ZURICH, Switzerland —

With the rise of internet shopping, a new challenge has emerged for shoppers: the Netflix effect. Have you ever spent an evening browsing through Netflix shows, unable to choose one? 

American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler coined the term ‘choice overload’ in his 1970 book Future Shock. He argued that the ‘people of the future,’ meaning us, would suffer from a paralyzing surfeit of choice.

This is especially problematic for e-commerce businesses, selling thousands of products, as people often get overwhelmed when presented with so many options. Luckily, there are several tools allowing customers to narrow their choices based on their preferences. Granular filters are one effective way to do this. Yet, while these are now widely used in a variety of sectors, such as the apparel and home furnishing industries, online beauty retailers are still behind. 

Physical stores are often divided into sections to guide customers towards their ideal product. Women's clothes are separated from men's clothes, sportswear gets its own section, and so does lingerie. Most online stores have implemented a similar system that allows customers to apply filters to narrow their search. 

People can select whether they are looking for women's, men's, or kids' clothes, while also choosing materials, price range, sizes, colors, and so on. The more specific the filters are, the easier it is for customers to find their ideal product and avoid ‘choice overload.’ Unfortunately, however, the beauty industry hasn’t caught up yet. 

Even major companies such as Sephora and Douglas still don’t let shoppers filter by skin tone when looking for foundations. Most online beauty retailers display their products in major categories, rather than offering category-specific filters to help customers in their search. This is often because these businesses didn’t have to capture such detailed data when adding these products to their websites and would now have to retroactively update this information across thousands of items, which constitutes a massive undertaking.

While some specialty beauty retailers, such as SpaceNK, now offer a variety of granular filters that allow customers to select their ideal brand, product type, and even skin goal, these remain rare in the beauty industry. 

Time to Catch Up: Why Filters Are No Longer Optional

Since only a limited number of online beauty retailers are now offering granular filters, websites equipped with these tools have a massive advantage over others. Here are a few reasons why implementing granular filters now can help beauty retail owners set their businesses apart and boost sales.

Personalization That Actually Serves the Shopper

Now more than ever, customers want to ensure products are not only of good quality but also tailored to their needs. A face cream for dry skin would be counterproductive on oily skin.  

Granular filters allow shoppers to personalize their browsing experience based on their preferences and needs, therefore avoiding hours spent browsing aimlessly through hundreds of products. 

Filters That Reflect Brand Values—and Customer Values

Customers are also getting increasingly interested in whether brands align with their values. According to a 2022 Google Report, 82% of shoppers prefer a brand whose values align with their own, while 66% seek out eco-friendly brands.

Granular filters can facilitate this search. For instance, Import Parfumerie, a retail chain in Switzerland selling luxury cosmetics, with an inventory of over 17,000 products, collaborated with Inference Beauty to introduce extra filters on its website: 

• Olfactory Family and Style for Fragrance
• Color Selection for Color Cosmetics
• Free-From, Popular Ingredients and Clean Beauty Preferences for all beauty sectors
• SPF, Skin Type and Hair Type for relevant product categories

What Filter Usage Reveals About Your Shoppers

Granular filters also provide access to first-party data. By analyzing which filters people use most, brand owners can gain insight into consumer behavior and adjust their marketing strategies accordingly to maximize profits. 

Top Granular Filters Beauty Retailers Should Prioritize

There are plenty of ways in which e-commerce owners can use granular filters to maximize sales and support customers throughout their online research. Here are some of the most common ones.

Color Options

With so much information available online, people nowadays are well-informed about their beauty needs. Customers are often aware of their undertone and overtone and are looking for specific colors when purchasing blushes, lipsticks, or eyeshadows.

Color filters can help shoppers narrow their research by selecting products that match their skin tone and personal preferences. 

Ingredients Selection

Granular filters are also ideal for people with sensitive skin wanting to avoid specific ingredients due to intolerances or allergies. Instead of opening each product page and reading the entire ingredient list, clients can tick off ingredients they don’t want for a seamless browsing experience. 

Price Range

Being able to select a price range is another must-have for e-commerce businesses. Thanks to granular filters, customers on a tight budget can easily set a maximum they are willing to spend on a product, avoiding those outside their budget. 

Why Inference Beauty Is the Partner of Choice for Beauty Retail

The options are virtually endless. Businesses such as Inference Beauty can help e-commerce companies choose the granular filters that best apply to them, from fragrance selection to skin and hair type, SPF levels, and more. 

Unlike other businesses offering similar services, however, Inference Beauty is not a generic data supplier but specializes in the beauty industry. This allows this company to offer specific granular filters across all beauty categories, helping retailers instantly improve their website functionality and attract more customers.

As e-commerce businesses continue to add products to their websites to give shoppers more choices, granular filters can help potential clients find their ideal product based on personal preferences and avoid choice overload.