Replenishment is not the only possibility for the Net. No way am I elbowing department-store crowds at Christmastime to try a new hand cream. Now if they sold it online, I might act on my interest now. First, blame the big beauty brands. By staying out of the online game, the beauty giants hobbled the Internet stores from the start.
Brand loyalty is bigger in beauty than in perhaps any other category.
E-tailers couldn't pry our fingers loose from the brands we trust. Second, blame the online beauty companies for thinking they could make a go of this business sans big brand names. That was a misreading of the beauty consumer, says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Marketing, a New York-based consulting firm. The burst of newness in the cosmetics industry over the past few years, with companies like MAC and Sephora making a splash, created a false sense of security for the e-tailers, she says. They saw it as the rise of beauty democracy.