Beauty’s New Playbook 🌸

The Maze: Beauty is shifting from traditional retail to platforms built for speed, habit and cultural pull. The data shows category share concentrating with Ulta, TikTok and Target, while growth skews sharply toward algorithm-driven channels. The result is a market where discovery, purchase and repeat behavior merge into one loop.

→ Ulta, TikTok and Target dominate online beauty categories with 80–90% share across cosmetics, skincare and haircare, signalling a market consolidating around just three players.
→ TikTok outgrows the entire beauty sector in every category, delivering 133% in haircare, 106% in eye cosmetics and 120% in styling against overall category growth of only 23–44%.
→ Subscribe and Save grows far faster than one-time purchases, hitting 96% in trial items and 92% in fragrance, shifting beauty toward recurring buying.

Why it matters: Beauty habits are being rebuilt around platforms that combine discovery, low friction and repeat buying. Winners will be those who own the consumer’s impulse, not the shelf. As the line between content and commerce disappears, beauty’s future is defined by distribution, not brand heritage.real value, and win the early digital interface pull ahead in a market where trust

US beauty is concentrating fast around three power players. Cosmetics, skincare, haircare and seasonal categories now revolve around Ulta, TikTok and Target, reducing the space for everyone else.

→ Cosmetics cluster around Ulta, TikTok and Sephora with Others near 15%.
→ Seasonal beauty splits across Bath & Body Works, Target and Ulta, each taking ~20–35% and pushing concentration near 85%.
→ Haircare shows the same structure with Ulta, TikTok and Target holding ~85% combined share.

This consolidation defines the competitive baseline. Every growth trend and behavior shift sits downstream from this trio’s scale.

Beauty grows across the board, but TikTok scales at multiples of the market. Its reach turns moderate category gains into triple-digit acceleration.

→ Everyday haircare rises 44% overall while TikTok hits 133%, turning routine items into viral winners.
→ Beauty accessories grow 44% overall as TikTok reaches 106%, shrinking the gap between discovery and purchase.
→ Skincare climbs 33% overall while TikTok accelerates to 90%, pushing high-intent categories into fast adoption.

The gap reveals where demand originates. TikTok isn’t following the market; it’s pulling it upward.

TikTok drives explosive growth across hair, face, fragrance and seasonal items. Segments once slow-moving now surge as content turns into conversion.

→ Men’s haircare jumps 174%, scalp care hits 158% and styling climbs 120%, making hair TikTok’s strongest vertical.
→ Nail care grows 133%, fragrances reach 110% and suncare climbs 123%, converting micro-trends into mass buying.
→ Eye cosmetics rise 106%, face care hits 91% and cheek products reach 83%, proving even mid-tier categories can scale fast.

TikTok compresses discovery and intent into a single moment. Its speed reshapes category winners before slower channels respond.

Amazon is shifting beauty from impulse to routine. Subscribe & Save outgrows single purchases in almost every category, locking shoppers into predictable replenishment.

→ Trial formats surge 96% on Subscribe & Save vs 52% on standard buying, cementing routines once shoppers find a fit.
→ Scalp care grows 94% on Subscribe & Save, fragrance 92% and face care 60%, pulling even premium items into automation.
→ Only styling and acne care lean toward one-time purchases, reflecting categories defined by experimentation.

Habit rewires loyalty. Platforms that win replenishment will decide who captures the next dollar of beauty spend.

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