Cosmetics is a $500 million+ global industry projected to reach over $800 million in 2023 [1]. As the world’s largest marketplace for cosmetics, eBay’s makeup category is burgeoning with thousands of brands from all over the world with more than 3 million product listings across: body makeup, eyes, face, lips, makeup bags & cases, sets & kits, tools & accessories, and the like.
Although generally, low priced accessories and cosmetics drive sales velocity, a quick look into foundations, lipsticks, brushes and eye shadow presents a fuller picture of brand participation and cosmetic buyer preferences across the different subcategories.
Let’s look below the surface.
Foundations
The Foundation category is strongly represented by retail brands with hardly any unbranded foundations available at all.
Mary Kay has the largest listing share at 10% of the top 500, with their mineral foundation being the best ranked. It Cosmetics has only 8% listing share but dominates the top of Best Match, eBay’s search, with its CC Cream. Bare Minerals is the next brand with the most listing share at 6%. Overall, top ranking products imply buyer beauty preferences toward mineral foundations.
In terms of price ranges, Foundation buyers are not necessarily drawn to lower prices. They are looking for a discount on retail for reputable brands that they are already familiar with. On eBay, although most sales are under $18 there is strong evidence that eBay Foundation buyers are willing spend as high as $28-36 to opportunistically purchase their preferred high-end foundation.
Lipsticks
Lipstick is the largest subcategory within Makeup with almost 500,000 product listings. Similar to Foundations, it is a category strongly represented by retail brands.
The top brand is Senegence with 8% of total listings. Its Lipsense gloss is the top-ranked product in the category, although a majority of other high-ranked lipsticks are actually matte textured.
When looking into price ranges, results show that lower prices secure more sales but like foundation, there is strong evidence that the eBay makeup buyer is willing to spend more to obtain a discount on a higher priced retail branded lipstick.
Eyeshadows
Although the Eyeshadow subcategory has good representation across such brands as Laura Mercier, Mary Kay, Stila and Urban Decay, its unbranded (white label & private label) eyeshadows have the the highest listing share at 16% of the top 500. No singular brand stands out in rank or sales, nor do any particular preference like texture or colour of eyeshadow.
Sales are primarily generated from the lower price points. Nearly 60% of sales occur under $10 with a big drop in sales with increased prices. There are surprisingly more brands in the low price range (under $10) with either significantly marked down inventory or travel/sample sizes.
Makeup Brushes
Of all Makeup subcategories, Brushes contain the highest volume of Unbranded products with 45% of total listings with a majority appearing to be low priced white or private labels. The most notable brands have very small listing share at 4% for It Cosmetics and 2% for Real Techniques. All in all the data implies that brand recognition is not as vital in the Brushes category.
Pricing data reveals that buyers in the Brushes category are primarily attracted to lower prices. Nearly 80% of sales are for brushes under $9. Hardly anyone purchases brushes beyond $16. Unlike Foundation and Lipstick, Brush buyers don’t show as much willingness to invest in higher priced items.
Takeaways
Here are some insights to take at face value:
Multi-level marketing (MLM) brands are pervasive on eBay. Mary Kay ranked fairly high in the Foundation and Eyeshadow category, and Lipsense in the Lipstick category
Buyers are willing to pay higher prices for branded makeup fundamentals such as foundations and lipsticks to opportunistically acquire a discount off retail.
On the other hand, buyers seem to have a price cap for eyeshadows - opting for single pot colours that are branded. Buyers do not want to spend on beauty tools as they may see brushes as disposable commodities.
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[1] https://www.reuters.com/brandfeatures/venture-capital/article?id=30351