Emerging Beauty Trends in Indonesia

1. Embrace aspirations across social classes

Each consumer group has unique aspirations, creating diverse opportunities for manufacturers. Upper-middle-class shoppers, known for their high purchasing power, contribute significantly to the sector. They are expanding their basket size by purchasing more segments, creating space for brands to drive premiumisation and capture this affluent cohort.

Additionally, spend is also rising faster among lower-class shoppers, although their contribution is still quite low to the overall value. This growth is primarily driven by increased sunscreen purchases, indicating a shift toward more advanced products beyond basic skincare like face wash and moisturiser. This presents a valuable opportunity for brands to introduce comprehensive beauty regimes and educate these consumers on the importance of advanced products, which could eventually lead to higher spending.

2. Start early for
the youth

Beauty awareness now starts with tweens and teens, making it essential to engage with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, who are driving emerging trends. Recruitment of Indonesian beauty shoppers under 35 is faster than for older age groups, prompting manufacturers to develop products tailored specifically to youngsters. For example, several brands are introducing specialised sunscreen and lip balm made from safe materials for kids and teens. Others are collaborating with popular and relatable figures (ie. influencers, characters) to attract this audience.

By focusing on early beauty education and catering to these buyers, brands are not only meeting current needs but also fostering lifelong habits and loyalty. This proactive approach is helping to shape the next generation of beauty enthusiasts, ensuring lasting relationships with future consumers. Early engagement with younger audiences addresses immediate demands, while building a foundation for continued brand affinity and consumer retention.

3. Extend accessibility beyond key cities

In the fast-evolving beauty market, accessibility plays a pivotal role in expanding customer reach and driving growth. Growth is occurring faster beyond Indonesia’s key cities, indicating that the market there has reached a level of maturity, while secondary cities and rural areas are catching up expanding to a wider audience.

This suggests that it is essential for brands to maintain their accessibility in key cities, while also unlocking the potential of other regions, where the ability to increase both shoppers spend, and consumption levels is becoming more marked.

In addition, different category drivers are emerging in each regional layer. Make-up still presents growth opportunities in key cities, while a wider variety of categories – including skincare, make-up, and hair treatments – are seeing notable growth elsewhere. To effectively boost growth, therefore, brands must adopt strategies that differentiate based on shoppers' behaviour across different areas.

4. Balance O+O Presence

The purchase behaviour of beauty shoppers has always been a fascinating topic for discussion, especially when it comes to the channels they choose. For beauty brands, having a presence both offline and online (O+O) is critical for reaching more buyers, particularly with this year’s significant rise in omnichannel and ecommerce shopping. This is proven by the fact that the shift in behaviour has led to increased market share for online channels and offline health & beauty stores in the last two years. General trade continues to hold the largest share, however.

Online channels offer easy accessibility, allowing shoppers to browse a wide variety of products at their convenience. Meanwhile, health & beauty stores not only provide an experiential element, allowing shoppers to physically engage with products and receive personalised assistance, but also offer access to premium products that are often not available in general trade.

5. Capitalise on festive season surges

The festive period has always been highly anticipated in Indonesia. In 2024, beauty spending increased noticeably compared to the previous year. Shoppers allocated more budget to both skincare and make-up during different phases of the festive season.

Skincare products saw an uplift in demand leading up to Ramadan, with shoppers focusing on pre-festive preparation; growth was driven by the serum and toner segments.

Two-way cake and liquid lip enjoyed a significant boost during the festive period itself, as shoppers focused on getting ready for celebrations and events.

The rise in festive beauty purchases is also being fueled by the growing popularity of social media, where users increasingly share their skincare and make-up routines for the season.