New changes in beauty consumption: How does live streaming e-commerce reshape the industry growth cycle?

"Who got it?"

On social media, a small discussion and teaching around the rush to buy beauty sets in the live broadcast room is taking place. "First send the shopping cart link to customer service, and the anchor will start clicking harder. I hope all the sisters can grab it!" A live broadcast room forms a small ecological field of its own. From the live broadcast room to the social platform, the excitement is still there.

Everyone’s habit of buying beauty products has quietly changed. In addition to making special trips to the counters to test colors and place orders, and compare prices on traditional e-commerce, more and more people are accustomed to watching real reviews in the live broadcast room, following trends, and enjoying exclusive benefits.

Changes in consumption habits have directly rewritten the industry landscape: now more than 80% of the total net increase in online beauty products comes from live streaming e-commerce represented by Douyin e-commerce.

In the fiercely competitive beauty market, traffic is changing, consumers are changing, and brands are changing. How can live streaming e-commerce break the bottleneck and start a new growth cycle?

Where does the 80% net increase come from?

Many people may have similar feelings: the bottles and cans on the dressing table are not replaced so frequently.

Less casual orders and more careful comparisons. When consumption shifts from "buying more" to "buying more worth it", new market increments are emerging. In the first half of 2026, the retail sales of cosmetics above designated size increased by 6.3% year-on-year, outperforming the market by 5 percentage points. In June, it rose by 12.6% in a single month, setting a new high for the same period in the past ten years.

And the daily consumption of "buying after watching the live broadcast" is a big number - in the first half of 2026, Douyin e-commerce beauty contributed more than 80% of the total net increase in online beauty. Among the net increases in online channels, Douyin e-commerce accounted for 84.2%. Most of the increased online water flows to the field of live broadcasting.

In the first half of 2026, the performance of international beauty giants such as L'Oréal, Estee Lauder, and Shiseido in China has fully recovered. This warmth is also reflected in e-commerce data: the share of foreign brands in Douyin e-commerce has rebounded from 32.0% in 2024 to 37.9% in the first half of 2026. The year-on-year growth rate has turned from negative to positive, achieving double-digit growth. The value of high-end beauty products is being rediscovered.

While big international brands are finding their rhythm, domestic beauty products are also quietly winning the hearts of more and more people in their own way. Some consumers shared their changes in their mentality on social media: they used to buy domestic products because they were "cheap and big", but now they buy domestic products because they have really studied its ingredients and skin feel, and "it understands my face."

Among Douyin’s top 20 e-commerce beauty products, domestic brands account for 65%, and 59.4% of consumers choose domestic products due to professional judgment. Domestic beauty products are moving from “cost-effective substitution” to “professional upgrade”, and platforms are becoming part of this upgrade soil.

Among the reasons why consumers choose domestic products, "more suitable for Chinese skin type/needs" accounts for 40.2%, 19.2% recognize that its "ingredients/formula technology has reached international standards", and a total of 59.4% of purchasing decisions are based on professional judgment rather than pure emotional preference.

From "being planted" to "asking AI first"

"If you have anything to do, ask AI." One netizen described his current consumption habits this way. This may no longer be an exception.

More and more people are beginning to add AI to the decision-making process of "buy, buy, buy": they are first attracted by the content, then turn around and ask the AI ​​"is this foundation suitable for me?" After analysis, they return to the platform to place an order. Data shows that more than 80% of consumers are accustomed to using AI tools to assist beauty consumption decisions. In March 2026, Doubao was officially connected to Douyin e-commerce, supporting the whole process of "search-recommendation-order-payment", and beauty was one of the first covered categories. Consumers have an extra "calm adviser" before placing an order.

At the same time, the content itself is changing.

With fast pace, dense twists and only a few minutes per episode, the short drama has gradually become a "familiar face" among netizens. More and more brands are beginning to incorporate their products into the plot, making advertising no longer just advertising. "The down-and-out boy falls in love with the wealthy lady" "The magic weapon in the palace battle is actually An Xin, the little white tube" "The fake daughter can't pretend anymore, her hair is the first to show"... When you read these titles, you may think it is a short drama adapted from an online article. You clicked on it and watched two episodes before you realized: wow, this is actually an advertisement.

The comment area was even more lively than the plot. Some people laughed and said: "666, this can be made into a short play." Some people later realized: "I thought it was a short play, but I didn't expect it to be this advertisement." Others were immersed in the joke: "I know, you can make a fortune with this shampoo."

This makes people can’t help but sigh: Today’s advertisements are already so good at telling stories. Data shows that 69.8% of consumers have been sold beauty products in emerging content fields such as bean bags and red fruits. Perhaps this is the most interesting part of short drama farming - while you are immersed in the story, the product has quietly stayed in your mind.

The pan-content field represented by the Hongguo short drama is becoming a new entrance for beauty brands to reach new people and complete "plot planting".

Most people may not necessarily place an order immediately after seeing a video that makes them excited. Exit and search first, look at the price, ingredients, and reviews, and then decide whether to buy it or not. Behind this small consumption action is another change in the beauty business: the warehouse is becoming more and more important.

From 2024 to the first half of 2026, the GMV proportion of Douyin’s e-commerce beauty shelf market will continue to grow, and the search market will be a core component of it. Content is responsible for "igniting" interest, and shelves are responsible for "catching" this interest. The dual drive of "content + shelves" is slowly taking off.

In the past, when talking about beauty cosmetics, the first thing many people thought of was women’s products. But now, new growth is occurring across a broader range of categories and demographics. In the first half of 2026, Douyin e-commerce men's care increased by 60.3% year-on-year, body care increased by 51.8%, makeup and perfume increased by 39.2%, and shampoo and hair care increased by 18.7%. The boundaries of beauty are expanding from one face to the whole body and to every person in a more subdivided manner.

When AI begins to participate in decision-making, short dramas redefine the demand for planting, search and shelf management, and new consumer demands continue to emerge, the beauty industry is entering a richer and more three-dimensional growth cycle.

Take off the colored glasses and see the “no makeup” e-commerce ecosystem

If you just watch the excitement, live e-commerce seems to still have the same familiar formula: anchors talk about products hard, consumers buy while watching, and brands rush forward chasing hot spots and popular products.

But if you zoom out a little further, you will find that the "no makeup" of live broadcast e-commerce has actually changed. Platforms and users grow in both directions. After a live broadcast ends, brands are still trying to figure out what to leave behind. Consumers also have more of their own judgment before placing an order.

One impression many people have about live streaming e-commerce is that by buying traffic, you can gain exposure. But if you go deeper into it, you will find that there is no content, money is spent, people come and go. The changes in brand BUV in the past year just illustrate this point. The proportion of traffic dropped significantly, but GMV increased by more than 30%; the traffic fee ratio dropped by 6%, and the proportion of brand word search transactions increased from 13% to more than 20%. There are fewer shots, but the shots are more accurate - because the content catches people first, the shots are targeted.

Judging from the data, BUV's traffic-to-stream fee ratio is on a downward trend, which shows that traffic sources are moving from single to diversified, and brands are transferring users from the platform to the brand.

Can live streaming e-commerce only sell white brands? This impression probably still exists in the years when live streaming e-commerce just emerged. Looking back today, the brands in the live broadcast room have already changed. In the first half of 2026, foreign brands accounted for 7 of Douyin’s top 20 e-commerce beauty brands, including high-end brands such as Estee Lauder, Helena, Lancôme, and La Mer.

"Live streaming e-commerce is a place where bargains are sold." This impression should be updated. It is becoming an increasingly clear consumer trend that consumers are willing to spend more money to buy quality products. As prices go up, growth does not slow down, but grows faster. Douyin’s e-commerce beauty product price range of over 1,000 yuan led all price ranges with a growth rate of 60.1%, which was 7.5 times that of less than 100 yuan. What consumers buy is not just a more expensive label, but the quality and professional value behind it.

Some people also think that live broadcast e-commerce is just a "wave of flow", and it will be scattered after it is sold out, leaving nothing behind. But in fact, a view, a search, and an interaction may further precipitate brand equity. Data shows that 51.2% of consumers believe that Douyin e-commerce can best “truly understand a beauty brand”, and 81% of consumers have developed a favorable impression or trust in the brand because of Douyin e-commerce content. Take Mao Geping as an example. Its Top 5 brand search terms are all combinations of "brand + product", rather than simple product words or promotional words - users remember not just a certain product, but the three words "Mao Geping".

Does the slowdown in the growth rate of the beauty market mean there is no growth? Looking at it from another perspective, men's care, body care, makeup and perfume, shampoo and hair care... each market segment is becoming lively, and the category landscape of beauty is extending from "a face" to a more complete life scene.

If an industry wants to go far, running fast is not enough.

Roads need to be repaired and side roads need to be blocked. In 2025, Douyin e-commerce will remove more than 270,000 serious illegal experts, deal with more than 200,000 illegal merchants, and deal with 1.32 million illegal products. In addition to withdrawal, there is also support. In 2025, the nine major merchant support policies launched by Douyin e-commerce will reduce the total cost by more than 32 billion yuan. They are cleaning up and reducing the burden on the other hand. They want live streaming e-commerce to change from "running fast" to "moving steadily".

After all, live streaming e-commerce has long been about more than just “how to sell goods.” From traffic to content, the beauty business is changing its way of life. The excitement is still there, but what really remains is not just the orders, but also the brands, products, and reasons why consumers are willing to come again.