Overview

This large-scale insights program was commissioned by one of the world’s leading beauty and personal care brands to understand how Indian consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase beauty products across Q-commerce and e-commerce platforms. With India’s digital beauty market expanding rapidly, the brand sought a deep understanding of consumer expectations across skincare, haircare, makeup, grooming, fragrance, and everyday FMCG categories.

Executed in two phases and totalling 3,000 high-quality consumer completes, the study provided a holistic view of online beauty shopping behaviour in India. The main phase focused on broader e-commerce journeys and platform preferences, while the listing phase captured rapid, impulse-driven behaviours unique to fast-delivery apps. Together, the findings are shaping product visibility, category strategy, and platform-level optimisation across India’s evolving digital beauty economy.

Business Challenge

Mobile-first beauty buying patterns, fast-delivery convenience, and shifting beauty product discovery trends in India are shaping the digital beauty landscape in India penetration. For major beauty brands, the challenge lies in navigating:

• Fragmented consumer decision journey in online beauty retail and across multiple e-commerce and Q-commerce platforms

• Increasingly complex triggers driving last-minute and impulse purchases

• Differences in behaviour between traditional and online shopper behaviour across instant delivery apps and Q-commerce users

• High competition within search listings, product pages, and specialty retailer apps

• The need for real-time, reliable consumer insights across diverse demographics

To stay competitive in India's fast-accelerating beauty market, the client required deep behavioural mapping for India’s digital beauty consumers, platform-level insights, and a robust understanding of how consumers interact with online beauty ecosystems particularly in rapid-delivery contexts where decisions are made in seconds.

Our Approach

The program was executed through our online panel, ensuring speed, precision, and high-quality consumer identification across India.

1. Two-Phase Research Framework

Phase 1 – Main E-Commerce Study (~2,500 completes)

• Explored beauty purchase behaviour across online and offline channels

• Mapped brand awareness, motivations, blockers, and app/platform preferences

• Captured last-purchase journeys, basket size, category exploration, and digital influence

• Assessed platform-specific digital engagement decision drivers for specialty beauty retailers

Phase 2 – Q-Commerce Listing Module (~800 completes)

• Focused on shopper behaviour across instant delivery apps

• Captured impulse triggers, real-time purchase triggers in fast delivery platforms, and convenience expectations

• Analysed search patterns, product listing engagement, cross-category add-ons trends in q-commerce, and delivery thresholds

2. Rigorous Sampling & Data Integrity

• Respondents verified through device checks, dedupe systems, and strict fraud controls

• Logic routing ensured relevance based on category usage and purchase frequency

• Real-time quota monitoring ensured demographic and behavioural diversity across age, gender, city tiers, and platforms used

3. Consumer-Centric Experience Design

• Short, intuitive survey flows tailored to both high-frequency beauty shoppers and casual buyers

• Seamless scaling to deliver strong sample quality across both phases within tight timelines

Results

The combined dataset from both phases delivered powerful, actionable insights:

• A complete behavioural map of online beauty shopping behaviour across India

• Clear differentiation between e-commerce and Q-commerce motivations and expectations

• Platform-level insights helping the brand optimise product listings, search positioning, and category placement

• Identification of q-commerce impulse buying patterns in India which unique to rapid-delivery environments

• Granular understanding of digital purchase decision drivers for beauty buyers, basket dynamics, and digital influence touchpoints

• Strategy guidance for strengthening brand visibility, messaging, and retailer-specific execution

With 3,000 high-fidelity consumer responses, the program reinforced Xcel Global Panel’s capability to deliver scalable, rapid, and deeply reliable consumer insights that support category leadership in one of India’s fastest-growing digital domains.

Unlock deeper consumer insights that drive growth. Partner with us to execute high-velocity, high-precision studies across Q-commerce, e-commerce, and emerging digital ecosystems.