How can beauty brands improve its customer journey? As head of the company behind the most comprehensive evaluation of retail in Europe to date, Kasper Holst delivers the latest findings.

Kasper Holst is the Group CEO at IMPACT Commerce. The digital consultancy is headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, working with leading brands and retailers primarily in Northern Europe. It also creates The Omnichannel Index 2026.

– It’s the most comprehensive evaluation of retail in Europe to date. Together with Google, we evaluated 373 retailers across 11 industries throughout Northern Europe. And when I say comprehensive, I mean we analysed more than 27,000 data points across six markets.

– This year’s edition introduces a massive new differentiator: Artificial Intelligence. In the past, the core challenge was simply connecting online and offline channels. Most organisations have that under control. The focus has shifted to how retailers are leveraging AI to cater to new consumer expectations.

Please share the takeaways.

– Three findings should concern every retail leader.

– The field is splitting. The average score across 373 brands is 38%. Only 35 brands score above 50%. The leaders—IKEA at 72%, Matas at 69%, Verkkokauppa.com at 68%—are pulling more than 30 percentage points clear of the field. It’s a market where most brands have hit the basics and stopped, while a small elite has kept going. 

– The stores have become the bottleneck. Online purchase mechanics are mature: 78% of brands offer Buy Now Pay Later, 60% support omnibasket. But step into a physical store and the picture changes dramatically. Only 5% have Mobile POS. Only 51% allow staff to arrange home delivery for a customer. And 41% don’t even communicate click-and-collect on the product page when they actually offer it. Stores are now the most under-leveraged asset in retail.

– The AI gap is bigger than the conversation suggests. AI is the most discussed technology and the lowest-scoring discipline in our entire Index at 19%. Only 3% of brands offer visual search and 42% have product pages structured well enough for AI agents to read reliably. As AI Overviews and AI Mode mediate more of the discovery phase, brands without machine-readable content won’t be part of the curated AI-shortlist. Brands must structure content, data, and product information for AI to interpret and surface. 

Yes, the key, as so often, is data, and how to leverage it. What else can you say there?

– Data is where the gap between leaders and the rest is most visible – and most expensive. The brands pulling ahead understand that activating data is about making every customer-facing moment, online or offline, feel like the brand actually knows who they’re talking to. Using it to enrich ad platforms, personalise product discovery, recognise customers at purchase, and differentiate service. 

– This is why we say the stores are more relevant than ever. Not because the store itself is the answer, but because the store associate—armed with the right data—is one of the most powerful conversion levers in retail. 

– Let me give you a concrete example of how broken many journeys still are. Imagine a frustrated consumer who researches a T-shirt online, buys it via click-and-collect, and walks into the physical store an hour later expecting a seamless handoff. Instead, they’re told at the desk that the online and offline systems don’t communicate instantly, and they have to wait until the next day to pick it up.

– And here’s the real failure: the store associate standing in front of that customer has no information about them at all. No purchase history or idea what they’ve browsed online. No context for what to recommend next, what to upsell, or even how to apologise meaningfully for the broken handoff. The customer is a stranger to the person who’s supposed to serve them – even though that brand has been collecting data on them for years.

– 77% of brands capture customer data at checkout. 59% support in-store sign-up. The collection layer is essentially solved. But only 27% use that data to send behaviour-based emails. Only 13% show personalised product recommendations on the homepage. Only 9% have search that learns from customer behaviour.

You mentioned some good examples, companies that are doing things right. What do you like about their work?

– The mentioned overall top 3 in the Index stands out for very different reasons. What unites them is that they treat omnichannel as a commercial strategy, not a technology project.

– IKEA tops the Index at 72%. What’s interesting about IKEA isn’t a single standout capability – it’s coherence. They deliver a strong experience consistently across every phase of the journey. That’s much harder to achieve than scoring high in one discipline.

– Matas scores 69% and is the only brand in the top 10 to achieve 100% on the Purchase phase. Every checkout touchpoint passed, no friction. Paired with one of the strongest loyalty programmes in Danish retail and a clear edge in discovery, it’s end-to-end consistency that earns them second place.

– Verkkokauppa.com comes in third at 68%. An electronics retailer where customers compare carefully and expect expert support. They’ve built their entire experience around exactly that: strong service, deep product data, consistent fulfilment.

For Beauty & Pharmacy specifically, Holst continues, it’s a category built on trust, guidance, and repeat purchase.

– But the experience remains heavily skewed towards short-term conversion rather than long-term customer value.

– Whether it’s skincare, supplements or personal care, choices depend on individual needs, product knowledge and confidence in the outcome. That makes education, personalisation, and reassurance critical throughout the journey.

– And that’s exactly where brands fall short. For example, only 3% offer personalised search or behaviour-based recommendations. In a category where companies could build on tutorials, ingredient guidance and the experience of others, customers are still left to navigate largely on their own.

– The same pattern continues post-purchase where the relationship rarely extends beyond the transaction. While 83% offer monetary loyalty benefits, only 30% activate customers through behavioural triggers. Customer Service scores just 23%. 

– The leader here is Matas as the most complete company in the entire industry, leading in Customer Service, Video and Loyalty. Kicks follows at 57% with strong technical and UX execution. Rituals takes third at 51% with a brand-led profile that excels at visibility, though evaluation remains the weak point.

– The opportunity is clear: turn product discovery into guided decision-making, invest in content that educates rather than just inspires, and build relationships that last beyond the transaction. The mechanics exist, but the willingness to deploy them is what separates the leaders.

What else do you look at now?

– Physical stores is a vital, irreplaceable competitive advantage, provided they are seamlessly integrated with digital discovery.

– Online pure players can’t give their customers the feeling to touch or try on products online. That makes physical stores a vital, irreplaceable competitive advantage, provided they’re seamlessly integrated with digital discovery. Leverage what you have offline and use this as a unique selling point to your customers.

– Today, 68% of European consumers are entirely channel-agnostic. They fluidly move between online and physical touchpoints. And serving this behaviour is highly lucrative – omnichannel shoppers spend an average of 73% more than single-channel shoppers.

– Beyond that, three things to look at for executives:

– Stop optimising what’s already working. Purchase is now the strongest phase across the Index at 53%. It’s no longer a differentiator. The competitive battleground has moved earlier in the journey, into Evaluation and Discovery, and later in the journey, into Loyalty.

– Treat AI as infrastructure, not as a showcase. Most brands have approached AI as a cost-reduction exercise – automate the query, deflect the ticket, reduce the headcount. That logic isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete. The brands genuinely pulling ahead are treating AI as a revenue tool – one that assists decisions, surfaces the right product at the right moment, and makes the experience feel personal rather than generic.

– Treat omnichannel as an operating model, not a digital initiative. Many brands still treat omnichannel as something owned by a single function. The brands that get ahead have clear leadership mandate, cross-functional execution, shared KPIs, and ownership defined at journey level, not by channel.

To wrap up, Holst shares one observation that frames everything else. 

– Customer expectations, he says, are no longer set within categories. A beauty customer’s expectation of personalisation isn’t shaped by other beauty brands. It’s shaped by the best digital experience they’ve had anywhere – in any category, on any device.

– That’s the structural shift behind every number in this report. Brands that understand it and respond to it are pulling away. Brands that still benchmark themselves against direct competitors are losing customers without realising why.

– What felt like a seamless omnichannel experience two years ago is now the baseline. Fast, functional web experiences and basic fulfilment are no longer competitive advantages. They’re hygiene factors. The bar has been fundamentally raised – and data-driven, AI-enabled personalised experiences are the new standard.