Driven by the country’s increasing population and a sudden wave of consciousness about appearance in the younger generation, the UAE has seen a recent increase in demand for luxury cosmetics products. This year, Statisca estimates that the country’s cosmetics revenue market should generate around $180m with an annual growth rate of -1.31% over five years (2024-2029).

The cosmetics market is spread across five major beauty products; facial makeup, lipsticks, nail care and colour, eye makeup, and natural cosmetics.

This increase in demand has led to the springing of too many cosmetic businesses and a general rise in the size of the market. Hence, finding the best products from a wide pool can be crushing.

However, Cosmetics mystery shopping is an important tool that provides insight into product quality, brand integrity, and customer service of these companies to make your search easier.

An understanding of how mystery shopping reveals all there is about cosmetics brands will make users make informed decisions in the beauty industry.

What is Cosmetics Mystery Shopping?

Cosmetics mystery shopping is a process of training shoppers under the guise of real customers to evaluate beauty products, assess their customer service, and observe their store environment to test the product quality and knowledge of the sales associates on the products on their display.

Mystery shoppers act at the back end of cosmetic stores to help shoppers and brands understand what the market wants in a competitive business environment.

Why Mystery Shopping is Important in the UAE Cosmetics Industry

With a rising population and many cosmetic brands springing up, it is easier for companies with fake products enter the market. Besides, with many businesses trying hard to remain relevant in the market it will be a hard pick to know which has the best products.

Below are a few other reasons mystery shopping cosmetics services are important.

❖     Competitive Analysis

Mystery shopping can give you insights into your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, their pricing plans, marketing strategies, and so on. It is also a perfect chance to analyse how your competitors generate leads through customer service, engagements, and so on. 

It can also shape how you design your brand’s operational efficiency like staffing and staff productivity, appointment scheduling, and wait times. It shows an expose on how to evaluate customer service.

❖     Quality Assurance and Consistency

Mystery shopping can also ensure that a brand maintains and adopts the same quality services across several channels. For instance, a retail chain can use mystery shopping to verify that all its outlets have the same pricing, and comply with regulations set by bodies like the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA), Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), and other bodies.

❖     Understanding Consumer Preferences

Another importance of mystery shopping is that it provides data on what consumers want and what they prioritize when choosing from a wide range of cosmetics. You know, product quality, customer service, ambiance of the store, feedback loop, etcetera.

Businesses can now use this feedback to enhance the quality of their products or services, identify areas for improvement, discover innovative trends, develop a better staff-customer culture, and overall, improve their brand reputation.

How Cosmetics Mystery Shopping Service Works

Cosmetics mystery shopping services help cosmetic brand shoppers identify the best products through four processes. Setting objectives, field visits, collecting feedback, and reporting.

The beauty industry mystery shopping starts with defining focus areas for evaluation like location, environment, product availability, staff performance, etc. Then a professional mystery shopper is selected to visit the store and pretend like a customer. He checks the product while observing service quality, staff behaviour, and other key metrics.

This feedback is then collected after a series of strict evaluations have been done to rid personal bias and inaccuracies and the mystery brand submits a final report filled with cosmetic brand shopper insights to the client covering majorly, recommendations and how to improve the position of the brand.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS on Cosmetics Mystery Shopping

Does mystery shopping work for online cosmetics stores?

Yes, it does. There are mystery shopping outfits that provide such services for e-commerce beauty platforms. Their evaluations revolve around online customer service responsiveness, media visibility, shipping and delivery processes, etc.

What certainty is there that mystery shoppers aren’t biased in their feedback?

Bias and inaccuracy cannot be ruled out. That is why professional mystery shoppers from reputable mystery shopping agencies should be used for the survey as their bias and inaccuracies are often put into evaluation.

What is the difference between secret shoppers and mystery shoppers?

Both are the same. Another name for mystery shoppers is secret shoppers.

Do mystery shoppers use some of these cosmetic products on themselves?

Sometimes, they do when testing its effectiveness and whether it poses some threats to the health of individuals using them. Beyond that, they also buy the products to provide feedback on their scent, application usage, packaging, etc.

Final thoughts

Mystery shopping benefits both the brand and consumers. For the brands, Cosmetic Mystery Shopping Services offer insights into what customer wants and how they can satisfy them. For cosmetic brand shoppers, selecting a cosmetics brand backed by beauty industry mystery shopping insights, you can be assured knowing you have selected a quality product from a brand that knows their onions.