​​​​​​According to CommonThread, the global cosmetics eCommerce market size is valued at 483 billion USD in 2020 and grew to 511 billion USD in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.75%. The market size is anticipated to surpass 716 billion USD by 2025 and reach 784.6 billion USD by 2027.

The amazing growth rate of the online cosmetics sector demonstrates both the industry’s enormous potential to grow and its significant contribution to the global economy. Cosmetic companies must encourage the development of eCommerce websites to enter the market rapidly and take control of it in order to keep up with the economic trend as a whole.

It takes time to develop an online store for cosmetics, and SECOMM has detailed and analyzed the two key stages of the process.

Stage 1: Basic cosmetics eCommerce website development

Targeting

The first important thing a cosmetic business needs to do is to set goals and prioritize those goals in the short and long term. 

In the short term, promotional activities, monitoring, analyzing, and measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, especially user experience should be the top goals that need to be promoted.

In the long term, cosmetics eCommerce businesses should focus on increasing brand recognition and online business capabilities of their products.

At this stage, businesses do not have much data to analyze and evaluate for the whole process, so they can listen to a lot of advice from specialized eCommerce implementation consulting units with a lot of experience in long-term consulting to get the right list and priority of goals for both this period and beyond.

Platforms selection

In today’s market, there are two types of platforms that are dedicated to building eCommerce websites, including SaaS platforms and Open Source platforms.

SaaS platforms

Service as a Software (SaaS) is a service-based software application distribution model for eCommerce business purposes.

In other words, the provider creates and maintains software to help build an eCommerce website and the business will pay a certain cost to use this service.

With SaaS, the entire website system is hosted on the provider’s server, so ownership and control of the source code and data will belong to the provider.

This means the SaaS service provider will be responsible for handling and fixing technical problems arising during the cosmetic eCommerce implementation. 

• Pros: Easy to use, fast deployment time, good security, 24/7 customer service.
• Cons: The cost of building an eCommerce website increases over time, businesses cannot own the source code and data, and the functions and capabilities of customization and expansion are limited.

Some of the popular SaaS platforms today are: Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, etc

Open-Source platforms

An Open Source platform or an open source platform is software with a widely released source code that allows users to download, modify and upgrade necessary features for eCommerce business purposes.

The platform is often developed by a community of developers rather than a single company.

Moreover, this will be the ideal platform for implementing complex eCommerce website systems, specific to many fields including cosmetics thanks to in-depth customization functions.

This means that businesses need to cooperate with professional eCommerce website builders or develop a team of highly qualified internal staff to operate the website effectively.

• Pros: Customizability, flexible extension, diverse features, and add-ons, businesses own the source code and website data. 
• Cons: The cost of building an eCommerce website is high, the implementation time is long and it is not easy to use.

The most prominent Open Source platforms on the market today: Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce (WordPress Plugin), etc. 

At this stage, businesses should choose a SaaS platform to start with to familiarize themselves with the eCommerce business as well as save budget for more important investments such as marketing,…

Then, when entering the second stage, the business scale has now grown and expanded, and switching to the Open Source platform is now necessary and reasonable to achieve the goal of eCommerce growth.

Web interface design

After choosing a platform to build a cosmetic eCommerce website, the business will design the website interface so that the standards of UI/UX are met in order to optimize the website, showing the characteristics of the brand and cosmetics industry.

​​So, businesses can choose one of the following three ways to design an eCommerce website interface:

• Using the available interface: This way helps businesses save interface costs compared to the other two ways. Both SaaS and Open Source platforms provide a variety of UI/UX interfaces with prices ranging from $300 to $500.
• Customizing based on the available interface: Almost the same as the first way, but businesses will customize the interface to suit the needs of brand development.
• ​​Using a self-designed interface: Companies can start thinking about designing their own website interface right immediately to develop a brand image that is unique and more creative than rivals. Even while this is more expensive for businesses than adopting an already-existing interface, the “tailor-made” design interface will match the industry-specific requirements and expectations of the company during the eCommerce deployment phase

Usually, in stage 1, businesses should only use the available interface or customize based on the available interface because the basic functionality system needed, most of the interfaces provided are already there.

Functional system development

In the first stage, businesses should prioritize developing the basic functional system needed for a complete cosmetic eCommerce website, specifically including: 

• Category management: Manage product categories, functions, prices, images/videos to optimize business operations.
• Sales management: Manage order information, understand and analyze customers’ shopping behavior effectively.
• Marketing management: Integrating features such as URLs, meta tags, and internal links to optimize SEO, combined with effective marketing campaigns to achieve sales goals.
• Content management: Build and optimize content for the CMS system from text, images, banners, widgets, and templates to brand content, blogs, etc.
• Customer management: Store, manage and analyze customer information and customer groups, thereby improving marketing effectiveness to optimize the online shopping experience.
• System management: Manage and decentralize administrators to operate, secure and maintain the eCommerce website system.
• Store management: Use inventory management tools at branches, stores, and warehouses to ensure a continuous and efficient supply process.
• Cart and checkout management: Manage customer shopping cart and payment information.
• Analysis and reporting: Analyze and measure the performance of the eCommerce website system, thereby giving the next business strategy.

Functional system development

Legal procedures finalizing

The final step of building a basic eCommerce website is completing the necessary legal procedures for the website to be allowed to operate legally.

Businesses can follow the simple registration steps as instructed at the eCommerce Management Portal.

This is a mandatory requirement of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for every individual or organization that owns an eCommerce website to sell goods and to perform the registration/notification obligation on time.

Stage 2: Advanced cosmetics eCommerce website development

Re-targeting

Along the business development journey that comes with the constant change of consumer behavior, business goals, and strategies need to be adjusted and re-established to match the current context of the eCommerce market. In addition, at this stage, businesses also have problems, data, and insights about online users, so setting goals will be easy.

In the short term, businesses can prioritize finding and attracting potential customers and growing online sales with effective marketing.

In the long term, a cosmetic business can consider the goal of expanding the market segment by identifying the target market segment and making a marketing strategy in accordance with the product characteristics and the direction of the business in the second stage. 

In addition to short-term and long-term goals, businesses need to focus on considering the time and cost of investing in the cosmetic eCommerce website system because, at this stage, the cost and investment budget will often be large. much more than the basic construction phase above.

eCommerce platform switching

In the beginning, cosmetics businesses are advised to develop their initial eCommerce websites using SaaS platforms. However, the restricted capability and customizability of SaaS won’t be able to satisfy that expectation given the second phase’s objectives of growth and scalability.

To create more specialized cosmetic eCommerce websites at this moment, companies can think about moving to Open Source platforms with respected names like Magento, WooCommerce, etc.

Some suggested criteria to consider when choosing an Open Source platform:

• ​​Support to design eCommerce website interface based on UI/UX standards.
• Provide functional systems from basic to advanced and specific to the cosmetic industry.
• Flexible customization, high extensibility, integration with third-party services, and a variety of add-ons.
• High security.

Besides that, businesses should be aware of the costs associated with switching from a SaaS platform to an Open Source platform, the time required for staff to learn on the new platform, the danger of data loss, and any issues that may occur.

Resources selection

Unlike the basic eCommerce website building stage, in the second stage of the implementation process, businesses need to choose resources for development. Businesses can build an internal team or seek support from a specialized developer.

The business will hire and train skilled and specialized IT people on the chosen platform for internal team growth. In this case, it will require a lot of time and money from the company, but it will aid in better resource management, control, and active adjustment to develop the eCommerce website system in accordance with the original aim.

Businesses frequently work with a variety of firms to find “true love” in their collaboration with eCommerce website developers. As a result, businesses will receive the eCommerce websites they need as expected, the collaboration process will go smoothly, and businesses will gain more expert knowledge and website development experience from a partner, which will point them in the right direction in terms of the cosmetic eCommerce industry’s development trends.

These are the criteria that businesses should consider when choosing: In-depth knowledge and experience in eCommerce and the cosmetics industry; professional working team; clear and detailed working process; ability to quickly handle problems that arise during website development.

Web interface re-design

Businesses are not required to update the website interface while switching platforms. Redesigning the website interface to work with the Open Source platform, however, is today recognized as a wise company development approach that was introduced simultaneously with the deployment of advanced eCommerce websites.

Similar to the previous period, businesses have three options for designing e-commerce website interfaces, including using the available themes, customizing based on the available themes, and designing their own interface.

Usually, at this step, businesses should choose method 2 or 3 to design the interface to ensure the uniqueness of the brand and the specificity of the cosmetic eCommerce industry.

Upgrade the system with advanced and industry-specific functions

In addition to the basic functions that have been built for the eCommerce website system in stage 1, businesses should concentrate on developing a system of advanced and specific functions for the cosmetic industry in the later stages. 

Today, several well-known cosmetic brands embrace AR (Augmented Reality) technology to improve the customer experience. Customers can now download the AR software, activate the camera, and sample the goods online rather than going physically trying it on in the store to see whether it will fit their face.

The Kylie Virtual World application, for instance, offers users an engaging product experience. Users of the newly released Kylie Cosmetics items, such as eye cream, foundation, and lipstick, can sample the product out in 360 degrees by using their phones to scan the QR code.

eCommerce website system maintenance

A sophisticated eCommerce website system demands a great deal of experience and effort to operate and maintain. This is the procedure of continuously maintaining, updating, and upgrading the entire system to aid firms in foreseeing and resolving problems (for example, sudden increase in traffic from the promotions that stimulate shopping).

That supports sustained and persistent online sales growth, which is important for eCommerce businesses in general and furniture eCommerce in particular as they compete for a market share of this “pie,” which is “delicious” but can be challenging to consume.

eCommerce acceleration

Furniture eCommerce enterprises readily accomplish growth above and beyond expectations by putting into practice efficient business and marketing strategies.

Therefore, the entire process—from planning through implementation—must be structured with effective, practical solutions that have been demonstrated to work. Implementing Omnichannel, eCommerce Marketing, and SEO optimization are some suggested methods for eCommerce enterprises to accelerate growth.

eCommerce business optimization

​​The journey of developing an eCommerce website ends with measuring, analyzing, and optimizing eCommerce business activities.

Businesses can use analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, etc., to track, update and measure website performance metrics as well as the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

From there, the eCommerce business strategy for the next stage of development will be carefully and methodically planned thanks to clear and detailed reports & analysis.

The journey of building a cosmetic eCommerce website with two stages from basic to advanced has been outlined in detail with meticulously analyzed implementation steps. Businesses in the industry can refer to it to draw their own development journey in this potential field.

With many years of experience in successfully implementing eCommerce for many customers in many countries in recent years, SECOMM understands the difficulties and challenges in the process of implementing an interior eCommerce website.

Contact SECOMM today for free support and advice.

Exporting and trading internationally has become challenging due to the Covid-19 epidemic. In order to increase sales and find online customers, numerous companies in several industries, including the cosmetics industry, have used eCommerce.

Additionally, to support eCommerce activities and achieve the objective of growth and scalability, cosmetic retailers shift from traditional business practices to keep up with the general development trend of the global economy.

In Vietnam alone, a handful of cosmetic firms in Vietnam have demonstrated extraordinary flexibility and agility in reacting to market adjustments “despite” the complicated changes brought on by the global pandemic.

The following brands have gained the trust of and made a lasting impression on cosmetic customers by creating professional and insightful eCommerce websites.

Hasaki

Hasaki, a company founded in April 2016 to provide full health and beauty care for Vietnamese people, has developed secure and quick online shopping experiences with a choice of high-quality cosmetic items from many of the world’s leading brands in today’s market.

Hasaki’s eCommerce website was invested in and methodically developed from the start with the open-source platform – Magento – in order to deliver clients satisfaction in terms of comfort and efficiency when purchasing online.

More than 7 million visitors per month of traffic at a very high level demonstrate the wisdom of Hasaki’s eCommerce investment. This company’s expansion of its distribution network increased market penetration, and identification and diversification of the target customer were all made possible by sensible strategy.

• Website: https://hasaki.vn/
• eCommerce platform: Magento
• Traffic: 7.244m/month
• Ranking: 514 (Vietnam); 26,288 (Global)

The Gioi Skin Food

The Gioi Skin Food is another well-known eCommerce site with over 2 million monthly visitors that focuses on selling cosmetics. This business worked with Haravan to create an effective eCommerce website with an easy-to-use interface.

The Gioi Skin Food has up now employed eCommerce in addition to the conventional retail shop method, which has been incredibly successful. This would enable the business to catch up with the online-to-offline (O2O) trend and raise brand awareness and revenue.

• Website: https://thegioiskinfood.com/
• eCommerce platform: Haravan
• Traffic: 2.285M/month
• Ranking: 1,670 (Vietnam); 84,473 (Global)

Watsons Vietnam

The Watsons Group, Asia’s top retail organization for health and beauty products, owns the Watsons Vietnam brand. The company desires to provide Vietnamese customers with the finest shopping experience possible while also bringing them high-quality products that are appropriate for their needs.

Notably, Watsons adopted the O2O business model right away after entering the Vietnamese market. With the goal of dominating the market, Watsons Vietnam invests in developing an eCommerce website with SAP Commerce Cloud in addition to the store system dispersed throughout the neighbourhoods of Ho Chi Minh City.

Additionally, the user-friendly and aesthetically designed interface contributes to the website’s amazing monthly visitation of more than 1 million.

• Website: https://www.watsons.vn/
• eCommerce platform: SAP Commerce Cloud
• Traffic: 1.267M/month
• Ranking: 2,715 (Vietnam); 129,769 (Global)

The Gioi Son Moi

The Gioi Son Moi is one of the places where people go to get lipstick that is well-known and reputable because of the guaranteed product quality and the courteousness of the staff. Every day, new products are added to the site, ensuring that there is always enough supply of well-known companies’ lipstick lines in the right hues at competitive rates.

The Gioi Son Moi also swiftly launched an eCommerce website to join the common playground of the cosmetic retail sector, in addition to two physical locations in HCMC that are constantly being renovated, extending the amount of shopping space. As a result, the website is built on the Haravan platform and has a straightforward interface that is nonetheless opulent and complex.

Also, the extremely high monthly traffic volume (more than 1 million) also demonstrates the company’s successful business strategy in the context of the market’s innovation trend.

• Website: https://thegioisonmoi.com/
• eCommerce platform: Haravan
• Traffic: 1.103M/month
• Ranking: 3,582 (Vietnam); 156,691 (Global)

Bo Shop

Beauty lovers in HCMC can’t help but be aware of Bo Shop, a company that provides a broad range of high-quality cosmetics, from skincare to makeup, at rates that are specifically stated to fulfil customers’ demands for all types of beauty care.

The company quickly creates an eCommerce website using WooCommerce to keep up with contemporary business trends in order to become the top cosmetic retail brand in Vietnam.

• Website: https://www.boshop.vn/
• eCommerce platform: WooCommerce
• Traffic: 1.020M/month
• Ranking: 5,030 (Vietnam); 234,462 (Global)

Guardian

For many years, Vietnamese consumers of cosmetics have been familiar with the name Guardian. This is a brand from the Dairy Farm Group that manufactures and distributes well-known health and beauty care goods all over Asia. In Vietnam, where Guardian first opened in 2011, the company now has more than 100 outlets.

In 2019, the business started its transformational path and parallel fusion of offline and internet business models. In order to create an omnichannel sales network (Omnichannel), Guardian focuses on building eCommerce websites with Shopify in addition to deploying potential sales channels like eCommerce platforms, apps, and fast delivery channels via GrabMart.

This gives customers more affordable, quick, and convenient home shopping options. After only a short period of time in operation, the Guardian website has attracted close to 1 million visitors each month.

Guardian has risen to the top of the industry and evolved into the biggest and most prominent retail chain for health and beauty products in existence today thanks to a significant investment in developing a multi-channel ecosystem.

• Website: https://www.guardian.com.vn/
• eCommerce platform: Shopify
• Traffic: 908,599/month
• Ranking: 4,037 (Vietnam); 188,419 (Global)

Lam Thao Cosmetics

Since Lam Thao Cosmetics’ formal opening in 2017, young people have come to love it as one of their favourite cosmetic shops. Lam Thao Cosmetics is continually upgrading its product line with the most affordable rates in an effort to give customers more options with the trendiest goods and improve their experience.

Along with offering high-quality goods, Lam Thao also runs an eCommerce site on the Haravan platform to enhance clients’ offline and online purchasing experiences. The success of eCommerce implementation has also helped Lam Thao Cosmetics reach a significant number of online prospects, boosting both sales and brand recognition.

• Website: https://lamthaocosmetics.vn/
• eCommerce platform: Haravan
• Traffic: 437,475/month
• Ranking: 8,423 (Vietnam); 392,219 (Global)

Nuty Cosmetics

For those who love cosmetics, Nuty Cosmetics is regarded as a cosmetics heaven. After operating and growing for more than ten years amid market ups and downs, the business is still a renowned source for real beauty products from well-known manufacturers in the US, Germany, France, Japan, and Korea.

The WooCommerce platform was used to create Nuty Cosmetics’ website, which has an easy-to-use interface and exceptional features that may satisfy clients when they shop online. Additionally, Nuty Cosmetics’ website offers thorough information about each product, along with clearly stated costs.

Because of this, despite the fact that there are only roughly 200,000 visitors per month on the site currently, Nuty Cosmetics has the potential to become a major player in the cosmetics industry with the correct efforts and attitude.

• Website: https://nuty.vn/
• eCommerce platform: WooCommerce
• Traffic: 229,347/month
• Ranking: 7,505 (Vietnam); 352,535 (Global)

AB Beauty World

In the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak that was raging in 2020, AB Beauty World (ABBW) was founded with the goal of being the top family-friendly cosmetics retailer in Vietnam. The brand has not given up despite the fact that this birth appears to have occurred at the wrong time.

In fact, AB Beauty World has grown and expanded with approximately 20 branches spread throughout the city’s districts in just two years since opening the first store in HCMC, concentrating on growing eCommerce, thanks to the timely redirection.

The WooCommerce-powered cosmetics website for AB Beauty World features an interface and capabilities tailored to the sector. The website has already seen more than 150,000 visitors in the short time since it launched, which is nonetheless viewed favourably for a newcomer to the fight for digital transformation.

• Website: https://abbeautyworld.com/
• eCommerce platform: WooCommerce
• Traffic: 157,602/month
• Ranking: 3,538 (Vietnam); 169,419 (Global)

Beauty Garden

Beauty Garden is one of the top retail and distribution brands for real cosmetics today. Since its establishment in 2014, the company has effectively extended its retail network to be present in numerous provinces and major and minor towns throughout the nation, including Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Dong Nai, and Can Tho.

In addition, Beauty Garden concentrates on developing eCommerce websites in the context of economic integration. As a result, the company’s website is expertly and systematically constructed using WooCommerce, the most popular eCommerce development platform worldwide, and is ideal for the cosmetics business.

The eCommerce implementation of Beauty Garden is seen as a sensible move since the development potential of this area is extremely great and at that time, the company had many advantages to build a business model, even though the number of users is still modest with more than 100,000/month.

• Website: https://beautygarden.vn/ 
• eCommerce platform: WooCommerce
• Traffic: 127,439/month
• Ranking: 6,029 (Vietnam); 284,460 (Global)

All things considered, the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has impacted and altered consumer shopping behaviours for a variety of goods. Shopping for cosmetics, in particular, has seen a significant change from physical to online formats.

The information above is a summary and evaluation of SECOMM for 10 eCommerce sites with a good reputation and the capacity to meet customers’ demands when making a decision to purchase cosmetics.

These companies demonstrate their efforts to create the technological infrastructure needed to enhance the online shopping experience as well as their well-founded optimism regarding the market’s growth potential and dominance in Vietnam.

With many years of experience in successfully implementing e-commerce for many customers in many countries, SECOMM specializes in providing consulting services with comprehensive and professional e-commerce implementation solutions.

Contact SECOMM today for free support and advice.