Data from Nielsen based on a European panel of consumers through the end of April shows the skincare categories each generation are the most buying online.
Female Gen Z are the biggest drivers of Korean beauty sales. Their contribution to online K-beauty purchases is 69% higher than their share of the population. Male Gen Z follow the same pattern at a smaller scale, buying K-beauty at a rate 18% above their demographic weight. Gen Z also over-index on dermatological brands, though the heaviest buyers of that category are male millennials, whose contribution is 32% above average.
Millennial women are the most balanced consumer group. They buy above average across every skincare category, with contributions running 6% to 8% higher than their demographic share. On the contrary, Gen X men buy less than their demographic weight would suggest, across every category.
Finally Gen X women, alongside boomers of both genders, are the biggest contributors to online sales of prestige skincare brands. But those same three groups fall below average for K-beauty and dermatological brands, with boomers having by far the lowest contributions of any generation to both.
Three consumer types are emerging. One is younger and willing to experiment: Gen Z, favoring K-beauty and newer dermatological names. The other is older and loyal to established prestige houses: Gen X women and boomers. Finally Millennial women sit in between the two, buying more than average of all categories.