Share of shoppers buying beauty products online worldwide 2023, by generation

According to a survey during the second quarter of 2023, millennials made up the largest share of consumers globally who shopped for beauty products online (48 percent). Gen Z consumers followed, with 35 percent buying their beauty items on the web.

Doubling the money

The online beauty and personal care market worldwide generated a revenue of about 42.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, with China, the United States, and Japan being the three biggest markets. The cosmetics market is the fastest growing segment of the beauty market worldwide and is estimated to incur almost double its current revenue by 2027. In 2023, around 900 million people around the world purchased beauty products online. This number is expected to increase to over 1.2 billion by 2027.      

Trending on TikTok

With social media becoming more and more prominent, especially in younger generations, it is not a surprise that more people also engage in social commerce and purchase beauty products from apps. In the United States, TikTok has become the leading social media platform for purchasing various beauty items, followed by Instagram and Facebook. On TikTok, content creators and brands promote sales in two main ways, video sales and live sales. The majority of app-based sales are made through live sales, which refer to livestreams that promote products and offer shopping links. It is easy to see how popular beauty products are on TikTok from the number of views they receive, with Dyson, Cerave, and The Ordinary being the most popular beauty brands.