Alternate retail channels are white hot in the beauty business, having grown sales nearly $1 billion since 2005. Instead of trying to figure out how to compete, traditional bricks-and-mortar brands should take a page from the alternate channel playbook and leverage these new opportunities to reach customers at their new favorite place to shop: at home.

Sales of cosmetic and toiletry products through alternate channels have exploded over the last five years, fueling a 5.2% growth in direct sales that is outpacing the total market more than three-fold. While conventional person-to-person sales are declining gradually since 2005, multi-media driven channels have snapped up sales, with e-commerce growing by more than 26%, home shopping networks up nearly 20%, and infomercials posting just over 17% growth. This upward trend is expected to continue as mobile technologies, social media, and online deal-hunting converge to help bricks-and-mortar and direct sales-only retailers reach a wider, more diverse, and engaged audience.Continue reading→