Online sales of beauty products makes up four percent of sales in the more than $42 billion business  — and are growing fast, according to a consumer research report.
 
One in ten women said they hit the Web for their skin care, makeup and perfume needs, according to a report titled “Emerging Channels: Beauty Care Products Over the Internet” by retail research firm NPD Group. More than 15,00 women were survey.
 
Forty three percent of them said they shopped more online in 2006 than in 2005.
 
Why? Because it sure beats standing in lines at stores.
 
More than 74 percent of these women, aged between 18 and 64, said it saved time while about 70 percent thought “its easier/quicker to shop online.”
 
That said, only their trusted brands enjoy good online sales, said NPD senior beauty analyst Karen Grant.
 
“We find that women are less accepting of buying new brands over the Internet, but they are spending their money on brands they know and trust,” Grant said.
 
That could spell good news for beauty companies like Estee Lauder  and Elizabeth Arden, which have said they felt a continuing pinch in U.S. sales following the Macy’s/May Department stores mergers.
 
In the past quarter, Estee said positive internet sales were partly responsible for offsetting weak U.S. sales.
 
Fifteen percent of women in the $75,000 and over range shopped beauty online, compared to 10 percent in the $35,000 to $44,000 category and 7 percent in households that make less than $35,000.
 
And “baby boomer” women — those aged between 45 and 64 — shop the most online, followed by those who are in the 18 to 34 age range, according to the survey.

 – Written by Aarthi Sivaraman