The beauty industry is booming, and while digital innovation has transformed how consumers discover and engage with brands, the in-store experience is evolving and thriving. With beauty brands reinvesting in physical retail, malls are fast becoming a renewed focal point for engagement, trial, and purchase.
By Katie Martin (Retail Group Head) & Natalie Hollands (Client Partner)
The new face of beauty...
With a global prioritisation of well-being & self-care taking hold over the past two decades, the beauty market is thriving, seeing consistent growth since 2004 (if we skip over that difficult 2020 period)! An industry known for constant evolution & innovation; the sector has seen significant changes in that time:
The emergence of smaller players, stealing share from established market leaders who had dominated historically
The prioritisation of skincare over make-up, with consumers looking to fix their skin complaints rather than mask them, and for products which can help
A subsequent global growth of Korean beauty brands. Known for 10-step skincare routines & high-quality ingredients, Korean skincare products are growing steadily in popularity; Boots now boasting numerous ranges both in store & online, even launching a K-Beauty bundle ahead of Mothers’ Day this March
And the rising importance of social media & influencer content; YouTube, Instagram and TikTok becoming the first points of call for beauty tips, tutorials and inspiration. Whether cause or effect, this online craze is changing the way consumers shop in the category; with e-commerce being the fastest growing channel for beauty revenues
Yet despite these online channels being key to the consideration phase of Beauty shopping, around 80% of all purchases in the category are still made in physical stores, with 46% of shoppers stating they prefer to see products in person before buying.
So when it comes to both trialling products and making that all-important final purchase, the real-world still has a vital role to play, and shopping malls are increasingly where beauty brands are focusing their attention.
Bricks, Mortar, Mascara
Holistically, brands are now offering a far more omnichannel experience, with research showing that 94% of shoppers make purchases both instore and online. Many beauty brands have taken this on board, extending their offerings out past online, with brands such as Sephora and PureSeoul investing heavily in bricks & mortar stores across key shopping malls in the UK, to huge acclaim from consumers.
Across our malls estate, new store openings for popular beauty brands regularly attract long queues of excited shoppers eager to get their hands on the latest products. At Birmingham’s Bullring, for example, 40% of store openings in the last year have been for beauty brands, highlighting the continued popularity of physical store environments within this category.
As well as physical store openings, beauty brands have increased their visibility in ‘multibrand’ stores, with the likes of Huda Beauty, The Ordinary and Sol De Janeiro appearing in Selfridges, Boots and beyond. “Multibrand stores are excelling in meeting diverse customer needs and staying ahead of consumer trends”, according to Chris Elliot, head of market insights at retail tech agency Medium Marketing.
Key to these, and similar beauty brands success has been their strategic approach to brand building within proximity to the point of sale environment. As our recent How to Win with OOH insight outlines, a brand’s propensity for mental availability is key, as is the physical environment, to ensure a consumer can purchase the product they are thinking about, during their purchase journey.
The malls environment, with its variety of beauty outlets, caters for all occasions, from fragrances for Mothers Day, beauty essentials for summer holidays, to Christmas gifting. This environment provides a premium and inspirational physical space for experiences, and importantly offers immediacy. As beauty is a category built on impulse, emotion and aspiration, advertising in proximity to purchase can make all the difference.
Our Digital Out of Home (DOOH) malls network offers brands an unmatched opportunity to reach beauty shoppers with smart, flexible video campaigns. Whether it’s through standard high-traffic placements or cinematic scale formats like Mall Live XL, the focus is on delivering attention where it matters most - at the point of sale.
Get the look - Creativity at Scale with DOOH
While the network is being used for all the core benefits we’ve already mentioned, there is another big draw for brands – creativity, at scale.
Offering high quality, full motion digital screens, brands are amplifying their existing content by using the same rich video assets produced for TV, Social and Online channels in the shopping environment; extending their reach, whilst at the point of sale.
Research by Talon found a +23% increase in brand effectiveness can be achieved when adding Full Motion DOOH to a social video plan, and with a wealth of rich influencer & video content, this is something to be embraced by beauty marketers.
And it is beauty which is leading the market with the next big thing in Malls – 3D video content. With simple anamorphic techniques which allow a product, person or logo to burst from the screen, the likes of L’Oreal have seen great success with applying this mechanic for several of their brands, including Yves Saint Lauren, Garnier, and most famously, Maybelline New York.
The launch of Maybelline’s Falsies Surreal Extensions Mascara made headlines not only for the introduction of May, L’Oreal’s first-ever digital avatar, but also for being the first brand to utilise 3D video content in shopping malls right across Europe.
Research from Group M conducted across the campaign found that whilst the traditional video creative drove some immediate sales, the 3D elements were 3.5x more effective at driving direct purchase of the advertised product; evidence that “The Element of Surprise” is a powerful tool for engaging consumers, which we explore in the latest edition of our Powerful Posters work.
Makeover Takeover
Innovation is crucial in such a highly competitive landscape, which is why we have been excited to launch our brand-new VIDEOBLOCK opportunity in Malls throughout the UK.
Allowing brands to dominate screens with 100% SOV for a whole day, right across our national estate, VIDEOBLOCK offers uninterrupted, full-motion content to literally stand out from the crowd.
This solution is perfect not only for brand announcements & new product launches, but to support cultural & calendar moments, or to celebrate retail & sporting events; many of which are of growing importance to beauty brands’ marketing strategies.
As beauty continues to evolve, the brands winning hearts and market share are those embracing an omnichannel mindset, balancing digital discovery with real-world interaction. Malls aren’t just surviving; they’re thriving as immersive environments where beauty is shining. With strategic store placements, unmissable formats, and creativity at scale, beauty brands are making the most of OOH to redefine what it means to be seen and remembered in the real world.
Sources: McKinsey & Company, Statista.com, Clear Channel IRL 2 URL Survey, Hammerson, Talon 4th Space, Group M case study.
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