To study the Indian millennium woman’s online journey to purchase

cosmetics- an empirical study

Abha Wankhede., K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management, Somaiya Vidyavihar

University, Mumbai; [email protected]

Keywords- colour cosmetics market, S-O-R theory, e-WOM (electronic word of mouth) 

Affective attitude, millennial generation.

Introduction:

Cosmetics are considered as an important element in human society. It is made to enhance the
skin and can be used to conceal the blemishes and enhance the features on one’s face.
Cosmetics are defined as products with mild action on the skin for the purpose of beautifying
and adding or altering the appearances. It also fulfils specific actions like skin whitening,
minimizing the lines in the face and protect from sun tanning. The modern cosmetic is in
search of nature related elements. Cosmetics include beauty preparations (make up, perfume,
skin cream, and nail paint) and grooming aids like soap, shampoo, shaving cream, and
deodorant. Cosmetics are also designed in a way to add fragrance to the human body.

The India beauty and personal care industry has attained a value of INR 54588 crores in
2021, the market is further expected to grow at CAGR of 11% in the forecast period of 2022-
2027. The growing disposable income, demand for improved products and growing
expectation of Indian Millennial women is triggering the growth opportunities in exponential.
The industry can be divided into hair care, skin care, oral care, colour cosmetics and
fragrances. Multinational conglomerates dominate the industry with brands that have
practical benefits and excellent value for money. Herbal cosmetic products are showing
significant growth rates due to the increasing adoption as female millennial have become
more conscious of the dangers associated with the regular use of chemical cosmetics (Source:
EMR reports -Expert market research).
Millennials have reshaped the beauty and personal care industry. On the hunt for the
perfect, Instagram worthy glow, they demand authenticity and a means of self-
expression, and with a reliance on social media, they have generally shunned traditional
labels in favour of independent brands, driving their rapid growth. Millennials are an age
group also known as the Generation Y because they became adults around the time of
millennium. In pop culture the millennials are considered as self centered and obsessed with
social media. The millennial age range is defined as anyone born between the year 1981 to
1996, which means anyone between the ages 26 to 41 in 2022.

Changing lifestyles, and the growing awareness contributed to a significant development in

India’s cosmetic industry. It was estimated to be valued at about 20 billion U.S. dollars in
2020, led by bath and shower products. A majority of the market was dominated by the
unorganized sector, much like the rest of India’s FMCG and retail sectors. Additionally,
offline sales accounted for a higher share than online channels, although the latter saw a
significant growth rate in recent years. The cosmetic market is driven by the conglomerates
like Unilever, L’Oréal and Procter and Gamble. Although these brands are immensely
successful in India, domestic counterparts have an equal footing, with newer, organic brands
entering the market. With the expansion of the retail online space many brands have
successfully developed their businesses, one such success story is about Falguni Nayyar
founder of Nykaa her business shown increasing revenues and investments.

The Indian millennial women segment comprises of 80,000 women millennial who have
penchant to shop online for cosmetics (As per millennial survey 2021 by Deloitte India.

The consumers trust the word of the professional or a peer when it comes buying a beauty
product. As the novel coronavirus (covid 19) continues to spread across the world with the
third wave Omicron variant; many countries in the first, second and now the third wave are
implementing lockdowns, thereby triggering the growth of online purchases and beauty and
personal care market in India is no exception. Manufacturers are interested in selling their
products through market aggregators like Nykaa, Sugar cosmetics, Purple cosmetics etc. and
also selling on their own portals. This research study focuses on the colour cosmetics
category (lipstick, nail polishes, face makeup and eye makeups) The recent trend of
aggregators like Nykaa getting an overwhelming response for its valuation, it is estimated
that she is becoming a billionaire and the second richest self-made woman in the country. On
the other hand, millennial Indian women has become unapologetic regarding spending on
self-grooming and indulging.

All the above aspects make this topic interesting to study the Indian millennium woman’s
online purchase journey to buy cosmetics.

Literature Review:

Cosmetic products provide plenty of benefits to millennial women by giving them a sense of
confidence leading to purchase intentions which refers to a desire of one willingness to
purchase that adds value to them (Monroe, 2003) Ingredient safety play an important role but
varies according to the situation according to a recent study by Syukur and Nimsai (2018).

Digital and ease of online shopping is rapidly developing in the retail industry (rewal et al,
2017; Watson et al, 2018; Woodside and Bernal Mir, 2019) Social media Influence has been
defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2019, p.61) as a group of internet-based applications that is
built on the ideological and technological foundation of web 2.0, and affect the belief,
opinions, attitude and behaviours of consumers (Plos one, Siti, [email protected])

Virtual communities gather individuals together to help them from relationships, share
common goals and interests and receive social support and the researchers such as Hagen and
Armstrong (1994), pentina et al, (2008) pointed out an additional function of economic
exchange. (Huang et al. Motivations for using Information for Decision making in Virtual
communities)

Theoretical Underpinning:

S-O-R represents Stimulus, Organism, Response. This theory based on psychology explains

that, stimulus is the impulse that contains statement. Organism which means an individual,
and response as the effects, reactions, responses, and answers.
e consumer’s decision-making is not in an entirely rational process because of their unique
mental process. This research demonstrates the possibility of S-O-R model in explaining
individual responses in the way it puts more emphasis on factors relating to internal organism
reactions based on their affective attitude. Consumers have moved to online mode of
shopping, which is also triggered by the covid crisis. The consumers technology adoption has
to be integrated in this study as this study focuses on the purchase of a cosmetics as the
product category and category integrators are the service providers in the online mode.
The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is one of the most
comprehensive technology acceptance models, integrating eight influential acceptance
models, including the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1985) and the Technology
Acceptance Model (TAM) (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). UTAUT assumes that an individual’s
behavioural intention to use a technology is influenced by performance expectancy (i.e.,
degree to which the technology is perceived to be useful), effort expectancy (i.e., degree to
which using the technology is perceived to be easy to use), social influence (i.e., degree to
which using the technology is appreciated in the social network important to the individual),
and facilitating conditions (i.e., degree to which the individual believes to be in possession of
the resources to use the technology) (Venkatesh et al., 2003). UTAUT2 posits that, in
addition to the UTAUT constructs, the intention to use the technology is influenced by
hedonic motivation (i.e., degree to which the technology is perceived to be enjoyable), price
value (i.e., cognitive trade-off between perceived benefits and monetary costs of technology
usage) and habit (i.e., defined as the passage of time from the initial technology usage)
(Venkatesh, Thong & Xu, 2012).

Proposed framework-
Virtual communities

Ingredient Safety

Brand-make-up
tutorials

Social media influencers

Attitude Intention to purchase

Facilitating condition-
Online shopping ease

Hedonic shopping value eWOM

Utilitarian shopping
value

Subjective norms

Variables:

Ingredient Safety:

The concerns over the cosmetic industry are by and large quite enormous as it poses health
and environmental dangers. That’s the reason why consumers are preferring chemical free
organic products. The ingredients in the cosmetics are the deciding factors that positively
influence purchase intentions. (https://www.emerald.com/insights/1759-0833.htm)

Social media influencers:

The consumer millennial women seek to look out for social media influencers on networking
sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to seek opinion for the cosmetics before
making the purchase decision.

Subjective norms:

Subjective norms refer to an individual’s stimulus to perform or not to perform according to

the opinion of others (Fishbern and Ajzen, 1975) so it includes the social pressure by peers,
family, friends, co-workers etc., hence the subjective norms also play as an important role on
the purchase intentions of millennial women. (JMS-Vol. 7 Issue – 4, pp34-58, July 2019)

Ease of online shopping:

The ease of online shopping is truly satisfying to the millennial women which is enjoyed by
them, and they have excitement and treat it as an adventure. The pandemic situation has
forced upon many millennial women to opt for online shopping within the comfort of their
homes, thereby reducing the stress and also escaping the lockdown.

Attitude:

Attitude refers to the affective attitude. Affective component: this involves a person's feelings
/ emotions about the attitude object. The linkage between a positive attitude and purchase
intention is important to predict the final purchase behaviour of millennial women.

Utilitarian shopping value

The research studies conducted previously have asserted that both Hedonic and Utilitarian
values affect purchase behaviour. (Kim and Eastin, 2011; Sebastinelli et al, 2008, Sorce et al,
2005). The utilitarian shopping is more inclined to focus on product quality, features, price,
usage (Sorce et.al, 2005). But both the shopping value affect consumer attitude towards
online shopping (Childers et.al, 2001; Chiou and Ting 2011).

Hedonic shopping value:

Hedonic shopping value refers to the value seed from the multi-sensory fantasy and emotive
aspects of the shopping experience. (Kim and Eastin, 2011; Sebastinelli et al, 2008, Sorce et
al, 2005) Research proves that Hedonic shopping value has stronger influence on e-WOM,
when compared with utilitarian shopping value. It also influences the positive loyalty and
purchase intention.

Thus, we can conclude hedonic shopping value represents the emotional worth of the
shopping experience and has been shown to be related more strongly to satisfaction, word of
mouth and high loyalty, the Hedonic shoppers look out for wow moments and unique
experience of online shopping (Toelal. 2007)

Purchase intention:

Ajzen (1991) defined purchase intention as the readiness level of an individual in the AIDRA
(Attention-Interest-Desire-Readiness and Action) model. The Indian millennial women
purchase intention regarding online cosmetics has a positive effect on their actual purchase
behaviour. (BJMS- Vol.7, Issue-4, pp34-58, July 2019)

Mediating Variable

E-WOM:

The social media has greatly influenced the consumers’ opinion and has contributed to the e-
WOM. When it comes to the products or service, the role of e-WOM has been widely
acknowledged by consumers to seek the opinions, feedback, and review before their own
purchase experience. The influence of e-WOM in make purchase intentions has been
explored in the past by many researchers. (Jailiv and Samiei 2012; Shang et. al, 2017;
Vahdati and Nejad, 2016)

Moderating Variable:

Virtual Communities:

The virtual communities are basically three types of people on social media groups-
information browsers, who don’t post and use information. second are information
consumers, don’t post and expect information. and third information providers, they post and
seldom accept other’s opinion.

Research Methodology-

A structured questionnaire was administered among the millennium women in Mumbai city.
The data collected was analysed through structural equation modelling.
Managerial Implications:

The relationship between purchase of millennial women and attitude can be beneficial to the
marketers for better understanding of millennial women with respect to cosmetic products
and to reframe the marketing strategies to successfully market their products in India. The
findings from this study would provide valuable insights to academicians and practitioners
towards cosmetic products. It also gives an insight that millennial women in developing
countries like India are a unique cohort who have certain factors for their purchase behaviour.

Future Scope of the Study:

Future research can be taken into other countries. Furthermore, a comparative study between
millennial women of two or more countries can be interesting: The future research can be
proposed, a longitudal study should be applied in future research to provide a richer and more
insightful findings on Gen Y purchase intentions. This study can be extended towards other
Luxury fashion goods and even in other countries. A comparative study between Gen Y and
Gen Z regarding their purchase decisions of cosmetic products could be done. The study
could also be extended to other additional antecedents such as brand experience, boutique
experience and self-rewards touch points for customer journey mapping.

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