Pure beauty trends and the role of AI, TikTok, and GLP-1 drugs

The beauty industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace,with new technology and platforms giving consumers moreways than ever to explore personalized recommendations,evaluate products, and make purchases. Tinuiti surveyed1,003 beauty shoppers in January 2025 to understand what’sdriving purchase decisions and how the customer journey ischanging, gaining insight into key developments like therise of AI chatbots, weight-loss drugs, and video formatslike Get Ready With Me. Most Beauty Shoppers Have Not Cut Spendin the Category3 Social Media Outpaces AI Chatbots and OtherChannels for Beauty Product Discovery6 Facebook is the Top Social Platform forSocial Discovery, but TikTok Wins with Gen Z9 Influencers Drive Beauty Product Decisionsfor Many11 Beauty Shoppers Care Most About Price,but Ethical and Health Concerns Weigh onPurchase Decisions13 More than ¹/3of Beauty Shoppers UseTechnology to Preview What a ProductMight Look Like on Them16 Big-box Stores are Most Popular for BeautyPurchases, but Online Destinations ProveImportant17 Nearly One in Four Beauty Shoppers WouldConsider Using a GLP-1 Weight Loss Drug20 MostBeauty ShoppersHave Not CutSpend in the Category Asked how their current spending compares to a year ago, 32% said that they’re spending more comparedto 25% who responded that they’re spending less. With 43% of beauty shoppers spending about the sameas a year ago, 75% of those studied are spending at least as much as they were a year ago, the same figureobserved in last year’s survey results. Gen Z and millennials were more likely than older generations to report that they had increased their beautyspending with 42% saying they were spending more than a year ago. For Gen X and baby boomers, that ratewas just 25%. Baby boomers were the only generation where a larger share said they had decreased theirbeauty spending than increased it. While the rate of price inflation has cooled, beauty shoppers still say it’s having an impact on their shopping.Fully 41% say they shopped around more over the past year because of inflation, while 38% purchased fewerproducts and 37% are searching more for promotions and coupon codes. Among Gen Z, 37% of beauty shoppers reported buying cheaper brands, which was well above the 28%share of baby boomers who said the same. Gen Z was also much more inclined than baby boomers were tojoin loyalty programs to get product discounts, with 28% of Gen Z having done so compared to just 14%among baby boomers. For those beauty shoppers who said that they had reduced their spending on beauty products in the past year,the most common response to inflationary pressures has been to simply buy fewer products, with 59% makingthat choice. The next most common response was to buy cheaper beauty brands at 41% and to shop aroundmore at 34%. Looking to the year ahead, a majority of respondents expect to buy about the same amount of beautyproducts compared to the previous year, whether online or in a physical store. Among those who do expectto adjust their beauty product shopping, more respondents expect to increase their purchases than expectto decrease them. Over the next year, do you expect to buy beauty products either online or in a physical storemore, less, or about the same amount as the previous year? Source: Tinuiti survey data, January 2025 Gen Z and millennials were twice as likely asGen X and baby boomers were to say they expectto buy more beauty products over the next year.Gen Z in particular is still building its spendingpower, and they also expressed more opennessthan older generations to trying new beautyproducts and brands. “Gen Z in particular is still buildingits spending power, and they alsoexpressed more openness thanolder generations to trying newbeauty products and brands.” Recently introduced and potentially forthcoming tariffs may meaningfully impact demand for brands thatare forced to raise prices as a result. Canada, China, and Mexico, each currently in the crosshairs of possibletariffs, are among the biggest suppliers of imported beauty products in the US. Social Media Outpaces AI Chatbotsand Other Channels forBeautyProductDiscovery Asked where they recalled seeing or hearing about a new beauty product that they later went on to purchase inthe last year, 38% of respondents selected social media, the top response. This was followed by television andin-store displays/signs, which both garnered selections from 31% of respondents. An impressive 62% of Gen Z beauty shoppers said that they had discovered a beauty product on social mediathat they went on to purchase in the past year, which was 43 points higher than the 19% share of baby boomerswho said the same. The next largest gap was for streaming video services, which was selected by 28% of GenZ, but just 6% of baby boomers. Traditional television was the only channel of beauty product discovery chosenby a larger share of boomers than Gen Z. AI chatbots helped 4% of beauty shoppers find new products th