Inside Amazon Beauty: 3 Moves Shaping the Future of Beauty & Wellness Ecommerce

From pricing strategy shifts to new storefront launches, Amazon continues to evolve how it sells and supports beauty, health, and wellness brands. This month’s updates center around three key themes: political pressure and pricing transparency, social-media-driven merchandising, and the accelerating migration of beauty to ecommerce.

Below, we’ve summarized the most relevant headlines and what they mean for your brand, along with strategic takeaways to help you stay ahead in Amazon’s rapidly changing beauty landscape.

Amazon Debuts ‘Beauty Finds’ Storefront to Showcase Viral & Cult-Favorite Products

In April, Amazon officially launched ‘Amazon Beauty Finds’ in Australia, a curated destination for trending, viral, and cult-favorite beauty products, with a spotlight on K-Beauty and J-Beauty brands. The storefront is designed to surface the products consumers are already searching for on social platforms like TikTok, offering them in one easily shoppable location with the convenience of Prime shipping.

According to the press release, the storefront “features products inspired by customer searches and social media trends,” including skincare, makeup, haircare, and beauty tools. Amazon is positioning Beauty Finds as a way to make “highly sought-after beauty brands more discoverable” and to cater to the growing demand for culturally diverse, trend-forward products.

Why This Matters for Brands:

Amazon is leaning even further into the intersection of social commerce and ecommerce convenience, and beauty is at the center of that strategy.

For brands in the beauty, health, and personal care space, here’s what stands out:

• Trend discovery is now platform-native. Amazon is actively curating products based on what’s trending on social media, signaling a shift toward a more discovery-driven model. This creates new surface area for brands with viral momentum to gain visibility, if they’re plugged into Amazon’s ecosystem.
• The emphasis on K-Beauty and J-Beauty underscores the global influence of Asian skincare philosophies and product formats. For both indie and legacy brands, this is a call to understand and respond to evolving consumer expectations around ingredients, efficacy, and product design.
• Distribution is differentiation. Making cult products accessible via Amazon, with fast shipping and customer trust baked in, erodes the exclusivity advantage of boutique or specialty beauty retailers. Brands need to weigh how accessibility, availability, and pricing on Amazon impact their overall positioning.

As Amazon continues to act more like a beauty curator than just a marketplace, it’s becoming increasingly important for brands to think about how they show up visually, strategically, and contextually on the platform.

Amazon and TikTok Shop Poised to Gain Share as Beauty’s Growth Accelerates

A new Retail Dive report confirms what many beauty brands already feel on the ground: the category is surging, and online-first platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop are positioned to capture disproportionate gains. As beauty becomes more digital, convenience-focused, and content-influenced, both platforms are scaling their efforts to dominate discovery and delivery.

According to Retail Dive, beauty product sales grew 8% in 2023 and are expected to continue outpacing broader retail growth in 2024. Much of that growth is concentrated in online channels, particularly in skincare, haircare, and wellness—all categories where Amazon is expanding its influence through tools like Amazon Beauty Finds and increased advertising sophistication.

Why This Matters for Brands:

For beauty brands navigating today’s commerce landscape, this story cements two key takeaways:

• Omnichannel now means marketplace + social commerce. The traditional retail playbook—DTC + Sephora or Ulta—is no longer enough. Consumers are discovering on TikTok and converting on Amazon. Winning requires fluency in both environments, with tailored strategies for creative, community, and conversion.
• Skincare, haircare, and wellness are core battlegrounds. These categories are not only growing, but they’re increasingly central to Amazon’s and TikTok Shop’s plans. That means more competition, more advertising dollars, and faster trend cycles. Brands need to be agile, data-driven, and ready to optimize both messaging and assortment in real time.

As Retail Dive notes, “The competition among mass, specialty, and online retailers for share of the beauty wallet is intensifying.” Amazon is a beauty destination. The brands that succeed will be those that treat it as such, with the same rigor applied to product storytelling, media, and merchandising as they would with top-tier retail partners.

Amazon Reconsiders Tariff Transparency on Low-Cost Haul Products

Late April brought an interesting development in Amazon’s approach to pricing transparency. In response to new tariffs on Chinese goods introduced by the Trump campaign, Amazon considered displaying a “tariff surcharge” on ultra-low-cost products sold through its Haul platform—a budget-friendly storefront designed to compete with players like Temu and Shein. The company ultimately backed off after backlash from the White House, reportedly concerned about the political optics of highlighting tariff-related price hikes.

According to CNBC, Amazon had planned to show a line item for tariffs at checkout on certain low-cost Chinese imports. “The surcharge was meant to ‘transparently’ show how rising import costs would affect pricing,” a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. But after pushback from senior Biden administration officials, the plan was paused, highlighting just how sensitive the conversation around tariffs has become in an election year.

Why This Matters for Brands:

Amazon’s decision to shelve the surcharge display reflects the tightrope it walks between political pressure, consumer perception, and platform integrity. While Haul operates in a separate ecosystem from premium marketplaces like Luxury Stores, the implications of this moment extend across categories.

For beauty, health, and personal care brands, especially those offering entry-level SKUs or selling in value channels, the situation highlights two critical points:

• Pricing optics are strategy. How prices are framed (or hidden) can impact brand trust and conversion, especially when economic pressures like tariffs or fees are passed down to the consumer.
• Retail presentation matters regardless of channel. Even on cost-sensitive platforms, consumers make value judgments based on what they see. Brands need to be proactive about positioning, packaging, and pricing transparency, especially when selling through third-party storefronts where messaging control is limited.

As Amazon continues to push into budget marketplaces, expect increasing scrutiny over how pricing mechanics are communicated and how those perceptions trickle up to more premium categories.

Final Thoughts

Amazon is making bold moves to capture the next wave of beauty shoppers through pricing experiments, curated storefronts, and increased alignment with social trends. For brands in the beauty, health, and wellness space, now is the time to take a proactive approach: optimize your positioning, rethink your channel mix, and stay closely attuned to how Amazon’s platform evolves.

We’ll continue tracking these shifts month to month to ensure our clients stay informed, agile, and ready to lead.