It’s been a difficult 12 months for the UK health and beauty sector, with store closures and restrictions putting pressure on brands with a minimal online offering. However, as we start to see light at the end of the tunnel for both retailers and consumers alike with the reopening of non-essential retail (April 12), the industry is expected to bounce back.

According to Global Data, consumers will spend £487 per head on health and beauty products by 2022, which would make this the fastest growing sector in the UK. As shoppers return to store, online sales are expected to reach £3.1 billion by 2022.

What is the BOSCO™ Index?

The BOSCO™ index is a measure of how well you are exploiting your digital opportunities compared to your competitors. The index is computed 0 – 1000, with 575 being the average score for retailers.

A score of 1000 would mean a domain is the only competitor in that country and category, a score of zero would mean the domain has no offering online. Using cutting edge data science, BOSCO™ pulls in third-party data for the domains to rank and compare their paid search and SEO offering and each website’s online performance.

Here’s how we scored the brands

We ranked ten leading UK retailers in the health & beauty sector for the months of February to March. Here’s how the top five scored on the BOSCO™ Index league table. Download the league table below to see the full results.

Despite being a 135-year-old beauty brand, Avon is still one of the leading health and beauty retailers in the UK.

In January 2020, Natura & Co purchased Avon Products and appointed a new senior leadership team to drive the company’s next phase of growth. This acquisition created the world’s fourth-largest pure-play beauty group.

Since the pandemic, Avon has experienced a 200% increase in digital transactions. The brand now enables its five million representatives across 50 markets to run a business from their phone, create and share marketing content and personalise recommendations for regular customers.

During the last 12 months, the brand has been pushing the ‘Watch Me Now’ campaign, which aims to encourage customers to reconsider their view on the beauty brand.

As well as changing a 100-year-old reputation, this campaign aims to showcase the power of beauty to create opportunities for people to work on their own terms, and highlight’s Avon’s own support for causes including domestic abuse and breast cancer.

The brand can now be seen on TikTok, alongside other big-name brands, and have created a new filter for influencers to try on the product virtually. Avon are also encouraging user to share their own content using the hashtag #LiftLockPop.

Similarly, MAC Cosmetics have a strong social presence on video sharing platform TikTok, with 148k followers and over a million likes. This mostly includes influencer generated content testing and using their products, showing users their care routines and how to apply make-up.

How does your business stack up on the BOSCO™ Index? You can find out your BOSCO™ Index for free or to book a personalised demo to find out how our platform can work for you, click here.

Download the full league table