Instagram reels influence beauty purchases in India, study reveals

A survey reveals that Instagram reels dominate beauty purchases in India. Meta report revealed that 47 per cent of consumers get to know about the products through Instagram reels

Instagram is dominating in terms of beauty purchases in India highlighting the social media impact on beauty purchases. Meta's Facebook and Instagram lead beauty product searches, as reported by nine out of the 10 consumers surveyed by the consumer research platform. 

According to the Meta GWI, Instagram reels plays the most influence on the purchase decision as around 47 per cent of consumers revealed that they get to know about beauty products through this feature. Notably, one in three surveyed beauty products is being purchased through Instagram reels. The fashion purchases data has also been released by Meta.

More than 2,000 consumers between the ages of 6 to 64 years joined the survey in 74 cities which was conducted in June this year. Meta published two separate reports on Monday mapping consumer behaviour for beauty and fashion categories.

Online trade has surged significantly since COVID-19, as consumers are now more comfortable buying goods online. The reach of the online marketplace emerged as the best way to market beauty and personal care categories products and has fuelled demand for such products.

Post-pandemic, consumer preference has changed significantly as 68 per cent of beauty buyers are now favouring online deals, which is a 15 per cent hike from the pre-COVID levels. However, it is worth noting that 80 per cent of the beauty brands are on social media, with 92 per cent finding them on Meta platform, including Instagram reels, which comprises 47 per cent, the report revealed. Around a third of the survey respondents said they purchase beauty products online every week.

The study findings revealed that Indians are highly dependent on influencers as they are highly interested in content created by influencers. Despite the significant growth of content and content creators, Indians rely on Indian creators for authentic information and reviews. The data disclosed that 7 out of 10 beauty content viewers and 2 out of 3 fashion content viewers watch Indian influencers, which impacts the buying of products.

The study further shows that the lack of reviews is as bad as negative ones, which underscores the influencers' importance. 

Meanwhile, 76 per cent of fashion consumers discover fashion brands on social media, with a significant 97 per cent discovering them through meta platforms of which 52 per cent credit it to Instagram reels. Notably, 39 per cent proceeded to purchase after finding them on reels.