Top 7 Skincare Choice Barriers in Beauty E-Commerce

With about 70% of online beauty retailers failing within their first year (SME News, 2025), opening a new business may seem like the worst decision ever. We often hear that the market is too saturated for new brands to stand out, yet we regularly see new online stores thriving. So, how is this possible?  

The truth is that online beauty retailers launched in 2026 still have the potential to become incredibly successful, as long as they know how to stand out from the competition by avoiding common mistakes.  

What Prevents Shoppers From Finding the Right Skincare Products Online

1. No Personalization 

Why do people go to physical stores instead of buying everything online? Because a good old baker or butcher would remember their preferences and recommend the right products.  

Today’s e-commerce brands, on the other hand, are often anonymous, even though we now have the technology to personalize each user’s experience. A great way to do this is to add quizzes that ask shoppers key questions. 

Thanks to this tool, brands can learn important information about their customers, from their skin type and goals to their favorite brands and specific needs.

2. General Marketing Campaigns

The data collected through quizzes can then be used to recommend the right items. In this way, business owners can send personalized marketing campaigns that advertise skincare products tailored to their customers’ preferences, rather than random products that may offer no benefit or may even be harmful to someone with a specific skin condition.  

This can significantly increase the likelihood of future sales while ensuring that each shopper begins to see the company as a valuable source of beauty advice rather than just a retailer. Not by chance, 80% of consumers are more likely to shop with online brands that offer personalized recommendations. 

3. No Skin Care Finder 

Another key reason people avoid online skin care purchases is the high likelihood of having to return their products. Unlike physical stores, shoppers cannot try a moisturizer on their skin when buying online and must rely on the simple description available on the website. Approximately 57% of consumers say they would not buy cosmetics without prior consultation. 

Online beauty retailers can now offer this option by adding Inference Beauty’s Skin Match Technology to their websites. This tool uses AI Face Scanning and data input to tailor skincare recommendations to customers’ skin type, sensitivities, needs, and preferences. In this way, shoppers can get a list of products tailored to their individual needs, much like a beauty store employee would recommend an item after a quick chat with a customer.

4. Lack of Transparency

Lack of trust is another major problem for online beauty retailers. According to a new report by Amazon agency Envision Horizons, more than half of respondents abandoned a purchase after AI flagged issues with their chosen item.

This is why online beauty stores must include ingredient lists for all products sold on their websites, so shoppers can determine whether they contain ingredients they may be allergic to or may not want to use for environmental reasons. 

The list should be not only complete but also easy to understand. Instead of using unpronounceable words, brands should use common terms. For instance, opting for the term “vitamin B3” instead of “niacinamide.”

Note: Inference Beauty’s Ingredient Explainer helps beauty retailers turn complex INCI lists into clear, shopper-friendly ingredient information. It can be integrated into product pages to help customers understand what ingredients do and make more informed purchasing decisions. Key capabilities include:

• Ingredient hover explanations: Let shoppers quickly learn about an ingredient without leaving the product page.
• Sensitivity & allergen insights: Identify ingredients associated with common sensitivities and allergens.
• Ingredient filtering: Help shoppers find or avoid products based on specific ingredients.
• 30+ language support: Provide ingredient explanations to a wider range of shoppers.
• Clean beauty insights: Support “free from” and clean beauty product discovery.
• Ingredient-based recommendations: Use structured ingredient data to personalize product recommendations.
• Comprehensive Ingredient Database: Supports 140,000+ beauty products and 60,000+ cosmetic ingredients. 

5. Not Addressing Common Concerns

Product descriptions should also address clients’ common concerns, for instance, including information about the impact of a given product on sustainability and animal welfare. In addition, descriptions should answer common questions such as whether a given item is recommended for a specific skin type.

In general, no question should go unanswered, as 86% of customers report having to look elsewhere for information because brands don’t provide enough. This can be detrimental to online beauty retailers, as a lack of information can drive clients away from their websites and increase the likelihood of abandoned purchases. 

6. Low AI Visibility

In 2026, online beauty retailers can no longer focus their entire marketing efforts on SEO and Google Ads. AI visibility has now become a must for brands wanting to stand out from the competition. 

According to Professional Beauty, 49% of online shoppers today receive beauty suggestions from generative AI tools such as Gemini and ChatGPT. This is why appearing on their recommendation lists is a must. This can be done by implementing Inference Beauty’s LLM-based product data enrichment, which helps beauty retailers structure and enrich product information so AI systems can better understand key product attributes, ingredients, benefits, and suitability. 

7. No Granular Filters

Many beauty retailers sell thousands of products on their websites. While this is often considered an advantage, customers faced with so many options often end up feeling overwhelmed and unable to select a single item to add to their shopping carts. 

To solve this issue, beauty e-commerce can add granular filters to the website, helping clients narrow down their choices. Shoppers should be able to filter items by brand, price range, color, and other factors such as skin type. 

This can help customers find the right products quickly, rather than spending hours on a site scrolling without purchasing a single item.

Avoiding these seven common mistakes can quickly set new online beauty retailers apart from the competition, helping them attract clients to their websites and turn one-time shoppers into loyal customers.