2024 Faire Forecast: Customer-powered transparency

This post is part of the Faire Forecast: our predictions for the buying trends that will shape 2024.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this past year, it’s that consumers shop with their values. When it comes to beauty and skincare, they prioritize transparency, efficacy, and functionality over flashy marketing campaigns. People are skeptical of the “clean” beauty industry, especially, and its often deceptive branding. As clean beauty products get more and more expensive, people want to know why.

According to a Mintel report, consumers are looking for brands that offer clear proof about ingredient-sourcing and the brand’s impact on the environment. That includes ensuring that products are backed by research and clinical studies.

Stephanie Snelling, senior marketing manager at Om Organics Skincare, sees this same dedication not just to transparency but to facts from her audience. “We have really savvy consumers,” she says. “They’ve experienced greenwashing. They can spot it. They’ve heard brands tell all sorts of eco-friendly lingo, and they don’t want to be tricked into thinking a brand is eco-friendly when it’s not.”

Consumers are looking for those third-party verifications. They’re asking, Are you CertClean? What’s your impact? Where do you donate? If you’re cruelty-free, do you have the Leaping Bunny certification?
Stephanie Snelling, Senior Marketing Manager, Om Organics Skincare

This demand for transparency will benefit brands that are eco-conscious, practice ethical sourcing, and have science-backed proof that their ingredients work. And if brands can prove their value, consumers are willing to pay. Mintel reports that 66% of US beauty buyers say they prefer to use high-quality products, regardless of price. Maybe it’s time to earn that B Corp certification or join 1% for the Planet if you can. (Bee’s Wrap is a good inspiration.)

Snelling agrees: “Consumers are looking for those third-party verifications. They’re asking, Are you CertClean? What’s your impact? Where do you donate? Are you cruelty-free? If you’re cruelty-free, do you have the Leaping Bunny certification?”

Brands should take note that they can use their labels as awareness tools to prove their sustainability and provide even more transparency to shoppers. Take Snelling’s Om Organics, for example. On its website, you’ll see what its products don’t include—like parabens, sulfates, gluten, and synthetic colors and fragrances—right up front. On its minimalist glass bottles—and if it has to use plastic, it’s post-industrial recycled plastics—you’ll see the exact percentage of organic ingredients under the name of the products.

Same for Manifest Wellness. With its magnesium products, it doesn’t simply say “magnesium” on the website; it goes into detail about the type of magnesium it uses and what ratio of the supplement and water it uses to make the product as effective as possible. Brands shouldn’t forget about their packaging, either. Will it just get used or thrown away? At Ardent Goods, all of its packaging is either recyclable, biodegradable, or designed to be reused and refilled.

To take it a step further, Emily Ferber, beauty consultant and writer behind You Probably Don’t Need That, says that for 2024, “transparency isn’t enough. It’s got to be ‘we’ve got better practices, we’ve got better ingredients, we have shared values, we are making your life better.’ ”

Ferber equates a good product to a friend: one that takes care of you. That’s the one you’re going to buy again and again. It’s like going to The Strand, she explains. The independent bookseller isn’t great for the books it has or its communicated ethos alone, but for the way the sellers can say, “Hey, this book is great because of X, Y, and Z.” They’re showing their work, and it pays off.