demographically representative, Internet-using American adults between January 18 and January 24, 2018.
Our survey found beauty is a highly popular category on Amazon.
- Beauty and personal care products are the second-most-shopped category on Amazon in the US. When we asked consumers what categories they had bought on Amazon in the past 12 months, beauty and personal care items ranked behind only books (including e-books).
- Fully 48% of US female consumers have bought beauty or personal care products on Amazon in the past 12 months. This is double that of male consumers at 24%.
- Overall, 36% of respondents said they had bought beauty or personal care products on Amazon in the past year.
- A further 26% said they had bought health products such as vitamin supplements, making that the fifth-most-shopped category on Amazon.
Amazon Prime members drive shopping for beauty and personal care products on the site. As we chart below, over half of US Prime members have purchased beauty or personal care products on Amazon in the past year. In turn, we estimate that Prime members account for over 60% of Amazon beauty and personal care shoppers.
Younger shoppers are most likely to buy beauty products on Amazon. It may be tempting to conclude that younger shoppers are generally more enthusiastic about shopping on Amazon. But, in fact, this contrasts with our recent research on apparel, which found that the 18–29-year-old group was less likely than those ages 30–60 to have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon, and found that 18–29 year olds were the least likely age group to say that Amazon was a favorite retailer when shopping for clothing and footwear.
The popularity of shopping on Amazon is likely to be partly driven by the retailer’s price competitiveness. In our survey, some 37% of all respondents agreed that they usually save money when shopping for beauty products. Some 51% of women agreed with this statement.
Our survey found 18–29 year olds are the second most likely age group to say they try to save money when shopping for beauty products. As we have previously reported, younger beauty shoppers show a higher-than-average propensity to shop at value retailers such as Target, and millennials’ price consciousness is likely driving their shopping on Amazon, too.
It is clear that Prime members drive beauty sales on Amazon. Our research found that 43% of respondents had a Prime membership themselves, and an additional 21% who did not have a Prime membership themselves, had access to Prime benefits through someone else in their household. The reamining 36% did not have any access to Prime membership.
Data from Prosper Insights & Analytics shows the strong positive trend in Prime membership. Further growth in Prime membership will be key to helping Amazon build further market share in the beauty category.
