Beauty consumers’ anxiety on skin care is on the rise and consumers are focusing more on the efficacy of skincare products. What are some trending consumer skin care habits and skin care needs? Through the big data "2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report" co-released by Baidu Stargazer & Key Account Sales Department, those findings are revealed.

01. Different attitude leads to different efficacy

"2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report" shows that 52% of all keyword searches in the skincare sector are related to product efficacy, and consumers of different age, skin type, location, and season drives the different needs, which are classified into three categories: basic needs, segmented needs, and special needs.

1. Basic care, all seasons

"2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report" shows that basic skincare products such as cleansing and moisturizing products accounts for 9% of all the needs. It can be seen from the user analysis that these users are relatively young, especially for cleansing products. Basic skin care is in demand throughout the seasons, concentrated mostly in third and fourth-tier cities.

2. Segmented care, varies by person

The growth rate of consumers' demand for refined beauty products has already far exceeded the needs for moisturizing and hydrating.

"2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report" shows that differences in skin type, season, and age, lead to specific needs and search accounts for up to 66%. 

Oil control and acne treatment still retains the strongest demand, number one all year round. Young peoples’ needs are particularly strong during the peak summer seasons.

Whitening & freckle removing ranks second, found mostly during late spring to early summer.Whitening and freckle removing no longer a demand for young people, but rather for mature women.

Demand for anti-wrinkle and anti-aging continues to rise, showing a growth rate of 19%. 25 being the cutoff age for beginning the anti-aging process.

Sun protection product searches peak during March to August. Young people have excellent sun protection awareness.

3. Special care, keeps on improving

Special care such as eye care, face lifting and blackheads removal accounts for 25% of all the skincare efficacy searches, and more advanced skin care concepts are being explored.

From the trend of skin care products, we also see consumers' pursuit of skin care efficacy.

"2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report" shows that facial masks still rank first in skin care products, eye care and essence, which are typical products that consumers pursue for product efficacy, are firmly ranked second and third.
Sunscreen, a daily skin care product, charged into the top five ranking with a growth rate of 11%. Consumers’ core focus is on its usage, and side effects after long-term usage. Another representative of special care-neck care,  consumers actively seek reliable word-of-mouth recommendations.

02. Rising "Anxiety", creates new demands for skin care

With rising consumer "anxiety," what kind of skin care changes and needs will consumers adopt?

1. Having the urge to stay up late

Some consumers love to stay up late then worry about their skin subsequently. They search for “How to remove acne after staying up late”, “What harm staying up late cause to the skin", "How to get rid of dark circles” while looking for skin care products that can produce a miracle.

Utilizing consumers’ panic and anxiety, brands propose the concept of stay-up cream and stay-up eye cream, opening a brand-new segmented category.

2. Sensitive skin repair

Sensitive skin repair, as a subdivision of skin care, has gradually become a hot search term.

With the effects of natural skin aging, mental stress, medical beauty, makeup application, stimulation of high active ingredients, seasonal changes, wind and sun burns, all pushes the skin to be unbalanced and sensitive. The unbalanced skin is particularly fragile, so most of the consumers rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, hoping to avoid choosing the wrong products and to avoid re-irritation.

In order to meet the urgent repair needs of this specific group, brands are competing to enter the sensitive skin repair segment.

3. Anti-wrinkle and anti-aging
Consumers are increasingly anxious about aging and wrinkles.  The concept of anti-aging is getting noticed at a much younger age.  In 2018, only 18% of 18-24 years old took investment in anti-aging products, with an increase to 22% in 2019.

Anti-wrinkle and anti-aging getting younger: No longer satisfied with limiting function of anti-aging, anti-wrinkles and anti-sagging, consumers want to resolve the issue from the source.

The concept of "using a good sunscreen can prevent aging" is strengthening and consumers are paying special attention to the usage, word-of-mouth recommendation and comparison of sunscreen. Antioxidant is gradually getting recognized, while anti-glycation began to take notice by the public. The search growth rate both is 67% and 81% respectively. While some consumers understand what anti-oxidation and anti-glycation are, others have begun to seek recommended products or methods.

03. Under "facial mask" normality, extra skin care needs

How is your skin condition with having to wear a “Facial Mask” everywhere you go? From Baidu's big data, it doesn’t look so good.

Wearing a mask for a long time can cause airtightness due to the stuffiness inside the mask and can cause a series of skin problems. "2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report" shows that related searches of “mask + skin” in Q1 of 2020 increased 14.8 times compared with Q1 of 2019. The most troublesome skin problems for consumers are acne, eczema, red itchy allergy, and skin deterioration.

As the weather gets warmer, consumers begin to search for information about "mask + sunscreen". They worry prolong usage of masks might cause different complexion when the mask is off. 

In special times, brands understand consumer needs, and actively respond to their sudden skin care needs under the "mask-era".

(Data from: "2020 Baidu Skin Care Industry Report", jointly produced by Baidu Star Pan & Key Account Sales Department. Pictures in this article are from the Internet, please reach out if there is any infringement.)