Makeup and personal care product choices are personal. Consumers must match skin tone and type and complexion, which can be tricky to do while shopping on digital channels, especially if there aren't enough product images and information.
According to Salsify’s “2023 Consumer Research,” which offers a consolidated view of its surveyed countries, more than half (55%) of surveyed consumers won’t purchase items with bad product content, and 54% won’t purchase items with bad product reviews.
Enhanced content, also known as rich media, A+ content, and below-the-fold content, helps create an immersive, colorful, and informative product experience.
Using image galleries, videos, comparison charts, and other enhanced content features, brands can best outline their product's unique features and expose brand positioning, building trust with shoppers.
Here are three winning personal care product and beauty product examples with outstanding product detail page (PDP) examples that help shoppers understand how to apply and use their products. Their use of enhanced content helps them drive brand loyalty and grow sales on the digital shelf.
Within the beauty category, shoppers have high expectations for product content. They expect PDPs to highlight not only the product ingredients, manufacturing information, and use cases, but they also want step-by-step instructions and answers to their questions.
L’Oréal Paris highlights all of these essential features within its rich media on Walmart.
Consumers need to know how to use products when they can't feel the texture for themselves or try them out in person. L'Oréal Paris does an excellent job promoting its "Rosy Tone Anti-Aging Eye Brightener" product with a step-by-step, how-to image gallery, a simple but immensely valuable PDP feature.
Better: Image galleries of product shots.
Best: Image galleries that instruct and guide consumers on how to use the product.
Source: L’Oréal Paris Walmart
Preemptively answering frequently asked questions (FAQ) on technical or specialty products allows brands to get ahead of what consumers want to know. This helps keep shoppers on the page longer and ensures their experience isn’t disrupted by waiting for brand responses.
Your brand should gather questions frequently asked on search engines, social media comments, and other consumer feedback mechanisms and proactively display them on your product detail pages.
Better: Answer consumer questions quickly after receiving them.
Best: Anticipate and answer consumer questions before they're asked.
Beauty shoppers love seeing how a product can transform their look, routine, or area of concern. Shots of the product before use and then after clearly manage consumer expectations — and may even give them new ideas on how to use the product.
Better: Bullet points that explain the benefits and intended outcomes of the product.
Best: Images or videos that show and help consumers visualize the product in action.
Shoppers searching for Johnson & Johnson on Walmart are greeted with a brand collection landing page. It’s simple, but the image and tagline banner at the top of the page let consumers know they’ve reached the right place.
Consumers care about what they are putting on and in their bodies. Whether they have concerns due to allergies, environmental effects, or long-term health worries, assuage their fears and help them understand your product better by stating what’s not on your product ingredient list and how you’ve improved your product’s formula over time.
Better: List ingredients clearly
Best: Use consumer feedback to explain what worrisome ingredients aren’t in your products.
When consumers understand how a product could fit into their lives and its benefits, this can help build brand loyalty. New parents are often looking for guidance and expert advice. Enhanced content is the perfect space to suggest ways to create a routine around your product and make it a staple in their lives.
Better: Helpful tips on how the product is essential
Best: Including the mention of an app, like Johnson & Johnson’s Bedtime App, that helps new parents formulate a schedule for their baby
Source: Johnson & Johnson Walmart
A brand must reinvent itself regularly and remind or update consumers on the brand’s identity and mission. Including a short, brand-promoting video that brings awareness to brand values will build consumer trust and awareness.
Better: At least one video
Best: Video and imagery about both the brand and the product
Source: Johnson & Johnson YouTube
Luxury cosmetics brand Aesop is well-known for its minimalistic packaging and decadent scents. The brand’s Amazon product pages do an excellent job of providing information about its products while also reinforcing its philosophy.
Aesop smartly uses enhanced content to build product line familiarity and expose consumers to their philosophy.
Better: Listing out your products
Best: Painting a picture of the brand’s philosophy, objective, and story along with instructions on how to use your products in an infographic.
Image Source: Aesop Amazon
Shoppers may not know Aesop only uses plant-based and laboratory-made ingredients that have a track record of safety and efficacy. Such information benefits those looking for safe, environmentally friendly products. Enhanced content is an ideal place to illustrate the full brand picture for consumers.
Better: Introduce consumers to your brand
Best: Educate consumers on company attributes that add value to your products
Consumers tend to skim when shopping. What they miss in the product description can catch their eye in the enhanced content.
L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, and Aesop are three excellent examples of personal care product and beauty brands that are expertly executing their PDPs.