Dispensing skin care has become a vital part of aesthetic physicians’ businesses in 2020. The reason: It offers an additional source of revenue to their core business, which in most cases, has suffered tremendously due to COVID-19. Our soon-to-be published report, Physician-Dispensed Skin Care: Perception and Satisfaction Survey, will focus on the pandemic’s impact on aesthetic physicians’ businesses and what the “new normal” will look like from now and through 2021.
COVID-19 has transformed the way physicians interact with their patients and sell skin care products. From virtual consultative services to a surge in e-commerce sales, the future of physicians dispensing skin care looks different compared to years past.
Brands like Revision Skincare and SkinBetter Science have created or elevated existing individual microsites for their physician partners. These sites have allowed consumers to shop online for their favorite professional skin care products through a unique URL that gives credit to the physician for the online sale. It is expected that brands will lean on this strategy moving forward as consumers prioritize the online channel for replenishment purposes and limit their office visits to their most desired services, such as Botox and fillers.
Physician–owned websites are cited to be the best digital asset to create opportunities and awareness, followed by social-media pages. Over two-thirds of physicians note that skin care products are playing a more important role than before March 2020 and skin care products are likely to witness the highest growth compared to other services through the end of this year.
In 2019, sales through the Internet accounted for a little more than 10.0% of the professional skin care market’s total take-home product sales in the United States. This number is expected to increase dramatically in both the short and long term. Professional skin care marketers have invariably been dedicated to driving foot traffic to professional outlets in an effort to support physicians’ back-bar and take-home product sales. Despite shifts in purchases from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce in 2020 as a result of professional door closures, professional skin care marketers have continued to support their physicians with the new wave of consumers shopping mostly online.
The professional skin care market underwent significant changes this year with no sign of letting up. Our Professional Skin Care Global Series report, which will be available in the fourth quarter of 2020, will have extended coverage of e–commerce as it pertains to professional brands sold in spas, salons, and by doctors as well as a robust market outlook.
