Key takeawaysBeauty shoppers in 2025 are adopting diagnostic and routine-led purchasing behaviours.Guided journeys now outperform traditional e-commerce funnels in both completion and conversion.Multi-concern skin profiles and rising interest in texture refinement are reshaping skincare priorities.Brands excel in efficiency while retailers lead in exploration and routine-building.Engagement depth is now a stronger predictor of purchase intent than checkout speed.
Beauty technology company Revieve has released its annual Beauty & Wellness Index for 2025, based on millions of anonymised AI-powered skincare and makeup interactions across more than 100 global brands and multi-brand retailers.
The report uncovers large-scale behavioural beauty data and provides an analysis of global beauty and wellness e-commerce trends for the year, with a particular emphasis on guided diagnostics, engagement depth and personalisation.
The findings suggest that the industry is shifting into a more diagnostic, routine-led era of beauty commerce, and the data makes this transition clear. The report reveals that in 2025, beauty conversion is increasingly non-linear, and guided journeys play a critical role across the full funnel. Brands excel in efficiency, while retailers outperform on exploration. Diagnostics, the report notes, are now foundational rather than differentiators in modern beauty commerce.
Consumer demographics and emerging skin concerns in 2025
To start, beauty engagement remains predominantly female and digitally native.
Key skin concerns observed across shopper journeys include visible pores, dull skin, acne, redness, dark circles, wrinkles, sagging and hyperpigmentation.
While many users reported knowledge of their skin type — 39% combination, 17% dry, 17% oily, 14% sensitive and 12% normal — 24% said they did not know their skin type, which Revieve said highlights the ongoing need for diagnostics.
For both skincare and makeup, guided diagnostics continue to play a pivotal role in discovery, intent and conversion.
How guided diagnostics are reshaping beauty e-commerce
Some of the key shifts noted compared with previous years include:
More than 65% of users report three or more concurrent skin concernsVisible pores now rank higher than acne in many journeysEngagement depth correlates more strongly with purchase intent than speed to checkoutGuided diagnostics maintain a 76% completion rate across brands and retailers
The report shows that brands and retailers are now ‘winning’ in different ways: brands through efficiency and hero SKUs, and retailers through exploration and routine-building. Despite these differences, both models rely heavily on structured diagnostics as core infrastructure.
“What’s most striking in this year’s Index is that beauty shoppers are no longer behaving like traditional e-commerce consumers,” said Irina Mazur, Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer at Revieve.
“Across millions of anonymised journeys, we’re seeing that 65%+ of users present three or more concurrent skin concerns. At the same time, nearly one in four still doesn’t know their skin type. That level of uncertainty fundamentally changes how beauty needs to be merchandised.”
Mazur said that consumers are no longer entering with fixed intent but with questions, using guided diagnostics and virtual try-on as validation layers before committing. “Selfie-based guided journeys drive completion rates of 76%, with add-to-cart around 14% and checkout rates near 5% – aligning with the upper end of industry health & beauty benchmarks,” she said.
During the holiday period in 2025, guided users converted at 1.6–1.9 times higher rates and delivered higher average order values, even as traffic surged; completion rates remained stable at 74% during peak load.
According to Mazur, this indicates that engagement depth is now a stronger predictor of purchase intent than checkout speed. “Beauty has moved from ‘search and select’ to ‘diagnose and decide’,” she said. “Guided experiences are no longer a digital feature, they are the infrastructure that supports confidence-driven commerce.”
Key behavioural shifts influencing routines and conversions
Mazur highlighted several additional trends that the report revealed:
Visible pores now surpass acne as a top concern
“This marks a subtle but meaningful shift in consumer psychology,” she said. “Rather than reacting to acute breakouts, users are increasingly focused on texture refinement and long-term skin quality.”
Multi-concern behaviour is now the default
Users increasingly present layered profiles — for example, dullness + pores + redness, or fine lines + uneven tone + sensitivity.
Mazur said this supports the rise of regimen-based journeys: “Routine logic is outperforming hero-SKU selling.”
Brands and retailers operate using different performance models
Brands convert more efficiently through focused concern pathways, while retailers drive deeper exploration, longer sessions and stronger bundle discovery. “Both models depend heavily on guided diagnostics,” Mazur said.
Makeup behaviour is experimentation-first
Users test an average of five to seven shades per session, and try-on journeys convert 1.6–1.9 times higher. Meanwhile, radiant makeup finishes significantly outperform matte (45% vs 22%), while natural looks dominate at 47%.
“Digital try-on isn’t accelerating decision-making,” she said. “It’s expanding experimentation before confidence is formed.”
