The beauty industry is in constant evolution, with e-commerce playing a pivotal role in shaping how brands connect with their audience. Shopify, the backbone of many beauty brands, continues to innovate, offering tools and insights that can give businesses a competitive edge. As we enter 2025, here are the Shopify trends every beauty brand should have on their radar to stay ahead of the curve.
Ecom Trends Every Beauty Brand Needs to Know in 2025
1. Artificial Intelligence: Revolutionising Personalization
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how beauty brands interact with their customers. In 2025, AI will play an even more critical role in delivering personalized experiences. A key application of AI is helping online shoppers identify the right products without the need for a physical store visit. Beyond this, AI enables the creation of unique formulas tailored to individual skin types and lifestyles, pushing the boundaries of personalisation in beauty.
Brands like Proven Skincare are leading the charge, using AI to match products to customers’ specific needs. Proven’s Skin Genome Project, an AI-powered beauty database, analyses over 20,000 skincare ingredients, 100,000 products, 28 million testimonials, and 4,000 scientific publications. Consumers complete a brief quiz about their skin concerns and lifestyle, and Proven crafts personalised skincare products based on nearly 50 factors, including genetics, daily routines, and environmental factors like water hardness and humidity.
The beauty of AI lies in its adaptability. Proven, for instance, updates customers’ product formulations every eight weeks to account for seasonal changes, skin tolerance to active ingredients, and shifts in lifestyle. This dynamic approach not only enhances product efficacy but also deepens customer loyalty.
For beauty brands aiming to lead in 2025, investing in AI-driven personalisation is not just an option—it’s a necessity.
2. Quizzes: Go Beyond the Template
Interactive quizzes are a powerful way to engage customers, drive conversions, and gather valuable data. Brands like Il Makiage have set the bar with their tailored, data-driven quizzes that feel like a virtual beauty consultation. Generic, out-of-the-box quiz solutions rarely deliver the desired results. Beauty brands should allocate resources to developing quizzes that truly reflect their brand’s voice and understand their customers' unique needs.
3. Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality (VR/AR): Bringing the In-Store Experience Online
Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technology is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s becoming a practical tool for beauty brands. Augmented reality, in particular, is transforming the social commerce journey. Brands like Supergoop and OPI are investing in Snapchat’s AR tools, enabling users to virtually “try on” Supergoop’s new lip colours or OPI’s nail polish shades. These interactive experiences help bridge the gap between the online and in-store shopping experience, offering customers a unique way to explore products.
Beauty brands are leading the charge in AR shopping on social media. Marketers can experiment with social AR tools to create custom filters, effects, lenses, or even 3D experiences. These innovations not only enhance the customer journey but also give beauty brands a powerful edge in standing out from the competition. Shopify’s integration capabilities make adopting VR and AR more accessible than ever, empowering brands to bring immersive, engaging experiences to their audiences.
“The game won’t be the same when you simply ask your voice assistant to buy the best mascara on the market for you. Or if you are able to watch a makeup tutorial directly on your face with a virtual try-on,” said Lubomira Rochet, L’Oréal’s global chief digital officer in a Think with Google interview. “The brands that master these experiences will be the ones people choose.”
4. Subscriptions: Rethink Your Approach
Subscriptions can provide a steady revenue stream and foster brand loyalty, but it’s crucial to approach them strategically. Shopify’s native subscription app, in combination with their next gen User Accounts, makes it easier for brands to manage this model without relying heavily on third-party tools. Third party tools, are at the beating heart of a lot of Shopify stores, but when it comes to subscriptions, having support portals, data, and customer accounts in a single place (Shopify) means you’re not getting fractured data and you’re giving your customers the best user experience possible.
For instance, clean beauty subscription brand Beauty Heroes offers a standout approach. Members receive a monthly delivery of one clean beauty product valued at over $120, all for just $58.95 per month. Additionally, in-store subscribers enjoy 15% off products every day, adding further value to their membership. For most beauty brands, subscriptions account for a small percentage of revenue. The key is not to overinvest but to ensure that the subscription model you offer is seamless, genuinely valuable, and provides tangible benefits to your customers.
5. Loyalty Programs: Beyond Points and Discounts
Loyalty programs are an established strategy, but in 2025, they need to go beyond the basics. Consumers are looking for more meaningful connections with brands. A great example is 100% PURE’s Purist Perks program, which offers seasonal savings, birthday gifts, free shipping, and points-based rewards tied to customer spend. For professionals like estheticians and makeup artists, their Purist Pro program includes a 35% discount and early access to new product launches, ensuring tailored benefits that foster long-term loyalty.
Simplicity is key to getting people to join. Programs like e.l.f. Cosmetics’ Beauty Squad make it easy, offering features like receipt scanning through their mobile app for non-app purchases, ensuring rewards are accessible wherever customers shop. Shopify’s ecosystem provides tools to design loyalty programs that feel bespoke and keep customers coming back without making the process complicated or frustrating.
6. Sustainability and Transparency: The Unsolved Puzzle
Sustainability isn’t just a trend; it’s a demand. But let’s face it—most brands are yet to truly nailed it. Many beauty brands are using sustainability as a sales tactic rather than a genuine commitment. Carbon offsetting is often a band-aid solution rather than addressing the root causes. However, some brands are taking meaningful steps to make sustainability more accessible.
For example, Uni encourages customers to refill and reuse their dispensers rather than throwing out single-use packaging. Their reusable dispenser is crafted from aluminium and recyclable bio-resin, while their refill bottles are made from 100% recycled aluminium. Customers can purchase a starter kit or subscribe to monthly refills, returning empty dispensers for a seamless refill process.
Similarly, Boie tackles waste by recycling used personal care items like toothbrushes and loofahs. Through their program, these materials, along with scraps from manufacturing, are repurposed into new products such as bathroom hooks. By eliminating the need for additional raw materials, Boie has achieved a scrap-free operation.
Transparency about sourcing, production processes, and packaging remains key to building trust. In 2025, expect customers to scrutinise claims more closely, making authenticity and innovation non-negotiable.
Final Thoughts
The beauty industry’s relationship with e-commerce is growing deeper, with Shopify at the core of many transformative strategies. By embracing these trends—from personalisation and VR to authenticity in sustainability—beauty brands can position themselves for success in 2025. Staying ahead isn’t just about adopting the latest tools; it’s about aligning them with your brand’s mission and customer expectations.
The time to act is now. Which of these trends will your beauty brand lead with in 2025?