The State of Ecommerce: Beauty
Traffic down, costs up, structural pricing pressure widening
- ASPs fell 8% YoY while discounting eased, pointing to structural mix shift rather than promotions.
- CPC jumped 30% to $1.40 while ROAS fell, meaning Beauty brands are paying more per click and getting fewer returns.
- Traffic fell despite Prime Day landing in-quarter. Get the data behind the mix shift squeezing Beauty margins.
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Key takeaways
Inventory is healthier, but fulfillment weakened.
Inventory rose 9% YoY and OOS improved to 1%, yet fill rate fell 6pp to 84% while fulfilled units were roughly flat.
Beauty pricing pressure is structural.
ASPs fell 8% YoY even as discounting eased slightly, showing mix shift rather than promotions is driving price pressure.
Traffic is softer than the headline suggests.
Glance views fell 6% YoY even with Prime Day inside Q2, though conversion improved 3pp on a smaller audience.
Revenue and margin both moved lower.
Revenue declined 2% YoY and gross margin compressed 1pp to 15%, creating pressure if ASP erosion continues.
Media efficiency deteriorated.
Ad spend rose 20% YoY, CPC jumped 30% to $1.40, and ROAS fell to 6.01x despite Prime Day timing.
Stockout losses concentrated in high-value ASINs.
Revenue lost to stockouts more than doubled even as the OOS rate improved, pointing to gaps in higher-revenue products.
