Beauty & Wellness Ecommerce in 2025: 3 Growth Blockers (and How Brands Are Moving Past Them)

Beauty & Wellness Ecommerce 2025: An Introduction

Online beauty ecommerce and wellness sales are set to top $257.5 billion in 2025. For growing brands, that’s a massive opportunity—if you’re ready for what’s next.

From shifting consumer preferences to growing channel complexity and rising sustainability expectations, success in 2025 will take more than great products. It requires operational clarity, sharper marketplace strategies, and systems that scale with demand.

In this post, we explore three of the most common blockers slowing growth across the category—and how brands are navigating past them to stay competitive.

💄Want the full strategic playbook? Download our latest eBook, Beauty & Wellness 2025: Glow Up Your Ecommerce Strategies, for a deep dive into six growth challenges and a 25-marketplace expansion matrix, to help you develop a future-proof ecommerce strategy.

Beauty and Wellness 2025: Glow up your ecommerce strategies

Build your beauty and wellness ecommerce strategy for 2025 The essential guide to staying ahead in the $257.5 billion beauty and wellness industry.

beauty and wellness ecommerce strategies

Trend Flash: 2025 Beauty Ecommerce Shifts Brands Can’t Ignore

Before we dive into beauty ecommerce trends, here’s why the landscape is shifting fast.

Social Commerce Sets the Pace

TikTok Shop has already topped $1 billion in U.S. beauty sales—and it’s just getting started. Viral, creator-led drops are redefining launch cycles, with products selling out in hours, not weeks.

For brands, success hinges on real-time inventory visibility across TikTok, Amazon, and DTC channels. Without it, oversells, stockouts, and missed momentum become costly risks.

The Digital Shelf Doubles Down

Today, 41% of global beauty and personal care sales happen online. But this isn’t just a shift in where people buy—it’s changing what they expect.

More SKUs. More niche variants. More real-time availability. And with hybrid shopping behavior blurring the lines between research and purchase, the pressure’s on to deliver accuracy and consistency across every channel.

Brands using automated catalog and inventory management tools will be the ones staying ahead—controlling complexity while protecting margins.

Without a clear ecommerce growth strategy, these shifts can drain margin before brands even notice.

How Red Label Outlet manages more than 700+ daily orders with Linnworks

Influencer-driven drops triggered sudden surges in demand—but without real-time inventory syncing, oversells damaged customer trust.

red label case study

The “Big 3” Blockers Holding Back Beauty & Wellness Brands

Even in a booming category, scaling isn’t automatic. For many growing brands, the real ecommerce challenge isn’t demand—it’s keeping up with it. 

⛔Here are three of the most common blockers threatening margins, momentum, and customer trust in 2025.

1. Inventory Breakdowns Across 10+ Channels

When demand spikes across TikTok, Amazon, and DTC, fragmented systems can’t keep up. Manual processes and spreadsheets fall short—leading to oversells, stockouts, and missed revenue.

With centralized inventory control, brands stay responsive, accurate, and ready to scale.

2. The Delivery & Returns Gap

“2-day or free” shipping is now the baseline—and cosmetics without virtual try-ons can hit return rates north of 30%. If your post-purchase experience lags, customer lifetime value takes a hit. 

Closing this gap starts with smarter fulfillment logic, automated returns flows, and customer-centric delivery options.

3. The Sustainability Squeeze

Packaging rules are tightening fast. The EU’s PPWR and similar regulations are putting pressure on non-compliant SKUs—and customers are doing the same.

Refill models and sustainable packaging boost brand loyalty, but they require traceability across SKUs, suppliers, and shipments. Without batch-level tracking, compliance becomes guesswork.

👉 Want the full six-blocker breakdown and step-by-step strategies to fix them? Grab the Beauty & Wellness 2025: Glow Up Your Ecommerce Strategies eBook below.

Beauty and Wellness 2025: Glow up your ecommerce strategies

Build your beauty and wellness ecommerce strategy for 2025 The essential guide to staying ahead in the $257.5 billion beauty and wellness industry.

beauty and wellness ecommerce strategies

📋Quick Checklist: Is Your Brand Marketplace-Ready?

Scaling across Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Walmart isn’t just about listings—it’s about precision. Use this 5-question check to spot gaps before peak season hits:

✅ Can you sync inventory across all sales channels in under 60 seconds?

✅ Is your returns portal fully branded and self-serve?

✅ Do you manage region-specific compliance docs (EU, GCC, FDA)?

✅ Have you forecasted TikTok Shop vs. Amazon demand for Q4?

✅ Can you automate duties and tax at checkout?

Scored under 4?

Download the full eBook for our Marketplace Cheat-Sheet—built to help brands boost operational confidence before peak.

Discover the top 25 marketplaces that will shape ecommerce in 2025

Online marketplaces are no longer optional—they’re your fastest path to scale. In 2025, more than 50% of consumers prefer marketplaces as their go-to shopping destination. If you’re not selling across the right mix of platforms, you’re leaving serious revenue on the table.

top marketplaces

Download the Full Playbook

Beauty & Wellness 2025: Glow Up Your Ecommerce Strategies

Ready to scale smarter in 2025? Our free eBook gives beauty and wellness brands the practical playbooks and global insights needed to grow across marketplaces, regions, and categories.

What’s inside:

  • 30-page global + regional trend map (NA, EU, LATAM, APAC)
  • Six operational playbooks: inventory, fulfillment, sustainability, and more
  • 25-marketplace matrix with fees, reach, and top-selling product categories

Get the Full Playbook

FAQs

Q: What’s the biggest ecommerce challenge for beauty brands in 2025?

Scaling across multiple channels while managing real-time inventory, meeting 2-day delivery expectations, and staying compliant with evolving sustainability regulations.

Q: How can I reduce return rates for cosmetics?

Returns can top 30% for beauty SKUs without visual guidance. Brands are cutting that in half with virtual try-ons, shade-matching visuals, and clearer product fit guides.

Q: Which marketplaces work best for cross-border beauty sales?

Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Lazada are leading channels—but your best bets depend on local demand patterns and your ability to manage regional compliance.

Ready to see Linnworks in action?

  • Unrivaled ecommerce data accuracy
  • 100+ integrations with global sales channels
  • Up and running in 40 days on average