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Beauty brands thrive on good feelings and positive vibes – confidence, self-love, inclusivity, and increasingly, sustainability. This ethos is evident even down to the product packaging design. But as the beauty industry continues to bloom in the e-commerce space, nearly quadrupling between 2015 and 2022[1], shouldn’t the packaging used to ship those products also get a makeover?

With the increase of subscription boxes as well as standard mail order delivery, the packaging the product is shipped in can be potentially a consumer’s first experience with a product or brand as they open their new purchase. Introducing a frustrating, hard-to-open pack into the equation is anathema to everything that a beauty product should be about.

Modern beauty consumers expect brands to be mindful of their packaging. And, in turn, they expect that packaging to be mindful of our planet. But is it possible to address this while still delivering the excellent experiences cosmetics consumers demand from packaging?

Sustainability matters – but it’s not the only thing

The beauty industry and sustainability didn’t always fit together neatly. And this was especially true when it came to packaging.

Consumers are growing more sustainability-minded with each passing generation. Millennials, currently the world’s biggest-spending age demographic, largely prefer to buy products that have a minimal impact on the environment. Gen Z consumers – who are about to inherit the mantle of leading spending power from millennials – are even more sustainability-minded[2]. And the early signs are that the following generation – Gen Alpha – is more sustainability-minded still[3].

This was not always the case, but the beauty industry is evolving to meet these changing demands. A Forbes study[4] found that nine in ten consumers believe sustainability and other ESG considerations are a factor when buying beauty products. However, only 15% of beauty shoppers consider sustainability more important than price and product performance, which means innovations implemented in the name of the environment must also be highly functional to meet the needs of most consumers.

This is true for packaging as well with a recent consumer survey finding that although 43% of consumers rank recyclability as a key packaging frustration, 57% of consumers experience ‘wrap rage’ when trying to open packaging.

Source: Sustainable Packaging News